Japanese regulations on branded entertainment provided via the mass media have eased, resulting in ubiquitous product placements. There still exists a lofty barrier, however, for branding established, reputable content. Since the original movie that was applied to our campaign is one of the greatest hits in Japan’s film history, it was challenging for us to accomplish our goal. We invested in the movie itself to help facilitate communication with the makers of this film.

Japanese people today keep asking themselves what true happiness is and what richness means. The answers lay in the appreciation of family, the mundane, and small, familiar pleasures. In short, everyday happiness that is taken for granted. We incorporated these elements in both the movie and the external campaign. Rather than depending on the usual flashy movie elements, we sought to accomplish a branded entertainment campaign with a narrow focus on the message ‘what always remains precious and unchanged’, exposed at every point of contact to consumers. By doing so, we successfully attracted consumers to our content.

The movie, as well as the sponsors’ actions, was covered prominently by a large number of TV shows, social media, blogs and other media, as if they were a national event.

The movie is familiar to 95% of the Japanese. It topped the rankings for 3 consecutive weeks and continues to be shown at theatres, nearing the goal of eclipsing the box-office performances of the previous movies. In fact, the movie is expected to become the largest hit of the year.

As a direct result of the campaign, Shrimp Flavour Crackers from Calbee, one of the 7 sponsors, placed first (up from 265 the previous week) in the snack category of the weekly new product rankings, indicating a major boost in its business performance. Of consumers surveyed subsequent to the campaign, 53% liked the product even better, and desires to buy the product had increased to 38%.With 7-Eleven, 58.1% of surveyed consumers had exposure to the campaign, with 20.5% increase of planning to patronize 7-Eleven.With Microsoft, desires to purchase Microsoft products had risen 33% after the campaign, with 34.9% increase of Microsoft’s favourability rate, even at comparatively greater cost, also increasing to 46%.