The archive · Public & Social · Marketing decision · 2018–2019
Kobayashi City opens a real 'Department of SimCity BuildIt' run by high-school students
A shrinking Japanese city founds a real 'Department of SimCity BuildIt'; students plan its future in-game and several ideas become official.
Kobayashi City (Miyazaki Prefecture) · Electronic Arts · Dentsu Inc.
What it had to solve
Kobayashi, a provincial city in Miyazaki Prefecture, is among almost 900 Japanese communities flagged as at risk of disappearing: its 20–39 population is projected to shrink by about 30% for men and 50% for women by 2040. City hall wanted a way to make its young people care about the town's future.
How it works
Kobayashi in Miyazaki Prefecture is one of almost 900 Japanese communities that a government subcommittee identified as at risk of disappearing. Its residents aged 20–39 are projected to fall by about 30% for men and 50% for women by 2040 as young people move away for work, and shrinking towns also struggle to recruit the city officials who will plan their future.
To make community planning something young people would engage with, Electronic Arts, Dentsu and Kobayashi City created the Kobayashi City Department of SimCity BuildIt. Approved by the mayor, the virtual department united about 30 students from Kobayashi Shuho High School with roughly 20 seconded city officials. From September to December 2018 the students led 12 workshops, using an in-game replica of the city's actual layout as the canvas for an ideal future Kobayashi.
At the closing city meeting, students presented their proposals to the mayor, officials and residents. Several ideas received official approval, with a crowdfunding campaign launched in spring 2019 to implement them. The project drew coverage from national media such as the Asahi Shimbun, prompted other local authorities to explore similar initiatives, lifted SimCity BuildIt downloads to 375% of pre-campaign levels, and took the 2019 IPRA Golden World Awards Grand Prix.
Why it lands
- The game was the engagement strategy: building on research that about 70% of Japanese high-school students play smartphone games, town planning became something students already knew how to do.
- Real institutional standing — an actual municipal department with badges, business cards and city-official colleagues — made the students' work consequential rather than a classroom exercise.
- A hard deadline and a real audience: 12 workshops ending in a city meeting forced ideas to become proposals, several of which were officially adopted.
- Every party gained: the city got civic engagement, Electronic Arts' 'Inspire the World to Play' mission got a demonstrable outcome, and SimCity BuildIt downloads rose to 375% of baseline.
What it did
Several student proposals were officially approved and a crowdfunding campaign launched in spring 2019 to fund them. SimCity BuildIt downloads rose to 375% of pre-campaign levels, other towns explored copying the idea, and the campaign won the 2019 IPRA Golden World Awards Grand Prix.
What you can take
Give people a medium they already love instead of documents they dread: when a town's future becomes playable, residents can try, argue over and own the plans.
Since then
In 2019 the project received the Grand Prix at the IPRA Golden World Awards in Yerevan, with Dentsu PR's president accepting the honour. The ideas approved by Kobayashi moved toward implementation, beginning with a crowdfunding campaign in spring 2019, and Japanese media including the Asahi Shimbun reported the initiative. Officials in other prefectures began looking at similar schemes, making the campaign an early reference for using consumer games in regional revitalization and an example of purpose-driven CSR for a game publisher.
Sources
- Kobayashi City Department of SimCity BuildIt — work case study
- Dentsu's app-based urban renewal campaign takes the Grand Prix at the 2019 IPRA Golden World Awards
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