This article reflects information as of 2020. For the latest details, please contact us.
Written by: Tomohiro Koizumi, Representative Director, tentus inc.
Everyone has entered some kind of giveaway campaign at least once, right?
My earliest memory of winning is probably winning an MSX game from the game-corner giveaway printed in the Sunday edition of the newspaper my family subscribed to.
There's the question of just how many readers back then owned an MSX and read the Sunday edition of the newspaper — but I remember being incredibly happy as a kid. (That said, I also remember that the game was supremely boring.)
When clients consult us about such giveaway campaigns, we're often asked, "Could you propose not just the campaign site but an original novelty too?"
So this time, let me briefly introduce some of the more unusual items among the novelties we've made.
ITEM No. 1: Find It in the Bottle! "Original Fragrance"
This is a novelty we made at the request of a fashion brand in the category known as "Shibuya 109 style" (Maru-Q style).
Together with a perfume maker we were working with at the time, we discussed the image for the top note, middle note, and last note, and created an original fragrance.
Combined with the brand's popularity, it was very well received, becoming such a popular campaign that the original fragrance was later even commercialized as a product.
One thing I learned from making it: original bottles really are expensive.
ITEM No. 2: Even Your Pores in Full View! "USB Microscope"
As introduced in another case study, we made this together with a futon-cleaner maker, aiming to "visualize dust mites."
The aim wasn't to get people to enter the campaign, but to have users themselves use the novelty to post and spread the word on social media — a rare case where social exposure was higher after the campaign ended and the novelty was distributed than during the campaign period.
ITEM No. 3: Win Every Day! "Enter Your Serial Number to Win — Original Game"
This was at a beverage maker's request. Since beverage makers' serial campaigns often issue an enormous number of serials — 100 million or so — we made a digital novelty, with the aim of compressing delivery costs and the like.
We created 10 games using a certain character, and ran the campaign with a frame that let people play again and again.
For clients who have their own original characters and such, making a digital, distributable novelty like this makes it possible to keep the campaign budget quite low.
ITEM No. 4: A Mysterious Obsession! "Engine-Sound Ringtone"
Speaking of digital novelties, this reminded me.
The very term "ringtone" (chakumelo) already has a nostalgic ring to it, but back when ringtones were in their heyday, we made engine-sound ringtones for a heavy-machinery maker's campaign.
I fondly remember heading to an exhibition ground in Ibaraki Prefecture and quietly sampling the engine sounds of hydraulic excavators, bulldozers, and the like.
It became a novelty that was well received not so much by users as by the maker's own people.
Creating an original item that uses a maker's flagship product itself has a tremendous effect on existing users/fans.
ITEM No. 5: A Sad Memory — "A Painful Spelling Mistake"
This is a failure case: for a pet-food maker's serial campaign, we made a cat collar from a famous overseas high-end brand that everyone knows into the novelty.
At that time we were also asked to handle printing the stickers with the serial numbers.
Everyone, Louis Vuitton is spelled Louis Vuitton, not Louis Vitton!
Even now, I still talk with the director from back then about how "we definitely never misspell that anymore."
ITEM No. 6: Really Gross! "Super Gyoza Drops"
This is a novelty we made when we sponsored an event called "Backlog World 2020," held once a year and led by the user group for the project management tool Backlog.
Actually, when we also sponsored in the previous year, 2019, we made a candy called "Gyoza Drops," but the company that makes original candy told us, "Please spare us from making a candy that smells enough to stink up the kiln," so we had a history of tearfully lowering the fidelity — and in 2020 it's a novelty we made with a lot of extra effort.
The development story of this novelty, which we made by interviewing members of the General Incorporated Association Yaki-Gyoza Association about "what is the essential taste for gyoza to be gyoza?", is here
We made this prioritizing a "novelty people can't help posting about on social media" over a "novelty an individual is happy to receive."
It was a joke novelty made in earnest — but the trouble is that we made it too earnestly and it ended up a little bit tasty.
In this way, we receive many consultations about site production and novelty production for giveaway campaigns.
Due to personal-information protection, we ask outside vendors to handle logistics, call centers, and so on, but we can also take on the whole package including those.
We can run a variety of campaigns to match your budget, so if there's anything we can help with, by all means get in touch.