Mitsubishi Motors Canada
A Century in the Making

The Challenge

In 2017, Mitsubishi was celebrating their 100th anniversary globally. The brand wanted to use this milestone as a means to galvanize its dealers and potential customers. It wanted 2017 to be its biggest sales year, setting an aggressive annual target of 21,786 units.

Now, a 100th birthday party sounds like a big deal except that, in 2017, Canada was awash in anniversaries. It was Canada’s 150th and every big Canadian brand in the country was doing some sort of anniversary message and activation. Further, Quebecers were celebrating their 350th birthday. But at least these companies had Canadians and Quebecers' shared passion for their country and province to mine in their marketing efforts. In Mitsubishi’s case, it was a Japanese brand who had barely been in Canada more than a decade and a half. Which made the challenge difficult: how do you get people excited about a birthday party for someone you barely even know?

The Insight

When people understand and appreciate a brand’s track record, their odds of consideration increase. The creative agency wanted to use the 100th anniversary to get people to understand Mitsubishi in a way that hadn’t been considered before; one that would give them a greater appreciation of the brand’s history and values.

In doing some research for how to make the 100th anniversary campaign more than just some version of the “Deals like this happen only once every 100 years!” message, the agency discovered that Japan has the highest per capita number of centenarians (100 year olds) of any country in the world. Which is interesting on its own, but the really interesting thing is “why” they live so long. They adhere to the philosophy of Kaizen – continuous improvement – and even though they are over 100 years of age, they still get up every morning and try to get better at their chosen craft. Much like Mitsubishi itself that also abides by the philosophy of kaizen – as proven by their rich but largely unknown history of firsts in automotive manufacturing.

This would be the brand’s way in: the team would tell the story of Mitsubishi by mirroring it with the deeply personal and moving stories of these 100 year-old Japanese citizens themselves.

The One-line Idea

A Century in the Making – the history of Mitsubishi as told by 4 Japanese centenarians who live by the same ethos of “kaizen”.

The Plan

The agency found four 100-year-old (and older) Japanese people living in Japan and told their stories by making a documentary about them along with an interactive digital experience that wove Mitsubishi’s story into it. They were a painter, a baker, a photojournalist and a martial arts master. The interactive film showcased each individual’s story and drew parallels between their personal philosophies and Mitsubishi’s. The documentary was housed on a microsite (mm100.ca), where each centenarian’s story was brought to life and woven together seamlessly with Mitsubishi’s 100-year story. It included many Mitsubishi “Firsts” (eg. the first mass produced passenger car in Japan, the world’s first vehicle with electronically controlled suspension, and the first 4WD plug-in hybrid SUV, etc.) which were highlighted within the experience as examples of the brand’s unrelenting push for innovation. Cut downs of the film were used on TV, Facebook, and Instagram to drive users to the microsite to view the complete film.

The Results

In the car category, the only number that really matters is sales. “A Century in the Making” helped achieve 104% of its most ambitious sales plan - selling 22,786 vehicles. Consideration for the brand jumped from 18% to 25%. And almost one in foyr of those aware of Mitsubishi indicated they are ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ willing to consider the brand. The campaign resulted in lifts for Unaided Awareness (up 2% YOY). Familiarity for the brand was up 1% YOY while many Asian brands (notably, Mazda and Subaru) have experienced noticeable declines. The microsite achieved over 100,000 visits in the first five months, despite a limited media budget. As evidence of the more engaging web experience, visitors to the site were 40% more likely to use the Build and Price tool on the corporate website than users who had not viewed the film. The film was also shown at Mitsubishi’s Annual GM Meeting in Japan – a first for a Canadian-born piece of work. Further, it was nominated for a 2018 Webby which acknowledges the “best of the web” in the last year.