The goal was to reach men in their teens and twenties for a trial reading of a manga magazine to increase readers and sales of the magazine. As it would be difficult to reach the target through traditional methods, in order to achieve our communication goal the media team solved the issue in the following ways.InsightsThis target purchases the most manga comics at the convenience store. Both manga and instant noodle user volume zones are men in their teens and twenties, and the target is also the same. There is a boring waiting time of 3 minutes while waiting for the instant noodles to be ready to eat.SolutionWe succeeded in distributing, nationwide, 5 million mini-manga comics inside the cup noodle package. The cup noodles were sold in over 95% of the 43,000 convenience stores throughout Japan. To promote trial, we used the name “ 3-minute Comic” to convey that it could be read during the 3-minute waiting time for the noodles to be ready.

ResultsAs of 28 March, this 3-minite comic project is now executing and will continue to the end of May.So far, sales of the manga magazines are increasing.Also, by being featured in the news on TV, it became a hot topic, achieving a PR effect for the manga magazine.As a secondary result, 3-minute comic contributed to even greater sales increase of the instant noodle product than the previous year. This fact must bring good sales results to manga magazines. We utilized an instant noodle product, until now just a snack food, as a large media vehicle in order to achieve circulation of 5 million for a magazine.For this objective to have a certain target group read a manga magazine on a trial basis, it would have been difficult by traditional media methods. To obtain such a large circulation and accurate target reach would not have been possible when considering cost efficiency.Therefore, the media team decided to study the convenience store, which is the largest distribution channel for manga magazines. The team selected a vehicle that was not thought of as a form of media-instant noodles. Negotiations took place with the manufacturer, and the media team succeeded in enclosing the mini-manga as premiums inside the cup noodle package. For the client, the magazine publisher, there was zero media cost for this campaign. The idea of using a noodle product as a media vehicle was entirely new and innovative. This was a very large-scale implementation in over 95% of Japan’s 43,000 nationwide convenience stores, achieving target reach of 5 million sample magazines. Promoted trial by naming the sample “3-minute Comic” and making it so that the manga would be perfect to read during the 3-minute waiting time for the noodles.

We utilized an instant noodle product, until now just a snack food, as a large media vehicle in order to achieve circulation of 5 million for a magazine.For this objective to have a certain target group read a manga magazine on a trial basis, it would have been difficult by traditional media methods. To obtain such a large circulation and accurate target reach would not have been possible when considering cost efficiency.Therefore, the media team decided to study the convenience store, which is the largest distribution channel for manga magazines. The team selected a vehicle that was not thought of as a form of media-instant noodles. Negotiations took place with the manufacturer, and the media team succeeded in enclosing the mini-manga as premiums inside the cup noodle package. For the client, the magazine publisher, there was zero media cost for this campaign.