Easy methods to market your sport to Japanese audiences

Hello, I’m Sissi, the advertising and marketing supervisor at SIGONO, the studio behind OPUS: Echo of Starsong. Whereas there’s no scarcity of recommendation on pitching to Western media, perception into working with Japanese media stays scarce. Media publicity is essential for video games venturing into abroad markets, and Japan’s gaming trade isn’t any exception. With many Japanese media organizations boasting thriving Twitter communities, getting printed by them opens the door to tens of millions of players on Twitter — a possibility no savvy marketer ought to miss!

Nevertheless, the insular nature of Japanese society makes correct localization and a deep understanding of their customs important. On this article, I’ll share a complete account of our media outreach efforts, detailing how we tailor-made partaking advertising and marketing supplies that resonated with the Japanese market. I’ll additionally spotlight what I believe we did proper from a marketer’s perspective, utilizing OPUS: Prism Peak as a case research. So buckle up and let’s dive into the fascinating world of Japanese media outreach! I hope you discover it useful!

Various Japanese media protection of OPUS: Prism Peak

Profitable media outreach is all concerning the particulars, however earlier than we dive into the nitty-gritty, let’s talk about a fundamental precept for approaching the media:

You should drive visitors to the media.

Assume from their perspective, and talk of their language.

With that in thoughts, let’s discover the first supplies, supplementary supplies, and key concerns for efficient Japanese media outreach:

Major Materials 1: Picture Belongings

Picture asset creation is all about one factor: driving visitors to media. All business media, no matter location, share the frequent objective of accelerating views, clicks and engagement on their platforms and inside their communities.

So how will we assist drive visitors to media? By offering supplies that may pique the curiosity of their readers — in any other case referred to as traffic-generating belongings. When pitching to media, be certain the supplies you present meet each of those standards for media websites and communities:

Ease of Use:

Familiarize your self with frequent picture necessities for main media retailers and ship materials that doesn’t require cropping, is straightforward for journalists to make use of, and exhibits the complete influence of the picture.

Consideration-grabbing:

Maintain your crew motivated by celebrating their inventive skills and sustaining a optimistic perspective. Earlier than launching your advertising and marketing efforts, create mockups of your artist’s photographs on the goal retailers to gauge their attention-grabbing potential. In the event that they don’t fairly hit the mark, return to the artist along with your mockup and ask for assist.

The definitions of “ease of use” and “attention-grabbing” might differ relying on the nation and media you’re concentrating on, so do your analysis earlier than pitching!

caption: Gorgeous Characteristic Artwork for OPUS: Prism Peak, prepared for journalist use!

In my emails to media contacts, I sometimes connect the next two sorts of picture belongings:

Static Belongings:

Characteristic artwork — Ship in each vertical (1417 x 1984, < 1MB) and horizontal (1920 x 1080, < 1MB) codecs. Because of the number of media layouts, offering each orientations provides media the flexibleness to make the most of them, making certain that the complete enchantment of the visible belongings is showcased.

Animated Belongings:

GIF (< 1MB) — With many Japanese media retailers having a robust Twitter presence, creating partaking animated photographs is essential, as Twitter customers love GIFs. Making a compelling GIF may also help you faucet into this enormous viewers. For instance, considered one of our GIFs acquired 380K views from a single publish on Denfaminicogamer (電ファミニコゲーマー). Attaining comparable attain via paid promoting would require a considerable funds, making GIFs an economical advertising and marketing technique.

So, begin creating eye-catching static and animated picture belongings that resonate with Japanese media and players, and watch your outreach efforts soar!

For tips about how you can make an important GIF, I like to recommend this basic speak by fellow PR skilled Thomas Reisenegger:

When you’ve created your advertising and marketing supplies, there are two vital duties you might want to full to make sure your belongings are well-prepared:

Optimize the file measurement:

Remember that many journalists desire to examine electronic mail on their telephones. Ideally, your total electronic mail ought to be below 5MB to make sure that content material is displayed instantly upon opening. Think about if an electronic mail took over 5 seconds to load, certainly you’d develop impatient and need to shut it as nicely? Additionally, if a journalist is utilizing an iPhone app to examine electronic mail, GIFs bigger than 1MB would require a click on to view. Maintain your GIFs below 1MB in order that they present up routinely.

Take note of file naming:

Earlier than your electronic mail is opened, the attachment filename seems beneath the topic line within the recipient’s inbox. If the filename is just too random, your electronic mail might seem like spam or a business message. It’s finest to make use of the filename to make the contents of the attachment clear. Though it’s usually missed, the filename carries as a lot weight as the e-mail topic and will by no means be underestimated.

By optimizing file sizes and naming conventions, you possibly can create a sophisticated {and professional} impression along with your advertising and marketing supplies, growing the possibilities of capturing the eye of Japanese media.

Major Materials 2: Letter

When writing a letter to the Japanese media, your content material ought to accomplish three targets:

Be sure you embrace the next key factors in your letter:

Elevator pitch

Craft a strong sentence that highlights your sport’s distinctive promoting level. There are a lot of assets on GDC Talks about creating an elevator pitch. Personally, I like to recommend these two movies:

On this speak, Mike Rose breaks down elevator pitches into the “Hook” and the “Kicker” and shares his thought course of.

This video explores how “This Conflict of Mine” discovered their positioning, enchantment and created their elevator pitch.

Recreation Introduction

An attention-grabbing, correct, and concise description of the sport, concerning the size of a Steam description. Ideally, it ought to be written in order that journalists can copy and paste it straight. We all know journalists are busy. Making their lives simpler, lowering their workload, and decreasing the edge for protection can improve your sport’s possibilities of being coated.

Endorsements

In case your sport lacks reputation or distinctive information angles, superstar endorsements, awards, or consideration in sure markets may give journalists extra incentive to cowl your sport.

Japanese letter etiquette/format

When submitting to Japanese media, attempt to use a proper tone that’s totally different from Western media. Under is the construction I usually use:

caption: Masterfully illustrated by me!

You may simply discover skilled explanations for greetings, closings, cushion phrases (クッション言葉), you possibly can simply discover skilled explanations via Google, so I gained’t elaborate right here.

As for the location of the GIFs, I typically place them earlier than or after the primary content material, and typically sprinkle them all through, relying on the particular GIF content material or present wants.

Signature

Japanese emails sometimes embrace the corporate identify, signature, electronic mail, and tackle. My emails embrace the corporate identify, signature, official firm web site, and one or two hyperlinks to the corporate’s social media. Together with your organization’s official web site exhibits professionalism, and together with one or two social media hyperlinks which are energetic within the Japanese market can display your organization’s presence and recognition in Japan, growing the recipient’s confidence in overlaying your sport.

By crafting a compelling letter that addresses these key factors, you possibly can successfully interact with Japanese media and improve the possibilities of your sport being observed.

Major Materials 3: Trailer

Once you obtain a trailer for advertising and marketing functions, your first job is to offer it an acceptable identify. Label them in media-speak to successfully say, “Hey, right here’s one thing to cowl. Derek Lieu’s “Recreation Trailer Sorts and When to Make Them” summarizes a number of frequent trailer varieties and their content material:

When pitching to Japanese media, pay attention to the “Japanese-English” phrases they usually use. For instance, use “PV” (Promotion Video) as a substitute of “trailer” as it’s extra acquainted to them. Different generally used phrases embrace ティーザー (teaser) for teaser trailers and 予告編(Trailer). Be sure to use the suitable terminology to keep away from confusion and assist them perceive the content material of the trailer.

Additionally, optimize your YouTube video and thumbnail:

YouTube Video Description

Add your video to YouTube and supply a media hyperlink for straightforward direct embedding by media retailers. Create an enticing YouTube video description, embrace a call-to-action (CTA), and add a hyperlink to your Steam web page to direct viewers there.

YouTube Thumbnail

1280×720 (below 2MB) — Most Japanese media retailers desire to embed YouTube movies straight, so the thumbnail is essential in a media report. Method its preparation with the identical dedication as you’d for function artwork.

caption: The significance of a charming YouTube video thumbnail

By tailoring your sport trailers and thumbnails for the Japanese market, you possibly can successfully interact with Japanese media and maximize the influence of your advertising and marketing efforts.

Supplementary Materials 1: Japanese Recreation Web page

Though not required, minimizing language boundaries is all the time helpful when getting into overseas markets. In case your sport helps Japanese, bear in mind to pick out the suitable settings in your Steam web page.

Whereas Japanese journalists clearly desire a sport to help Japanese, from my expertise this doesn’t essentially affect their willingness to cowl it.

A easy manner to consider it’s to interrupt it down into 4 eventualities:

Supplementary Materials 2: Japanese Press Package

Media professionals obtain a whole bunch of e-mails on daily basis. Goal for concise communication and supply complete sport info in a Japanese press package that enhances the e-mail. The e-mail ought to generate curiosity in protection, whereas the press package gives full sport particulars. journalists can discover the press package on their very own to search out acceptable materials to cowl.

A press package sometimes consists of:

Within the case of SIGONO, our power lies within the collected awards and recognitions for the OPUS collection. Together with this info within the press package will increase the media’s confidence in our work and persuades them to cowl our new releases. I really feel assured in its impact as a result of again and again, I see articles that introduce the OPUS collection as “multi-award successful” and “highly-rated”.

caption: Supplementary supplies to help journalists in creating complete and fascinating studies

By now, it is best to have a strong understanding of how you can successfully assist journalists create compelling tales! Whereas there are a lot of intricate particulars, the core precept stays:

You should drive visitors to the media.

Assume from their perspective, and talk of their language.

When you’ve got a top quality product and have evaluated your crew’s return on funding, attempt these strategies and share your profitable methods with me!

About OPUS: Prism Peak

OPUS: Prism Peak is a story journey the place your selections result in divergent endings. Play as a photographer misplaced in an ethereal realm, and unveil its mysteries along with your digital camera to discover a manner residence.

When you’re , you possibly can test it out right here:
https://retailer.steampowered.com/app/1947910/OPUS_Prism_Peak/

This text was initially printed at https://medium.com/@sigono?p=1d9d8a7b256b