The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2022–2025
Hajime Kensetsu tells a story using only its own name — ADFEST 2025 double Gold
Dentsu East Japan splits a housebuilder's name into three characters — Hajime, Ken, Setsu — whose only dialogue is the brand name itself.
Hajime Kensetsu (一建設)
What it had to solve
Hajime Kensetsu, a Japanese housebuilder that sells through brokers, needed brand recognition so brokers could market its homes — but Japan's standard fix, repeating the company name in short commercials, was the most disliked ad format in surveys, and rivals all used the same tactic.
How it works
Hajime Kensetsu sells detached homes through brokers, so its marketing job is less about products than about making the company name familiar enough that brokers can sell it. In Japan the standard tool for that job is short commercials that repeat the company name — a format that surveys ranked as the most disliked advertising, one that some video media refused to carry.
Dentsu East Japan's answer was to read the company name as a cast list. 'Hajime' and 'Ken' are common Japanese men's names and 'Setsu' a common women's name, so the agency built the story of three characters whose only lines are their own names — 'Hajime!', 'Ken!', 'Setsu!' — in five-second web episodes drawn by Captain Tsubasa creator Yoichi Takahashi. Viewers who stayed for the story were, in effect, repeating the brand name the whole time.
The format kept evolving: in year two, all 12 episodes were stitched into 90 seconds of train-channel TV timed to the average ride between JR Chuo and Sobu stations, letting commuters 'binge-watch' between stops; in year three the story turned into a time-travel battle fantasy with an original game. The campaign grew its hashtag impressions each year — about 14 million, 20.3 million, then 33.36 million — and raised name recognition from 31.1% to 42.9% between 2022 and 2024, winning two Golds at ADFEST 2025.
Why it lands
- It converted a hated ad convention — repeating the company name — into a story people wanted to watch, so the repetition did the branding without the annoyance.
- The name itself supplied the creative premise: three common Japanese first names hidden inside 'Hajime Kensetsu' meant the brand, the cast and the dialogue were the same asset.
- The five-second episode format respected how the 20–30 target actually watches video (often at double speed) while guaranteeing the name stayed on screen.
- Each year's media stunt — World Cup streaming, between-station binge TV, a brand game — kept a simple mechanism fresh as a long-term brand property.
What it did
The hashtag #HajimetoKentoSetsu drew 33.36 million impressions in one month; brand recognition rose from 31.1% (March 2022) to 42.9% (March 2024), and the campaign won Creative Strategy and Effective Golds at ADFEST 2025.
What you can take
When the standard ad format is hated, don't abandon the job — make the hated mechanism itself the entertainment; repetition sticks when it becomes a story people want to keep watching.
Since then
The series became a strategic brand asset rather than a one-off campaign: Hajime Kensetsu's official X account gained six times as many followers since launch, the work was featured twice on Japan's Kokoku Taisho TV program, and a fourth year (2025) took the story to cinemas as a 90-second 'spatial media' experiment with posters and flyers. At ADFEST 2025 the campaign won Gold in both Creative Strategy (Gutsy Strategy) and Effective (Long-Term Creativity), and the client said it planned to continue the franchise beyond 2025.
Sources
- HAJIME, KEN AND SETSU — Creative Strategy Lotus (Gutsy Strategy) Gold
- HAJIME, KEN AND SETSU — Effective Lotus (Long-Term Creativity) Gold
- ハジメとケンとセツ (case study)
- Web Movie「ハジメとケンとセツ」がADFEST 2025の2部門でゴールドを受賞
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