Sky Comic pushes Japan's soccer team

The Sky Comic project was a creation of 13 massive 300m² individual comic strip panels painted by national team supporters from all over Japan, featuring footballing heroes. It spanned 13 cities over five weeks. The individual panels were photographed from the sky, using balloons, and uploaded to a microsite where the entire story comes together. The website includes behind-the-scenes videos of children painting as well as photos of the teamwork that went into the project.

Fans who couldn't be at the event participated by sending messages from their PCs, mobile phones, and Twitter, which were included in the website's word balloon feed to become part of the comic. The final pieces of 13 massive comic frames were driven to Tokyo on 25 May where it was assembled as an inspirational send-off for the team as they departed Haneda airport for South Africa.

Marketing campaigns often receive accolades and awards, but it isn't often that they set a world record in the process, and operate on a local and national scale. The best part of this project was that it engaged children with the FIFA world cup.

Approximately 13 000 school-aged supporters participated in the Sky Comic event. Digitally, over 50 000 people were involved in the project, which generated over US$6 600 000 worth of earned media with zero investments in paid media