Phoning It In - How Anime Companies are Failing Marketing 101

[Chris Beveridge]

In some ways, this admittedly feels like kicking someone when they’re down on the ground trying to get back up. At the same time, you’re doing it to someone who should know better and shouldn’t need to be kicked around like this. And some of this is just stuff that admittedly won’t mean a lot to a number of readers, particularly the online hardcore audience. But it does show that some companies still haven’t quite gotten things figured out on one of the most basic things – selling your stuff.

The simple truth is that no matter how savvy your core audience is, they aren’t the ones that are going to be completely frustrated with what you’re doing. It’s the casual audience that will be frustrated and walk away without purchasing a single thing. That’s where the lost sales will come in from as they’re looking for information, may not visit sites that would detail it, and rely on what they can find at the many retail outlets that list upcoming releases and information about them. The problem is that a couple of companies have completely fallen off the wagon about getting the information out there to the larger potential audience.

The one I feel the worst in talking about is one that used to be far better about it and that’s ADV Films. Since their period of silence earlier this year, the solicitations put out since they got back on track can’t even qualify as solicitations. While before we used to get regular email updates with a detailed breakdown of each release with summaries, artwork and technical specs, we now get nothing. That wouldn’t be so bad if they actually put out useful information to the retailers that help sell their products. Look at some of their upcoming summaries designed to go on retail sites that are often the first place casual online consumers will find out about a show:

Coyote Ragtime Show Complete Collection - Bullets, blades, bombs, beauty and boobs... if it's capable of destruction or distraction, it's fair game in the chilling, thrilling, killing, blood-spilling anime COYOTE RAGTIME!

Kanon Vol. #5 - Description: After 7 years abroad, Yuuchi reconnects with his cute cousin... but my, how she's grown!

Shattered Angels Vol. #2 - Kuu Shiratori often fantasizes about her "prince," and one day she meets him!

In June, ADV Films has a number of collections out and those aren’t half bad if they came out previously since it looks like a lot of cut and pasting was done. Newer collections get a little more said about them but most of the summary content has already been written for the singles. In looking at those three listings, does anything really help in selling it to a potential customer? And even then, it’s taken quite awhile since the initial listing of the title for sale for artwork to even show up online which makes it even harder for anyone to get excited about it or be enticed by it.

The other company that frustrates me to no end is FUNimation. They have been worse for longer as they don’t send out retail solicitation information to press and they don’t send out information to retailers to flesh out their listings until quite late – if at all. Looking through the June releases again, the majority of their titles barely have artwork and almost none of them have descriptions of what’s on the disc. Just like with ADV Films, there’s no way to tell what extras may be on there that will sway a hardcore fan but there’s very little information out there about what their shows are even about. The Burst Angel Viridian Collection contains the OVA but it’s damn near impossible to tell that from the generally small cover art available. If not for it being listed in the title you’d never know – and even some retailers don’t list that as part of the title! Viz is just as bad as FUNimation in this, though they admittedly are selling top level mainstream shows so people know about it. Regardless, it would be quite good for people to know what’s on Naruto Uncut Set 8 and not just have the cover artwork out there, wouldn’t you think?

It’s not all bad out there though and there are signs of solid improvement in some areas. Bandai Entertainment has been doing it right for quite some time with solid PDF solicitations sent out to retail and press that contains cover art, detailed technical specs and a listing of what extras are on the disc along with the summary. They even provide quotes from various publications to promote their shows with and how they tie to other ones. These once a month solicitations from them are pretty much perfect in getting the information out there so that when a title is announced, a potential consumer knows exactly what they’re getting 99% of the time.

Media Blasters used to be the worst of the bunch but they’ve had a massive turnaround in the last two months by mirroring what Bandai Entertainment is doing. They used to occasionally send out a solicitation spreadsheet that would have a text listing of everything but it was hit or miss if it made it to the general press and often it seemed like it was rare that the full details even made it to retail sites. Now, it’s like Bandai Entertainment in that when new titles are solicited, you know just about everything there is to know about the release and you have cover artwork up front that helps to sell the show.

Bandai Visual USA is in the middle of the road with this as they send out fantastic packets full of information on their individual releases with all sorts of promotional words about the shows reception in Japan and the staff behind it. They’re not quite up to snuff though as they wait till a few weeks before release to send these out regularly. But with a very limited amount of distribution, it doesn’t really matter that much unfortunately. Nozomi Entertainment isn't middle of the road, they actually excel quite a bit, but they have some things that crop up because of their announecment/release schedule that affects things. They tend to announce new licenses with street dates, often several months ahead of the official solicitation to retailers, so they don’t have information out there for a bit with those shows like Emma and Maria. But when they do put out their formal solicitations, often two months prior to release, it’s chock full of information that really fleshes out every release.

As I said in the beginning, a lot of this is just elements that come up when I go through updating the release lists regularly. It’s incredibly frustrating to be just a few weeks out from a release and find nothing about it across a number of retail sites besides a simple title, price and street date. When you look at 40-50 titles a month across various publishers and a mix of collections, re-issues and new titles, you start to see a trend where you wonder if these companies really want to sell this stuff anymore. It’s almost disheartening because it’s all Marketing 101 material and it’s barely getting done in a 50/50 manner across the remaining companies. And by this time you’d think they’d all know better. All that one can assume is that they’re understaffed and just unable to put in the effort with it. Which in turn makes you wonder what other corners are being cut and that’s even more disheartening, especially since it requires just a bit of effort to put on a very professional face for the casual audience and something that inspires some confidence among the hardcore.

[ooga]

Coyote Ragtime Show Complete Collection - Bullets, blades, bombs, beauty and boobs... if it's capable of destruction or distraction, it's fair game in the chilling, thrilling, killing, blood-spilling anime COYOTE RAGTIME!

I don't know about you, but this actually does make me want to buy the show. So they've succeeded in that respect. Of course after I buy the show and realize how much they exaggerated I will be pissed, but they'll already have my $$$ by then.

[The Great Bear]

Originally Posted by Chris Beveridge

When you look at 40-50 titles a month across various publishers and a mix of collections, re-issues and new titles, you start to see a trend where you wonder if these companies really want to sell this stuff anymore.

That definitely isn't the most encouraging set of signals to the marketplace. Looking at those ADV snippets, I think I could write better "catalog copy" than that, and I've never taken Marketing 101 (or any business courses for that matter).

I think that you've already hit the nail on the head: some companies have obviously skimped on resources for sales and marketing, while others seem to have gotten their act together. With the economy in a downturn, we'll see which method of responding to it—cost cutting versus more effective marketing—will help to ride out the storm.

[ADC]

To be fair, this isn't exactly a new development for ADV. There's always been a sort of faux-Hollywood style to their marketing with the lurid descriptions of sex and violence and whatever, and it's even more evident on their packaging. I still remember how they made Dirty Pair Flash look like a tarted-up Die Hard spinoff. They probably figured that it made them The Microsoft of Anime™, so it must be working. I get the feeling that there's still a preponderance of focus on the male animé customer which informs the marketing, thinking that all the boys care about is explosions and T&A and maybe a little exploding T&A (for good measure).

Well, whatever. If I relied on marketing to help me make my purchasing decisions, I'd probably have a whole bunch of old DBZ discs and a bad attitude about all these suck-ass 'toons.

[bctaris]

How did Geneon and CPM fare in this regard when they were active, for curiosity's sake?

And I suppose I shouldn't complain anymore about lax or short-sighted PR from some of these companies when the very foundation of the practice--simple marketing--isn't up to snuff. Makes sense, now, I suppose.

[ronq]

Originally Posted by Chris Beveridge

It’s almost disheartening because it’s all Marketing 101 material and it’s barely getting done in a 50/50 manner across the remaining companies. And by this time you’d think they’d all know better. All that one can assume is that they’re understaffed and just unable to put in the effort with it. Which in turn makes you wonder what other corners are being cut and that’s even more disheartening, especially since it requires just a bit of effort to put on a very professional face for the casual audience and something that inspires some confidence among the hardcore.

After spending a year in the marketing department of one of these companies, I can say that understaffing is a contributor. I came in on the heels of massive layoffs. While some people were top notch, quite a few were quite apathetic and it showed in their work. Granted, we can attribute all of the lack of professionalism to understaffing, but it certainly didn't help.

[Tyrenol]

Hey, Chris.

Did you try contacting ADV and Funimation by phone?

As much as I understand where you're coming from; let's not rush to judgement here.

[Caesar]

Originally Posted by ronq

After spending a year in the marketing department of one of these companies, I can say that understaffing is a contributor. I came in on the heels of massive layoffs. While some people were top notch, quite a few were quite apathetic and it showed in their work. Granted, we can attribute all of the lack of professionalism to understaffing, but it certainly didn't help.

Very interesting and very understandable. I'm sure everyone was remakable underpaid as well.

[karen0586]

It made me laugh because it actually happens.

[Chris Beveridge]

Originally Posted by bctaris

How did Geneon and CPM fare in this regard when they were active, for curiosity's sake?

And I suppose I shouldn't complain anymore about lax or short-sighted PR from some of these companies when the very foundation of the practice--simple marketing--isn't up to snuff. Makes sense, now, I suppose.

Both were pretty good, but had their differences. CPM put all their stuff online monthly with boxart and detailed specs and Geneon did a lot of PR stuff after initial title/date/pricing only solicitations. Geneon had a good artwork section for press but it was infrequently updated as it went along. When it was good, it was very good.