15th PRWeek Awards Asia Prize Presentation held at JW Marriott Hong Kong on June 18, 2016
Tokyo, June 23, 2016 — Dentsu Public Relations Inc. (Dentsu PR), along with Dentsu Inc. (Dentsu), and Dentsu Young & Rubicam Inc. (Dentsu Y&R) has won awards in five categories at the PRWeek Awards Asia 2016, an international competition sponsored by PR industry magazine PRWeek, published by Haymarket Media.
The winning campaigns were LOVE THERMO #WarmUpWithLove, created for Panasonic Corporation; and Dole: The Wearable_Banana, created for Dole Japan Inc.
This year celebrating the competition’s 15th anniversary, PRWeek Awards Asia 2016 attracted 733 entries from 17 countries and territories across the Asia-Pacific region, with the winning entries decided by 67 judges selected from Asia-Pacific-based companies and agencies alongside a chair of judges from Haymarket Media.
Dentsu PR’s Chief PR Planner Tadashi Inokuchi, a judge at this year’s event, says that over the past few years, the PRWeek Awards Asia have seen a sharp increase in entries centered around ideas and approaches that go one step beyond basic PR activities.
“This year’s winning entries included projects using survey data of a caliber that could be presented at academic conferences, others using video to disseminate information, and many more with a creative approach to establishing context or product development,” Inokuchi says.
“With innovation, there is a lot of scope for expansion in the PR field within Asia. In the years to come, I also look forward to seeing a lot more campaigns that successfully incorporate unique regional themes,” Inokuchi says.
<Award-Winning Entries, Overview>
Campaign Title: LOVE THERMO #WarmupWithLove
Client: Panasonic
Agency: Dentsu, Dentsu PR
Award Categories: Best Use of Analytics (Gold)
Best Use of Broadcast Media/Video (Silver)
Japan/Korea Campaign of the Year (Bronze)
Campaign Title: Dole: The Wearable_Banana
Client: Dole Japan, Inc.
Agency: Dentsu Y&R, Dentsu PR
Award Categories: Brand Development Campaign of the Year (Silver)
Promotional Activity of the Year (Bronze)
Japan/Korea PR Campaign of the Year (Bronze)
<Details of Winning Entries>
Love Thermo #WarmupWithLove
In line with the Japanese idiom, “ishin-denshin” — which expresses unspoken, mutual understanding — compared to other cultures, Japanese people seldom use words to express gratitude or love. Feeling a need to warm family relations as part of its brand mission, Panasonic conducted a first-of-its-kind experiment to measure changes in body temperature produced by verbal expressions of love. This study showed that body temperature rose by an average of 0.8°C in response to such interactions.
In 2016, the experiment was made into a documentary video and uploaded to YouTube on the date traditionally recognized in Japan as the coldest day of winter. Six pairs of relatives participated, with one member of each family surprising their counterpart by reading out a letter expressing their love. The interaction was measured using infrared thermography. After their surprise, we let the unsuspecting family members in on the experiment.
Following the video’s release, social media was flooded with comments from members of the public, along with well-known entertainers and athletes, as the story rapidly spread from the web into mass media. One government employee even surprised her colleagues by publicly expressing her gratitude to them.
Project PR Managers
Yohei Nemoto, Senior PR Planner, Dentsu PR
Naoya Tanimoto, PR Planner, Dentsu PR
Tomoko Wada, Researcher, Dentsu PR
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Dole: The Wearable_Banana
A sponsor of the Tokyo Marathon since 2008, Dole Japan Inc. distributes around 96,000 bananas each year to participating runners. However, with Tokyo Marathon 2015 marking the company’s eighth year as sponsor, Dole teamed up with Dentsu PR and Dentsu Y&R to develop a new way of supporting runners that went beyond the usual banana giveaway.
Inspired by the growing wearable tech market, they developed the world’s first edible gadget, the Wearable_Banana. This device, worn on runners’ wrists, used a thin LED screen inserted beneath the peel of a real banana to display race time, heart rate, and real-time Twitter messages of support. It also let runners know when the four Dole banana stations were coming up on the course.
With both runners selected to sport Wearable_Bananas for Tokyo Marathon 2015 successfully finishing the race, the campaign attracted the attention not only of terrestrial TV networks and other domestic media, but also of major foreign media outlets such as ABC News, Wall Street Journal, Yahoo!, Huffington Post, and Bloomberg.Thanks to widespread coverage of the initiative, the profile of Dole bananas was boosted significantly.
Project PR managers
Tadashi Inokuchi, Chief PR Planner, Dentsu PR
Naoya Tanimoto, PR Planner, Dentsu PR
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PRWeek Awards Asia
The PRWeek Awards Asia, now in their 15th year, are sponsored by Haymarket Media Group, publishers of PR industry magazines including PRWeek and Campaign. The PRWeek Awards Asia 2016 saw 733 entries from across the Asia-Pacific region. Winners were selected by 67 judges from companies and agencies in the Asia-Pacific region, alongside a chair of judges from Haymarket Media.
Dentsu Public Relations Inc.
Since its founding in 1961, Dentsu PR has provided support for a wide range of domestic and foreign companies, governments and organizations, as a strategic partner to enhance relations between clients and stakeholders. Its 234 employees, including specialist consultants in fields such as social media and digital marketing, enable the company to offer comprehensive support, from strategy proposals to creative solutions, in the areas of marketing and corporate communications. For more information about Dentsu Public Relations Inc., please visit www.dentsu-pr.com