[ACC 2022 PR Category Commentary] What a PR Planner Learned from the ACC TOKYO CREATIVITY AWARDS PR Category
Introduction
“SSU’s PR Method” is a series that explores PR techniques and branding expertise tailored to the modern era. In this installment, I will discuss the theme: “What a PR agency planner learned from the ACC TOKYO CREATIVITY AWARDS PR Category.”Previous PR Method articles can be found here.
■ Table of Contents
– Introduction
– What is the ACC TOKYO CREATIVITY AWARDS?
– List of Award-Winning Works in the ACC TOKYO CREATIVITY AWARDS PR Category
– Award-Winning Work Commentary 1: “Shizuoka City Plastic Model Project / Shizuoka City”
– Award-Winning Work Commentary 2: “Taking a Moment to Insert a Bookmark / Sanseido Bookstore”
– Award-Winning Work Commentary 3: “The Unfriendly Museum / WOWOW”
– Conclusion
Hello everyone, it has been a while.
This time, in a departure from the previous post, I would like to write about the PR category of the domestic advertising award, the “ACC TOKYO CREATIVITY AWARDS.”
What is the ACC TOKYO CREATIVITY AWARDS?
Creativity changes you,
and changes the world.
The “ACC TOKYO CREATIVITY AWARDS” originated from the “ACC CM FESTIVAL,” an advertising award held since 1961 to improve the quality of television and radio commercials. In 2017, it was significantly expanded and rebranded as an award targeting creativity across all domains.
It is widely recognized as one of Japan’s largest awards in both name and reality. The Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Award / ACC Grand Prix has become a major goal for professionals active in the creative industry.
The awards consist of the following eight major categories:
– Film Category
– Film Craft Category
– Radio & Audio Advertising Category
– Marketing Effectiveness Category
– Branded Communication Category
– Design Category
– Media Creative Category
– Creative Innovation Category
As we are a PR company, we would like to look at the award-winning works in the “Branded Communication Category, C Category: PR.”
The description for this category states: “This award recognizes projects that build trust between brands and consumers by establishing new consensus within society and communities, thereby transforming consumer awareness and attitudes. ACC also emphasizes PR ideas and creativity.“
PR is often described as “building relationships with all stakeholders.” In recent years, the mission has evolved beyond simply securing publicity to achieving changes in awareness and, ultimately, behavior. This appears to be the core evaluation point, but in true ACC fashion, the final sentence suggests that ideas and creativity are given even greater weight.
List of Award-Winning Works in the ACC TOKYO CREATIVITY AWARDS PR Category
First, the number of award-winning works is as follows:
Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Award / ACC Grand Prix: 1
ACC Gold: 2
ACC Silver: 4
ACC Bronze: 2
ACC Finalist: 6
The list of works is as follows:
▼ Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Award / ACC Grand Prix
Shizuoka City Plastic Model Project / Shizuoka City
▼ ACC Gold
#CimaRestore / Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
COTEN RADIO / COTEN
▼ ACC Silver
FRIENDLY DOOR / LIFULL
Japan’s First! Municipality-run Co-creative Open Platform for Migration: “Remote City Hall” / Saku City, Nagano Prefecture
The President’s Treat Vending Machine / Suntory Holdings Limited
Taking a Moment to Insert a Bookmark./ Sanseido Bookstore
▼ ACC Bronze
BEERY “Birth of Micro-Alcohol” Edition / Asahi Breweries
Attento / Daio Paper Corporation
▼ ACC Finalist
“Freedom to Shave” Communication / Kai Corporation
The Unfriendly Museum / WOWOW
Scholarship Napkins / Daio Paper Corporation
Jonetsu Kakaku Branding Project / Pan Pacific International Holdings Corporation
Changing Careers to Become an Astronaut./ Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
Life Needs Restaurants. / Suntory Holdings Limited
Below, I will share my thoughts on three of the works, including the Grand Prix winner.
Award-Winning Work Commentary 1
“Shizuoka City Plastic Model Project / Shizuoka City” (Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Award / ACC Grand Prix)
As the Grand Prix winner, let’s look at this project first.
In regional promotion, I believe the first and greatest hurdle is deciding which aspect of the city to focus on to generate buzz. With so much regional revitalization and promotion already taking place, it is difficult to find new, unique characteristics (local specialties, industries, regionality, culture, events, etc.) for a specific area.
Since gourmet food or tourist spots are often difficult to promote individually, projects usually bundle several regional features together for communication.
However, this project focused on “Shizuoka City’s plastic model production volume” and developed a campaign with a single-point breakthrough. I thought it was truly wonderful how they created a new face for Shizuoka using an unprecedented angle.
I was impressed not only by the sharpness of their perspective but also by their planning and execution capabilities.First, to make it easy for local residents to understand and to create visually appealing PR opportunities, they installed mailboxes and public phone booths designed to look like plastic model kits throughout the city.
Image Source: Shizuoka City “Shizuoka City Plastic Model Project”
Furthermore, as a fine detail, the official website distributes the project logo. This is a clever way to encourage participation from those who are interested. Regional promotion becomes stronger when it involves not just government communication, but also local companies, residents, and shops.
I believe the project was highly rated because it used ideas that were not bound by conventional media publicity methods and created something that remains as a regional asset (a tourist spot) even after the initial campaign.
Award-Winning Work Commentary 2
“Taking a Moment to Insert a Bookmark / Sanseido Bookstore” (ACC Silver)
Next, I will write about two works that caught my attention.
Image Source: Sanseido Bookstore Official Twitter @honmal_sanseido
In recent years, physical bookstores have been closing one after another due to the impact of digitalization and e-books. I was shocked to see news recently that there are no longer any bookstores in Akasaka.
Such closures are very regrettable news for book lovers, but the Sanseido Bookstore Jinbocho Main Store is closing only temporarily for renovation. If they had simply communicated that information as is, the public would likely have felt the same sadness as they do for other bookstore closures.
However, since this closure was for a renewal opening, this project successfully transformed the news of the closure into something that built anticipation for the renovation.What they did was simple: they expressed the temporary closure in a very bookstore-like way as “inserting a bookmark,” hung a giant banner on the building, and distributed bookmarks with the same design at the store.
This simple idea was easy to understand intuitively, and it went viral on social media. I believe the strength of this project and the reason it was highly rated lies in the power of an idea that communicates its message at a single glance.
Award-Winning Work Commentary 3
“The Unfriendly Museum / WOWOW” (ACC Finalist)
The final work is this one.
Image Source: WOWOW WEB MAGAZINE FEATURES
This was a promotional event for WOWOW’s “WHO I AM,” a documentary series featuring the world’s top para-athletes.While typical exhibitions are designed to be easy for visitors to view, the concept of this exhibition was to be “equally unfriendly to everyone,” requiring visitors to view the exhibits while sitting in a wheelchair.
I thought this was a clever project where the inconvenience of the exhibition created a gap with the norm and represented the world of para-athletes, perfectly aligning the interest factor with the intended message.The concept is similar to “The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders,” which won a Grand Prix at a previous ACC.
While it is possible to plan an event that allows people to experience the greatness of para-sports and para-athletes to change their perspective on disabilities and their own values, I thought it was truly wonderful that they actually realized it through this event.
Conclusion
This concludes my discussion on “What a PR agency planner learned from the ACC TOKYO CREATIVITY AWARDS PR Category.”
As mentioned at the beginning, this was a PR category that truly tested the power of ideas. It was very stimulating to see works that were not bound by traditional PR activities (though it is becoming harder to define what “traditional PR activities” even are).
I hope this has provided some inspiration or insight for your own work.
Please look forward to future blog posts from myself and other team members!
(And of course, if you missed any previous articles, please be sure to check them out!!)
