Reality shows have gained popularity in Japan over the past few decades, keeping viewers riveted to their seats as they watch the cast — mostly aspiring comedians — being placed in outrageous situations that push the limits of their physical and mental endurance. The trend has coincided with the time when online forums started gaining significant influence among Japanese youth. Subsequently a new trend emerged where as soon as a TV show starts airing on TV, people would post comments online, actively engaging in conversations with other viewers about the show during and after the broadcast.

In most cases, these online conversations are merely following what is happening on TV. Xperia’s “1000-hour Shower of Conversation”, however, successfully combined a reality show with comments posted by viewers in real-time, thereby allowing the audience to participate in the show and get a sense of shared experience.

Because this campaign was about starting a conversation about Xperia, we first targeted tech-savvy users, who are eager to show off their knowledge on niche features and functions. In the show, we challenged them with a question: “How can smartphones make a dream come true?” As the cast members strived towards their goals, the tech-savvy users who are eager to brag about their knowledge engaged in real time conversations with the cast, giving them advice on how to use Xperia more effectively. Their comments generated a ripple effect, creating much buzz among a wider audience who voluntarily joined the conversation.

'Xperia' became one of the hottest searched keywords and topics on social media platforms soon after the show started.

The show became so popular that the show was extended from 720 hours to 1,000 hours.

The number of views reached 1.15m, triggering 3.1m comments in total in just over a month, the majority of which were generated by those in their teens and 20s.

The number of devices sold doubled (203%) compared to the previous model.