SUB CATEGORY :

USE OF PRINT/OUTDOOR & TRANSIT

COMPANY ENTERING :

ADK CREATIVE ONE INC., TOKYO

TITLE :

NEWSPAPER INVITATION TO DORAEMON’S BIRTHDAY PARTY

BRAND :

DORAEMON

ADVERTISER :

TV ASAHI CORPORATION

AGENCY :

ADK CREATIVE ONE INC., TOKYO/ADK EMOTIONS INC., TOKYO

CREATIVE DIRECTOR :

AKIHIRO HOSHI

ART DIRECTOR :

TAKAAKI NEMOTO

COPYWRITER :

AKIHIRO HOSHI

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE :

SHOICHIRO AMANO/KAI NAKAMURA/YASUMITSU SUKO

PLANNER :

ICHIYU YASUMOTO/KEISUKE JITSUNO

ACTIVATION DIRECTOR :

SHINGO MATSUMOTO

ACTIVATION PLANNER :

KANNO TAKUSO/JYOTARO MORI

MEDIA AGENCY :

ADK CREATIVE ONE INC., TOKYO

PR AGENCY :

MATERIAL INC., TOKYO

EXECUTIVE PR :

HIROAKI KAJIHARA/YURIKO SAITO/HIROKI WADA

PRINT PRODUCTION COMPANY :

ONE, TOKYO

DESIGNER :

TATEKI YOSHIDA/MASAHIRO YAMAGUCHI

CAMPAIGN SUMMARY :

This was an experiential campaign crossing over newspaper, social media and TV program. A once-in-a-lifetime memory of time spent with Doraemon and friends, was delivered to children who had hardly any memories due to the pandemic in the form of a surprise birthday party for Doraemon. This was a surprise they shared with Nobita, Doraemon’s best friend, where they kept the party a secret from Doraemon, and the children were able to attend the party and join the celebration from their homes.

THE BRIEF :

Under the pandemic, the Japanese voluntarily stayed home for most of the first half of 2021. All events were cancelled, and for children, it was turning into a year with hardly any memories. This was an opportunity to provide children with some hope and dreams, something they can remember, utilizing the nationally popular character, Doraemon.

THE STRATEGY :

Doraemon is a Japanese anime program loved by all generations, that has been on air for over 40 years as an anime that provides hopes and dreams. But because of the change in lifestyles of children who are the main viewers, and less TV viewing, ratings were declining. The idea was to provide a rare lifetime memory for the summer of 2021, where the children could spend time with Doraemon. By having a huge number of children experience this anime program in this way, we wanted to create an opportunity for children to enjoy Doraemon on TV again.

THE EXECUTION :

On Doraemon’s birthday, a surprise party children could attend from home, was held. The TV program broadcast featured a story allowing children to feel they were attending the party. Five days before Doraemon’s birthday, a newspaper ad appeared, designed as an invitation to Doraemon’s party from Nobita, his best friend. It asked children to gather in front of the TV at 6:56pm on September 4. For interactivity, there was space to write their reply and message to Doraemon, and their responses could be tweeted using #DontTellDoraemon. To those who tweeted, a tweet from Nobita thanking them would arrive.

THE RESULT :

Large numbers of children participated in the birthday party by watching TV, and tweeted birthday wishes to Doraemon on social media at the moment of the celebration. Through the invitation, reply, and party attendance in various media, the Doraemon surprise birthday party experience was delivered to the children. As a result, there were 104,500 replies to the invitation, 765,900 retweets, and impressions totaled 636 million. The TV rating for the program was 2.1 times compared to the previous week.