The campaign was designed to attract foreign tourists, especially from the USA, Europe and Australia, to Okinawa, a leading Japanese tourist destination. We planned a strategy to capture travel intent among Free Individual Tourists (FIT) through general branding and increased understanding of Okinawa’s value.

This strategy involved developing PR content, specifically a 10-episode web series called “OKINAWA: A Journey of Discovery.” The series uses a reality-TV format with a cast of regular people from 7 countries. Each cast were already celebrated in their home countries for being masters of a unique skill and had a loyal social media following.

The campaign leveraged through media and cast’s social media activities to attract viewers. As a result, the webs series attracted over 16 million campaign-related media impressions and a total of 1.55 million views for the 10 episodes in approximately 3 months after the launch. Among the campaign’s achievements, the number of foreign tourists to Okinawa after the campaign jumped 165% year on year.

This campaign was used extensively to ensure that the content reached a wide audience. A large number of articles introducing the web episodes were placed not only on travel-related websites but also on websites related to the episode themes—for example, art, food and marine sports. This increased the opportunities for the target to organically come into contact with the PR content during their information-gathering activities.

The campaign was launched on September 29th, 2014. Media approach was targeted to 7 countries of UK, France, Germany, Russia, USA, Canada and Australia. This PR content consists of 10-episode web series called “OKINAWA: A Journey of Discovery” that uses an unscripted, reality-TV format.

We hand-picked 7 casts from each country with loyal social media following to generate more buzz and views for the web series. One episode a week was released on a special campaign website and YouTube channel where leveraged through these online media and cast’s social media activities to attract viewers.

A large number of articles introducing the web episodes were placed not only on travel-related websites but also on websites related to the episode themes—for example, art, food and marine sports to ensure that the content reached a wide audience.

In approximately 3 months after the campaign launch, the web series attracted over 16 million campaign-related media impressions and a total of 1.55 million views for the web episodes. Through the content, the campaign achieved name recognition and understanding of value among the target, who may not have even heard of Okinawa before.

As a marketing result, the number of foreign tourists visiting Okinawa after the campaign recorded an impressive 165% increase year on year.

In addition, TripAdvisor, one of the world’s largest travel sites based on reviewer feedback, announced that Okinawa was ranked 6th in its 2015 Travelers’ Choice Awards for “10 Destinations on the Rise.” Okinawa was the only destination in Japan to receive this award.

The campaign’s ulterior objective, namely to give Okinawan people more confidence in themselves and their culture, also produced results. Even though the branded content was developed solely for an overseas audience, it was widely shared among the people of Okinawa through social media and word of mouth. The campaign was not a short-term phenomenon—it achieved creation of a brand foundation both inside and outside Okinawa with mid-to-long-term benefit.