Toyota released the AQUA, the most fuel-efficient car in the world. The goal was to beat the PRIUS and become the number one selling car in Japan. So we thought that “the world's most environmentally friendly car” should have “the world's most environmentally friendly campaign.” So we created a platform that involved people from all over Japan to clean up rivers and beaches (areas with water=aqua); this platform was our campaign, the “AQUA SOCIAL FES!!”

We created a platform that made it easy for people from all over Japan to participate in local environmental activities. What's unique about our campaign is that it was neither a CSR project, nor a case of cause marketing. This meant that even if one didn’t purchase anything one could still participate, but the results (benefits) from the activities were used for promoting the product. It was also a model where, the more the product was sold, the better it was for the natural environment.

One of our very unique aspects of our campaign was the fact that all participants wore identical jerseys with the AQUA SOCIAL FES!! logo printed on them. Through wearing the logo-printed jerseys, the participants themselves became “media.”

In addition, the rivers and beaches that were cleaned up through our activities we covered numerous times on television, which lead to the AQUA getting more publicity.

The AQUA's vision was supported by many, and eventually it beat PRIUS in sales, which until then was the number one selling car in Japan. The number of participants for the AQUA SOCIAL FES!! (131 events) was 11,533, and their average age was 29.5 years old. We were able to reach unprecedented results in total media PR. PR consisted of television (41 programs), newspaper (47 papers, 666 articles), magazines (15 types), and the internet (332 times, in 63 media). In addition, young people who wanted to participate in environmental activities were able to achieve great satisfaction by participating in the events (according to survey studies). Environmental organizations were able to gain more members, rivers and beaches were cleaned, and society as a whole became more environmentally conscious.