This new yogurt product developed by Kikkoman has an anti-constipation effect, but pharmaceutical affairs laws in Japan prohibit the advertising of this fact. In addition, since yogurt has a short shelf life and the yogurt market is fiercely competitive, the product would be pulled from retail outlets and from the market itself, unless it proved a successful seller within two to three days after the launch. To combat this, we provided samples of the product to selected bloggers and asked them to write in their blogs their honest opinions about its anti-constipation effect and other benefits. In this way, we were able to create “direct consumer voices” about the product online prior to the launch. As TV commercials began on the launch day, those who searched for information about the product online, therefore, got results that reflected a primarily positive reputation as rated by fellow consumers (the bloggers), mainly about its anti-constipation efficacy that could not be advertised. This approach aroused consumer interest, which in turn allowed the product to fully establish itself in the market remarkably fast.

Two weeks prior to the actual product launch, we invited bloggers through blog operating companies to sample the new product. The product was provided to some 100 selected bloggers who registered their interest. They were asked to use the new product and write freely about it in their blogs. For two weeks from the launch date, we ran “mysterious” teaser TV commercials (with no direct mention of the product’s anti-constipation efficacy) to arouse viewer desire to search for information on the product online for himself or herself. When he or she did, the top page of all major search engines’ results were dominated by the blogs containing their authors’ (mostly favourable) opinions of the product.

Out of the some 100 bloggers to whom the product was given, 92 voluntarily wrote about the product in their blogs. This was very positive as, according to blog operating firms, normally only about 70% of bloggers who are given sample products actually write about them. We were successful in exclusively dominating the top pages of both the Yahoo! and Google search results on the day of launch with these bloggers’ blogs and “consumer word-of-mouth” responses. The number of page views of the blogs totalled 65,689 during the two weeks prior to the launch, accounting for 714 page views per blog story, which was far larger than the average page views of 400. Through this campaign, we allowed our client to achieve their initial sales goals; we also allowed the client to successfully enter this difficult market and fully establish the position of their product.