When we were commissioned designs for ‘mt’, we saw a great potential in it. Although ‘mt’ had broad utility, it would not be accepted by customers if it was not displayed in a comprehensible fashion. So we presented ‘Kamoi’ to hold a promotional exhibition that customers can experience ‘mt’ fully and learn more about it.

Actually it was a challenging because we had never seen the kind of exhibition before and there were no similar products to ‘mt’ in the market.

So we planned a unique exhibition ‘mt expo’ to introduce the products’ character. Since the first exhibition in 2010, ‘mt’ has held many similar events at home and abroad.

The entry work is the third ‘mt expo’ in Kobe, Japan. The exhibition was held at a gallery used to be a silk factory. We hired 2 spaces; 950m2 and 580m2 then exhibited the tapes and placed a temporary shop in each space. We hanged 80,000 tapes from strings and exhibited the wide range of varieties. Decorated floors, walls, windows and cars showed customers the possibility of ‘mt’. The successive posters since the first exhibition in 2009 tended to show ‘mt’s history. The real cutting machine, which was humped from the factory, showed the fabrication process. We provided more opportunities to experience ‘mt’ such as badge machines and a laser-cutter machine create your original badges and notebooks.

At Kobe site, so many customers came to get the limited edition tapes that they had to wait in line. The pictures of the exhibition diffused through SNS and the reputation spread by word of mouth. As a result, the exhibition became topical event and succeeded in gathering a surprising number of people. It led to increase ‘mt fans’ and develop the market.

‘mt’ created a new category ‘Washi Tape’ in a sundries market. ‘Kamoi’ took advantage of this boom and improved their sales. Many competitive products followed after ‘mt’ were released but it wins on all counts.

‘mt expo’ is a core exhibition that is held biennale. It is constructed with a temporary shop, an installation, The History of ‘mt’ Corner and the ‘mt’ Experience Corner where customers can try their hand at using ‘mt’ freely.

Every exhibition, we provide some limited edition tapes that customers only buy at the site and arouse their interest. We offer various opportunities to please customers and try to make a big appeal to them.

‘mt’ is a derivative product came out of masking tape which is usually used in construction site. As it is made by Washi, it can be cut by hand easily and peeled off without any marks. Handicrafts lovers enjoy decorating their personal belongings and room interiors with it. ‘mt’s Manufacturer ‘Kamoi Kakoshi’, which holds the largest market share of usual Masking Tape, launched ‘mt’ as a sundries product in 2008 and about 1000 kinds of tapes have been released since then. ‘mt’ sparked the Washi tape boom in Japan and it has been spreading overseas.

In the initial round of meetings, ‘Kamoi Kakoshi’ commissioned us to design patterns, POPs and the packages for ‘mt’. They did not have a clear vision for marketing strategy as they have never dealt with such a woman-targeted products.