Engaging a Global Audience – Content Marketing Lessons from Japan’s Entertainment Giants
Japan’s entertainment industry, which includes Japanese casinos, the Japanese iGaming world, manga, animes, cuisine, cinema, TV programs, music, video games, and doujinshi was projected to reach a total revenue of $2.15 billion in 2022, with an expected CAGR of 10.32% between 2022 and 2027 and a projected market volume of $3.37 billion by 2027. The anime industry itself has witnessed an astounding growth rate, with the market doubling in size over the past decade alone.
In other words, the entire entertainment industry in the country is steadily growing, and one reason for this is the massive global following primarily associated with anime and video games. This comes as a result of the strategic content marketing employed by developing companies.
For example, prestigious studios like Studio Ghibli, which is a Tokyo-based studio well-known for its strong presence in the animation industry and other media formats like TV commercials and films, have started using international film festivals and iconic video streaming platforms including Netflix to expand their global reach.
This way, the studios do a good job showcasing the way content can successfully transcend cultural barriers. Let’s dig more into this topic.
The Link Between Streaming Platforms, Gen Z, and Anime
There is a strong bond between all three parties. Namely, the widespread of video-on-demand streaming platforms including Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, and Disney+ which started to offer numerous premium-quality anime titles worldwide has made the growth of Japanese-born anime series possible at a global level. Twitch, Kick, and other prestigious live streaming platforms for gamers accommodate a large number of iconic Japanese gaming streamers like Valorant-Jpn with close to 70,000 viewership, and IM_MITTIII with a view count of over 32,000.
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, when people were mostly confined to their homes, many embraced new habits, and some of the most popular of them were playing games online, including casino titles, and streaming online videos. Today, most people, with a special emphasis on Gen Z, enjoy watching video content on their handheld smart devices or TVs. To meet the growing demand, providers of streaming services began to focus on providing diversified state-of-the-art content from a large number of countries, Japan included.
The country’s entertainment industry then took advantage of this newly risen opportunity as a smart marketing strategy, anticipating that Gen Z digital natives now consider anime an essential part of the mainstream culture, and not something that is a niche hobby that only a few passionate fans enjoy.
The Effect of Zero-Lagging Broadcasting 
This has led to a series of important changes. For example, in the past, fresh animes were initially broadcast in Japan, where they would turn into hits, and only a few of them would make it to non-Japanese fans outside of the country. Nowadays, thanks to these on-demand video streaming services, many anime titles are streamed simultaneously in multiple languages all over the globe almost at the same time.
This zero-lagging broadcasting style has been harnessed by big anime production companies which started to cleverly provide information regarding their latest works to fans across the planet in both English and Japanese via their official accounts on YouTube and X. This has led to spectacular results, with some promo videos on certain official YouTube channels gathering a larger number of viewers outside of Japan than within the country’s borders.
All in all, these examples of how to engage a global audience from Japan’s entertainment giants are expected to be embraced by the entertainment industries in other countries in the following years.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
Comment
No comments found.