Shueisha: Hide-and-Seek Advertising

Name	Position	Company
Hirozumi Takakusaki	Creative Director	Dentsu
Yasuharu Sasaki	Copywriter	Dentsu
Eita Nakajima	Copywriter	Dentsu
Masakazu Ido	Copywriter	Dentsu
Kazuko Marubashi	Art Director	Dentsu
Shinya Seino	Art Director	Dentsu
Junichiro Hayashida	Strategic Planner	Dentsu
Yusuke Yagishita	Strategic Planner	Dentsu
Soichi Ono	Strategic Planner	Dentsu
Kazuhiro Watanabe	Director (Mobile)	Impress Comic Engine
Motoki Iha	Designer (Graphic)	TAKI CORPORATION
Hisa Ohta	Designer (Graphic)	TAKI CORPORATION
Shinichiro Nakano	Designer (Web)	Launch
Yoshikazu Nagashima	Agency Producer	Dentsu
Michiko Ishihara	Agency Producer	Dentsu
Naganobu Asano	Producer	Puzzle
Morihito Kumano	Producer	Eredie2
Junichi Murata	Producer	Aoi Advertising Promotion
Tetsuya Nakamura	Director (Film)	Aoi Advertising Promotion
Ken Okabayashi	Animatior	Launch
Yumiko Fukuda	Animatior	Launch
Masumi Yamada	Production Manager	Puzzle
Kunihiko Yoshino	Production Manager	Puzzle

"Jump Square" was to be launched in November 2nd, 2007 with the objective of selling 500,000 copies, targeting high-schoolers and twenty-somethings who are not avid manga readers. The strategy: 'hide-and-seek advertising.' The main medium: The Internet, commonly used among the target demographics. We purposely designed a website that made it 'difficult to access relevant information,' and abruptly closed the website with the start of the campaign. The idea was to install a sense of hunger for Jump Square information, by depriving the users of that very information. But loopholes were also prepared for the inquisitive visitors; deeper the user searched, more and more enticing information appeared. The strategy succeeded in entertaining users to 'search out' information as well as instilling a sense of privilege, to be able to 'tell their friends about their finds.'

For the target demographic, what triggers their urge to buy a newly launched manga magazine? Not the magazine itself, but the mangas inside that they want to read. Creative development focused on creating an illusion that users were reading parts of the manga: Manga characters from the magazine used as messengers, movies of manga artists at work, previews of the mangas provided as viral cell phone contents, 'circle-the-Yamanote-loop-line-to-finish-the-manga' ad, and the message, 'You can't understand mangas unless you read them.' The idea was not only to publicize the magazine launch, but also to instill a sense of familiarity with the manga works, and make the readers want to read the 'next issue,' even if they haven't seen the actual magazine yet.

While we organized the 'contents' and 'contact points' (website, cell phone contents and transportation advertising) to instill the sense of familiarity, we also aired TV commercials at the start of the campaign, to gain the attention of the target demographics. The commercials were only aired during the late night time slot when the target demographic viewership is high. While almost all commercials in Japan ask viewers to 'search the website for details,' our commercial implored viewers, 'Do not search the Internet for Jump Square,' taking advantage of the human urge 'to do something you shouldn't do.' This succeeded in inducing the target demographics from mass advertisement to the main media, the website, and in kick-starting the campaign.

The website recorded four million accesses and 30,000 blog entries referred to the site. The inaugural issue sold out 500,000 copies in three days, and 10,000 copies of a magazine's inaugural issue was reprinted for the first time in 32 years in Japan.