MeaganMulvany_StudioGhibliEmotionalCampaign

Presentation from International Public Relations about the unique marketing approach taken by Studio Ghibli during the creation of their most successful box office film, "The Boy and The Heron".

1. Hayao Miyazaki & Studio Ghibli: The Boy and the Heron Campaign Meagan Mulvany

2. The Boy and The Heron is a movie written by Hayao Miyazaki and produced through Studio Ghibli, a renowned production studio for beautifully hand-drawn animated films. A few of the most famous are Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, and so many more. These movies are primarily enjoyed by children in Japan, giving a large population of people nostalgic memories of the films and filmmaker.

3. For this specific campaign, I am going to go over the release of their most recent film, The Boy and The Heron. For a little bit of background, Hayao Miyazaki retired in 2013 (for the third time) after the release of another film called The Wind Rises, and fans took it that he would truly never return to the film-o-sphere. That being said, Studio Ghibli decided to take a unique approach to how they marketed their most recent film.

4. Due to Miyazaki’s reputation as an artist and Studio Ghibli’s reputation as a studio that produces beautiful films, they made the risky decision to take an “anti-marketing” approach. The studio believed that by associating Hayao Miyazaki with the film, it would gain enough hype to be a successful campaign.

5. Studio Ghibli opted to advertise with a single poster with simple artwork and only the phrase “How do you live?” or “How will you live?”. “You” in this sense being the collective “you”, similar to “y’all”, however there is no Japanese word for “y’all”. They put this up and soon after, fans everywhere started to buzz and the film gained traction within the target audience.

6. The target audience for this campaign is young adults born from 1980-2002 who grew up watching Studio Ghibli films and hold the studio in a sentimental regard. This campaign was received exceedingly well and the film was rated the highest earning opening weekend in the studio’s history, earning ¥1.83 billion, which is roughly $12 million U.S. dollars. Sometimes, taking risks is exactly the best way to make progress, and in this case, it worked better than anyone would have expected.