Expo 2025 Osaka is on the horizon, with its focus on sustainability and biotechnology offering an opportunity for nations to showcase their latest achievements. For marketing professionals, the event also represents a convergence point for technological and event planning trends, as well as being a valuable chance to understand future audience expectations.
A prominent feature of the Expo will be its use of well-known intellectual properties to create unique, audience-pleasing attractions. Among these will be a life-sized Gundam made from recycled materials. Additionally, a partnership with the popular mobile game Pokémon GO will allow players to take photos with Pokémon and interact with rare creatures at ‘PokéStops’. Appropriately, they will include unknown Pokémon shaped into the letters E, X, P and O.
In a further example of leveraging famous IPs, Pico last year executed an advertising campaign for State Farm Insurance that recreated the iconic duo of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito from the movie Twins. Mixing humour with nostalgia, it resonated with younger audiences who enjoy short, witty content, achieving a staggering 26 billion impressions.
As a large-scale event aiming to highlight the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Expo 2025 Osaka demonstrates sustainability in every aspect of its programme. For example, the life-size Gundam features multiple solar panels, while many of the event’s pavilions emphasise the critical role of renewable energy in the future.
The Expo’s impressive features continue with the ‘Big Roof’ – a sustainable circular walkway - and the pavilions’ biogas plants, which use microorganisms to decompose on-site waste and convert it into energy. Their set-up allows visitors to experience the concept of ecological cycles first-hand.
Event planners are increasingly mindful of environmental impacts and resource utilisation while ensuring the effectiveness of their events. When Pico managed the Light to Night Festival in Singapore last year, it utilised solar power to create dazzling light displays. Carbon emissions were reduced by approximately 63 tonnes compared what would have been produced by traditional diesel generators.
At the Expo, Pico has also contributed to projects such as activating the Vietnam Pavilion. However, simply emulating these and other successful projects is not a viable approach; effective project execution must take factors like scale, budget, platform integration, creative expertise and the leveraging of proprietary technology into consideration. Only when these and other elements are aligned can an impactful project be created.
