LOVE CAKE PROJECT

Credits & Description:

Type of entry: Product & Service
Category: Charities, Public Health & Safety, Public Awareness Messages
Advertiser: WORLD VISION JAPAN
Product/Service: CHILDREN'S CHARITY
Agency: DENTSU Tokyo, JAPAN

Creative Director: Motomu Ishida (Dentsu)
Creative Director: Takashi Fukui (Dentsu)
Copywriter: Yoko Okazaki (Dentsu)
Copywriter: Marie Ono (Dentsu)
Art Director: Noriko Okamoto (Dentsu)
Agency Producer: Michiko Ishihara (Dentsu)
Public Relations Planner: Tadashi Inokuchi (Dentsu)
Public Relations Planner: Akiko Sugiyama (Dentsu)
Public Relations Planner: Hidehito Iwai (Dentsu)
Media Planner: Yuji Kimura (Dentsu)
Production Company: Taki Corporation ()
Designer: Makiko Hori ()
Designer: Yuki Takahashi ()
Coordinator: Kohei Nakamiya ()
Account Executive: Koyo Tomita (Dentsu)
Account Executive: Yuichi Otsuka (Dentsu)

Describe the brief from the client:
World Vision Japan (WVJ) is an international non-government organisation that helps support children in developing nations.
WVJ needed to:
- Lower mental hurdles to making social contributions among the general public.
- Make them aware of the meaning of social contributions.
Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation:
In Japan, Christmas is a time spent with family or other special people sharing Christmas cake. Seven popular confectioners cooperated and made their own original limited versions of a “Christmas cake with a piece missing.” These were sold at the same price as a whole cake, and the share for the missing piece went toward children’s food support programs in developing nations.
Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results:
- We succeeded in communicating the meaning of contributions in a simple manner through the cake visual.
- We were able to make the act of social contribution a familiar one and thus lowered mental hurdles.
Equally gratifying was that many people from various parts of Japan asked to “buy a Christmas cake with a piece missing,” and that confectioners offered to bake such cakes again next year. Additionally, a great number of offers of support and cooperation were made to WVJ.
*Over 165 media exposures
*Media value of $3 million (100 times the budget).
*420 million media impressions
*Over 5000 people signed up for “Child Sponsorship”
*About $1000 in donations (in the few weeks of the project)
Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service:
The situation:
- The general public, even if they want to, feel they have relatively few opportunities for social contributions.
- For the general public, the mental hurdles to taking action are high.

For the above reasons, there are many who feel “unable to do anything,” although they do want to “make some social contributions.”
There have been many charity campaigns before, but the mental hurdles to participate may have been too high.