No Money, but Love (Yubari Fusai)
Yubari Resort / City of Yubari2007
No Money, but Love (Yubari Fusai) is a 2007 place-branding and PR campaign for Yubari Resort / City of Yubari, created by Beacon Communications, Tokyo.
The line
No money, but love
Why it works
Yubari, a former coal-mining city in Hokkaido, had gone broke with around $353 million of debt when Beacon Communications offered it a cheerfully self-mocking rescue. In September 2007 the agency and the local resort operator unveiled Yubari Fusai, a cartoon married couple whose name puns on the Japanese words for “debt” and “spouse”, with the motto “no money, but love”. Built on the claim that Yubari had Japan's lowest divorce rate, the campaign recast the city as a home for happy couples: the end-of-the-line station was billed as love's first stop, couples received official certificates and thousands came to renew their vows. It is studied as small-budget place branding that owned an embarrassing truth instead of hiding it. The entry reported a 10% yearly rise in visitors and more than $30 million in new revenue for the city. In 2009 the Cannes Promo jury voted it the Grand Prix unanimously, and it also took a PR Lion.
Techniques
- Card stacking Owns the city's bankruptcy instead of hiding it, recasting a lack of money as an abundance of love and promoting its low divorce rate.
- Humour Uses cheerful self-mockery, including a cartoon couple whose name puns on the Japanese words for debt and spouse.
- Mascots and characters Fronts the campaign with a cartoon married couple who personify the city's new image as a home for happy couples.
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