Background

Marine plastic waste and discarded or lost fishing nets have had increasingly severe impacts on the global environment and marine life in recent years. Persisting in the oceans for over 500 years, this waste is a major cause of marine pollution and biodiversity loss.

To tackle this problem, a number of fashion brands have developed sustainable fashion items made from recycled marine plastics and other waste materials. The challenge these brands face, however, is a lack of opportunities to interact with their audience to build awareness and understanding. They also need entry points to their e-commerce sites, which are their main sales channels.

Objective

The objective was to create a viral touch point for these under-the-radar sustainable fashion brands in a location where the audience has an intrinsically high affinity with the brands’ items and to leverage the touch point to generate greater awareness of the brands’ initiatives.

Idea

We noticed that the Great Barrier Reef tank at Kaiyukan, Japan’s largest aquariums, was scheduled to be closed temporarily for renovation work. We made use of the empty tank once the fish and water were removed to create a unique media channel in the world’s first aquarium hack.

Strategy

AQUWEARIUM DISPLAY—transforming an empty aquarium tank into a show window! We hacked an aquarium and turned it into a medium to showcase sustainable fashion. The display provided visitors with a chance to learn about the brands and their marine conservation efforts via the items on show. It also served as a sales channel, as visitors could scan QR codes at the exhibit to access and make purchases on the brands’ e-commerce sites.

Results

The AQUWEARIUM DISPLAY was featured in 13 TV programs, nine newspaper articles, and over 300 online articles. The reach of this media exposure was equivalent to an ad spend of about 130 million yen.

Traffic to the brands’ e-commerce sites jumped by 120 percent to 500 percent during the campaign period, helping the brands gain more recognition and reinforcing their call-to-action.