Yahoo! Japan and instant cup noodle manufacturer Maruchan teamed up for a second time to offer users of Japan’s most popular browser a chance to help create a new ramen flavor. Under the campaign slogan, “Let’s use everyone’s voice to make a new cup noodle!” Yahoo gave the public three weeks to cast their votes online via the promotional page ramen.yahoo.jp.
Last week Yahoo announced that “Thick & Rich Miso Tonkatsu” was the winner—the result of over 1,910,000 ballots cast (compared to last year’s 1,060,000). This new flavor will be produced by Maruchan and in stores nationwide on February 16th. The popular general interest weekly magazine, Tokyo One Week, is also teaming up to publish exclusive content about the creation of the product.
Last year’s “Scorching Garlic Rich Tonkatsu” obviously proved a hit because Maruchan will also be re-releasing this flavor along with the new one. Having both flavors side by side on the shelves until March 24th will allow the “cup ramen battle” to continue, pitting this year’s top flavor against last year’s. The final winner will be announced at the end of March.
When social networking community Mixi teamed up with both cup noodle maker Acebook and beverage manufacturer Calpis a few months ago we talked about how crowdsourcing FMGCs was pretty much as win-win as you could get. With internet users turned consumers—many of whom are passionate about particular goods (like ramen)—feeling involved in the creation process, loyalty for both camps is only likely to go up.
