The brief was to create a branded content to connect people from around the world, celebrating the beauty of diversity. Many companies, including Shiseido, were forced to stop shooting commercials and other corporate activities that required meeting in person. So, we needed to invent an entirely new way of shooting this video by tapping into the community and culture of ANIMAL CROSSING.

Realizing that it would be impossible to shoot our content in real-life, we released the storyboard, cut by cut, on twitter and reached out to Animal Crossing users to take on the challenge of creating and shooting the scenes 100% within the game. We offered in-game costumes that made the shooting more entertaining and makeup items and colors that represented actual SHISEIDO products, brought gamers and influencers to shoot their own take to drive participation. User-Posted video clips were edited and put to original music. The co-creation process allowed everyone to become the creator of the ad and not just the watcher. By understanding the culture of the gaming-community it fosters, we successfully brought people from all over the world closer together in a time where connection was becoming a luxury.

During Covid-19 enforced lockdowns, we noticed that people around the world were looking to online gaming communities for social interaction. We identified Animal Crossing as a popular gathering place. The online game platform of Animal Crossing offered an excellent virtual location for people to gather and express themselves during the Covid-19 pandemic. The DIY spirit within the ANIMAL CROSSING culture made it a perfect match for the campaign, as we left it entirely upto the users how to re-create the scenes in our storyboard. Also, in line with the campaign messge, the game itself is designed to encourage diversity by transcending race, gender and physical attributes, making it a viable match for SHISEIDO.

Moreover, SHISEIDO has been recently trying to target a younger more digital-savvy audience. This was the ideal platform to initiate contact and attract new users which has been difficult to do using traditional in-store sales techniques.

Using social media and the game itself, we called on users to take part. Other brands have placed items in the game before, but this was the FIRST campaign to fully co-create a content together and there was huge coverage from media in the field of beauty, gaming and pop-culture.

Players could choose from 11 scenes in the storyboard and recreate them in the game and then post their video on social media with our hashtags. Many influencers and YouTubers became involved in the project, and users would research one another's shooting methods to one-up them. User-posted videos were editied together and released on social media as the final brand video. A "making of" video that shows the final video and the original storyboard was also released. A second viral wave came after the launch as all participants themselves became influencers posting the final video which they helped create.

Probably the most successful cross-platform UGC in the world of beauty, ever. Thanks to the participation of influencers and YouTubers, the final video exceeded "27-million views" world-wide. We were able to create a content that became much bigger than it's pre-covid plan. By tapping into the ANIMAL CROSSING community, we were able to tap into a younger audience group who are new to SHISEIDO, generating numerous positive sentiments and tweets leading to increased purchase intention and increased brand loyalty.

Most importanly, the campaign brought people closer together during the lock-down phase in a fun and creative way, when when we all felt alone and disconnected.