Shop Japan's Brand Mascot

Wow Kun

Face to the Brand

Wow-kun and his family and friends were created for Shop Japan.

As a brand operates on multiple channels and a variety of different medias, communicating its message to wide demographics in a consistent and compelling manner becomes a big challenge. That was certainly the case with Shop Japan.

Creating a brand mascot, although it is a big undertaking, is often a perfect solution. A mascot is like a logo which symbolizes the brand. The only difference is that it speaks, moves, and has expression. A brand mascot becomes a storyteller. It personifies the brand and creates interpersonal relationships between consumers and the brand.

Based on the Shop Japan brand vision, mission, and values, we have created a strategy and invited character designers to participate in an international competition. Through an intense evaluation process, a character and story created by a renowned character designer, Mr. Hiroshi Yoshii, was selected and was named Wow-Kun.

We defined each character's personality and created a story. Then we created opening animations, sculptures, mascot costumes, calendars, and web contents, such as a cartoon series.