Railway reuse that connects "feelings." Breaking away from the volume and price competition of major companies, the promotional strategy for the original sticker "Guardian Deity Train" focuses on the nostalgia of people in their 40s and 50s.

Lionheart was founded by Tetsudo Honpo Co., Ltd.10I joined the project to help brainstorm ideas for proactive, fan-engaging promotional strategies that don't rely on advertising budgets, marking a significant milestone in their anniversary.

First, we delved into the "age range of families" that realistically begin to consider sorting through belongings after someone's death or organizing things before death, and found that the majority are in their "late 40s to 50s." We then formulated a strategy to utilize the fun and excitement of collecting character stickers, which was popular in the 1980s when they were elementary and junior high school students, as an "entry point (bridge)" to introduce them to Tetsudo Honpo.

Simply imitating the sticker designs of yesteryear wouldn't be enough to capture the hearts of discerning 40-50 year olds and enhance the brand's value. Therefore, Lionheart formally commissioned Green House Co., Ltd., a company with many years of experience in creating characters for Lotte's "Bikkuriman Devil vs. Angel Series," to design original characters. They proposed a genuine approach, building a world with creators possessing a solid production background, rather than merely superficially reminiscing.

Furthermore, instead of simply distributing novelty items, we aimed to create a "world with a story that collectors and general users will want to collect." We designed a unique storyline called "Shugoshinden" (Guardian Deity Train) in which "Tsukumogami" (spirits inhabiting objects) reside in railway goods and models that have been cherished for a long time and gathered at Tetsudo Honpo, and three gods who have warmly protected and nurtured them. Then, President Taizo Ishikawa himself, who receives a divine oracle in a dream and connects the thoughts of the Tsukumogami by listening to their voices with his boundless love for railways, manifests in the Shugoshinden world.

This reminded me of the excitement I once felt from collecting stickers.40～50This process, while the generation enjoys themselves, imprints the name "Tetsudo Honpo (Honpo's)" and the president's sincere character into their subconscious, creating a relationship where, in the future phase of sorting through inherited belongings, the company is the first one that comes to mind, making them think, "I can entrust my parents' model trains to the company whose stickers I collected back then (President Ishikawa)." This has established an extremely sustainable and robust branding foundation.

After delivery, mainly40～50The target demographic is most active in gathering information.SNS「X(OldTwitter) as the main public relations channel (PR) and someTikTokWe have also started disseminating information in conjunction with other organizations.

The popularity of the characters created by Greenhouse and the quality of the uniquely constructed worldview attracted attention on social media, and as soon as they went on sale on BASE, they reached collectors, railway fans, and sticker enthusiasts. Despite the high added value pricing of 2,200 yen for a set of two stickers (silver prism and a special prism with foil stamping), they have consistently built up sales, and as a result, the initial production costs and advertising expenses invested in the "Guardian Deity Train" project have been recovered and the project has become profitable through the sales of the stickers.

Initially, President Ishikawa himself was not an avid collector of character stickers. However, during a difficult period for the business, he had a memorable experience where related collections included in a bulk purchase of used books unexpectedly generated value and supported the company. Through this initiative, in addition to recovering the initial investment through sales, he was able to see the results of expanding brand awareness and touchpoints with fans, which led to his trust in Lionheart's proposed "targeted, authentic touchpoint design."

Following this great success, Tetsudo Honpo was founded11As the company enters its second year, it has changed its name to "Honpoz Co., Ltd." Currently, Lionheart is working on its next project (approximately) creating additional characters to represent the new company name (Honpoz's official characters).200We've already invested 10,000 yen and commissioned Greenhouse Inc. to create a new design.2026年12We are actively working in parallel with the project (which is progressing towards completing the lunar phase).

Not only that, but as a promotional measure to further circulate existing sticker inventory and increase the average customer spending, they planned a new promotional strategy that included developing a "limited edition sticker with a different design" that uses the "extremely expensive and sophisticated hologram rainbow processing" used in security stickers, as well as distributing clear files as a free purchase bonus.

* "Bikkuriman" is a trademark of Lotte Co., Ltd. This project and "Shugoshin Den" are not joint projects or collaboration products with Lotte Co., Ltd.