A Drama That Promotes Living Locally — Shimane ga Drama ni Naru Nante!

YOMIKO ADVERTISING’s
Shimane ga Drama ni Naru Nante! team

(From left)Sumida, Yoshino, Nukatsuka, Tanaka

Shimane ga Drama ni Naru Nante! is an adolescent mini-drama series in which three high school boys born and raised in Shimane meet Kyoko Higashi, a transfer student who has no hometown, prompting the boys to re-experience their hometown of Shimane in a new light. YOMIKO ADVERTISING planned and produced the program in collaboration with partner companies, a local TV station, and a local newspaper publisher. This project takes the novel approach of using local media companies and a drama series to improve the image of a region and encourage young people to rediscover its attractiveness. The series had a high viewer rating, reaching 19.1% at its peak in the Sanin region.
Of Japan’s prefectures, Shimane has the second-smallest population. In addition to the same declining birthrate and aging population being experienced by Japan as a whole, Shimane Prefecture faces an outflux of young people. Many leave Shimane Prefecture to attend university or start working, and once they leave, they find it difficult to return.
The challenge was to raise the low level of esteem in which Shimane residents held their home prefecture. The next goal was to make middle and high school students in particular aware of the benefits of living in Shimane Prefecture and eventually returning to it, so that they would actively consider living there.

(1)

The series depicts characters with different feelings about their career paths and hometowns. These differences are designed to foster emotional engagement with a range of junior and senior high school students.
(2)

The heroine is a transfer student from Tokyo. Because of her parents’ job transfers, she has no hometown. The series is designed to prompt viewers to notice Shimane’s charms as seen from an urban perspective.
(3)

The series incorporates a number of shimaneta, or motifs that only Shimane insiders will understand. It references a number of movies and song titles incorporating well-known local motifs, such as You’re More Beautiful Than Barapan (a local bread confection), Kisuki Right Now (about a local brand of milk), and The Monster of Iwami Kagura (a song and dance ritual). As a result, the series dramatizes the ordinary life of the local community and makes everyday life in Shimane seem heroic.
(4)

Each episode is only five minutes long, making the series accessible and easy to watch and understand.

To increase local residents’ esteem for their community, the main characters in the series highlight features of everyday life that many prefectural residents take for granted, turning them into the focus of entertainment.
To cultivate esteem for the prefecture among Shimane residents, particularly junior and high school students, we kept in mind the four points outlined above as we planned and developed the series.
To create a buzz, we sought to maximize the ability of the local media companies to communicate and use the power of digital media to reach young people. As a result, the show’s recognition rate among high school students in the prefecture exceeded 85%.
This media strategy was designed while keeping the following four points in mind.

Generate excitement before the drama begins

We focused the messaging on Shimane residents through the Sanin Chuo Shimpo (a newspaper read by more than 70% of the prefecture’s residents), TSK (a TV station that broadcasts dramas), and social media platforms Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram.
Provide reminders on the morning the drama airs

Sanin Chuo Shimpo used each episode’s shimaneta as a hook to encourage people to watch the drama.
Create an easy viewing environment

Episodes were available on “golden time” TV (19:00 to 22:00) and on the internet, making content immediately accessible for junior and senior high school students.
Run review ads the day after the drama airs

We placed advertorials promoting the attractions of Shimane in the Sanin Chuo Shimpo the morning after each episode aired. This approach provided a space where viewers could reflect on the drama’s content and easily understand Shimane’s positive features.

In a survey of high school students in Shimane Prefecture, more than half of respondents who watched the drama (54.7%) said it made them fall in love with Shimane. Their responses suggested that the drama helped them discover local attractions and encouraged them to settle in the area.
We received plenty of feedback on the drama, much of which reflected our target messages, such as that the landscapes that feel ordinary to residents are not necessarily the norm for others, and that it is nice to have a place you can go home to.
Due to the positive response in 2021, a sequel is in the works for 2022. We hope this drama will help many people to see Shimane with new eyes.

Sumida This was a two-year challenge from the Shimane prefectural government. In the previous round of proposals, we competed against Sanin Chuo Shimpo and San-in Chuo Television Broadcasting, and all three of us were eliminated from the competition. This time, we banded together and were determined that our unusual tag-team consortium would win. Although it took some time to define our individual roles, this division of labor was clearly a major factor in helping us win the pitch. This initiative reaffirmed that ties with local media are extremely important.
Nukatsuka The goal of the project was to make the local residents think of Shimane as their irreplaceable home. This felt different from my usual work responsibilities, which center on getting people to like a corporate brand. The opportunity to work together with the local people throughout the entire project was a valuable experience.
Yoshino The client and the production team were in alignment on the project’s aims. As a result, the drama evolved as valuable content in itself rather just being a publicity-oriented piece. The series maintained high viewer ratings for all episodes. We formed a strong local consortium, bringing together drama production capabilities and eliciting cooperation from newspapers, high schools, and other organizations throughout the prefecture to make this project a success.
Tanaka This was an interesting project with a different character from regular advertising promotions. The promotional concepts gained a personality over time, transforming themselves more coherently into story lines.
Higo This was a valuable experience for me because I rarely think about my hometown’s attractiveness other than from the perspective of tourist attractions and amenities. People from the prefecture were very motivated to participate in the project, which brought home to me once again the positives of Shimane.
Koike As soon as the decision was made to create this Shimane drama, we got to work introducing digital devices, such as a call for extras and a Shimane drama test. The project was exciting from start to finish. I think the prefectural government’s decisiveness was key to our ability to make the drama a reality.