Rikako Ikee's story of quintessential human endeavor, resilience and optimism personifies what SK-II #changedestiny stands for, "destiny is a matter of choice, not chance".

Whilst the story / heroine were already clear, it needed (i) a storyteller to narrate this heart touching story and (ii) a sponsor / producer / publisher to bring the completed story out to the Japanese people

This where SK-II + the agency took the role being the sponsor / producer / publisher / orchestrator, and working togther with Hirukazu Koreeda as the storyteller / director, unveiled the story to Japan in form of an outstanding campaign

Covid had serious implications on the prestige category in Japan, consumers in one of the largest beauty markets in the world had become conservative on their spends which reflected in SKII sales.

The over all mood of the country was somber, suicides were at an all time high amongst women.

The brand needed to address this challenge in the most human and responsible manner. Not be seen as one pushing itself but as a stakeholder of consumers' beauty care, as well as an enabler of category revival.

Most importantly, the brand needed to stay true to its purpose of #changedestiny, even in these unprecedented times.

The objective was to get the consumers engaged back with the category / the brand and inspire them to continue to believe in #changedestiny.

The success KPIs are : Search uplifts, New-users uplift

The implication of COVID was Olympics getting differed by and year, which also meant a golden opportunity for Japans prodigal swimmer Rikako Ikee to make a bounce back after recovering from leukemia and giving hopes to the national of seeing their start competing in the most coveted sports event.

We saw this not only as a story but a message which could be crafted to bring abt belief & optimism amongst a nation which had lost a lot.

Working with Palme d'Or winner Hirokazu Koreeda san we created 'Centerlane' a heart-warming yet inspiring film which captured the journey of Ikee san from hospital to preparing for Qualification in a candid and unfiltered manner.

The video gave the #changedesity , the global brand communication a localized and meaningful face to consumer.

The campaign was targeted at a National level reaching out all category consumers in the TG of females 18-64. On top, it had a disproportionate focus on the mega city of Tokyo, because the category / brand must win in Tokyo to be able to win Nationally.

Considering the wider appeal of Ikee san amongst Japanese, TV and Print were used to drive National level reach, Digital Video / Social was maximized for holistic storytelling and top tier Publisher Partnerships were maximized for contextual halo.

We deployed a classic pulsing approach to feed in the right kind of news to keep the momentum continuously on.

To build excitement around the film we started with custom content creation and promoting the same using partner social handles.

The launch happened two days into custom content going live on TV, YouTube & Twitter along with other social media platforms i.e Facebook , Instagram & LINE.

One day day road block were deployed across Twitter, Yahoo & Gunosy to drive impact and instant reach.

Print was deployed strategically , day after Ikee san qualified for Olympics while the campaign was live.

The activity was then sustained via YouTube for video views, Twitter for conversation and TV for reach.

Complimenting push media we also had pull media set up via including right set of keywords, Riakao Ikee x SkII planned for during the campaign

The campaign ran for a duration of 30 days reaching out to nearly 100% in Tokyo and 50% of national brand audience.

The objective defined for this campaign was 'consideration' , we saw 39% growth in search volumes for the brand, which also has a causation to brand offtake.

10x search in eCOM sales gave an indication of consumers embracing the non pushy .

The social meter saw an increase in conversation 12x over any other previous campaign with 95% of the comments skewing towards positive feedback/statements.

The market challenge on declining growth for the prestige category and the prevailing COIVD sentiments needed a native approach.

Not only the was the communication woven around Rikako Ikee , a Japanese athlete.

The language in which the video was shot to context of women coming out and sharing their stories in a country where its unwelcomed and selecting Japan's beloved story teller /director 'Hirokazu Kore-eda to bring it to life was all made for Japan.

Market nuances such as popularity of Twitter from a cultural stand point over other social platforms was kept in mind while launching the campaign.

Local Platforms & publications i.e. Line , Asahi , Biteki, Vogue japan , Yomiuri etc. were deployed to drive relevant reach