anime marketing

 

Components of Asian culture have spread to North American markets, particularly anime and manga cartoons. Anime streaming sites like Crunchyroll have over two million subscribers and over 45 million registered users. Anime has changed from niche to normalized and has numerous celebrities among its fans.

It has become far more than a style of Japanese animation. Celebrities have even been seen as cosplaying their favorite anime characters and making fashion choices based on them.

Kanye West has made a music video based on ‘Akira’ and calls it the greatest anime film of all time. To some extent, the popularity of anime lies in the fact that it is largely unrealistic and it allows the viewer to relax and not to take things too seriously. Netflix has quite a few original anime shows.

The Nippon industry witnessed $19.5 billion in 2017 as a result of overseas sales to Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon together with Chinese entertainment giants. This is proof that anime resonates with a variety of viewers. In an increasingly competitive digital world, animated campaigns are delightful and are visually and emotionally engaging.

The new marketing campaign of the U.S. Army features soldiers who have been transformed into anime characters to tell their personal stories in support of a recruiting surge known as Army National Hiring Days 2021. Here anime helps to convey messages in a visually appealing way.

‘The Calling’, a series of short videos, aired on YouTube focused on five soldiers from difficult backgrounds. Anime was the chosen medium because it makes it possible to intertwine many moments in a soldier’s life into one product. It has the added benefit of removing barriers and bringing complex ideas to life.

The campaign “Hungry to win” launched by Nissin with the help of Manchester United, had transformed the Manchester United players in the anime form. The 30-second advert created by Kazuto Nakazawa with its unique visuals symbolized the innovation of both Nissin and Manchester United.

It had successfully captured the excitement and adrenaline one feels when playing for a team like Manchester United. Anime can offer limitless possibilities in ways live action cannot.

This summer, Taco Bell created an anime-style ad to advertise the return of Nacho Fries.

The narrative of the ad is centered around an animated character called Rei, the leader of a Fry Force team of pilots who control giant humanoid robots in a battle against spice-loving monsters.

Taco Bell has adopted anime to target a more niche fan community than in the past. In 2019, KFC had released a dating video game, where players could court a version of Colonel Sanders drawn in the anime style.

D’Art Shtajio, a Tokyo based 2D animation studio recently completed three anime advertisements for brands like ASOS, Snipes, and Adidas.

All of the advertisements mentioned have received over 3 million views as anime helps to tell stories and create visuals that live-action cannot for the same budget.

Characters can be customized and they can be made to do very elaborate things. The Adidas advertisement included cyborg bad guys and ocular laser beams. This is perfect for storytelling and when done right, becomes highly memorable.

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Ronn Torossian is the Founder & Chairman of 5W Public Relations, one of the largest independently owned PR firms in the United States. Since founding 5WPR in 2003, he has led the company's growth and vision, with the agency earning accolades including being named a Top 50 Global PR Agency by PRovoke Media, a top three NYC PR agency by O'Dwyers, one of Inc. Magazine's Best Workplaces and being awarded multiple American Business Awards, including a Stevie Award for PR Agency of the Year. With over 25 years of experience crafting and executing powerful narratives, Torossian is one of America's most prolific and well-respected public relations executives. Throughout his career he has advised leading and high-growth businesses, organizations, leaders and boards across corporate, technology and consumer industries. Torossian is known as one of the country's foremost experts on crisis communications. He has lectured on crisis PR at Harvard Business School, appears regularly in the media and has authored two editions of his book, "For Immediate Release: Shape Minds, Build Brands, and Deliver Results With Game-Changing Public Relations," which is an industry best-seller. Torossian's strategic, resourceful approach has been recognized with numerous awards including being named the Stevie American Business Awards Entrepreneur of the Year, the American Business Awards PR Executive of the Year, twice over, an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year semi-finalist, a Top Crisis Communications Professional by Business Insider, Metropolitan Magazine's Most Influential New Yorker, and a recipient of Crain's New York Most Notable in Marketing & PR. Outside of 5W, Torossian serves as a business advisor to and investor in multiple early stage businesses across the media, B2B and B2C landscape. Torossian is the proud father of two daughters. He is an active member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and a board member of multiple not for profit organizations.