Mr. Kawada/YTV The goal was to capture the attention of the viewer who was about to switch the channel, or go off to the toilet. Also, we aimed at making the commercial characters more likeable by making them “co-star” with a real baseball team in an amusing manner. And finally, we aimed at having the viewers feel that they want to continue watching the commercial that immediately followed. MethodologyThis idea is used for Hanshin Tigers game broadcasts. The people of Osaka take both their Tigers and amusement very seriously. Just a few seconds before the game’s commercial break each time, images of Masai warriors are abruptly inserted alongside the players to draw attention and create humor. Their sudden appearance arouses the curiosity of humor loving Tigers fans, about to dash off to the toilet during the commercial break. A commercial for Masai Warriors is aired immediately after. The fans see that the CM is linked with the game broadcast, finds it funny, and ends up watching all of it. Every commercial break is preceded by a different version of the feature. Each time, the viewer confirms the amusing link with his favorite team’s program and the commercials, and misses the chance to skip the commercial break.BackgroundAbout OsakaThe majority of Japanese comedians come from Osaka. Even the city’s former mayor and the current Diet Member used to be professional comedians. This is a region whose residents consider a lack of humor as uncivilized or “uncool”.Masai WarriorsA company in Osaka sells a fermented milk product based on the staple of the African Masai tribe. This is a health drink that claims to be the source of “active physical energy” and “defensive physical stamina”.Hanshin TigersThe people of Osaka maintain a passionate love affair with this Osaka baseball team, even though it isn’t a particularly strong team. This year, a new, popular manager was appointed. Even before the season has started, the fan frenzy has built up to the level of a social phenomenon.ResultsThere were six opportunities to air this CM during the TV program in question. We compared the minute-by-minute ratings during the commercials with the program ratings (3-minute average) immediately prior to commercial breaks, and found that the rating for the CMs surpassed that of the program four times. The average ratings of the six CMs surpassed that of the average program rating (CM rating divided by programRating x 100=101.2%). The data showed that we fulfilled our initial goals of preventing rating declines and getting baseball fans to keep on watching the commercials. This simple process prevented the viewers from skipping the commercials, which seems easy to do but is actually quite difficult. Japanese terrestrial broadcast stations have tremendous power not only as broadcasting operators but also as content owners. This prevents us advertising agencies as well as clients from meddling with the contents of their programs. The media team came up with this plan and simultaneously negotiated with Osaka YTV, a station affiliated with NTV, the highest-rated of all five commercial broadcasting networks in Japan. The media team’s biggest contribution in this case was to devise, in line with this plane, a mechanism that successfully linked the program contents to the commercials. Everyone involved in TV advertising all over the world has one goal in common: to prevent viewers from skipping CMs. If we can succeed in making the viewers want to watch the next CM and thereby preventing easier said than them from skipping the CM, we can convey our advertising messages more efficiently. However, this is done. What made this campaign so special was that, just by using a very simple mechanism a few seconds prior to the program’s commercial break, it successfully kept the viewers from skipping the commercial that followed. We thoroughly analyzed the special attributes of the program viewers, reflected the findings in the pertinent part of the program, and succeeded in having the viewers maintain their interest in the program to the subsequent CM.

Japanese terrestrial broadcast stations have tremendous power not only as broadcasting operators but also as content owners. This prevents us advertising agencies as well as clients from meddling with the contents of their programs. The media team came up with this plan and simultaneously negotiated with Osaka YTV, a station affiliated with NTV, the highest-rated of all five commercial broadcasting networks in Japan. The media team’s biggest contribution in this case was to devise, in line with this plane, a mechanism that successfully linked the program contents to the commercials.