This September is a magical month. Two Japanese animated films, The Shape of Sound, and Sword Art Online – Battle of the Sequences (hereinafter referred to as "Sword Art Online"), are scheduled to land in Chinese mainland theaters this month, something that has never happened before. Even a house next to me, who didn't even have much of a home, told me that I was going to live in a movie theater this month. In fact, this boom in the introduction of animated films continues since last year's Makoto Shinkai's "Your Name." The success of "Two Dimensions" also benefits from the popularity of the concept of "two-dimensional" in China at present.
Although the introduction is indeed successful, the new issue facing the Chinese importers is how to publicize the success of the animated film, so that the audience is willing to go into the cinema to see the movies they could only watch on the computer screen before.
Below, let's take a look at how the publicity team of "The Shape of Sound" and "Sword Art Online" did from the three time dimensions before, after the finalization and release.
Before finalization
At Chinajoy held in July last year, Sony announced for the first time that Sword Art Online will introduce Chinese mainland, not only opening the official website of the Chinese Simplified, but also releasing a preview of the Chinese.
The first time "Shape of Sound" was announced to introduce Chinese mainland was at the "14th National Cinema Domestic Film Promotion Conference" held in May this year. Among the promotional films provided by "Shape of Sound" by Fang Weiying Entertainment Pictures, a Chinese importer at this conference, one of them is "Shape of Sound".
On May 19, the official Microblog of The Shape of Sound released its first weibo.
On July 19, Sword Art Online's official Microblog posted its first weibo.
Before the finalization, the official blog of "The Shape of Sound" is very similar to the official blog of other general movies, and it is releasing screenshots or gifs of some wonderful clips in the movie. However, the official blog of "Sword Art Online" is biased, and the Weibo before the finalization is basically canvassing for the characters in Sword Art Online in B Meng.
After the file is finalized
From the micro-index point of view, on August 24 and 25 on Weibo to discuss "Sword Art Online" and "Shape of Sound" the number of people have a peak, the 24th is the "Sword Art Online" and "Shape of Sound" at the same time official announcement of the file.
The real situation is that "Sword Art Online" has confirmed the schedule on the 22nd, but I don't know why the official delay in official announcement, but waited until the 24th to release the final poster. This delay in official announcement led to the final announcement of these two animated films released on the same day, it can be said that "Sword Art Online" and "Shape of Sound" are very fateful.
After the file was finalized, the war was really started, and at this time, the propaganda would have to push out all kinds of propaganda materials that had been prepared for a long time, and here were very conventional propaganda routines, so I will not repeat it.
Returning to the aforementioned micro-index chart, the Shape of Sound had a record high on August 31, and the day before this milestone was the day when Dou Jingtong was released to compose and sing the promotional song "See You Again" for Chinese. Because of the major music apps on the shelves, many music apps promoted this song on the official blog the next day. Coupled with the forwarding blessing of Dou Jingtong's own fans, the topic discussion volume of "Shape of Sound" soared on this day, and the spread of "Shape of Sound" became more extensive.
On the other hand, "Sword Art Online" invited the theme song singer LiSA to sing a Chinese version of "Catch the Moment" for Chinese audiences.
From the perspective of time, I don't know whether it is a coincidence or a deliberate, this time "Shape of Sound" and "Sword Art Online" chose to disclose the material of the Chinese promotional song on the same day. However, in this campaign, from the perspective of promotion effect, the Chinese promotion song of "The Shape of Sound" is better, and the Chinese promotion song of "Sword Art Online" although the spread is not so wide this time, it has received unanimous praise among core fans.
On September 5, the premiere of "The Shape of Sound" was held in Beijing, and Dou Jingtong attended as a guest. This premiere was criticized for inviting a group of people to call in the cinema during the ending song. Because of the particularity of the theme of "The Shape of Sound", it is not suitable for calling at all in this scene. It was also from this premiere event that the Chinese publicity team of "Shape of Sound" began to be on the cusp of the storm. Mi Fan Entertainment, which planned and executed this premiere event, was also dug up by netizens.
However, the publicity of "The Shape of Sound" before the release of the film still has a more brilliant place, such as in their official WeChat and entertainment tickets, combined with the characteristics of this movie to launch several H5 mini games, which allows the audience to experience the style of the movie and roughly feel what the movie wants to express, and the spread of the H5 mini game is also very strong.
On September 4, Sword Art Online announced the Nine Cities On-Demand Screening Plan, covering several other cities where ACG enthusiasts are concentrated in the north, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. Among them, the Shanghai screening event invited the supervisor Tomohiko Ito, the character design Shingo Adachi, and the voice actress Kanae Ito who was dressed.
The above-mentioned Mi Fan Entertainment is also responsible for part of the publicity of Sword Art Online. According to the introduction of their official website, Mi Fan Entertainment and the up master of the animation area of the B station produced a video of quick explanation, which was listed in the top 4 of the animation sub-list and won the first page recommendation position. It also invited the popular coser and cartoonist to walk and shake, and the cos heroine Yasna came to the Bird's Nest, Beihai, and Sanlitun to restore Yasna who "fought in reality", and filmed it on Online platforms such as Weibo and Half-Dimensional to spread, "triggering fans to comment on it".
After the release
After the release of the two films, the two films have launched the activity of changing the ticket stub for the surrounding area in unison, which is a way to promote the audience's "two brushes", "three brushes" and even "multiple brushes", which is still very effective for fans-oriented movies such as animated films.
On the second day of release, Sword Art Online held a creator meeting in Beijing, inviting supervisor Tomohiko Ito, producer Shinichiro Kashiwata, and actor Kirito voice actor Akira Matsuoka to attend.
In the morning, Matsuoka was also specially invited to broadcast live in bilibili.
And "The Shape of Sound" This side has not held official offline activities so far during the release period, and on Weibo, it is mainly based on forwarding the audience's film reviews and public accounts, but the number of interactions and re-evaluations is still relatively low.
How exactly should Japanese animation films be promoted in China?
From the above cases of "The Shape of Sound" and "Sword Art Online", we can see that it is not an easy task for Japanese animation films to be well publicized in China.
Some marketing companies always think that "playing CALL", "house dance", "COSPLAY", "bullet screen cinema" is the "two-dimensional element", as long as the list of Japanese animation film promotion is a strong upward set, but never to consider whether it is appropriate, resulting in insiders looking embarrassed, outsiders look confused.
As a niche culture, the publicity of Japanese animation films in China can neither apply the publicity model of Hollywood blockbusters nor continue the publicity ideas of domestic youth films, but should combine the characteristics of the film itself and its audience to formulate its own independent publicity plan.
This year's Japanese animated films, in addition to "The Shape of Sound" and "Sword Art Online", "Fireworks in the Sky, from below? Or from the side? "Nap Princess" and "Kuroko's Basketball Theater Edition" are also reported to have the opportunity to be introduced into China. I hope that the publicity team of these films can recognize the shortcomings from the previous examples, formulate a publicity plan suitable for the film itself, and strive to push the box office of the film to a higher height.