With its PlayStation®️5 launch in 2020, PlayStation introduced its first global tagline, “Play Has No Limits.” The tagline sums up PlayStation’s DNA of pushing the boundary of play and expanding the world of games. As the global campaign was relatively unknown in Japan, our mission was to familiarize the local market with the new tagline and our DNA to enhance brand engagement.

We partnered with a Japanese artist who shares an affinity with the PlayStation DNA.

Kenshi Yonezu is one of Japan’s hottest artists, having over 4 billion views and over 6 million subscribers on YouTube, more than any other Japanese musician. Playful and experimental, his alternative yet universal lyrics and tracks push the boundary of the music scene in Japan. He’s also a gamer who’s loved PlayStation from childhood and has once stated that PlayStation games significantly influenced his imagination and creative process.

To celebrate our shared spirit of play, we launched PlayStation’s branded film and Yonezu’s music video, featuring his song “POP SONG” written for PlayStation and an original character designed and portrayed by Kenshi Yonezu himself. The film follows the character who pushes the boundaries by wielding a playful mind rather than weapons, acting out the spirit of Play Has No Limits.

To establish an entertaining partnership between the brand and the artist, we focused on two things.

First, we welcomed Kenshi Yonezu as a creative partner as well as a campaign partner. He played many roles in production: not only did he write the song, but he also provided ideas for the film, designed the main character, and starred in the film. Kenshi Yonezu's love of games and deep commitment to our production rooted the campaign not only in the PlayStation brand but in his brand as well, making our partnership more authentic and exciting to our audience, including his fandom.

Second, we went beyond product placement to "idea placement," that is, the integration of the brand spirit. In addition to our branded film, we launched an extended version as a music video uploaded to his channel, integrating the PlayStation DNA into one of Japan's most viewed music videos.

- over 60M total views including branded ads and music video

- over 10M views of music video in a week on Youtube

- over 768M total social impressions

- over 1.1K media coverages

- #1 Trending in Japan on Youtube

- #1 Weekly Download Song at Billboard JAPAN

- #1 Weekly Digital Single at Oricon