Attracting tourists with regional branding

XPJP Inc. is a company that focuses on strategic planning to attract interest from overseas to develop regional economies in Japan. By partnering with national and local government agencies, XPJP creates overseas marketing and media content and drives the planning and management of all types of promotional content.

“What is important in terms of branding a region is ‘real experience’,” says Mr. Kenichi Watanabe, CEO and Experience Designer of XPJP. Mr. Watanabe is an expert in regional activation and has participated as a regional producer for the Japanese government’s “Cool Japan” initiative to promote cultural and creative industries. When creating videos and other creative content for these campaigns, Mr. Watanabe employed many creators from overseas to capture the unique charm of each region from an outside perspective. He also focused on picking up subtle regional nuances by having creative staff travel to different regions and experience them in person.

Left: Mr. Watanabe Kenichi, CEO and Experience Designer, XPJP Inc.; Right: Mr. Rudy van Os, Director and Editor, XPJP Inc.

Halving time needed to share files

A team of 20 creators from Japan and abroad participated in the production of the tourism video project “Diamond Route Japan – Fukushima, Tochigi, Ibaraki” released in February 2017. The project features five video segments: “Health & Lifestyle,” “Nature,” “Outdoor,” “History,” and “Digest.”

For projects that bring together work from multinational staff, managing the footage was challenging. Previously, XPJP used file transfer and file sharing services to pass files between staff members, but struggled with the time that it took to upload and download footage. To improve its workflow, the company decided to deploy Adobe Creative Cloud for teams.

“For these videos, we filmed and edited approximately 10,000 shots in 70 days,” says Mr. Watanabe. “We accomplished this task by using Adobe Creative Cloud Libraries, which simplified file management. We shortened the time needed to share files by half compared to previous projects.”

Normally, it would be a struggle to produce two video segments in 70 days. According to XPJP, the improved efficiency around file sharing helped to dramatically improve the overall creative workflow to the point that the company not only finished the five video segments, but it also finished an additional four video segments for a separate project.

Leveraging mobile apps on location

Mr. Rudy van Os is a Dutch director and editor who acted as a creative hub during the project. He brought together the work from multiple creators and directed editing on the videos. Using Adobe Premiere Pro, Mr. van Os could smoothly control the overall production.

“Adobe Premiere Pro supports collaboration among creators around the world,” says Mr. van Os. “For example, getting subtitles added to edited footage can be done much faster than before. Using Team Projects in Adobe Premiere Pro, we’re not only supporting greater collaboration, we’re also managing versions for even greater efficiencies.”

Mr. van Os also directed camera operators when they shot footage on location. Using Adobe Lightroom for mobile, Mr. van Os uploaded the footage and edited or processed the shots while sitting in the location bus. The ability to complete work on location also greatly contributed to shorter production times.

Enabling safe data management

The limited processing capabilities of a laptop environment can reduce system stability, but working on Adobe Premiere Pro meant that the team could save projects both locally and to the cloud.

“The project moves quickly every day, but by backing up projects at regular intervals we can achieve more reliable file management,” says Mr. Watanabe. “Previously, we used another cloud service, but we feel much more secure knowing that we’re saving projects to an environment as reliable as Adobe Creative Cloud. We are pleased that we can establish an ideal production environment with just one solution.”

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12.5 million views in two months

Adobe Creative Cloud not only contributed to a shorter production time, but it also helped XPJP create high-quality tourism videos that have resonated deeply with people around the world who are interested in Japan. The client hoped that the videos would achieve 3 million views, but the videos exceeded expectations by reaching 12.5 million views only 2 months after release. They succeeded in showing off the wonders of Fukushima, Touchigi, and Ibaraki Prefectures to people around the world.

“In addition to helping us establish a workstyle that enables us to collaborate across distances, Adobe Creative Cloud lets us empower our creators,” says Mr. Watanabe. “With the continued evolution of devices and networks, we can make anyone a creator. In the future, I would like to share data and beautiful images captured by anyone.”

XPJP plans to make greater use of the diverse functions available through Adobe Creative Cloud for teams to act as a creative engine for bringing the wonders of every area of Japan to the world.

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