【April Dream】Enabling PR Professionals with a Passion for Regional Contribution to Thrive in Local Communities

Our company supports "April Dream," which aims to make April 1st a day to express dreams. This press release is a "dream" of EAT UNIQUE Co., Ltd.

◾️ The Latent Power of "PR" Work to Revitalize Regions

Our representative, Ono, published "The Solo PR Strategist's Handbook" (published by Cross Media Publishing) in 2022, and its circulation will soon reach 10,000 copies. In Japan, where small and medium-sized enterprises account for a high percentage, it is common for individuals to be solely responsible for PR or to handle it concurrently with other duties, leading many PR professionals to face challenges. This business book, which systematically compiled her experiences into tips, has been widely read as a guide for such individuals.

Furthermore, this led her to serve as the sole instructor at the online school "Solo PR Academy," dedicating herself to nurturing PR talent and developing their careers. The academy, which opened in May 2024, has attracted students from all over Japan and some from overseas as a place to systematically learn basic PR skills, with a cumulative enrollment of over 300 students. Some of these current and former students participate in internships at our company or are actively working as PR professionals, but this is still limited to a portion of the students.

The reason for this is that the majority of students find it difficult to balance with their main jobs, but beyond that, it became clear that they face various challenges and circumstances, such as being pregnant or postpartum, in the midst of childcare, caring for family members, or undergoing fertility treatment, which impose "limits" on their ability to work. However, listening to their actual voices revealed that it's not just physically difficult situations where they "want to work but can't," but also very often cases where they themselves distance opportunities due to a "misconception" that "I can't do it now."

■ Setting a Policy on Work Style

Based on the many voices heard around us, we have set a "Work Style Policy" for freelance members involved in internships and outsourced work.

1. Minimize meetings
2. Maximize remote work
3. Children allowed to attend internal meetings
4. Team follow-up system
5. Accept last-minute cancellations with a "mutual understanding" spirit

6. Manuals support new tasks

7. Feel free to consult anytime
8. Workload varies per person
9. Work hours adapted to lifestyle
10. No residency requirements

At first glance, these are not special and are often considered "common sense" for independent freelancers and those under discretionary labor systems. However, most of the factors that hinder people from working flexibly were concentrated in the points listed above.

It became clear that without explicitly stating these, people would feel resistance or guilt about working flexibly, and their true labor potential and motivation would not be realized. Therefore, we have reaffirmed this as a policy. We hope this will serve as a trigger for people to take a step forward. Moving forward, we will also work on devising mechanisms and team-building strategies for work styles.

◾️ Transforming the Desire for Regional Contribution into Regional Power

Many people around our company wish to change careers to PR because they want to contribute in some way to ensure the healthy survival of their hometowns or the important places where they currently live. As regional vitality declines nationwide, addressing various challenges is necessary to open up possibilities for survival and development.

In the process of solving various issues such as population problems, industrial challenges, and cultural and economic matters, we believe that "the power of PR" is absolutely essential. Solving challenges requires the efforts of many people. For this, engaging a wide range of stakeholders and changing perceptions through verbalization and information dissemination are crucial, which is precisely what PR activities entail.

Therefore, with the theme of Regional Contribution Desire ✖️ Regional Problem-Solving PR, we will strengthen the deployment of small projects nationwide by PR professionals with ties to the region.

▪️ To Regional Businesses that Want to Promote Their Products and Services More Widely

For local people, goods, and services that feel their existence or appeal has not yet reached the world, our PR team, including PR professionals knowledgeable about the region, will launch small projects to tackle these challenges. We will begin offering this service.

・Message design to rediscover and verbalize charm and strengths

・Output design for creating buzz and disseminating information

・Communication design to connect people, goods, and services with stakeholders

We will provide support from these three perspectives, focusing intensively over a period of six months to one year. The first phase is underway for implementation in Kyoto and Chiba, and we aim to expand the service area and increase service utilization in the future.

(For inquiries about the service, please feel free to contact info@eatunique.co.jp.)

EAT UNIQUE Co., Ltd. is steadily moving forward day by day towards the realization of its dream. Next year's April Dream, we plan to specifically announce the results of our achievements and further visualize the process towards our dream in more detail.