With cell phones and smartwatches now widely used, the habit of wearing wristwatches and the idea that they are status symbols are fading among the younger generation. WIRED, a casual watch brand that has a 20-year history going back to 2000, wanted to get young people to go to watch stores while conveying to watch store staff how they should communicate with young people to show the value of watches when they come as customers.

We produced and released a comedic movie based on the conversation between a young couple and the owner of a wristwatch stall. The stage was set at a stall that looks like it might sell counterfeit brand wristwatches, a familiar sight on the streets of Asian, and had a full lineup of WIRED-branded watches (real ones, of course). It used its casual dialogue to show the fun of looking at, touching and choosing a wristwatch, while demonstrating how staff should talk to young people.

This movie portrayed a skit that constructed a setting and worldview that is the exact opposite of a real watch store while also focusing on the “interaction between customers and staff selling merchandise.” It is specifically set on the street of a fictional city with a diverse mixture of Asian cultures. Placing various languages and street food in various places on the street, we created a street and stall (street vendor) that evokes memories in many people even though it is not an actual place. The content of the skit also portrayed the real feelings of young people about watches, and became an unskippable piece of entertainment with its fast-paced mismatched dialogue between the couple and the stall owner doing his sales pitch.

Set on the street of a fictional city with a diverse mixture of Asian cultures, by melding art that mixes various Asian elements with a market used until a year ago, it created a street and stall that evokes memories in many people even though it is an imagined place. The video shows the conversation between a young couple that comes across a wristwatch stall owner. The couple thinks watches are unnecessary because of smartphones, and responds coldly to the man’s fevered sales pitch in the beginning. Later, the stall owner takes a softer approach and gradually breaks the ice with the couple and shows them the good points of the watches that best suit them. But the story ends with the couple deciding to buy them at an actual watch store and leave while thanking the man. It aptly reached both young people and those working in watch stores.

It has become the most widely viewed and engaging content in the WIRED brand’s 20-year history, and the number of target audience viewers actually visiting watch stores reached 220% the number from the same period of the previous year.