The Challenge:At 0.02 mm, Sagami Original is the world's thinnest condom. We wanted to increase awareness of Sagami Original and acquire a positive perception of the brand. But it's difficult to broadcast TV advertisements of condoms in Japan.Solution:We created a month long TV ad by using the internet instead. After a month, the product and the client would be revealed.

We used a long distance couple who were actually dating for 2 and a half years, chosen from the entries.We planned an event to have the couple run a 1,000,000,000 mm (1,000 km) marathon, one from Tokyo and the other from Fukuoka.Images of the two were broadcast live on the internet for one month until the moment they met and embraced at the midpoint.The two were not allowed to have their own PCs and cell phones but were allowed to keep contact through the internet site blog, and TV phone and SMS mails sent through the cell phones provided to them by the project.Thus all correspondences between the couple were displayed to the public on the internet.We wanted to create buzz and excitement among target groups about the ultimate finale when they would meet each other.

The couple’s locations were marked on an internet map through GPS and users could go and cheer them on the streets and send them fax messages via the internet to show their support.This also provided a simulation experience of a long distance relationship for the users.The men's site and the women's site were created separately. Users, unaware that once their gender is chosen, would not be able to share the other gender's site, due to answering the gender question asked of them when they first visited the site.On Christmas eve, the day of the finale, the men's site and the women's site came together as one, as the couple embraced each other.And that is when the name of the client and the product was revealed.

After the product name was revealed on December 24th, Sagami Original's sales rapidly increased, with December and January bringing in record sales.During the one month when the client and product names were not revealed, users started speculating on the client and the product through SNS’s and blogs. There were days when the Japanese SNS received 3000 messages in just one day.TV programs featured this event and created a buzz, which not only spread in Japan but spread abroad as well. There were over 100,000 users accessing the site on the day of the reveal, as all were eager to know the name of the client and the product.

Virtually experiencing “long distance relationship”Moving internet live broadcasting was used, an out of the ordinary idea for most of the world. A real couple starts to run for each other: the man from Fukuoka, the woman from Tokyo. Both were selected after auditioning, are broadcast live over the internet. Viewers can see the long distance love relationship between the two in real-time by visiting the interactive pages set for each gender.Blind Branded EntertainmentThis documentary was actually an advertisement. On the night before Christmas, the client was revealed at the same time the man and woman finally met each other. Viewers would look forward to finding out who the client was and in the meantime, enjoy the contents. The documentary would be used as a video planned to be broadcast on December 31st.

At 0.02 mm, Sagami Original is the world's thinnest condom. We wanted to increase awareness of Sagami Original and acquire a positive perception of the brand. But it's difficult to broadcast TV advertisements of condoms in Japan.We created an interesting and intriguing campaign over the month leading up towards Christmas to generate interest and a cult following before revealing the brand and the product on Christmas Eve.