National awareness campaign “Positive Off”

National awareness campaign aimed to encourage to take long vacation
“Positive Off” was initially started as a national awareness campaign with the background goal to reduce electricity usage after the Great East Japan Earthquake and help revitalize the affected areas. As recovery progressed, this campaign transformed into “lifestyle innovation” aimed more towards work life balance and a new life style to enjoy vacation.

Targeting corporate management. Findings from our past successful project “Team minus 6%”
In order for the campaign to take root in societal momentum, we knew that the expansion of participating company was necessary. Based on our past successful case where we helped citizen enlightenment campaign “Team minus 6%,” we knew the ripple effect, spreading from leading company to the follower company, would be powerful. As such we selected the main target companies in the Kanto / Kansai / Chubu area which accounts for 80% of listed companies in order to expand the buy-in from corporate management.

Developed initiatives utilizing newspapers, seminars, webs, etc.
As PR activities, we introduced leading efforts of front runner companies from each industry, and did a tie-up advertisement with a popular manga “President Shima Kosaku.” In cooperation with Nikkei newspaper and The Japan Institute for Labor Policy and Training, we also hosted seminars and symposiums targeting the staff working in HR and Facility Management in leading companies in each industry. This provided a place for them to learn about and exchange opinions about “Positive Off.” In addition, we also implemented various measures such as creating a Facebook page. Through these measures, in 2 years’ time we gained buy-in from over 300 companies.

Structure to encourage organic growth
In order for national awareness campaign to spread, it is essential to build a structure to encourage its natural growth. In “Positive Off”, we categorized target enterprises into followings: “Companies whose business is directly connected to this campaign”, ” Companies that send messages regarding social responsibility to their employees and society,” “Companies that send out information /activities related to this campaign.” This resulted in gaining buy-in across above different groups, therewith helped to encourage its self-expansion.