The target audience was individual consumers. While all high-end confectioners compete with the “decoration impact,” an idea of “putting the decoration in the hands of the customers,” came up, an unique experience that is acceptable for Seven-Eleven as they are a provider of convenience nearby. Seven-Eleven sold only the base of the cake, an interactive cake that leaves the fun of decorating in the customer’s own imagination. Normally, there is no choice but to purchase already decorated cakes or bake one from scratch. But this idea presented a third choice of enjoying the most fun part of decorating the cake without the hassle of baking one.

The cake was provided to collaborating food manufacturers for them to come up with their original decorations. As a result, the cake became a promotional tool on its own and an execution of a win-win promotion was established. Also, by utilizing general consumers’ enthusiasm of wanting to post in Social Media, a method was designed for the product to automatically spread on the website without the need of any media cost. Posts were grouped using the same #hashtag. The creative imagination of general users was used as User Generated Content and communication of the fun of sharing the experience among users and user’s friends in Social Media was designed.

Convenience store cake has been an untapped presence in the market. However, with this promotion, Seven-Eleven cake was taken up by a popular TV show and ranked 4th in the “must by item” of their Christmas cake ranking. No other convenience store cake has ever received such attention in the past. Great amount of evaluation in Social Media made brand relevance concrete and the cake sold out within 14 days. Posts on Twitter was +155.8%, on Instagram +972.9% and visitors on special site +285.4%. It became a regular player as a new product and contributed greatly to sales. After the product was sold out, some people even began decorating other products and posted pictures on the product’s #hashtag.

It is a custom for Japanese people to eat a cake with their families, friends and or with boyfriends/girlfriends on Christmas and the cake market becomes a battle during the Christmas period. All cake makers announce a new and creatively decorated cake every year and for the convenience store chain Seven-Eleven to win this fierce competition, they had the crucial task of coming up with a sensational cake. They were also working under a low budget requiring them to conduct a trial project to achieve their objective.