The core idea was to create a life-like polar bear and a mysterious (but non-existent) group called LALSH (an anagram of HALLS) to get people’s attention and pique interest. Everything began when a polar bear was released onto the streets of Tokyo. The news quickly spread on social media and got people talking. Photos and videos uploaded by witnesses gave people glimpses of the LALSH logo. Curious people that searched the word online were led to the LALSH Facebook page, where they would find a single video revealing LALSH as HALLS along with the copy line, “Creating Cool Sensations.”

The whole stunt was designed to leverage social media to create a cool image for the brand HALLS.

Tweets by witnesses of the polar bear stunt generated 27,000 retweets in just a few hours. The video capturing the incident quickly racked up more than 1.7 million plays on YouTube. The coverage also spread to overseas print media, such as the New York Post and the Mirror. The result was a 210% increase in sales compared to the previous year.

Coverage by Non-Paid Media: 151 news stories

Media Effect: Equal to 27 times the total budget

Sales: 210% increase compared to the previous year