Breaking Free from "Skippable Ads": Calpis Water®'s "After-School 10-Minute Drama"

Dentsu Inc.'s cross-functional creative organization, the Future Creative Center (FCC), is a group of over 70 members supporting future-building initiatives with creativity beyond advertising. In this series, FCC members discuss their upcoming projects under the theme "Future × Creativity."

In today's world where approaches to the digital native generation are being questioned, the demand is growing for "branded content" that targets will want to see themselves, rather than ads that get skipped.

※＝Branded Content
Content that conveys or spreads a brand's message without appearing as traditional advertising.

Asahi Beverage's long-selling product, Calpis Water®, has been running the youth-targeted project "After School Calpis®" since 2020. To realize the 2021 edition's theme, "Encouraging the 'unrequited love' of high school students across Japan," they took on the challenge of creating a full-fledged web drama. They produced the 10-minute after-school drama series "All Love Seems to Start with Unrequited Love" (nicknamed: Koi Poi), totaling 13 episodes.

Total views exceeded 5 million, with enthusiastic comments pouring in from viewers like "A drama you get more hooked on with every watch" and "Unbelievable content and foreshadowing for just 10 minutes!" In a post-project survey, it ranked #1 in brand image recall for "youth beverage brands," successfully enhancing brand image through branded content.

This time, we welcomed Masatoshi Kobayashi from Asahi Beverage's Advertising Department and director Kana Matsumoto as guests. Together with Shinichiro Uewaki from Dentsu Inc. FCC, who participated as a planner for this project, they reflected on the project's objectives and production process.

 

Deriving the optimal solution from "real high school students' voices" and "thorough analysis of past hits"

Kuwaki: The "After-School 10-Minute Drama" project was born as part of the "After-School Calpis®" initiative for high school students, which we've been running since 2020. First, could you remind us of the background and objectives behind this project?

Kobayashi: Calpis Water® reached a milestone in 2021, celebrating its 30th anniversary since launch. While it's a brand beloved by many, we wanted people to feel its uniquely sweet-and-sour deliciousness and refreshing sensation more intimately, encouraging them to enjoy it in various everyday moments. One initiative to achieve this was "After-School Calpis®," targeted at high school students and teens.

Uwakawa: That's right. By using "youth" – a theme highly compatible with the Calpis Water® brand image – as our angle, we planned various content to make after-school time more enjoyable and successfully enhanced the brand image among younger consumers.

Kobayashi: On the other hand, the theme of "youth" is very broad and frequently used in campaigns by other brands. We decided to take a sharper angle next, and that's when you proposed "unrequited love."

Uwakawa: Indeed, "unrequited love" is a theme Calpis Water® has depicted in TV commercials for many years. Crucially, the pure feelings and bittersweet nature inherent in unrequited love perfectly embody the brand's image. We believed that supporting high schoolers' unrequited love would create a unique persuasiveness only Calpis Water® could deliver.

Kobayashi: I thought it was an excellent concept—a theme likely to interest many high schoolers while fully leveraging the assets built by the Calpis® brand.

Uwakawa: One challenge in this project was incorporating actual high school students' voices into the content, right? We conducted repeated interviews from the planning stage, referencing opinions like "they're used to short videos" and "they prefer YouTube over Instagram for watching videos." That led us to the format of a "10-minute YouTube drama per episode."

Kobayashi: Yes, we didn't just gather insights on video consumption habits. We also listened to their everyday high school lives and common experiences with unrequited love, reflecting the reality of high schoolers in the story and detailed settings.

Uwakawa: Alongside gathering authentic voices, we thoroughly analyzed past hit web dramas to extract points that resonate with high schoolers and applied them to story creation. For example, creating a bright, pop aesthetic for optimal smartphone viewing, designing uniquely relatable characters so viewers can connect with at least one, and making each episode's theme a relatable, everyday struggle for them – these points were derived from that analysis.

How to hook viewers with "10-minute episodes"

Uwakawa: Since Kobayashi and I shared the goal of "creating a serious drama that resonates with high schoolers," we wanted professionals from the drama and film industry for the script, direction, and production company. Among them, Director Matsumoto was discussed from the very early planning stages. He has a proven track record with numerous hit works, and being young, we thought he would likely have a close affinity with the sensibilities of high schoolers. Director Matsumoto, what were your impressions when you received the offer?

Matsumoto: The proposal sent to me was over 100 pages long (!). It was a proposal full of passion, with the intent and concept explained very carefully. I remember feeling excited, thinking we could create a web drama unlike anything before.

Uewaki: Was it difficult to structure the story within the short 10-minute runtime per episode?

Matsumoto: At first, I was worried about how much we could express in just 10 minutes. But then I realized that 10 minutes × 13 episodes adds up to over two hours of content, so there were plenty of creative possibilities. That said, we had to craft something compelling at the end of each 10-minute episode to make viewers want to see the next one—that was a new challenge.

Uewaki: Including a preview for the next episode at the end of each one was Director Matsumoto's idea, right? It became an excellent structure that makes you want to see more. Of course, each individual episode's story is also meticulously crafted, so you get hooked more and more as you watch.

Kobayashi: YouTube videos are a medium where viewers are prone to drop off early, but I thought the opening—with its colorful world of sticky notes plastered all over the wall—was a clever visual hook to draw them in.

Matsumoto: As you mentioned earlier, we wanted the opening to embody that "bright, pop aesthetic." While unrequited love is the theme, we made a conscious effort to keep the entire series from feeling dark.

Uwakawa: From the brand's perspective, what points did you consciously focus on during content creation?

Kobayashi: We constantly reminded ourselves: "This must not become corporate self-indulgence." While it's a web drama for Calpis Water®, creating content that resonates with high schoolers was paramount. We repeatedly exchanged opinions to ensure it didn't feel like an ad or impose adult messages on them.

Matsumoto: There aren't many scenes where the product actually appears, and even when it does, it's filmed in a way that doesn't draw too much attention. I was actually worried, thinking, "Is this really okay?" (laughs).
Thanks to that approach, we were able to focus purely on creating the drama.

Kobayashi: But I felt the script was very cleverly crafted, with keywords subtly woven into the dialogue.

Branded content is becoming a new way to use YouTube

Uewaki: After streaming began, was there a moment when you felt it was really taking off?

Kobayashi: I checked the comments and social media reactions almost daily—my life was practically consumed by "Koi-poi" (laughs). But as episodes aired, comments kept growing. We got so many messages showing empathy for the characters and cheering them on—it made me incredibly happy.

Kuwaki: We even got comments like "It feels way longer than 10 minutes," "It made me want to cherish the rest of my high school life," and even a lovely one saying, "It was bittersweet and made me crave Calpis®."

Matsumoto: It was also great that viewers found something to relate to in each of the six distinct characters.

Uwakawa: The diversity in the story—depicting six distinct one-sided loves, including the finale's conclusion—might be what resonates so strongly with today's high schoolers. In fact, the YouTube high-rating rate hit about 99%, an incredibly high number.

Kobayashi: Data also shows that purchase intent increased among those who engaged with the content. I was honestly surprised—'You can create that kind of impact without it being an ad?'

Kuwaki: This was thanks to the bold decision to create branded content rather than traditional ads. YouTube's business model itself is evolving, and with ads increasingly being skipped or cut, I believe this initiative—creating something people actively want to watch—was a timely challenge. Furthermore, I feel a strong sense of accomplishment from collaborating beyond the advertising industry framework, co-creating with professionals from drama and film to take on this new challenge.

Kobayashi: The ad delivery for the videos we produced this time also achieved an average view rate of 50-60%, reaching 65% for the premiere. That's an astonishing figure, right? It's an ad that interrupts the video content users originally intended to watch, and it's a long-form piece at 10 minutes. Yet, the fact that 60% of viewers watched it without skipping is truly a testament to the power of the content itself.

Uwakawa: For casting this time, we also featured up-and-coming talents poised for the next big break. The cast was deeply invested in this drama, actively sharing their experiences with Koi-Poi on their social media. As a result, I believe many viewers were drawn not just by famous actors, but because they loved the drama's world, or felt a connection to the characters and story. That's precisely why I think it became a drama that truly conveyed our brand message: "We want to support the pure, bittersweet feelings of high schoolers." Without the challenging spirit of the Asahi Beverage team, led by Kobayashi-san, this would never have been possible. And it wouldn't have been the project it is without the outstanding creativity of the production team, led by Director Matsumoto.

Matsumoto: The production period was quite short, but it was an intensely packed time. I'm really looking forward to Koi-poi Season 2 (laughs).

Uewaki: While looking forward to a sequel (laughs), I sincerely hope we can continue working together in the future!