THE GOLD STANDARD AWARDS FOR CONSULTANCY OF THE YEAR: KOREA AND JAPAN

Sponsored By: PR Newswire

Winner:  Edelman Japan

As Edelman Japan continues its drive to deliver “Communications Marketing” solutions, it has embarked on an ambitious internal reorganisation: rather than limiting its talent by placing them in narrow cubbyholes, it broadened its growing team of 70 into one unit, marrying seasoned corporate communications executives with creative and digital experts and bringing in high-profile hires, all with the aim of generating eye-catching content that helps its clients earn trust, attention and relevance in a rapidly changing world.

One example of this collaboration is its pro bono work for Tokyo English Life Line (TELL), which offers counselling services in a country where more than 21,000 people took their own lives in 2016, the second-highest suicide rate among industrialised countries.

To spark greater conversation around the need for mental health awareness in Japan it put together a cross-office team to partner with TELL for World Suicide Prevention Day. TELL challenged people in and around Tokyo to take a few steps for mental health awareness and scale the landmark Tokyo Tower. Edelman helped TELL get the word out, generating 34 pieces of media coverage and reaching out to online communities.

Its new, creative communications marketing approach has helped it win clients that would never have looked at a PR agency before. The Japan National Tourism Organisation, for example, has always turned to a big, traditional, Japanese advertising agency for its international campaigns, but this time it chose Edelman instead for its “story-telling approach” that combines the rigours of advertising with the story-telling of PR.

The campaign is focusing on showing foreign tourists the delights of the Tohoku region, still struggling to recover after the devastating earthquake and tsunami of 2011, with the focus being a video in English, Chinese, Thai and Korean.

Edelman remains prominent in thought leadership initiatives, notably its Edelman Trust Barometer. The 17th such study for 2017 surveyed more than 33,000 people in 28 countries and found a fall in trust in all four areas of business, government, media and NGOs both globally and in Japan. A launch in February 2017 attracted more than 100 people and the survey results featured in about 40 media, sparking a conversation about trust in Japan.

The 2017 Edelman Earned Brand study conducted among 14,000 consumers in 14 countries explored the theme of “belief-driven buyers” — people who will buy a brand, switch from it, avoid it or even boycott it based on the brand’s stance on a controversial issue. It found that in Japan some 43 percent of consumers will buy or boycott a brand solely because of its position on a social or political issue, with 17 percent saying they made such decisions more than they did three years ago.