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’s Professional Profile on Muck Rack
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Ronn Torossian’s Articles on Entrepreneur
Ronn Torossian’s Blog Posts on Times of Israel
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