Watch this Brilliant Marketing Campaign ✽

There is a worldwide shortage of housing especially in Japan and house hunters are always on the rush, this includes not only humans but also the Hermit crab. Due to the environmental degradation our fellow creatures' hermit crabs can't find enough shelters. They are always outgrowing and replacing their shells leaving it to the younger generations, “they are always short of shells” says the marine biologist professor Katsuyuki Hamasaki. The result is a large number of crabs living in bottle tops, pin caps and trash in general.


Suumo, a Japanese real estate listings company joined forces with professor Hamasaki and a group of students at Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology in an attempt to fix the housing crisis.

Together the real estate listing company and the marine biologists built 3d printed shells based on real sea shells 3 dimensional scans to provide a comfortable, light and natural home for crabs.

Having the environmental toxicology in mind, the shells were made from an organic material consisting of starch causing no harm to the natural environment.

The project was presented at the The Oceanography Society as an "Innovative ecology protection act"


The species rescue mission turned out to be a clever marketing campaign that also served a real environment purpose. For Suumo as the crabs roamed the town they literally brilliantly generated organic marketing. As a result customers' purchase intention for the brand increased to 112%