As Japan is an island nation with a largely homogeneous society, the role of Japanese celebrities plays a significant importance in branded entertainment. That is why many clients tend to go for the easier and safer approach of using celebrity endorsements, rather than create original branded content. It’s one reason why brands with low budgets are unable to acquire celebrities for PR exposure and therefore are more daring to creative new approaches.

To enhance and develop “A Family Story” for the brand, we came up with an idea to create the animation by using the newspaper printing press. By applying the principles of a flipbook, the animation used 1,918 images that were meticulously printed and arranged on actual newspaper printing press, which was then shot in real time as a fluid running video. We didn’t use any CG to keep the feel of the traditional media as well as convey the simple yet nostalgic story. To reach youths in cities, YouTube was selected as a main channel.

Soon after it was uploaded onto YouTube, many social media sites were buzzing with young people commenting about strong emotions for their hometowns: “It reminded me of the warmth of my family”, “I should go home at once”, “I’ll devote myself to my parents.” Although the content was for a local newspaper, mass news sites on the Internet and national television picked up on the story. It achieved over 660,000 views in just 3 months, 550,000€ worth of free media, and a 140% increase of visitors to the brand's website. Our project created a new future for the local newspaper.