THE GOAL
To attract people to Shizuoka during the Rugby World Cup 2019 through September and October. Many visitors will be travelling between Tokyo/Yokohama and Kyoto/Kobe/Osaka during the 6 week tournament, and Shizuoka's location on the Tokaido line provides a great opportunity to have a variety of experiences in the days between rugby matches.
The Interactive Map was developed to show potential visitors all the areas at the same time, their locations, access information and promotional videos.
OUR APPROACH
Between June 2017 and July 2018, Carpe Dean visited various locations and communities around Shizuoka to consult on and optimise their tourism assets towards western visitors and rugby fans. At the same time, Carpe Dean created promotional videos highlighting the area's attractions, a library of stock photos for future promotions, as well as websites, posters, mini social campaigns and other marketing materials. Each area visit was like a 'Monitor Tour' and Carpe Dean invited different nationalities to join depending on the clients' preferences. Carpe Dean used a professional videographer and photographer and worked closely with local tourism boards and Tourism Shizuoka Japan to ensure the area was represented accurately and all stakeholders were satisfied.
THE STRATEGY
Utilising the video and photo content developed over the past year, Carpe Dean started a social media campaign in September 2018 that would run for 7 weeks, timed to be exactly 1 year out from the RWC2019. Each week, Carpe Dean showcased a different area, releasing one 30 second video from that area through official Shizuoka social channels (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram). For the remainder of that week, Carpe Dean posted one picture per day highlighting a different experience from that area. Each post was targeted towards the fans who would be passing through Shizuoka in one year's time, using hashtags and account tagging to maximise awareness. Aside from the organic views, Carpe Dean also undertook a paid campaign to maximise reach and engagement, with impressions reaching more than 1 million only half way through the campaign.
OUR DESIGN
Carpe Dean worked together with our partner Outdoor Japan to produce the majority of the video and photo content, as well as in-house designers for photo editing, branding and design of all marketing materials including the interactive map. The design was tailored to suit a modern, minimal and international style, with bold and simple aesthetics to appeal to different rugby fans around the world.
