Anime is the ultimate marketing solution.

Haven't you noticed how often you see corporate brand commercials using anime lately?

Currently in Japan, communication leveraging anime—which holds high interest among younger demographics (teens to twenties)—is becoming mainstream.

Amidst this trend, 'Dentsu Japanimation Studio' was launched, a collaboration between Japanese animation studios and Dentsu Inc. to solve clients' marketing challenges. This series will explore how Japanimation, Japan's proud animation heritage, can serve as a powerful marketing solution.

<Table of Contents>
▼ "DJS" Launches to Solve Marketing Challenges with Anime!
▼What Are "Original Short-Form Anime" and Their Limitless Potential?
▼ Focusing on Creating Works, Not Just Ads

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"DJS" Launches to Solve Marketing Challenges with Anime!

For Japan's younger generation, anime is far more familiar than many marketing professionals imagine.

According to Dentsu Inc.'s latest survey, interest in anime reached 64.3% among those in their 20s and 72.4% among late teens. For today's youth, anime is no longer a niche hobby; it's becoming an everyday, familiar part of their lives.

Source: Dentsu Inc. Web Quantitative Survey, December 2018 (20,000 respondents nationwide). Dentsu Inc.'s proprietary survey measured interest in anime on a 10-point scale by generation. Very high interest levels were found among younger demographics like late teens and those in their 20s.

For the younger generation, anime is no longer subculture; it is mainstream culture.

Marketing professionals particularly focused on "tapping into the youth market" might consider including anime as an option. Considering the future where anime becomes increasingly mainstream, it represents a marketing solution with limitless potential.

Moreover, anime's effectiveness isn't limited to Japan's youth. With Japanese animated films achieving global hits in recent years, the overseas popularity of Japanese anime has reached unprecedented heights.

For example, in a recent survey of 6,600 foreigners across 20 countries and regions, 34% of respondents cited "anime and manga" as something they consider "excellent about Japan."

Source: Dentsu Inc. Japan Brand Survey 2018 (6,600 respondents across 20 countries/regions)

However, compared to this level of attention on Japanese animation, there are still relatively few examples of its effective marketing utilization in overseas markets.

We aim to evolve anime-based marketing solutions into more sophisticated and extensive offerings.

Driven by this vision, Dentsu Inc. launched the cross-group organization "Dentsu Japanimation Studio" (DJS) on October 22 this year (Anime Day).

≪News Release≫
Dentsu Inc. Establishes Structure to Produce Animated Video Content Enhancing Brand Appeal in Collaboration with Leading Animation Studios
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*Clicking each image will take you to the respective animation studio's website.

DJS collaborates with Japan's world-renowned animation studios to create optimal "animation utilization solutions" for clients. The number of partner animation studios is expected to continue growing.

Furthermore, we will establish a support system leveraging Dentsu Inc.'s global network to serve clients not only domestically but worldwide.

Moreover, leveraging Dentsu Inc.'s unique strengths, we can produce content and provide feedback based on consumer research results from a marketing perspective. Our project members are a diverse team of specialists spanning a wide range of professions, from right-brain to left-brain thinkers.

With expertise in anime marketing, Dentsu Inc. brings together numerous professionals to produce custom-made original anime optimized for corporate branding.

What are "Original Short-Form Anime" with infinite possibilities?

DJS will pursue a wide range of initiatives in the field of "Anime × Marketing Solutions" going forward.

While we have already supported several campaigns for domestic and international clients, our current specialty lies in creating "original short-form anime that optimally aligns the brand's message with the anime story" as web content. We combine this with advertising placements and strategic PR to spread information, primarily targeting younger demographics.

This solution offers high flexibility since it plans "original anime" without utilizing existing IP (intellectual property), enabling the creation of "content optimized for the brand." This series will introduce actual case studies we've handled.

Another key feature is planning each piece of content as a short-form anime of approximately 3 minutes.

This 3-minute length allows for strong storytelling without being "too short," unlike 15-second commercials. Compared to TV anime or anime films, it's also "not too long," making viewers want to watch it repeatedly and share it on social media. Those who receive the share are also more likely to watch it casually, thinking "it's only 3 minutes."

Furthermore, from a sharing perspective, research indicates that "Japanese anime fans have higher information sensitivity and dissemination power compared to non-anime fans." This means that if you create good content (works), there is a tendency for people to actively share it.

Source: Dentsu Inc. Web Quantitative Survey, November 2017 (20,000 respondents nationwide) The information sensitivity and dissemination power of anime fans is truly remarkable. Truly excellent web content (works) can achieve explosive growth in a short period.

Furthermore, adding subtitles in various languages enables Japanese clients' works to be shared overseas. Since these are short-form anime easily watchable online from start to finish, they reach not only "overseas anime fans" but also "overseas non-anime fans."

The potential for reach is limitless, extending beyond Japanese anime fans to overseas anime fans and even those who are indifferent to anime.

For these reasons, at DJS, we believe that deploying these "original short-form animations" on the web represents one viable solution for animation-based marketing at this stage.

That said, the best solution naturally varies depending on the client and external environment. We are also implementing different approaches overseas, which we hope to introduce in future installments.

We are committed to creating works, not just advertisements.

In pursuing "Anime × Marketing Solutions," we hold a core belief dear.

That is:

not creating anime advertisements, but creating anime works.

It might sound strange for someone from an advertising agency to say this,

It might sound strange for someone from an advertising agency to say this, but we share the philosophy of "Prioritize the work. Treat advertising as secondary" with our clients and drive projects forward based on this.

This is evident from our analysis of past projects: even without prominently featuring products or services, delivering an outstanding "work" as a standalone piece actually fosters more positive feelings toward the company or brand among viewers.

Ultimately, being a "good anime work" itself becomes content that elevates the company's brand value.

We are increasingly confident that our three-step approach delivers solid marketing results.

Beyond simply creating good anime works, we are accumulating Dentsu Inc.'s unique know-how in "concept making" methods to optimize anime works for brands, as well as in methods for verifying effectiveness.

Every time we analyze the acquired data, we strongly realize that "marketing solutions" and "creating good anime works" can coexist—and must coexist.

This has been Takashi Mutoh, a DJS member and Strategic Planner!

Next time, a DJS content producer will introduce examples of original short-form anime in Japan.

【Contact Information】
Dentsu Inc. Dentsu Japanimation Studio
Email: japanimation@dentsu.co.jp