Before I begin the actual content of this issue's column, let me eat my crow...

In my last column I painted a rather bleak picture of the state of advertising among American Anime companies. I have recently learned, however, that in some cases the marketing budget for a particular title is probably closer to $30,000 for a new release!
Of course, while this is 200% more than my initial estimate, it is scarcely more significant to mainstream film marketing. When compared to the industry average of $15 million dollars for just the film release, the comparison percentage goes from 0.067% to 0.2%. But hey! On those Anime hits like GHOST IN THE SHELL, we might be getting close to 0.5% of a Hollywood budget. Anime will be significant yet!

Last time, I concluded by comparing strategies and effectiveness from different Anime companies. However, the reality is that that was a tease since there are really only two basic tiers of advertising: those who do (CPM, Manga, AD Vision, Pioneer), and those who don't (Books Nippan, the Right Stuf, AnimEigo). Within these tiers, there are some small differences but many more similarities. All companies seem to start with a basic advertising plan that they will use for 90% of their product. Then, if the video turns into a hit, they will continue to advertise the film beyond their normal time frame in an attempt to continually generate interest in the product. The other 10% of the Anime films seem to be predesignated as hits and are advertised broadly before release in anticipation of success. These titles would be those such as BATTLE ARENA TOSHINDEN(CPM), GHOST IN THE SHELL (Manga Entertainment) or NEON GENESIS EVANGELION (AD Vision).
Unfortunately, there is no real effort made to emphasize characteristics of films or to play off any strengths besides the box art and the story summary. AD Vision may be stronger in utilizing exciting graphics, and Central Park or AnimEigo may have started using poorly reproduced or substandard art for their box covers, but other than a few other minor differences there is no strategy employed on a title by title basis.
A few attempts have been made by our industry to crack open other markets such as video games, mainstream video, etc. Which, admittedly is a form of focusing on specific titles, but by and large this strategy is only followed for those titles that would have cookie cutter relationships with the other markets and that have already been pegged for success (specially in video game based videos). This strategy is not applied consistently or in general to fantasy titles, or sci-fi titles, etc.
Naturally the reason for this boils down to the amount of resources devoted to marketing in the Anime Industry. Our nascent industry is notoriously cheap and more concentrated on getting out the next title than really making the most of the titles they already have. Without having any time to plan strategy and without any support or incentive from superiors, most marketing and advertising people simply do their job at the most basic levels and then punch out in the evening. This leads to a paint-by-numbers procedure for releasing videos that promotes efficiency at the expense of creative focus or marketing strategy. There are simply more tasks to do than hours to do them in. So for now I will stop pointing fingers, and go back to theory.
If there is a top tier for successful titles, is there a bottom tier for crappy titles? And why do people release such garbage to begin with? Why does it even get produced?

In inverse order: How does crap get made? Its not like anyone sets out to create a crappy product. Someone somewhere in the creative team or in the financing team truly believes in the product, and then sells the rest of the involved parties on that project either through logic, or the bribe of a paycheck. It is possible that only one single individual may possess the vision that the title is a good one, but if that one person is powerful enough, and has enough money, they can have their way. While it is possible that all of the advocates may change their mind after the product is finished, all that is usually seen in the beginning are the infinite possibilities for success.
Soon, however, reality begins to show it's ugly head. The budget will be too tight, or a crucial piece of equipment will fail, generating sub-standard animation or a poor quality final product. Or the story will be too poorly written, or the director's daughter will decide that she wants to be a voice actress on the same day that the producer's wife will be caught sleeping with the script editor, resulting in a product that is unsalvageable in other content but that may look fantastic. Does this mean that the production will stop? Hardly. Usually in these cases, there has been so much money invested in the film that it is too late to pull out. They have to finish the film and get whatever money they can get for it.
Now that the crap is made, what do you do? If you admit that the film is crap, who will still want to buy it unless your name is Ed Wood? There's the Catch 22. You still have to pretend your crap is just as good as the real thing and way better than whatever crap (including any stuff nominated for Oscar's) that your competitor is releasing or else the bills will not get paid.
Why license it, though? First, crap means different things to different people. To "hard core" Anime fans, crap can mean anything dubbed and culturally sanitized for the US Market. For an animation purist, KIMAGURE ORANGE ROAD is crap because there is too much limited animation., just as GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES may be crap to an action fan because its pace is too slow. Of course, for our Anime industry, crap is anything that doesn't sell, and you can't usually find that out until you try to sell the product. Second, politics makes strange bed fellows. For example, I would sign any contract that forced me to release an East German animated sequel to the SMURFS if that contract also contained the rights to a couple of GUNDAM TV series. Not only does a company not know for sure that the product will fail, but there may be a lot of political rewards for kissing up to a licenser and taking whatever crap is offered...
Finally, does this library of crap get their own, low budget tier in the marketing budget? No. Even though this policy puts any company (a production studio, a distributor, Ford, a licenser, etc.) in the awkward position of having to claim that every product is wonderful, and potentially damage a company's reputation for good taste and jeopardize their future credibility. However, most companies feel that they have no choice. Once they have a title, a company is obligated to give the title a fair shot to succeed in the market place, and anything less than a sparkling review from the releasing company is prone to setting off the little alarms in the heads of the distributors and retailers who have no other source of information than the ads.
Additionally, there is always the very real chance that the show will develop an audience. For example: M.D. GEIST, while not terribly popular in Japan, was so popular in the US, that a second film was commissioned mainly for the domestic market. Besides, there are an equal number of examples of popular titles in Japan that were pegged for being sure fire hits, that sunk quickly into obscurity here, such as NADIA.
The majority of the Anime industry currently uses one basic style of marketing that is moderately effective and mostly generic. While there are a few stand out titles, the main discriminating features of the marketing campaigns are budgetary not creative or effectiveness. This flavorless approach to marketing is a result of two issues: resources (or lack thereof), and a fear of letting a title stand on its own merits where it could overshadow other titles, or be overshadowed by other titles. This is by no means a unique situation since this philosophy is an extension of that used by the major Hollywood studios. However, our Anime industry does lack the gems of marketing such as the campaign for the original BATMAN movie. I personally believe that, as our industry matures and becomes more competitive, marketing will become a larger concern as companies strive to dominate the increasingly competitive Anime market. This will not only make Anime more prominent in the US, but also more prestigious as our industry develops the same sophistication and professionalism as mainstream video and film productions.