SEKIMILK is a regional milk producer in Gifu Prefecture in central Japan. It produces fresh, wholesome milk for a variety of kinds of stores in the area, as well as schools. In the elementary schools, where milk plays an important role in providing for the children's everyday nutrition, the schools and SEKIMILK were noticing that a large percentage of the kids weren't finishing their daily bottles. So, the school system in the area, concerned about the kids' daily nutrition intake, asked SEKIMILK what they could do to have them finish their milk. The budget was minimal at best, and the coverage would be across the Prefecture affecting some 40 schools.

In Gifu Prefecture, after 15 weeks of distributing the Milk Manga bottles, 95% of the children were finishing all of their milk, enjoying 100% of the milk's nutrients.

In addition, the earned media value from the new coverage the Milk Manga bottles received totaled US$2 million, encouraging more schools, even beyond Gifu Prefecture to speak with SEKIMILK about supplying their schools with the Milk Manga.

Leveraging the kids' love for manga (Japanese comics), the milk bottles, served to the kids every day, were painted with four frames of comics, in white ink, revealing more of the comic story as the kids drank up. Reading from top to bottom, which is how Japanese is traditionally taught to be read, the manga being gradually exposed led the kids to finish the comic strip completely, which they gladly did.

SEKIMILK is a local brand in GIFU prefecture in central Japan. As it produces milk in the same area where it's distributed, the company takes great care to ensure quality in its products. And it also has great concern about the community and the health of the kids in that area. Therefore, as they came to understand that the younger kids weren't getting all the nutrition they needed, they looked for a solution that would help. Milk Manga became that solution—a true win-win which brought as much happiness to the kids as it did good health.

An additional piece of cultural context is that Japanese is traditionally read top to bottom. So having the manga printed on the bottle in this vertical reading path is natural for the Japanese kids.