Final Meeting

Our group, met today for a final run through aheads of tomorrows presentation deadline. We finalised the capaign name: Animate to Educate-Keep kind in mind. We felt that this clearly showed the creative and interactive elements to the campaign while highlight the main aim wish is education and encouraging kindness to dolphins.

Emilie and I were working on the pitch document together, so we devised what should be included and split the list sharing the work. Below is a list of what we felt should be included, as a support to the verbal presentation:

• Cover page-Emilie
• Contents page-Aimee
• Campaign brief-(compiled by Georgia and Ruth)
• Targeted media-Aimee
• Our Campaign-Aimee
• Budget-Emilie
• Timeline-Emilie
• LBB information-Aimee
• Contact information-Emilie

LBB, is the name of our PR agency. We have tried to create a brand image for this by using a logo and the contents page.

L.B.B- Who we are


LBB are an international Business 2 Business, Conservation and Technology PR agency, with an outstanding work ethic, dedicated to personalised services that ensure your needs are met at the highest standard. We have vast contacts in Business to Business, technology and conservation fields, which will enable us to portray a direct, educated and interesting campaign.

We are experienced in working across cultures, overcoming cultural limitations and bridging the gap between cross cultural audiences.

LLB, believe technology is a focal point of Japanese society which is why we aim to deliver a detailed campaign relevant to the target culture of Japan, educating the target demographic of young people via an interactive digital campaign. Our area of caution, to better prepare this campaign, is to recognise previous mistakes which resulted in cultural imperialism. LBB are acutely aware of how to integrate amongst the Japanese culture and people, to propel the success of this campaign.

Meet the team:

Account Director Emilie Hickling

Account Director Georgia Pitt

Account Executive Ruth Anderson

Account Executive Rosie Beck

Account Officer Aimee Rowe-Best

Account Officer Caitie Parrott



We are a dynamic, enthusiastic, creative team committed to delivering a highly skilled, professional and effective campaign strategy.







The Campaign:

Animate to Educate-Keep Kind in Mind

Technology is the central communication channel for the campaign; we will create a micro-site as the hub for information and resources, in relation to the Sea Shepherds main web site. In support of these websites, social media will play a crucial role. The sites listed below are Japanese social media we will target:

Social Media Site/ Hosted /Users

Mixi Japan 21.6 million

Gree Japan 22.5 million

Mobage-Town Japan 21.7 million

Facebook U.S.A 2 million

Twitter U.S.A 10 million

Nico Nico Douga Japan 18.9 million

Youtube U.S.A 21.7million



• Mixi is a social media platform that allows users to post photographs, share comments and links and has vast forums of discussion.

• Gree is still continually expanding; it differences itself from others by focusing on gaming. By providing a free game platform for mobile phones, which users play using Manga style avatars.

• Mobage-Town offers a similar mix of avatars, games and accessories but it also enables users to earn virtual money by clicking on advertiser’s websites.

• Facebook is not as widely used in Japan, as it is used by 2% of the Japanese online population.

• Twitter has enabled micro-blogging to become a key trend in Japan, partly due to user’s identity not being required.

• Nico Nico Douga is a video hosting website based in Japan, 5.6 million access this via their mobile phones, while the 1.1 million pay a monthly subscription entitling them as a premium user.

• Youtube reaches 35% of Japan’s population.

Competition:

We will launch a competition aimed at educating the target demographic about the value of Dolphins and the hunting that occurs on and offshore in Japan.

A film will be created that will feature one of our campaign ambassadors, filmed in the style of Manga to explain and promote the specifics of the competition. This will be launched as an online viral.

We are inviting young people aged between 16-25, to create a film or animation portraying the issues and opinions surrounding the campaign. These video’s will then be uploaded onto the micro-site and shared using the social media channels. Discussion and opinion sharing can be upon the micro-site forum and on the social media platforms.

The ambassadors of the campaign will select the top twenty films entered into the competition. Thus creating the shortlist of finalists, that the public will then vote on for the first, second and third prizes.

By engaging the target demographic through an interactive campaign, it is designed to generate online conversation and increase search engine optimisation, through its appearance on many differing social media platforms. Also, the continual progression and conversation will generate further supply for media coverage.

Posters will support the competition detailing the micro-site address, campaign information and a first response 2D barcode. The purpose of the barcode is because accessing the internet via mobile phones in Japan is a flourishing market; to capitalise on this trend we will create an accompanying App. By scanning the barcode on the posters, the public will be directed to develop and design their own personalised dolphin. By doing so they must sign the petition, to prevent the hunting of dolphins in Japan.

The second purpose of the App is to host an online swim through. So all the dolphins designed via the App, will form an online community and create the stage for the online stunt. The dolphin avatars will appear across websites, similar to an online protest. People can also click on the swimming dolphins, where they will be directed to the micro-site.

This will not only generate media attention and coverage, but visually symbolise the importance of keeping kind in mind and educating the wider demographics of the campaign aim.

Measurability:

We at LBB recognise the importance of measurable results, so we will provide monthly updates to keep you informed of the campaign progression throughout the campaign. The aim of the brief is to reflect the good qualities of dolphins and raise awareness of the dolphin hunting around Japan. To measure the results we will be issuing surveys at the beginning and at the end of the campaign, which will clearly establish the thoughts that Japanese people have on dolphins and the awareness that they have of the hunts. As you can see the questions are rather broad but give respondents the opportunity to elaborate on their thoughts. This may only be useful towards the end of the campaign when awareness has been raised. Yet the results from the initial survey will give us an idea of where there are gaps in the Japanese public in terms of their knowledge surrounding the issues of dolphin hunting.

We shall also measure how many people use the quick response barcode, how many people go to the micro-site, how many people sign up for the app as well as looking at the number of people that are part of the social networking groups. This shall give us a clear impression of how infectious the campaign was and how effective it was. We will provide specific statistics to illustrate how many people has become a part of the campaign across all the avenues.

All that is left to do now, is print the pitch document, press pack and presentation slides to submit tomorrow.

presentation delivery

To ensure that the presentation flows well and runs smoothly with the best delivery we have decided that Ruth will introduce our group and the brief, Georgia will then continue with the surrounding information about Japan and our research, followed by Cate and Rosie explaining the specifics of the campaign itself. As Emilie and I aren't talking we are compiling the pitch document. Three of these will be printed and put into folders as supporting information for the three on the panel.
We have a final meeting tomorrow, ahead of the presentation on friday-the structure of the meeting will see us working in two sub groups for the presentation and the pitch document.

Our group is also keen to show consideration as to how people learn and engage with presentations. We have worked under the premise that people engage through three modes:

• Auditory
• Visual
• Kinethestic

So we need to consider what our audience is seeing, hearing and how we actively engage them by doing something. The presentation itself will cover what they see and hear, however we will provide pens and paper for them to take notes on or scribble down questions they may wish to ask at the end.
As we are the last group to present, we are also going to give complimentary dolphin shaped sweets, as another method of engaging our audience and perking them up with a sugar hit to ensure maximum attention.
Helium Balloons in the shape of dolphins were also considered, as they were going to visually represent the App idea included in our campaign, but giving each table a different coloured dolphin balloon which at the end we would put together to signify the union of opinions our campiagn hopes to create. The main idea of them was that it would also draw attention by adding movement and dynamics to our pitch for the audience and the panel. However, these balloons have been harder to locate than I previously imagined!

Image of our Dolphin themed sweet bundles.

Sea Shepherd PR brief

Dolphin Awareness

The aim from PR activity:

To increase the education among the youth population in Japan on the value of dolphins as well as the dolphin hunting that happens around Japan. Create an interactive campaign that young people can get involved with and learn from.

About the business:
Established in 1977, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) is an international non-profit, marine wildlife conservation organization. Our mission is to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world's oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species.
Sea Shepherd uses innovative direct-action tactics to investigate, document, and take action when necessary to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas. By safeguarding the biodiversity of our delicately-balanced ocean ecosystems, Sea Shepherd works to ensure their survival for future generations.
http://www.seashepherd.org/

Japan:
Japans relationship with dolphin hunting is steeped in history, in 1600 Taiji sent the first boats out for whale hunting in Japan. But in recent history there has been marked concern about the health implications of consuming dolphin meat. It has been noted that dolphin meat contains high mercury content and this has caused a 50% rise in the death toll, in areas where the meat is consumed on a regular basis.
The implications of the dolphin hunting on the eco-system are notable; dolphins do not spawn as rapidly as fish thus there population is being depleted. It is estimated that every year 20,000 dolphins are hunted in Japan for blubber, meat and fertilizer, there has been strict regulations enforced to help prevent unnecessary killing of the mammals. However there is a lot of the meat left over and despite cutting prices by up to 50% there is a great deal of waste.
The Cove, a documentary filmed in Taiji has caused outrage amongst westerners, yet there is still very little knowledge of the hunting throughout Japan. A year after the release of the film, it was dubbed in Japanese and sent to every house in Taiji in an attempt to raise awareness. This caused some outrage for those who watched it but it was ignored by a significant number of people.

Marketing Activity:
Currently activity from the Sea Shepherds has been to gather information on the fishermen’s activities and ensuring that no international laws are broken.


Target audience:
The audience is broad looking at 16-26 year olds in Japan.


Timescale:
This is a long-term campaign over two years.


Budget:
The budget is £10,000 for the two years

Campaign Ideas

We had a group meeting yesterday, and we worked together on the specifics of the campiagn ideas.
after much deliberation we decided that the campaign must target the younger generations, and the best way to do this is capatalise on Japan's love of technology and use a social media strategy.

So we propose to create a Manga inspired film, which would be shown in Universities, educating students to enter our competition to create an animation/manga/animae short film. This films, would highlight the issues surrounding the killing of Dolphins in Japan and could be shared online as virals.
The idea behind this is that where previous westernised attempts to target the japanese public about the killing of dolphins have failed it is because it has been done so in an agressive and emotional fashion. As the Japanese are very passionate about their culture, this campiagn aims to intergrate with the Japanese people, invite them to contribute and share their opinions making this an interactive viral campaign that does not insult them on mass, or presume they support the killing of dolphins.
We also felt that mobile phones should be included as many Japanese access the internet via their phones more frequently than other sources. 2D barcode scanning is also very popular in Japan, so a poster campaign supporting the competition, would enable the scanned barcode to direct the audience straight to our website.
The contents of this website would be:

• Film submissions
• Film examples
• Tips/Hints on how to create your film
• Posters available to download
• Sign-up to our newsletter
• An educational section about Dolphins
• An educational section about the environment in relation to Dolphins
• Petition
• Dolphin avatar animation

Using mobile phones, or rather smart phones we thought that we could make an App. One that allowed you to create your own dolphin, name it, care for it and allow it to swim free with others. This dolphin, is an animal avatar of it's owner. As well as actively involving the audience in a 'fun' way to learn, love and save the Dolphins. It will also attract other people, and be a talking point around the wider issues of the campaign.
The Dolphin avatars, could swim together  across computer screens throughout Japan-like a protest, but online and removing humans so that dolphins are the key point.

This idea is similar to the Beat Bullying 'The Big March' campaign that allowed the public to create avatars of themselves and walked across 60 websites online-to protest the bullying of young people.

However, issues surrounding using this idea is that in the Beat Bullying campaign, those websites where partnered with the campiagn and gave consent. We would have to further investigate whether Japanese websites would be so willing.

Over all it is important to appraoch this campiagn as if we were Japanese, to assume that they are not supportive of the killing and to treat the masses as ignorant not guily. By asking for their involvement we should provide a creative platform to showcase our beliefs without hostily or cultural imperialism.

It is also important that we include the logo's and information about the umbrella groups fighting to save dolphins, on all the campaign material.

This blog was also quite interesting.
/http://morganvhs5.edublogs.org/2010/10/06/of-interest-to-me-introduction/

http://www.adpunch.org/entry/wwf-uses-guerrilla-marketing-to-save-maui-dolphins/

Japan's Dolphin Economy

As a group, roles were allocated into three teams of two, so we have two research groups and the third is the campaign research and assembly group. These individual research areas have been passed between the groups, so that the presentation is a communal effort.

Georgia and I met last week, to research the brand with specific interest to Dolphins and the work of the Sea Shepherds.

Taiji is a village located in the Higashimuro District, Wakayama, Japan which is recognised as an area where dolphins are chased into a cove and killed with handheld spears knives and iron hooks. The population of this town is estimated at 3,225 with a population density of 541 persons per Km. Taiji is the reported as the smallest local government by area in Wakayama because unlike others it has not experienced a merger since 1889 when the village merged with Moriura. The Village is at the tip of the Kli peninsula South of Kyoto.

However, it is the annual dolphin hunting that has attracted international criticism and awareness of the town on a global scale.

Historically, Taiji is known as a whaling town with traditional Japanese whaling techniques developed here in the 17th century. Revenue is reportedly the commercial hunting of dolphins remains a major source of income for its residents. The people of Taiji have been killing and eating the contents of the sea around their village for generations and reject that dolphins are special and should be considered different from other fish. It is reported that the fisherman, are bewildered that anyone could find the killings of dolphins cruel.

The key point here is that Dolphins are mammals, and a possible campaign idea could be educating the Japanese people of the significance of dolphins to raise awareness and establish this difference. Also, it is the brutal and violent killing of dolphins that has been called to question since the release of the Oscar winning film the cove in 2009. As a result it has raised the awareness of the dolphin hunting in Taiji, and as a result has generated global criticism of the dolphin culling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KRD8e20fBo

Ric O’Barry is an ex U.S Navy diver who went on to train the five dolphins who played flipper in the television series. However, in 1970 turned against animal captivity. He travels to the town a few times a year to film the annual dolphin hunt for a coalition of environmental groups.

He was quoted to say: “Boycotts are completely useless because the Japanese people don’t even know about this. They tends to be a blanket condemnation of the Japanese people and the dolphin hunt is led by just 26 fisherman”

The Japanese government are fiercely protective of their culture and tradition. In relation to efforts to protect the dolphins, have resulted in the Japanese people feeling condemned by western influence, which has led to cultural imperialism.

“We will pass down the history of our ancestors to the next generation, preserve it. We have a strong sense of pride about this,” Mayor Kazutaka Sangen told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview. “So we are not going to change our plans for the town based on the criticism of foreigners.” http://www.japantoday.com/category/commentary/view/taiji-mayor-defends-dolphin-hunts

However, due to international pressure and the raised awareness of the killing of dolphins the government now issues permits so selections of fisherman are allowed by law to do so. Sixty permits are in existence in the whole of Japan and 26 are held in the village of Taiji.

Image of Dolphin meat from Taiji

I also found that the smell of dolphin meat is highly unplesant and they the taste is not favourable amoungst many.


Dolphin meat is sold and eaten in Japan and especially in the village of Taiji, however there are now concerns for the mercury levels contained in the dolphin meat that it passed on into humans. These health concerns have been raised because of Minimata disease, which is a neurological syndrome cause by severe mercury poisoning. In extreme cases, insanity, coma and death follow within weeks on the onset of symptoms. The disease was first discovered in 1956, when a highly toxic chemical bio accumulated in fish, which when consumed by people resulted in mercury poisoning. Cat, dog, pig and human deaths were recorded, with little action from the government. There have been 1,700 human deaths as a result of minimata disease. Other health concerns include; cadmium, the pesticide DDT and contaminants like PCBs. As a result of these health risks, the price of dolphin meat has fallen with the demand.

This story was in the Guardian Newspaper last year- This story was in the Guardian Newspaper last year- http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/09/dolphin-meat-mercury-levels-japan


It is reported in this story that the Taiji town council Chief Katsutoshi Mihara, rejoiced as he dipped raw slices of a striped dolphin into soy sauce.

"This may seem nonchalant, but I have absolutely no concerns, and I want to be able to keep my lifestyle," he said.

This apparent lack of regard for the mercury levels in dolphin meat has to some degree changed on the broader scale of Japan. On August the 1st 2007 elected officials openly condemned the consumption of dolphin meat especially in school lunches on the grounds that it was contaminated with mercury.


Taiji City Assemblymen Junichiro Yamashita and Hisato Ryono broke ranks to condemn the consumption of ‘toxic’ dolphin meat.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fe20070801a1.html

It would appear through this research that Japan as a whole is not aware of the dolphin killing in Taiji, so we cannot presume that they support it. However, the village is know globally recognised and the target for animals rights and environmental campaigners. However, the arguement of the fisherman and villagers of Taiji is that:

• Dolphins are not special, they are viewed as big fish
• The meat is used a revenue for the village
• The killing of dolphins is part of their tradition and history

However:

• The smell is off putting about Dolphin meat and not many like the taste
• mercury posioning has rasied health concerns
• Decreased demand of dolphin meat have reduced sale value
• The town of Taiji's economy does not rest of the income generated by the sale of Dolphin meat, however it does still continue to be sold in local supermarkets