The marathoners first try a “BANANA TROPHY” lottery through Facebook. If they become one of the 200/36,000 to win, all they had to do was run the race, without any smartphone.

When the runner crosses the finish line, the TOKYO MARATHON official RFID on the marathoners shoe will be detected by a special “BANANA TROPHY” web system. Which automatically sends a “JUST FINISHED TOKYO MARATHON 2014!” post onto the runners’ Facebook.

The runners’ friends can congratulate their finish and all the feedback is collected through the web, which automatically transforms into the “BANANA TROPHY” in real-time at the finish line.

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 1,100,000 USD, reaching more than 28,000,000 people in total.

Anational market survey 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.

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. Every “BANANA TROPHY” was ripe, bright and unique.