The gum market in Japan is saturated with new products almost every week but lacked strong, lasting brand worlds.As the product benefit of long-lasting is not unique, we decided not to enter the longer-lasting race.We simply wanted to own the “ridiculously long-lasting” space.We utilized monkeys and evolution as the icon and content concept of this claim.

Also, as the target is quick to shut off unneeded corporate messages, “HOW” we delivered was crucial.Two key points to the strategy “Neta” & “?!”“Neta” (News that is worth holding to use as social currency) needed to be created so people would share them with friends at drinks or blogs/sns. This was amplified by the structure of communication, “?!”. Many brands try to deliver their news, or “!” by itself, but was proven to be more successful by creating a “?” inside targets minds first to maximize the power of “!”.

To dramatize the launch, a 2 phase approach was taken; teaser & launch. The teaser phase. The Monkey and the logo of S (package) were used in the TVC and OOH without communicating the fact that it is a gum product. This was to take advantage of the unique packaging and to create the question of “what is this monkey/stride?”. The monkeys were let loose on the streets to “harass” the public, where stickers were also sampled, connected to the teaser site of “capture the monkey (with your mobile phone camera) and win 1 million yen” campaign. Then the launch event unveiled the product and the monkey boss, one of japan’s hottest celebrities. TVC and OOH were all replaced with the launch creatives delivering the product benefit of “ridiculousy long-lasting gum”. Sampling of products/stickers by monkeys were in place. And POS were connected to capture the monkey promotion.

We created huge problems because the campaign achieved the yearly sales goals within 3 months.It sold quicker than shelves could be restocked with the result that sales had to be suspended.

It was acknowledged in the Cadbury world as one of the most successful launches ever.It was considered as one of the 10 best selling products in 2010 by Nikkei Marketing Journal　(Japan’s leading industry publication).It threatened competitors to a point where they came out with imitation products.