A major factor that has to be understood is the massive typhoon that hit the Philippine Islands on Nov. 4th 2013, causing over 6,200 casualties. The typhoon damaged the nation, and fields as well. All of the “GOKUSEN” bananas are imported from the Philippines. But unfortunately due to this natural disaster, the import volume for “GOKUSEN” decreased sharply.

After the “BANANA TROPHY” campaign, according to the hearings of the client, the market orders for “GOKUSEN” increased like never before. But the supply couldn’t and cannot meet the demand, because of this reason.

Dole went forward with this campaign even under this catastrophe, to not only sell the “GOKUSEN” brand but to be able to help the Philippines and support their strength as well.

Buzz like,“The banana too precious to eat!” swept the web media and SNS with over 720,000 shares. The “BANANA TROPHY” was shown even on the largest national TV news and newspaper in Japan. Media cost was zero, but the total coverage was worth well over US$1.1m reaching more than 28 million people in total.

A national market survey (Video Research Ltd.) showed that:

95.3% changed their impression of Dole to extremely good.

83.5% strongly considered buying “GOKUSEN”, the ultimate banana.

Dole’s “GOKUSEN” became the ultimate banana in both name and reality,not only to the runners but to the whole nation.

Because “GOKUSEN” in Japanese means the ultimate, it was only natural to create an ultimate banana no one will forget. An ultimate banana that is so ultimate, that the news will spread even to the non-runners.

The media team came to the conclusion that the “GOKUSEN” banana itself should be the ultimate media, and that is how “BANANA TROPHY” was born.

When the runner crosses the finish line, the TOKYO MARATHON official RFID on the marathoners shoe will be detected by a special web system. Which then automatically sends a “JUST FINISHED TOKYO MARATHON 2014!” post onto the runners’ Facebook. All the feedback is collected through the web, which transforms into the ripe and bright “BANANA TROPHY”.

Dole’s most supreme ranked banana in Japan is the “GOKUSEN”, meaning the ultimate banana in Japanese. It is extra sweet, delicious and most importantly the best nutritious energy supply for all marathoners. Dole was going to donate 91,000 bananas for the TOKYO MARATHON 2014 runners, but Dole wanted to do more.

To brand the “GOKUSEN” banana, the ultimate of all bananas.

ultimate banana × ultimate reward = BANANA TROPHY

The trophy had the marathoners’ name, finish time and cheers from Facebook friends printed directly onto the “GOKUSEN” banana, right at the finish line. By linking a specially constructed printer using edible ink, to the web.

The strength of the idea was to be able to print in real-time directly onto the product, the “GOKUSEN” banana. A memorable trophy the runner would be sure to love and share onto their SNS. No two “BANANA TROPHY”s were the same.