About 3,000 People Came to Susukino’s Dining District! A System That Turns Community Contribution into a Great Game
The Sapporo Litter Discovery Quest was an event with the goal "Clean the sea, starting from the streets of Sapporo!" People picked up litter, earned coins, and used them for deals at local restaurants. It took place from September 1 to 30 in the area from Sapporo Station to Susukino. Over one month, a total of 2,934 people took part and 11,086 pieces of litter were collected.
We interviewed Shinya Suzuki, CEO of es Entertainment. He told us what made the Sapporo Litter Discovery Quest, an event using the Pirika App, such a big success, why so many people got hooked on litter picking, and about his idea of "turning community contribution into a great game."
Shinya Suzuki, CEO of es Entertainment
Contents
- "Sapporo Quest": helping restaurants recover from COVID-19
- Bringing in customers with thanks for litter picking, not discounts
- Enjoying litter picking as a game brought more people in
- Game elements kept people picking up litter for three hours
- Turning good deeds into quests and linking them into an RPG for the community
- A passionate litter-picking community and history found only in Pirika
1. "Sapporo Quest": helping restaurants recover from COVID-19
Please tell us about your company and "Sapporo Quest."
For 16 years, es Entertainment has run restaurants for banquets, after-parties and other parties.
Our restaurants are in Susukino. During COVID-19, running a business based mainly on restaurants became hard, so two years ago we started some other businesses too.
COVID-19 was also the reason we started Sapporo Quest.
During the pandemic, banquets disappeared. Even now that things have calmed down, people have got used to ordering delivery and watching streaming movies at home. So fewer customers come to Susukino.
So two years ago we started Sapporo Quest as a way to bring customers back to Susukino.
In Sapporo Quest, people complete missions such as puzzles in Susukino and win prize money. We aimed to help restaurants across the area recover through the joy of coming to Susukino and the fun of eating good food.
The Sapporo Quest website
What ideas have you put into Sapporo Quest?
To get people to come to Sapporo and Susukino, we think we need an element of play, not just "come because it's cheap." We focus on game elements like those in Pokémon GO and Dragon Quest Walk.
No matter how much you play these games, they do not change your life. But people get hooked on watching numbers, like step counts, go up.
We wondered if we could use this in a way that is good for both restaurants and the environment, and that led us to litter picking.
2. Bringing in customers with thanks for litter picking, not discounts
How did you come up with the idea of litter picking for Sapporo Quest?
The idea is that it feels better to give something extra, with thanks, to people who picked up litter.
At first, we planned to give points for steps that could be used at restaurants, like "You walked it off, so have a beer." But you can do other things while you walk.
So we thought about giving points for litter picking.
If a customer comes in and says, "I picked up this much litter," the restaurant will welcome them with "Thank you."
If someone says, "I have a coupon, give me a discount," the restaurant may think, "There goes more of our sales." But for someone who picked up litter in the area, it becomes heartfelt hospitality: "Thanks for your hard work, have a beer on us."
Giving back like this within a community was normal in Japan not so long ago, in the Showa era (1926–1989).
Running the Sapporo Litter Discovery Quest, I felt again how warm it is when neighbors say "thank you" to each other, like in those days. Today, perhaps the Pirika App can help people share thanks.
What made you decide to use Pirika?
We felt that the know-how and history Pirika has built, and its users and culture, could not be copied. So we decided to use it.
The Nippon Foundation, which works with us on Sapporo Quest, had asked us to survey litter in Susukino and build a system to map what kind of litter is found. While looking at existing services, we found the Pirika App. My first reaction was surprise: "This exists! And it has been around for quite a while!"
Pirika has been doing this since before words like "SDGs" became common.
It also uses game elements like rankings, and has many active users. That appealed to us too.
When I tried picking up litter and posting it, I quickly got 40 to 50 "thank yous."*
On other social networks, a new user's posts get little reaction. I was surprised by the Pirika App's user culture, where people get excited about litter.
On Instagram, you need followers, and it is hard to get more "likes." On the Pirika App, you get praised for posting litter. I thought it was a really fun world.
*A "thank you" is like a "like." In the Pirika App, users can send it to each other's litter-picking posts.
3. Enjoying litter picking as a game brought more people in
How did you promote the event after starting to use Pirika?
A TV station covered us right after we started. Building on that, we mainly posted on social media to get people around us involved. We wanted more people to start litter picking through Sapporo Quest, not only people who already did it.
Sadly, no one around me picked up litter, so I posted with the feeling of "Come on, friends, let's get moving."
We also tried social media ads. But steadily posting and getting interested people involved seemed to work best.
Did your concept of "turning community contribution into a great game," which you also shared on Facebook, take hold locally?
It was a short, one-month sprint. But after the Sapporo Litter Discovery Quest ended, more people kept picking up litter because of it. I think it took hold locally.
"Turning community contribution into a great game" came from wanting more people to join: "If you are going to play games at home anyway, play this one (the Sapporo Litter Discovery Quest)."
In feedback on the event, some participants said people looked at them as if to say, "Oh, you pick up litter? (Are you just trying to look good?)"
So I think it matters to be able to say, "No, it's a game. We do it because it's fun, not to do good." That was true for me, too.
With this way of thinking, I think more people will pick up litter.
Some participants already picked up litter, and some were new to it. How did people react to the event?
First, 80% of participants picked up litter for the first time at this event. Some said, "It was harder than I thought." Part of that is not being used to it, but I think noticing how hard it is matters too.
People who already picked up litter said, "It's fun that our litter picking is kept as a record." I think they enjoyed it.
It also gave people who pick up litter a chance to talk with each other.
I picked up litter myself around 8 p.m. on a Friday. Crowds were coming to Susukino for drinks, and I picked up a cigarette right after someone dropped it.
It was quite a thrilling cleanup, but it's fun when all kinds of people talk to you.
Participants in the Sapporo Litter Discovery Quest
It was during business hours, but did restaurant staff also come to pick up litter?
Yes. Shops and customers who did not know about the event saw us having fun picking up litter and joined in.
Some people asked to pick up litter with us, apart from Sapporo Quest or Pirika. I said, "If you're going to do it anyway, join us," and they signed up for the Pirika App on the spot.
4. Game elements kept people picking up litter for three hours
The event was a big success, with 11,086 pieces of litter collected. What made it work?
I think the key was that the visualization page turned litter picking into a game.
Game elements include numbers and rankings. When we published a ranking, people who were passed would clearly pick up much more litter the next week.
This was not "I'll try harder to get more coins." It was a competitive spirit: "I hate being passed, I'll pick up more."
The more they want to win, the more litter gets picked up and the cleaner the town gets.
Using this, for example by updating the ranking in real time, I think litter picking could become even more active.
Also, the top-ranked people picked up a huge amount of litter, which surprised us. Some said, "Three hours have passed (since I started)."
Time flies when you are having fun, and I think the game elements helped here too.
A Sapporo Litter Discovery Quest participant who picked up litter for three hours
Wasn't the network of Susukino restaurants also a reason for the success?
It may look that way, but restaurant owners each run their own place with pride. Many have strong personalities and compete with each other, so they were not united.
Rather, shared problems like COVID-19 and litter, and the Sapporo Litter Discovery Quest that aimed to solve them, helped build a community among restaurants.
5. Turning good deeds into quests and linking them into an RPG for the community
How would you like to develop the Sapporo Litter Discovery Quest?
The event combined litter picking, games and support for restaurants. Next, we want to swap litter picking for other good deeds and link them into a story, like an RPG, to involve more people.
In an RPG, you might get an herb as a reward for a quest like "bring mushrooms to the cave." Then you deliver that herb in another quest and get a new reward. The quests go on and on.
We want to replace those quests with different kinds of volunteering.
For example, Hokkaido has a lot of farming, and farmers look for volunteers at harvest time when they need more hands.
We could make this a quest like "bring potatoes to this restaurant," with a reward you can enjoy, and build it into a story.
On their own, each one is just a "harvest experience" or a "call for volunteers," which is not very fun. But linked into one story, I think they become fun.
Working with farmers takes time. Starting with litter picking, which anyone can do right away, let us get big results, and I am glad we did.
Are there any projects you would like to do with Pirika in the future?
This time we held it in Sapporo as the Sapporo Litter Discovery Quest. But just change the place name, and I think it can be done anywhere.
We are also thinking of sharing these results across Japan and spreading the ideas of games, good deeds and support for restaurants.
6. A passionate litter-picking community and history found only in Pirika
Do you have any advice for companies and groups thinking of using Pirika?
You could count and map litter pickups yourself. But the Pirika App already has the system and a user community, plus game elements like rankings, so it can speed up your efforts many times over.
Above all, the support and analysis were better than we expected.
I hope you will work with Pirika as a partner to speed up your community work and your own projects.
TV coverage of the Sapporo Litter Discovery Quest (in Japanese): here
More about Pirika for Businesses and Organizations: here
Organization: es Entertainment Co., Ltd. Industry: Restaurants Service: Pirika for Businesses and Organizations