The content was created by Nikkei Inc., which last year became the Cannes Lions Japan representative. Having said that, the company’s role as the Japan representative has been limited thus far with Cannes Lions 2020 being cancelled and the 2021 event being online-only. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to over 80% of world news to take on a negative tone, showing how greatly our lives have been affected. Amid such a background, our aim is to strengthen and improve our image and standing as a representative of the media industry as well as show the industry a glimmer of hope and a glimpse into the future.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused great change to the way we live and work, giving a pessimistic tone to over 80% of the world’s news stories. The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has also suffered, with the 2020 edition cancelled while Cannes Lions 2021 was online-only. As the festival’s Japan representative office, Nikkei Inc. gives us a glimpse into the future through a collection of web content compiled from past Cannes Lions award-winners and the company’s own creativity-and-design-focused news stories that brought hope in times of hardship. Nikkei’s newspaper heritage, the diversity of the stories, the unique angle and the 100,000 words of content expressing how “past” events transcend time and contextualize the “present” have been well received, resulting in the unprecedented traffic figures of 3 sessions and over 2.5 hours per user. Following on from this exceptional success, the content will be published as a book this spring.

The project’s concept is “NEW THINGS COME FROM HISTORY’. By looking back upon our history, we can see that no problem was insurmountable, not even the Spanish flu. Nikkei’s authority as the leading newspaper company in Japan shines through in creating the contents as a proprietary library using WebGL coding is developed to create a feeling of weightlessness expressing the diversity and unique angles of the news stories as well as how “history” can transcend time and contextualize the “present”. This provides a seamless and heightened experience when reading the 10 articles comprising of over 100,000 words. Furthermore, the articles’ uniqueness is emphasized by a different font and color design being used for each. The key element is the monochromatic, leaflet-like object which flutters mid-air while events from the past hover in the background, providing depth and expressing how current events can be contextualized by history. The project was awarded the prestigious Red Dot Award: Best of the Best, most certainly one of the world’s most sought-after design awards given to less than 1% of the tens of thousands of entries. Below is the jury’s statement.

‘The intention of this website comes across brilliantly: with its refreshingly unusual design of the content flying in as a leaflet, it surprises readers and effortlessly achieves its goal of provoking thought. The design achievement is complemented by a multitude of other beautiful details such as the choice of fonts and a distinct colourfulness.’

LIONS GOOD NEWS has been well received the world over with the average visitor visiting the website 3 times and spending over 2 hours onsite; truly outlandish web traffic figures. Furthermore, the project’s success has led to the launch of a variety of new initiatives. The project was also applauded from all corners within the industry and was endorsed by many. In addition to being covered by numerous media outlets including WIRED, ELEE, FORBES and AWWWARDS, the project was also a win on the design front, receiving the Red Dot Design Award among many others, marking an overall success for what was the first initiative of the new Japan representative.