Real Yakitate! Ja-pan
Some delivery guy just visited my house to bring me a mysterious package. I was not expecting any parcels since none of my preorders are due for release yet, so it was quite a surprise.
What I found inside was bread. Nine pieces of bread… It’s not everyday that I receive home deliveries full of nothing but bread, so you could say that it’s quite a momentous occasion.
It turns out that this is yet another promotional gimmick by Animax Asia, a regional branch of Sony’s Animax satellite network. They will soon be airing Yakitate! Ja-pan in Singapore and other Asian countries where the channel operates. In Singapore, they have partnered up with BreadTalk to promote the show.
BreadTalk is a really popular bread and pastry franchise in Singapore. It was founded in 2000 and has now expanded to other Asian countries. You can read about the in-store promotions on Anime Desho Desho?.
By the way, if you’ve not heard of Yakitate! Ja-pan, it is an anime/manga series about people making bread. That’s about it. It’s also oddly successful, but not my cup of tea. The “Ja-pan” part in the title is a pun as “pan” also means bread in Japanese.
While I think it’s great that Animax Asia has recently been going all out to engage the anime fan community in Singapore (as opposed to the other guy), I question the effectiveness of their chosen methods. Of course, I am grateful for the free bread and all, but I would’ve preferred something that is more relevant to the series itself…
But I guess this can’t be helped. Animax Asia is just a cable channel and not a DVD distributor, so they are disadvantaged by the fact that they don’t have actual physical product samples which they can give away to reviewers. Still, I wonder if there are better ways to go about this whole viral marketing approach.
That said, I was feeling particularly lazy to buy dinner today, so the timing is just perfect! Thanks for the free bread guys! :P
On another note, this is the only real reason why you should watch Yakitate! Ja-pan:
The bread came with a two-page press release but oddly the air schedule is nowhere to be found. According to the website, Yakitate! Japan will start airing on Animax Asia from 28th November at 8.00pm. So uh, watch it! If you want to… Or something.
I can’t believe I am selling out for bread. This blog has hit a new low.
November 14th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
So…
How does the bread taste?
November 15th, 2007 at 9:45 am
ok, my crap about Japan #44 aside, now if they start to feature new related bread in store when the series air it can bring both industries to a new leve.
Imagine releasing melonpan when tsukino’s sister competed with azuma; anpan for ep1…etc
^_^
November 15th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
I has bread too! But the delivery man outed my secret identity to my parents. *sob*
November 15th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
I came across the bread when I was in Singapore last week. Thought it was a neat tie-in promotion, though I wished they had more crazy varieties like the show. ;)
November 16th, 2007 at 3:49 pm
You have sold yourselves to the Devil of Bread! [/rant]
I, for one, relish to see very good examples of Good PR vs Bad PR in animé fandom.
November 19th, 2007 at 12:27 am
If I have remembered it right Yakitate Ja-Pan is also known as 日式麵包王 in Hong Kong, where TVB channel has the anime dubbed. I’ve only watched about 3 episodes from my friend. If one likes a good laugh with some exaggerations on bread baking, then this is enjoyable to watch.
Oh by the way hope the bread tastes nice.
November 23rd, 2007 at 7:30 am
epic, oh so epic. hey i wouldnt mind getting more bread tho