Yakult is celebrating its 85th anniversary! More than reason enough for a party to celebrate the Japanese probiotic dairy drink. Unfortunately, the coronavirus crisis threatened to spoil the party, so we decided to take a slightly different approach. Instead of streamers and balloons, we opted for a modest, media-wide campaign driven by a TV commercial. Concept and execution: SowiesoHelder.
The old Asian domino game provided us with a great metaphor for the story behind the little bottle. In a rich 3D animation with a Japanese flavour, toppling bottles reveal various tableaux from the Yakult story to show how Dr Shirota’s drink has been setting off an ‘energy chain reaction’ for 85 years. This TV commercial was followed by a tag-on that activated viewers through fantastic prizes on a special promotional site.
We developed a complete campaign with content, puzzle books, advertisements, social posts, a TV commercial and a festive web page. In other words, we covered all the print, one-on-one, social, digital and TV bases and brought the campaign to life. Within two weeks, the commercial had already been viewed one million times on YouTube and the puzzle booklet had been requested 7,180 times. The birthday turned out to be a success after all. Or as the client said, ‘We had a blast working with you!’
