The archive · Marketing & Growth · Marketing decision · 2015–2016
SUUMO moves hermit crabs into custom cocoon homes — two ADFEST 2016 Grandes
Japan's biggest property portal builds organic cocoon shells for shell-hungry hermit crabs, films the move-in, and wins two ADFEST 2016 Grandes.
SUUMO (Recruit Sumai Company Ltd.) · Hakuhodo Kettle Inc.
What it had to solve
SUUMO, Japan's largest real-estate and housing site, needed to make 'we find you the right home' tangible. The most extreme version of that promise: hermit crabs, lifelong home-seekers whose seashell supply is running short — some even live in plastic bottle caps.
How it works
SUUMO, Japan's biggest real-estate information service, built its brand on finding people the right home. In 2015 it took that promise to the most demanding customer it could imagine: the hermit crab, which spends its whole life seeking better shells and is facing a real shortage as seashells disappear — some crabs end up living in plastic bottle caps.
With the Zōshoku Seitai research lab of Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, the SUUMO team studied what land hermit crabs actually need, then designed a new kind of home: a cocoon-shaped shell with a roomier interior and lighter weight, formed from organic material based on potato starch so it would not harm the environment.
On a beach in Okinawa, the team placed the new shells and filmed the move-in: crabs inspecting, comparing and swapping into the cocoon homes. The 327-second web film 'Shell We Move?' launched on September 30, 2015 — and the aftercare mattered: once filming ended, the crabs moved back into natural shells.
The campaign won the Grande Direct Lotus for Field Marketing and the Grande Outdoor Lotus at ADFEST 2016, plus the festival's INNOVA Lotus for innovative ideas and a Media Gold, and it earned a place in the D&AD awards archive. For agencies it became a favorite example of making the product promise itself the entertainment.
Why it lands
- The customer metaphor was exact: hermit crabs genuinely search for better homes their whole lives, so SUUMO's expertise and the crabs' behavior told the same story.
- It was real: actual research with marine scientists, actual shells designed and tested, actual move-ins — nothing to debunk.
- The deliverable was a shareable film, so a niche ecological project became mass content.
- Care for the subjects — organic material and returning the crabs to natural shells after filming — kept the stunt ethical and the story clean.
What it did
Won the ADFEST 2016 Grande Direct Lotus for Field Marketing, the Grande Outdoor Lotus, the festival's INNOVA Lotus and a Media Gold, plus an entry in the D&AD awards archive — and the film became a globally cited example of a brand stunt that proves the promise.
What you can take
A brand promise can be proven instead of claimed: giving the hardest customer in the world a better home made SUUMO's 'we'll find your house' visible, shareable and true — the stunt itself was the ad.
Since then
The campaign carried through the 2016 award season: two Grande Lotuses and the INNOVA Lotus at ADFEST, plus an entry in the D&AD archive, and coverage in marketing press from The Drum to We Are Social. The project was explicitly experimental — the crabs returned to natural shells after filming — which let a stunt about moving house end as an ecological story rather than a controversy.
Sources
- 『SUUMO』 presents 「ヤドカリ」引越しプロジェクト WEB動画「Shell We Move？」を9月30日（水）より公開！
- Hakuhodo Group awarded 3 Grande Lotuses at ADFEST 2016
- D&AD Awards Archive: Shell We Move?
- SUUMO「Shell We Move？」 official web film
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