Sales surpass 70,000 units. Charity Pinky Ring, The reason behind its hit status

Have you heard of the Charity Pinky Ring?

The Charity Pinky Ring is a pinky ring created to raise awareness among many girls about the realities faced by girls in developing countries. For every ring purchased at 350 yen, 100 yen is donated to support girls worldwide.
The design features one color for yourself and another for girls around the world, embodying the wish: "May all girls in the world be happy."
Since its launch about two years ago, this ring has sold over 70,000 units, breaking sales records.
It's a hit product that all the wonderful girls out there should already know about!

How did this charity pinky ring come to be?
It actually began as a self-initiated project, launched from scratch with an initial budget of just a few hundred thousand yen.

You might think this project was born out of a kind desire like, "We want to empower girls around the world! We want to do something social!"
You might think this project was born from such kind feelings, but actually, it was the complete opposite.
Honestly, back then, I was a typical 20-something girl who thought, "Social causes? Charity? Ugh, that's not really my thing."
Girls are busy. With love, fashion, dreams—basically, they're completely absorbed in themselves. Just thinking about happiness within a five-meter radius is all they can manage. They often hear about sad things happening somewhere in the world, but it feels like such a distant event that they can't muster much interest. I was sure many girls felt that way.
But what if we could get the attention of that vast majority of girls? That would be incredible power!
So, who should be the core target to capture the attention of so many girls?
Not the serious class president, but the most fashionable, trend-obsessed girl in class—the gal!
What kind of charity would really resonate with gals?

Gals × Charity!
This unlikely pairing feels like it could unleash incredible power.
This project started based on that intuition.

The most important thing we focused on in this project.
Above all, it had to be cute!
Above all, it's affordable!
Cheap × Cute—these two combined, it's bound to be a hit.
Guided by this rule, we threw ourselves into making rings.
From launch to now, how many times have we exchanged "So freaking cute! So freaking cute!" conversations within the team? To older guys, we might seem like shallow girls with limited vocab, but this constant "So freaking cute!" is the very heart of the project.

Three members of Gal Lab launched this idea:
Art Director Rei Mano, Copywriter Ikumi Togasaki, and Aise Ogawa. Just three ordinary women in their twenties at the time.
Our partners and full supporters for this project were the members of the international cooperation NGO JOICFP.
We'll introduce the activities of this "Girl Meets Girl Project," started by Dentsu Inc. Gal Lab × JOICFP, in a series of three columns.
Starting with the charity pinky ring, we traveled to Tanzania, met girls around the world, reflected on Japanese girls, and ultimately published the book "World Girls White Paper."
The passionate stories too big to fit here continue next time!

GIRL meets GIRL Project:
http://gmgpj.com/index.html

 

Charity Pinky Ring:
http://gmgpj.com/action/index.html