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John Mccreery - ArticlesJohn McCreery is an anthropologist who has lived and worked in Japan since 1980. For thirteen of those years, he was a copywriter and creative director for Hakuhodo Incorporated, Japan's second largest advertising agency. In 1984, he and his wife and business partner Ruth McCreery founded The Word Works, a supplier of fine translation, copywriting, research and consulting services to firms doing business in Japan. You may also find articles by John at the TalentZoo.com website under Ads Without Borders.
Speak Softly and Simply, Foolishness SellsA preference for soft, simple, shizen “natural” communication has been noted repeatedly by advertising creatives and marketing research staff, who constantly find themselves talking about how important this is to clients who respond to shrinking or sluggish markets by demanding hard-hitting promotions that trumpet their products superiority. Bad News for Japan's TV IndustryIt is no news to anyone here that TV has been the major source of advertising agency revenue throughout the last half century or so. Japan is no exception. So, as someone who runs a business in the fringes of Japan's advertising industry, I couldn't help the sinking feeling I got when I read in yesterday's Asahi Shimbun a news report titled "Private Broadcasters Struggling with TV Commercial Recession." Breaking Through—working With Japanese CreativesCreatives and clients, with account service caught in the middle. Around the world, wherever advertising is made, their quarrels are legend. Japan is no exception.
On one side are seers and shamans whose search for the new and original may lead in directions that seem quite mad. In their ceaseless search for something new, creatives who fail to probe the limits of sense and taste are not doing the job their clients should be demanding. In advertising, job No. 1 is impact, and safe too often... Growing Up Japanese Style: Early Maturity Shapes Japan's Young ConsumersMarketing used to be easy. Assume a growing population. Capture a decent share of each new generation of consumers. With a constant share and natural increase in market size, the job was half done at the start. In today's Japan, however, marketers confront a real dilemma. Japan is one of the world's most dramatically aging societies, where the number of consumers over sixty-five is now larger than the number of those fifteen and younger. Each new generation is shrinking. Constant share means... Japan's Top Creators – Maki JunWhat are Japan's top creators thinking? It's a question that anyone considering working in Japan should ask. But for me, just now, it has a narrower focus. I have embarked on a research project to examine the social networks that link members of the teams whose ads appear in the TCC Nenkan (Tokyo Copywriters Club Annual). Social network analysis software shows me who are the most connected creatives at the top of the Tokyo advertising world, but who, after all, are these people? What are they... What are They Thinking in Japan - Hiroshi SasakiWhen I think of Hiroshi Sasaki, the first thing that comes to mind is my favorite Japanese beer commercials. They were for Kirin Ichiban Shibori beer. Ichiban Shibori was Kirin's response to Asahi Super Dry, which had turned the beer industry on its head and displaced Kirin Lager from its No. 1 position in the Japanese beer market. According to Sasaki, the naming came from a chance remark in a client meeting, when someone on the client side said, "It might be a bit more expensive to make... Girl PowerNo, this is not about teenagers, not even women in their 20s. This special section in the May 1 issue of Senden Kaigi is about women in their 30s or older, who are being perceived by marketers as a major force in the Japanese marketplace. It's a topic that I find fascinating, so I am taking a break from my series on the thoughts of top-ranked Japanese creatives to bring this report to you. What Do You Look for in a Copywriter?Here is a Japanese answer, by Japanese ad industry veteran, Keiji Nishimura, from the Copywriter's Bible (New Testament), in which Nishimura and other renowned copywriters pass on what they believe about their profession to young aspirants to it.
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