The fruit gelato ice cream product, "Ice no mi" was suffering in sales after its long selling history of 25 years. To revitalize its sales in a dramatic way, we decided to create a CGI idol, "Aimi" (named after the product), and prepare for her dramatic debut in TV commercial. CGI idol out of nowhere, however, is not enough to win the popularity from the young target audience. So, we let Aimi join the already existent idol group, AKB48, and let her debut as a new member of AKB48.As our carefully planned campaign schedule, Aimi made her debut as a regular idle on the cover of popular magazine, and also as a character of Ice no mi on the product's posters.

With Aimi's popularity growing, Ice no mi's TV commercial was broadcasted.She became a immediate star and the favorite of entertainment news that reported Aimi's debut as a social phenomenon.A week after TV commercial, we broke a news on her true identity, revealing that she was a virtual idol and her face was the composite of facial parts from 6 different members of AKB48.At the same time, we launched "Oshimen Maker", the website that allowed users to create their own idols by mixing facial parts of AKB48 members.

As a result, the sales of Ice no mi doubled from last year. We're sure that the success was never achieved if not for Aimi, who became the key PR element in our campaign.

June 13th 2011: 1. Aimi made a cover on the popular comic magazine. (as an idol) 2. Aimi's posters were posted around major stations. (as Ice no mi's ad) 3. Aimi's introduction movie were shown in entertainment news, and on the exterior monitor (as an idol) 4. Pictures of "Making of Aimi's introduction movie" are shown in entertainment news (as an idol) 5. Aimi's audition sheet is disclosed on website of Glico, the brand of Ice no mi. (as an idol) June 20th 2011:1. Aimi's secret is disclosed on posters around major stations. (In our original schedule, we had planned to air only TV commercial without revealing her identity. The response for Aimi was so dynamic, however, that we ended up airing TV commercial disclosing her secret at the same time. )2. "How Aimi was made in TV commercial" was shown in Ice no mi's website.

- TV news reports, 94 programs- News and magazines reports, 270articles- News websites reports, 1158 sites- 58000 tweets, attracting 1million followers- The Ice no mi website received close to 74million views or 60% of the population of Japan. The promotional value of this campaign has come to roughly 3 billion yen. Because of the campaign, sales doubled from the previous year.- In the end, we've succeeded in rewriting Ice no mi's old image that was "outdated ice cream product" to the new, exciting and challenging product with the positive energy.