Unlike the previous topic, it is about a campaign (or marketing) that does not interest me very much.
Why about the one that I am “NOT” interested in?
It is because I’ve got quite a few inquiries. Since its start, from various people. “How do you interpret this?”, “What do you think they want to achieve?”, or “It’s been talk in town, but how effective is it?”
As it has been out there for sometime that it does not have a kind of momentum it used to have once, and that many professionals have already put their argument or evaluation, I do not think I can add any new perspective here. Just wanted to respond to those questions came to me.
It is about Softbank’s CM featuring SMAP. Just in case, here are links from YouTube for the very first one of this campaign and the recent one about color variation of phone.
How come this does not intrigue me much? I do not dislike the other campaign featuring a dog, instead.
It is probably because I somehow do not see/feel what they are doing as “marketing”, but as “rich man’s fight/scuffle”, firing bundles of buck out from a big cannon. Well, in a sense, you can say it is dead on Softbank’s character, so it may be very good “Brand building”, though.
Structure of campaign, at its beginning, was a “set-up documentary” with flood of TV media: A big group of talents representing Japan, who used to be a CM character of docomo, a competitive company representing Japan, is “transferring” to Softbank. Obviously fake movement.
It is indeed a kind of thing that only rich man can think of.
The second series featuring color variation of phone and iPhone is what they have been doing even before this campaign using Hollywood stars. Films of this campaign feel like “set-up documentary or fake making-film” as well.
But I kinda like its idea. I may tell you “If SMAP was not there, it should not have been bad advertising”. The world can become better place with full of fun and joy if the world is filled with many vivid colors. Not bad. Visuals are very beautiful.
In any case, as it is “rich man’s scuffle”, amount of media is horrendous. Or said differently, huge amount of media transforms the obvious “set-up documentary” to “obviously fake but entertaining movement”.
In net, to people like me, there is not much to learn. As consistency is power, I hope they continue this.
If I have to find any lesson here, it is that, unless you are trying hard to dump your money, do not take this approach of making so-so idea into “societal movement”.
Rather, work hard to develop strong idea. It is not easy, but I would suggest this way. When an idea is outstanding, you do not have to stir up it to make it “societal movement”. It will be.
“O.”
