Smash Guitar Born To Be Destroyed
Issue 16 | September 2010
Agency
Hakuhodo, Tokyo, Japan
Creative Team
Creative Director/Film Planner: Jin Saito; Planner: Kenta Ikoma; Copywriter: Hidenori Sakai; Art Director: Kentaro Harano; Creative Producer/Copywriter: Shoko Akutagawa
Production Team
Producer: Hirofumi Nobuta
Date
2010
Background
As a name, K’s Japan had lost traction and had become irrelevant to a generation that was simply not enthusiastic about rock music.
Idea
Instead of creating a normal advertisement, the agency’s suggestion was a guitar made to be destroyed, SMASH guitar.
It can be played as a normal guitar but then smashed and recycled. The new guitar was advertised with viral movie, flyers, posters and experiential event.
News media picked up the idea, spreading the word about the guitar born to be destroyed.
Results
K’s JAPAN’s sales were up 400% in March 2010 compared to March 2009.
Free publicity worth $3 million was generated.
K’s JAPAN became no.1 search-word in goo, one of Japan’s biggest search engines. No.1 sales ranking at Amazon’s new instrument category.
No.1 in “Things I Want” in MONO, the most issued shopping magazine.
Bounce rate of SMASH’s website hit 1.5%.
MTV did a one-week programme about the event. SMASH was used in a music video, became a topic on business news, was made the subject for an iPhone application and was used as a weapon in a pro-wrestling match.