The Challenge

Japan is a unique country with loads to offer the visitor. However, Japan has lost its edge in competitiveness to other countries in the region (e.g. S. Korea). Tokyo based advertising agency ADK wanted to showcase an exhibition to show that Japan still retains its power to fascinate the world with its unique, endearing cultural exports.

Semiotic Role

Creative Semiotics worked with Crowdsourcing agency, eYeka to work bring order to complexity. Semiotic analysts sifted and sorted through 120 crowdsourced entries to identify thematic areas and to justify a selection of the most compelling expressions.

Outcomes

The semiotics helped pulled out a thematic analysis including the salient areas: CRAFTSMANSHIP, NATURE, CUSTOMS that other countries cannot emulate. The overall project led to thinking around Japanese revival that helped to inspire the LDP ‘Recover Japan’ campaign that won the 2012 Japanese elections.