Challenge

A 95 year-old brand that codes

While some countries have programming embedded within their national curriculum, in Japan, programming classes are not mandatory. Glico has been a familiar product for children for more than 95 years and saw the opportunity to help advance the idea to help connect children to programming education. 

Strategy

Sweet education

GLICODE was the first ever educational app that used advanced image recognition to turn real candy into code to teach children the fundamentals of programming. Every packet of Pocky, Bisco and Almond Peak turns into bite-sized programming lessons where kids can lay out and arrange their snacks, capture the sequence and watch it turn into code that moves a character through increasingly complex challenges. The app covers three basic programming principles.  

Built for brains

Designed in an easy to understand visual language, children learnt to automate repetitive instructions and assign actions to specific triggers, making GLICODE a real programming language with endless possibilities. 

Results

Coded for success

The campaign outperformed KPI’s in Japan and overseas. The initiative was so well received that the Japanese Government selected this campaign as a pilot program to teach coding at school. Glico, a confectionary company, helped prove how fun the coding will be. The case went on to win Gold in the Cannes Lions mobile category. 

GOLD

at Cannes Lions

Japanese Government

pilot program