tourism marketing
EARLY IN THE
GAME WITH AN
EYE ON THE PRIZE
Tokyo Shopping Week offered the full Odaiba experience
This past August, four mega shopping centers teamed up to host Tokyo
Shopping Week at Odaiba, raise awareness of the region leading up to
the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games, and target
international tourists looking for retail stops.
“As the home to a number of sports venues, Odaiba will become an
important location during the [Olympic Games]. We have great expectations
for the potential for synergy [and] collaboration between all of the primary
destinations of Odaiba,” a spokesperson for Tokyo Shopping Week shared.
“We consider the 2018 edition of this event to be a trial in preparation for
the excitement of 2020.”
THE PLAYERS
• Aqua City Odaiba (Mitsubishi Jisho Retail Property Management)
• DECKS Tokyo Beach (Tokyu Land SC Management)
• DiverCity Tokyo Plaza (Mitsui Fudosan Retail Management)
• VenusFort (Mori Building)
• In collaboration with VISA Worldwide, the sole campaign sponsor and
one of the official Olympic partners
Spread across four shopping centers and 480 shops, the month-long
campaign and event specifically aimed to generate awareness and activity
among visiting shoppers to Japan. At the center of the campaign: a multi-
location instant scratch-and-win contest. Eligible shoppers who spent
¥1,000 or more (approx. US$10) received a scratch card with a chance to win
a shopping voucher worth up to ¥10,000 (US$100). As additional incentive,
the team offered a bonus scratch card to VISA members to encourage them
to use their cards. Accepting scratch cards throughout the duration of the
campaign period, the participating retailers and restaurants allowed winners
to shop at their leisure.
This handy map made it easy for visitors to
Odaiba to find choice retail stops.
THE MARKETING PLAN
▶ Social influencers from Taiwan were invited to report on the event online.
▶ The promotional team distributed copies of the free Odaiba Hodai
newspaper at two major Taiwanese hubs: Haneda International Airport and
Narita International Airport. The free newspaper included a map of Odaiba
and shoppers who brought their copy to the venue received a tote bag.
▶ Th
e informational event map showing details of the campaign and the
surrounding area was distributed at participating facilities in both English
and traditional Chinese.
▶ F
or 10 days of the campaign period, both English- and Chinese-speaking
staff handed out pamphlets on-site and engaged with passersby.
▶ P
articipating malls shared a unified design to promote Tokyo Shopping
Week from their respective SNS accounts.
▶ T
o promote VISA, the team implemented a unified design for branding via
outdoor ads and in-store displays.
▶ T
o learn more about Tokyo Shopping Week and enhance their Odaiba
experience, shoppers were encouraged to visit the VISA website to find the
campaign video, the rules of the contest, an individual summary of each
participating mall, a map of the region, and access information.
“[Tokyo Shopping Week] provides an opportunity for locations that are
ordinarily in competition with each other to cooperate and contribute to
the liveliness of the Odaiba area at large, leading to an overall increase in
satisfaction to visiting tourists,” the program spokesperson noted.
“We also expect that continuing this campaign in future years will lead
to an increase in tourism in the Odaiba area. Finally, it is our thought that the
collaboration between shopping centers in this campaign will create a chance for
communication that will lead to other collaborative campaigns down the road.”
PAGE : 22