Sanrio × JO1 Draws About 4,000 on a Peak Day; Lindt Quiz Drives 6,000 Store Visits (Apr 18, 2025)

Here is our roundup of notable news in corporate oshikatsu marketing (fan-driven marketing built around people’s devotion to their favorite idols, characters, or creators) and fan business from the week of April 11 to April 17, 2025.

This Week’s Highlights

This past week brought reports of case studies where companies successfully turned interactive quizzes and pop-up events into actual foot traffic at physical stores.

Lindt & Sprüngli Japan ran its “Reward Lindt Quiz” (Gohobi Lindt Shindan) starting January 6 during the Valentine’s Day season. The campaign drew approximately 76,000 participants, and the number of customers who visited a store to redeem their coupon reached approximately 6,000. What stands out about this campaign is that the brand did not stop at simply creating an online quiz; it designed the entire customer journey all the way through to visiting a physical shop.

Meanwhile, “JOCHUM,” a character franchise co-developed by Sanrio and the global boys’ group JO1, drew approximately 4,000 people on a peak day to its pop-up event in Shibuya. Home appliance maker Yamazen launched an early-bird crowdfunding campaign on Makuake for a collaborative electric pressure cooker created with the curry chain Go! Go! Curry, raising approximately 1.4 million yen in support purchases on its very first day and hitting its funding goal immediately. In apparel, Uniqlo and GU rolled out a series of collaborative products featuring powerhouse IPs (intellectual properties): Gundam, Super Mario, and Pokémon.

There was also major movement at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai. At the opening ceremony, the virtual human imma served as master of ceremonies. In addition, the “Gundam Metaverse” launched its fourth limited-time opening starting April 21, bringing the life-size Gundam statue from the Expo into its virtual space.

DIAGRAMKey Campaign Results Reported This Week

76,000: Participants in Lindt's Valentine's quiz campaign, driving ~6,000 in-store coupon visits
4,000/day: Peak daily visitors to the Sanrio × JO1 'JOCHUM' pop-up corner at SHIBUYA TSUTAYA
¥1.4M: First-day Makuake backing for the Yamazen × Go! Go! Curry electric pressure cooker
68.6%: Share of surveyed VTuber fans who say they have a specific 'oshi' (Yano Research Institute)

Source: The Oshi Lab's summary of the article

Canned Coffee and Energy Drinks Used Gaming IPs to Spark New Reasons to Buy

Suntory BOSS × Pokémon Trading Card Game — Bringing People Back to Canned Coffee with the “ex” Series

On February 4, Suntory Beverage & Food Limited launched “BOSS ex Evolution Slightly Sweet” (Boss ex Shinka no Bito), a collaborative product pairing its BOSS canned coffee brand with the Pokémon Trading Card Game (PokéCa). Five of its core lineup products were also refreshed with collectible “Collectible PokéCa Can” (Atsumeru PokéCa Kan) designs. Alongside the release, the company ran a promotional campaign where buyers could enter via eligible six-can packs or two-dimensional QR codes. The lineup was substantial, featuring three design variations for “BOSS ex Evolution Slightly Sweet” and 17 variations for the “Collectible PokéCa Can” series (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).

Social media reactions included comments from buyers saying the collaboration prompted them to drink canned coffee for the first time in a long while, as well as responses noting that the coffee tasted “several notches better than expected.”

Lab Note: The key here is the sheer number of can designs—17 variations in total. If you want to stimulate a fan’s urge to complete a full set, you cannot stop at just a single collaborative product design; you need enough volume to create the fun of choosing and hunting down each version. It is a smart product design that layers a second motivation—collecting—on top of a habitual, everyday purchase like canned coffee.

Red Bull and the action game Monster Hunter Wilds announced a collaborative cafe event scheduled for April 19 and 20 at Cafe&Bar RAGE ST in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. According to the announcement, visitors would be able to choose one of four collaborative menu items for free, and could also enter a lottery for a chance to take part in a time-attack quest challenge. Every attendee was also set to receive limited-edition novelty goods (Inside (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: The natural affinity between energy drinks and gaming is hardly a new story. What makes this activation notable is how it combines free samples with a lottery-based gameplay challenge, offering not just something to drink, but an interactive play experience on site. Having fans play first and receive items alongside that experience gives them a much stronger reason to travel to a venue than simply handing out free cans on the street.

Uniqlo and GU Repainted Their Storefronts with Blockbuster IPs

Uniqlo UT — Launching 45th Anniversary “Gundam” T-Shirts Alongside “Super Mario” Reissues

On April 14, Uniqlo’s graphic T-shirt brand UT released a T-shirt collection commemorating the 45th anniversary of Mobile Suit Gundam. The collection features four designs in total, including newly drawn original artwork by legendary mechanical designer Kunio Okawara, priced at 1,990 yen each (tax included). An augmented reality (AR) promotion also launched alongside the shirts: starting April 14, a GPS-linked feature allowed a life-size Gundam to appear at seven Uniqlo store locations across Japan. In addition, Uniqlo released the “UT Archive Super Mario” collection starting April 29, featuring six men’s designs and six kids’ designs decorated with pixel-art illustrations of Mario, Yoshi, and Bowser (Cho! Animedia (in Japanese), Inside (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: The highlight here is how Uniqlo lined up a brand-new 45th-anniversary collaboration and a reissue of past hit designs in the exact same month of April. For newer fans, it offers fresh 45th-anniversary artwork; for shoppers looking for nostalgia, it brings back beloved archive designs from the past. Building a merchandise lineup that answers two distinct fan motivations under a single brand roof is especially effective in lower-priced apparel.

GU — Releasing “Pokémon” Collaborative Apparel on April 25

On April 25, fast-fashion brand GU released a collaborative apparel collection with Pokémon. Built around the themes of “Encounters with Pokémon” and “Adventure,” the line features nostalgic pixel-art designs of Pikachu, Charizard, Mewtwo, and other favorites. The product range spans a wide variety of price points—including graphic T-shirts at 1,290 yen each and lounge sets at 2,990 yen each—along with items for kids. Ahead of the general release, GU set up advance displays and special window decorations starting April 11 at its Marronnier Gate Ginza, Shibuya, and Nagoya Gate Tower stores (Inside (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: By placing advance displays in flagship stores two weeks before the actual launch date, GU followed a deliberate sequence: building in-store awareness first before opening up sales. And whereas Uniqlo pursued a two-pronged strategy combining new anniversary art with archive reissues, GU narrowed its focus to a single cohesive aesthetic—nostalgic pixel art. Even within the same retail group, each brand tailors its target age bracket and how it presents the IP.

Crowdfunding and Interactive Quizzes Generated Real-World Store Visits and Purchases

Yamazen × Go! Go! Curry — Collaborative Home Appliance Crowdfunding Hits Its Goal on Day One

On February 4, Yamazen launched an advance-sale crowdfunding project on Makuake for “The Electric Pressure Cooker That Makes You Want to Eat Curry Every Day” (Mainichi Kare ga Tabetakunaru Denki Atsuryokunabe), a collaborative appliance created with the Go! Go! Curry Group. Support purchases reached approximately 1.4 million yen on the first day alone, achieving the project’s funding goal right away. Out of a target sales volume of 665 units, two limited-edition tiers of 55 units each—bundled with either an original T-shirt or an authentic metal curry plate—had already sold out as of February 6. The cooker uses the Go! Go! Curry logo right on the cooking start button and includes five exclusive “oshi arrangement recipes” that cannot be eaten at Go! Go! Curry restaurants (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).

According to the report, the collaboration began because members of Yamazen’s home appliance development team were personal fans of Go! Go! Curry and reached out to pitch a partnership. In turn, they discovered that Go! Go! Curry had actually been using Yamazen cooking appliances during its own recipe development, which brought the collaboration together naturally.

Lab Note: This is a textbook match between Yamazen, which wanted to expand its customer base beyond traditional homemakers, and Go! Go! Curry, which commands a loyal demographic of men in their 20s to 40s. Highly versatile everyday appliances often struggle to communicate a sharp, immediate hook on their own. When an appliance maker teams up with a food brand that has an established fandom, it can communicate concrete, mouthwatering ways to use the product right alongside the hardware itself.

Lindt — “Reward Lindt Quiz” Drives Roughly 6,000 Coupon Visitors to Physical Stores

Starting January 6, Lindt & Sprüngli Japan rolled out a limited-time Valentine’s Day promotion called the “Reward Lindt Quiz” (Gohobi Lindt Shindan). By answering a few simple questions online, participants received a personalized recommendation for a Lindor chocolate flavor along with a fortune reading, and could obtain a digital coupon redeemable for a free single-piece tasting at a physical Lindt store by registering in the app after completing the quiz. The quiz results were supervised by fortune-teller Reina Puriadis. As of January 29, approximately 76,000 people had taken the quiz, and roughly 6,000 people had visited a store to redeem their tasting coupon. A companion campaign encouraging users to share their quiz results on X (formerly Twitter) generated approximately 2,000 posts (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: The reported figures—roughly 6,000 store visits and 76,000 quiz participants—show the scale of the quiz and coupon redemptions. The campaign starts with an entertaining personality and fortune quiz and guides the user through app registration to obtain a coupon and on to a concrete real-world action: sampling a chocolate in a store. The campaign also encouraged participants to post their results on social media.

DIAGRAMHow Interactive Campaigns Convert Online Interest into Store Visits

Accessible Online Entry PointFans join through a low-barrier hook such as Lindt's flavor quiz, Makuake crowdfunding, or social media buzz
Personalized Value or Collectible HookUsers receive tailored results, limited-edition bundled goods, or a reason to share their experience on X
Concrete Offline ActionA built-in incentive—like a 1-piece Lindor tasting coupon obtained through app registration or an immersive Shibuya photo spot—brings fans to the venue

Source: The Oshi Lab's summary of the article

Shopping Centers and Amusement Facilities Used IPs to Attract New Customer Segments

Sanrio × JO1 — Debuting the Rooms of Co-Developed Characters “JOCHUM” in Shibuya

From January 3 to January 19, a pop-up event for “JOCHUM”—the character franchise co-developed by JO1 and Sanrio—was held at SHIBUYA TSUTAYA. Answering fan requests saying “We want to see JOCHUM’s rooms!”, the event featured photo spots recreating the individual rooms of all 11 characters. The 4.5-meter-high storefront windows facing the iconic Shibuya Scramble Crossing were also decorated with designs of all 11 characters. During the run of the event, daily attendance at the JOCHUM corner reportedly topped approximately 4,000 visitors on peak days (AdverTimes. (in Japanese), Mynavi Woman (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: This event used its prime location right in the heart of Shibuya as a giant billboard aimed at passersby who had never seen the advance announcements. Free balloon giveaways also became a hot topic on social media and created long lines—an unexpected bonus effect. You can really feel how the team has spent three years nurturing characters born in 2022 and bringing their entire world to life in three dimensions.

Bandai Namco Amusement × Gakuen Idolmaster — Campaign Across Roughly 150 Locations Nationwide

Bandai Namco Amusement announced that it would hold the “HOP! STEP! JUMP! SPRING! Campaign in Namco” in collaboration with the idol simulation game Gakuen Idolmaster from April 25 to May 25 across approximately 150 amusement facilities nationwide. The campaign lined up exclusive arcade prizes, including a special “Gold Radiance ver.” (Gold no Kagayaki ver.) figure of the character Kotone Fujita, who celebrates her birthday on April 29. It also introduced a bonus system where players receive special novelty perks when they insert 1,000 yen into eligible crane game machines (Inside (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: What sets this apart from a single-venue pop-up is the sheer scale of 150 locations nationwide. By anchoring the campaign around a specific micro-occasion—a single character’s birthday—Bandai Namco is drawing customers through its existing network of crane game machines across the country. You do not need to build a brand-new event hall from scratch when you can mobilize an existing nationwide chain of amusement centers to gather fans.

Atre Kawasaki and Atre Akihabara — Station Shopping Malls Raised the Banners of Pokémon and Touhou Project

Station shopping mall operator Atre announced that it would host a limited-time “Pokémon Card Store” at Atre Kawasaki from April 18 to May 6, timed to the release of the Pokémon Trading Card Game expansion pack The Glory of Team Rocket (Rocket-dan no Eiko). The announcement also noted that the store would run beginner-friendly Pokémon Trading Card Game workshops where participants receive a promotional “Eevee” card (4Gamer.net (in Japanese)). Meanwhile, at Atre Akihabara, the Touhou Project event “Hakurei Shrine ~ Spring Festival 2025” (Hakurei Jinja ~ Haru Matsuri 2025) ran from April 16 to April 30. The event was organized with official permission from the copyright holder by the fan club organization Hakurei Jinja Sukeikai (Hakurei Shrine Supporters Association), with operations handled by Tablier Marketing. Inside the venue, newly illustrated merchandise themed around the “20th Anniversary of Touhou Kaeidzuka (Phantasmagoria of Flower View)” was sold (Anime! Anime! (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Both activations offer free admission and rely on the IP’s existing fan community to drive foot traffic into a commercial shopping complex. As seen with Touhou Project, there is even a model where an organized fan club obtains official permission from the rights holder to plan the event. Both examples demonstrate that commercial facilities without in-house IP of their own have the option of partnering directly with established fan organizations and communities.

At Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Characters and Virtual Human imma Took Center Stage

“Gundam Metaverse” 4th Limited Opening — Featuring the Expo’s Life-Size Gundam Statue and Hatsune Miku Live Shows

The fourth limited-time opening of the “Gundam Metaverse”—the virtual space for the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise—ran from 3:00 p.m. on April 21 to 1:00 p.m. on May 20. For this installment, the platform became accessible directly from mobile device web browsers, and the “Life-Size Gundam Statue” from Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai appeared inside the virtual space. In addition, a second round of collaborative virtual concerts with virtual singer Hatsune Miku was held twice daily from April 23 to May 18 (Mogura VR (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Mobile browser support might look like an unglamorous technical update on the surface, but in practice it is the single most impactful expansion a metaverse project can make. High-profile attractions like a life-size Gundam statue or a Hatsune Miku concert serve as the initial spark that gets people interested. Yet if you do not widen the range of devices that can actually enter the space, crowds will never gather there. Marquee attractions and foundational access improvements always have to move forward as a pair.

Virtual Human imma — Hosting the Opening Ceremony of Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai

At the opening ceremony of EXPO 2025 Osaka, Kansai held on April 12, the virtual human imma appeared as master of ceremonies. Serving as an official Special Supporter for the Expo, imma handled guest introductions and guided the proceedings of the ceremony. In a comment released by Aww, imma said she believed this was a world-first initiative for a virtual human. Produced by Aww Inc., imma has previously appeared at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games closing ceremony and at a TED Talk in Canada (Mogura VR (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Casting a virtual human as the emcee of a national-scale ceremony—one of the most high-stakes roles where mistakes are least tolerated—is extraordinary. The track record imma has steadily built up in the entertainment sector has translated directly into institutional trust in the completely different realm of official public ceremonies. It is a valuable precedent to keep in mind when considering where virtual humans can be deployed next.

Survey and Funding Data Outlined the Shape of the VTuber and Metaverse Markets

Yano Research Institute — Survey Finds 68.6% of VTuber Fans Have an “Oshi”

Yano Research Institute conducted a consumer questionnaire survey focused on VTubers (virtual YouTubers). The survey was carried out between October and November 2024 among 37,353 men and women aged 15 to 44 in Japan. From that pool, the institute conducted a detailed analysis of 1,200 respondents who listed watching videos as a hobby and selected “VTubers” as a favorite video category. Among those VTuber viewers, 68.6% answered that they “have an oshi” (a specific favorite they actively support), while 18.3% answered that they “do not have an oshi.” The data also revealed a clear generational pattern: the younger the age bracket, the higher the share of viewers watching “clipped and edited highlight videos,” whereas the older the age bracket, the higher the share of responses selecting livestreams and their archives (Mogura VR (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: These 1,200 VTuber fans were identified through an initial screening of over 37,000 people. Yano Research Institute suggests an emphasis on time efficiency (taipa, or time-performance) as a possible explanation for younger viewers’ preference for clipped highlight videos. The numbers confirm that creators and marketers need to change the format of the very first piece of content they show depending on the target age group.

Metaverse Service Provider Urth — Cumulative Funding Surpasses 100 Million Yen with Additional Round

Urth Inc., the operator of the metaverse service “metatell,” announced that it has completed an additional funding round, bringing its cumulative capital raised to approximately 106 million yen. Following its initial seed round in October 2024, the company raised 31 million yen in this second close of its seed round. According to the announcement, the funds are earmarked for expanding the domestic metaverse market in Japan and developing new business across Asian markets. CEO Daiki Tanaka is a former architect, and the company aims to put the skills and resources of Japanese architects to work in the metaverse space (Mogura VR (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Positioning its platform around “3D spaces designed by architectural designers” gives Urth a clear, distinctive identity. At a time when metaverse providers are crowding the market, the company is turning the professional expertise of who actually builds the space into its core differentiator. For corporate clients considering adopting a metaverse space, that architectural pedigree also serves as a concrete criterion when choosing a vendor.

This Week’s Takeaways

This week’s coverage highlighted cases where companies designed not just for visibility and impressions, but all the way through to concrete actions like visiting a store or making a purchase.

Some 76,000 people participated in Lindt’s online quiz, and 6,000 of them followed through by visiting a store. Yamazen’s crowdfunding campaign hit its target amount on its very first day, and the Sanrio × JO1 pop-up drew around 4,000 people on a peak day in Shibuya. In every one of these cases, the organizers intentionally separated and connected the “entry point” that pulls fans in (an online quiz, a crowdfunding page, or social media buzz) and the “exit point” where fans actually show up or buy (a physical store, a tasting coupon, or a pop-up venue).

At the same time, Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai is becoming a live testing ground for experimenting with the boundary between the physical and virtual worlds itself. Casting imma as opening ceremony emcee and bringing the Expo’s life-size Gundam statue into the Gundam Metaverse are prime examples. And as Yano Research Institute’s survey shows, roughly seven in ten VTuber fans have an oshi. This market is well primed to keep welcoming bold experiments like these in the months and years ahead.

Where in your own customer touchpoints should you place your “entry point” and your “exit point”? Take a look at this week’s developments alongside our guides to Design Principles of Oshikatsu Marketing and How to Plan an Oshikatsu Event.

Weekly Oshikatsu News brings you a weekly roundup of the latest developments at the intersection of oshikatsu and business. You can browse past issues in our Oshikatsu × News category.