In Japan, 54.2% of people are familiar with the term “SDGs” but only 20.5% know what it actually entails, making our challenge to increase people’s understanding of the goals. Many are concerned that at this rate, SDGs will end up becoming a superficial fad.

We developed a “Search CX” whereby users would be taken to a strange video titled “2100JAPAN” when they searched SDGs-related words on search web portal Yahoo!JAPAN. Users would then experience a future where the SDGs goals have been accomplished and one where we have failed to achieve them. Through this experience, we succeeded in getting people to realise the importance of SDGs.

Yahoo!JAPAN also has a function that provides news, and we believed that compared to the rest of the Japanese population, many of its users fit the target audience profile of people who would take an interest in SDGs. We thereby set out to create buzz and increase awareness of SDGs by launching an original and compelling “Search CX” experience aimed at those who searched SDGs.

In order to provide those who searched for SDGs-related words on their smartphones with a seamless experience in which they could get a glimpse of both a future where the SDGs goals have and have not been accomplished, we created an execution whereby the video would take over the users’ smartphones and turned SDGs from high-sounding talk into something personal.

During the campaign period, 200,000 people searched SDGs-related words, and more than 50,000 people took part in the experience. The campaign was published in 24 media outlets, and although the video was over a minute long, the view-through rate was around a staggering 70%, promoting the Japanese population’s understanding of SDGs.