Anything shocking, surprising and funny have always been popular content topics in Japan, but we’re seeing something different recently. It seems marketers and editors recently overused this method, writing content that wasn’t interesting enough but was written in a way that came across as very shocking, surprising and funny. As an alternative there’s been a recent Japanese content marketing trend of editors and marketers latching onto something more moving, relatable and agreeable.
Low engagement story.
“You can’t come in because it’s not you” Shocking words Gyaruzone was told at the airport security.
High Engagement
How is it so different!? Before & after having a child. 4 episodes all mums can relate to.
Emotion Economics
Once Saint Mother Teresa said “They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel”. She is right of course. Something funny might give you a quick laugh. However when you make the audience feel something and move their emotion, they will remember better. Perhaps that’s why many Japanese companies make commercials that are teary stories targeting the audience pain, sadness & fear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDvxQew2sT4
Manga Marketing
Japanese content marketing is also experiencing a manga cartoon trend. This illustration based content normally features a story that is either moving, relatable and agreeable — normally made of 4 scenes per story. They tend to write stories from a 3rd person point of view, explaining everything but the key event or feature of the main story. The cartoon features a main character and the audience sees the key/main story unfolding through the eye of the main character.
This combination of the text explaining the story and the manga cartoon is definitely a trend that’s unique to the Japanese market. Is it because people are so used to comic books? Maybe. This is a much more economical option than special online content which features models especially arranged for the story Though it’s worth noting that Tokyo Calendar’s stories for example are always very engaging.
Manga marketing is more captivating than using stock photos. Also the Japanese mass market notoriously requires extra support to make them understand core messages. National TV programmes often keep repeating the same key message over and over, just within 5 mins in case someone didn’t understand. In our understanding Japanese people are comfortable with this way of communication, so therefore they expect us to provide extra help to understand things in general.
This style of content works very well with the mass market. It’s worth noting that this isn’t the perfect format for the luxury industry, although there’s always a chance in using this method for unexpectedness.
