Difference between western and japanese tv commercials or magazine ads

Hellow, first of all i would like to introduce myself
My real name is Frederik and Im a first-timer on this forum.
Im a Belgian student. I study Marketing, and I have to make a work about the difference between japanese and western (europe, usa) commercials or magazine ads.
Or put it the other way, how would we have to change a european commercial to work in Japan. I stumbled on over this forum in my search for answers, and to be honest I havent found alot that will help me on my work.
Only conclusion that I made this far is that 3/4 of all internet ads are made in japanese cartoons.
So it would be nice if people who went to japan with some real life experience could help me out. It would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance
sincerly yours
Frederik

First, I would like to welcome you to the forum, I hope you stick around and see what we can learn from each other.

your question is an interesting one; I'm an American Graphic designer, and I did some casual observations of commercial design while I was there last year. I hope to do a more in-depth analysis in the near future. I'm afraid I couldn't tell you how Japanese ads differ from European ones, because I have seen very few European commercials. But I can tell you what I've observed in Japanese advertisements in my short time there.

One major thing I noticed was that the highest level of ad exposure was probably on the trains. As a student of the language, I found it a fun way to pass the time by reading and analyzing the ads hanging in the aisles and posted on the walls above the seats. Tokyo, having the highest population density, reflected the difficulties of grabbing peoples' attention in its advertisements. Primary palettes were the most popular; very high contrast and bright colors, with a lot of outlined text (meant to "pop" the characters). Space is money, so ads are cramped with information. This kind of ad was so prevalent, in fact, that the real attention-grabbing ads were the calmer ones with more white space (usually for big international companies that could afford it). Also, since it was summer, I found the ads with cooler palettes to be more refreshing and appealing.

I didn't pay as close attention to TV ads, but they varied depending on the product. A big difference I noticed was that they tended to use actual celebrities for the CM; American ads tend to have no-name actors in them, and I'm guessing European commercials are similar in that regard. Not very many cartoon ads that I noticed, but there were a few that used some sort of fictional non-human character alongside humans.

Another interesting tidbit that I noticed was that the train ads actually calmed down and became more relaxed as I moved west. The ads I saw in Kansai (in general, there were many exceptions) looked much more professional and, to me, were indicative of a clearly different demographic, and possibly a different school of thought regarding ad design.

That's all I can write for now, hope it helps a bit.

Yes well as i looked further over the net, i found things that look very close to what you say.
Billboards are indeed very crowdy and ads are crowded with info and with very VERY bright colors.

First, welcome to Jref. Now, about magazine and print ads, I think nice_gaijin described it pretty well, though obviously it is different depending on the magazine, I've read quite a few different types of peridicals from Japan, from throw-away manga, to CyZo, to Samurai, to Area, to Sabra, to style guides like Cub, Men's Egg, and Men's Knuckle, Street Jack etcetera...

You'll find in a lot of magazines about style that there are virtually no articles, and there certainly aren't any reviews... The Japanese publishing industry is prevented from doing any serious reviews, or even saying anything negatively about people since those people will prevent that magazine from having access to future products and from the top gravure idols that might pose in those magazines, it has a real negative effect on consumer information.

The best way to think about Japanese CM is to actually watch them, so here are a few links to some I've picked at random from memory...

Pocky Regular 02

Futon CM w/ Waka Inoue

Ueto Aya DoCoMo CM

Koichi Sato, Kirin Beer CM

Aya Matsuura Prettz commercial

http://www.enjoy-cm.com/ ,a site designed by Japanese advertisers which ran several different ads starting in the summer of 2005 encouraging people to stop and enjoy commercial advertising on television. brilliance...

It's true, ads here in Japan feature a lot more celebs, though the defintion of a Japanese celeb is somewhat nonsensical as many Japanese celebrities have little or no talent, most of them merely serve as window dressing. There are no product comparisons made here, most ads simply serve to remind customers and prospects of the company name and possibly the product.

The cartoons, featuring Japanese comics or manga and animation are prominent, but not in every commercial. A lot of animal characters are used, sometimes by themselves, other times coupled with people. What's surprising at times is the lack of variety in some of the ads, with most being more cute than intelligent in their appeal. Interesting on TV are the mini 10-15 second TV ads which sometimes are double run, back to back of the same, usually annoying commercial.

gaijinalways said:

Interesting on TV are the mini 10-15 second TV ads which sometimes are double run, back to back of the same, usually annoying commercial.

Click to expand...

Yes, the pocky commercials come to mind, well before the 100th time you hear, anata mo watashi mo pocky!, you hope you never hear it again.

One of the assignments I have to make is : take a western magazine ad and adapt it for the Japanese consumer.

I found so far :

*Products sells better if there is a moviestar or anyone famous in the ads
*The flashier the better (bright colors)
*The picture of the product is in some ways less important then the Info and the marketingsentence next to it

Japanese media is ALL about image. They use celebrities in almost all the advertising. For a European CM to stand out, it'd have to be something pretty good... Like something funny or catchy (like a jingle that get's stuck in your head, or a phrase with a similar effect).

American infomercials save the world, at least they can break uneasy silence, though it was just my personal experience in Europe.