The object of our campaign was to revitalize the sales of fruit gelato ice cream "Ice no mi." We decided to launch a campaign to create the ultimate CGI idol whose name would remind the young target group of the product.
Our CGI idol needed to represent Ice no mi and have standout characteristics such as "Cute", "Pop", and "Combination of Flavors". To embody “Cute” and “Pop”, we looked to the most popular girl group in Asia, AKB48. For “Combination of Flavors”, we decided to create our idol by combining the faces of six popular members of AKB48. Thus, our CGI idol “Aimi' was born. Her name was derived from the product name, Ice no mi.
We used various media to make Aimi's debut as dramatic as possible. We knew the more dramatic her debut was, the more free promotion the product would get from news media. We started with Print media, making Aimi appear on the cover of a popular magazine that also contained an interview article. We then released an introduction movie shown on Entertainment News Programs. Aimi then made a big appearance on a huge poster of Ice no mi at major train stations with the rest of AKB48 so that the young target group would know her name and her special place in the idol group. We also planted clues of Aimi on the web, such as her recorded voice at the audition and her secret profile. This prompted the target audience to spread the word of her mysterious identity.
The next step was for AKB48 to make the announcement that Aimi would appear on an upcoming TV commercial for Ice no mi. This announcement drove media and the young target group into a frenzy, escalating their anticipation toward the Ice no mi TV commercial.
With the strong viral effect, Aimi was already a popular idol when the TV commercial first aired. Even after disclosing that she was made of CGI, and after revealing Aimi’s secret that she’s made of facial and body parts of AKB48 members, her popularity didn’t fade, driving the young target group to our "Oshimen Maker (Create your own idols) website" that allowed them to create their own CGI idols just like Aimi.
Aimi became the top entertainment news and an immediate star in Japan. Her sensational debut was followed by the success of the 'Create Your Own Idol' website that came to create 2,337,698 virtual idols to be introduced all over the world. The Ice no mi website counted almost 74 million hits or 60% of the Japanese population. The campaign’s success was obvious as the sales doubled from the previous year.