Creating Buzz with "N・E・W・S" Newspaper Ads

Late last year, an "incident" occurred where the New York Times Tokyo bureau's phone lines temporarily became unreachable. This happened because Jang Keun-suk's fan club placed a full-page advertisement in the International Herald Tribune, the paper's overseas edition, as a 20th-anniversary gift for his debut. The ad became a hot topic online, leading to a flood of calls requesting back issues. When a life-size advertisement for the same celebrity appeared in the Asahi Shimbun, it also sparked a frenzy online, resulting in over 40,000 inquiries to the paper.

 

The buzz generated by newspaper ads isn't limited to celebrities. The Mainichi Shimbun's advertising campaign for Golgo 13, conducted in collaboration with Big Comic, featured the newspaper's chief editor appearing in an original manga. Its novel approach, including retweets, generated 1.8 million word-of-mouth mentions. While Golgo 13's high name recognition and broad fan base certainly played a role, the unexpected and entertaining nature of the project—seamlessly integrated into the newspaper, a medium often perceived as somewhat "stiff"—likely created a significant impact.

Golgo 13 Advertising Project in the Mainichi Shimbun  Mainichi Shimbun, November 7, 2012 Evening Edition / November 8, 2012 Morning Edition (Reprinted from Ad Studies)

 

According to a survey conducted by the Japan Advertisers Association, advertisers overwhelmingly cite "higher credibility for ads compared to other media" as the primary effect they expect from newspaper advertising. While newspapers' credibility has long been recognized, the social media era has renewed attention on their value as a news source. Simply "being featured in the newspaper" carries news value and inherently contains elements that people want to share with others.

 

Analyzing newspaper ads that became online sensations reveals four key themes.

N	(Notification)	:	Buzz amplifies when efforts are made to build anticipation, such as releasing information in advance or securing exposure across other media.
E	(Entertainment)	:	Content featuring celebrities or characters that people are already interested in spreads easily.
W	(Wonder)	:	Impactful expressions, unexpected twists, and other elements that create surprise are effective.
S	(Sympathy)	:	Incorporating elements that people want to share can create self-sustaining buzz.

 

The acronym for the keywords is "N·E·W·S". SNS and newspapers are said to be a good match. According to a Yomiuri Shimbun survey, about 60% of respondents cited newspapers as a "trustworthy source of information when posting on social media," ranking it top. While the methodology of newspaper ads being featured as topics on TV and rapidly spreading via broadcast media has existed for some time, attempts to leverage the relationship between SNS and newspapers for marketing are still in their infancy. We should pay attention to the new potential of newspaper ads as buzz media.

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