BBaker2008_KeitaiKids

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(3)

Super Hero Television Programs: Product Placement and

the Possible Effects

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(3.1) Introduction

Now that the reader has acquired a strong understanding of the part the youth consumer segment plays in the mobile phone industry, as well as the dangers that come with child mobile phone risk, this chapter will introduce a new form of product placement that has the potential to attract the youngest of children to mobile phones. This product placement takes place within several Japanese super hero television programs produced by the Bandai Namco Group. The heroes of the shows use nonbranded mobile phones to gain all sorts of powerful abilities. This is something that may lead very young children to perceive mobile phones in new and powerful ways, and also at ages so young that no other mobile phone marketing has been attempted.

Across the world, advertising and product placement aimed at children has been researched in-depth. With this research as a base, the four variables that modify the intensity of marketing towards children are analyzed in relation to the shows. Through this analysis it is revealed that the product placement in the super hero television programs meets all the requirements to be very influential in a young child’s life. Because this type of product placement has never been seen before and features no branding, it has gone completely unnoticed. It is feared that the Bandai Namco group, as well as mobile operators in Japan, are using it to develop new life-long customers who will subscribe to their services with the intensity that only an individual who begins use very young can.

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(3.2) The Bandai Namco Group

The Bandai Namco group was established in September of 2005 through the management integration of Bandai and Namco. The group develops entertainment related products and services in a wide range of fields, including toys, amusement facilities, arcade game machines, video game software, network services, and visual products, in Japan and overseas. Before the formation of the Bandai Namco Group, Bandai had many different subsidiaries. They are now managed under several strategic business units: Toys and Hobby (core company is Bandai Co., Ltd.), Amusement Facility (core company is Namco Limited), Game Contents (core company is Namco Bandai Games Inc.), Network (core company is Bandai Networks Co., Ltd.), and Visual and Music Contents (core company is Bandai Visual Co., Ltd.). The group is the license owner of many of Japan’s most famous intellectual properties including: Ultraman, Dragonball, Tamagochi, Gundam, Kamen Rider (Masked Rider), and Super Sentai (Power Rangers) (Namco Bandai Holdings Inc. Annual Report 2007; Namco Bandai Holdings Inc. 2008).

Bandai Co., Ltd. is Japan’s largest toy manufacturer and the third largest in the world. In Japan, it produces toys of various assortments such as models, action-figures, toy replicas of items used by characters in live action and animated television shows, electronic games such as Tamagochi, collectible card games played on arcade machines, and child oriented mobile phones, among others. It produces these items for a vast range of intellectual properties such as Digimon, Dragonball, Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, Gundam, and many more. It is also developing new businesses such as hair salons and

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studios that will be based on its array of character licenses. In the United States, the company has been very successful with many of the same intellectual properties, and also with ones specifically designed for the US (i.e. – Ben1020). The company’s toys are popular in the European and Asian markets as well; they are sold in over fifty countries worldwide (Namco Bandai Holdings Inc. Annual Report 2007).

Bandai Networks Co., Ltd. can be seen as an extension of the Game Contents SBU core company Namco Bandai Games Inc. The company produces video games for mobile phones based off of many of the Bandai Namco Group’s intellectual properties, such as Naruto, One Piece, Digimon, Gundam, etc. Many of these intellectual properties are also sold in markets including the United States and Europe. The company also specializes in sales of mobile phone themes (i.e. – wallpaper images, etc.) and ring tones; once again based on the groups wide selection of intellectual properties. Bandai Networks Co., Ltd. is the company responsible for the content that comes loaded on and can be accessed by the Bandai Kids Mobile Phone that is distributed by the mobile phone operator Willcom. Bandai Networks Co., Ltd. also runs an e-commerce store on both the Internet and mobile Internet, specializing in character goods (LaLaBit Market), as well as a marketing business and a mobile technological solutions provider (Namco Bandai Holdings Inc. Annual Report 2007; Namco Bandai Holdings Inc. 2008).

(3.3) The Super Hero Television Program and its Use of Product Placement

As Bandai Co., Ltd. is the license holder and manufacturer of the Kamen Rider and Super Sentai toy lines, it acts as the main producer of the super hero television

20 See #17 in appendix.

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programs featuring them. Both of the programs are live action series, and have been running for 36 and 31 years, respectively. The series have been distributed all over the world, including North and South America, Europe, and many parts of Asia. They remain extremely popular to this day, especially in Japan.

The programs generally air for about 50 half-hour episodes, equaling one year of content. Each year a new line of toys is produced and a new season of programming is filmed based on and to promote the toys. The Kamen Rider series maintains the general theme of one or more young men who receive the ability to transform into a super hero via a small device. They are always equipped with a motorcycle and various other weapons that they use to prevent some form of evil from taking over the world. The Super Sentai series is much the same, as the heroes receive a handheld device that grants them the power to transform into a super hero. However, it is always a group of five individuals who form a team, each with a unique giant robot whose powers they combine to fight the enemy. The overall look and story to each season varies drastically, but these features always remain at the core of the series.

Both programs are filmed by Toei Co., Ltd., and air on TV Asahi in a block of Sunday morning children’s programming. While there is a large adult fan base, the main audience consists of young children. According to statistics from 2004, 35.6% of Japanese children under the age of 3, 48.3% between the ages of 3 and 6, and 24.1% of elementary school students, grades 1 to 6, watch the super hero programs. The average age of the Kamen Rider series viewer is 6, and the average age of the Super Sentai series viewer is 5.5 (“ …” 2004). Data on the sex of viewers is not

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available, however based on the type of programs these are, along with statements in the Bandai Annual Report 2007 mentioning a focus on marketing to males; it is likely the audience is boy heavy. However, there are constantly multiple female main characters within the programs, and many young female fans can bee seen at special live events and special summer edition movie openings.

As stated above, the programs are clearly produced in order to generate toy and other memorabilia sales. Each episode, when broken down into its basic form is nothing but a 30 minute advertisement for the toys. In regard to the toys, Bandai does not only manufacture action-figures of the heroes and their giant robots, it also makes toy replicas of all the weapons the heroes use, as well as the devices they use to transform. A general theme that runs through both series is that as the stories progress, new characters are added who have new weapons/items, or the original characters receive new weapons/items in order to become more powerful. There is always a constant flow of new toys for children to desire.

These replica toys are usually the company’s best selling items of the genre. Before Christmas in December of 2007, four of the top one hundred most popular toys (by number of sales) on the Japanese Amazon.com website were the Kamen Rider Den- O Den-O Belt (a belt that transforms the main character into a hero), the Kamen Rider Den-O Den-Kamen Sword (a sword that is the heroes most powerful weapon), the Kamen Rider Den-O Riding Card Collection (cards used in conjunction with the belt), and the Kamen Rider Den-O Climax Keitai21 (a mobile phone that allows the hero to

21 See #18 in appendix.

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transform into his most powerful form); each a weapon or item from the series currently airing (Amazon.co.jp 2007). It should not be a mystery why the items the heroes use are the most popular selling items from the programs’ toy lineups. Many children pretend to be their favorite super heroes when they play, so it is only natural to want to play with the actual items that one’s super hero uses.

In the early 2000’s the programs were sponsored by J-Phone/Vodaphone2223, and characters were shown on screen using their mobile phone email, checking the mobile Internet, and calling others. During these scenes the logo of the sponsor was displayed very clearly on the handset.24 As mentioned above, the Japanese mobile phone market is very competitive; this can be seen as clever form of advertising to get the brand name into the very young consumer mind, or any others watching with a child. The effects of this advertising are unknown, and the characters only used their phones for everyday activities, something that a young child could already see many times a day within Japanese society. However, it was sure to at least make the brand name more familiar, and possibly more exciting (because the children’s idols were using them) to the young viewers.

In 2003’s Kamen Rider 55525 series, the marketing tactics for mobile phones within super hero programs rose to a new level. The mobile phone was not only a means of communication and a source of information; it was the transformation device

22J-Phone was taken over by Vodaphone, in 2003. The company was sold again in 2006 to SoftBank.

23See #19 in appendix.

24See #20 in appendix.

25See #21 in appendix.

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(giving the characters super powers) and the main weapon26 the heroes used. There were three mobile phones in the program, and a major plot throughout the series consisted of various people attempting to get their hands on the phones in order to become more powerful. The phones were used to transform, to fight, to call on powerful robots to assist in battle, and to contact friends and family. The phones were a clear source of power, and there was an extra twist that only certain people were compatible with and could use the phones power. One had to be special to use them, reinforcing the mobile phones powerful qualities.

Since then, the mobile phone has been used in the same manner in several other super hero programs produced by Bandai, including 2005’s Mahou Sentai Magiranger 27

(Power Rangers Mystic Force28). The show had a magical theme much like Harry Potter. When the main character’s mobile phone was opened it became a magic wand.29 The phone was used to transform into a hero, to summon powerful robots, as a weapon, and also featured a GPS type function that allowed the heroes to locate the villains of the show. On top of this, it could also be used exactly as a magic wand is. It had the power to create wanted items out of nothing, and also clean up a young hero’s room when their parents scolded them. The magic powers of the mobile phone were also emphasized in the programs ending song and dance. The heroes danced with their phones and sang, “When you make a call the mysterious magic spell will ring in a person’s heart, and you can send an email of courage. Clad your body in mysterious power. Lonely boy, lonely

26See #22 in appendix.

27See #23 in appendix.

28See #24 in appendix.

29See #25 in appendix.

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girl, believe in it!”

Super Hero television programs made for young female viewers (in which the shows are filmed by Toei Co., Ltd., and the toys are manufactured by and the shows are sponsored by Bandai) have been no exception in the prominent display of mobile phone use and reliance within the plots. Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon (Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon)30 was a live-action recreation of one of Japan’s most popular female oriented comic and animated series. The re-envisioning maintained a high degree of similarity to its predecessors, yet the change that stood out the most was the addition of magical mobile phones. The feline alien, Luna, who granted the five young heroines their powers, also gave each of them a mobile phone31. These mobile phones allowed the girls to contact and speak to more than one friend at a time. This feature was used several times within the series to locate missing friends, as well as solve social and personal problems. The phones also had the ability to transform the girls into anything they took a picture of with the camera function. This function proved useful for the girls not only in play, but also when they needed to look the right part in order to enter a restricted area or impress someone. Later in the series, Luna produces her own magical mobile phone that allows her to transform into a powerful warrior along with the five girls.

Futari wa Purikyua (Pretty Cure32), is the title of another popular young female oriented super hero series that featured the use of magical mobile phones. The show is

30See #26 in appendix.

31See #27 in appendix.

32See #28 in appendix.

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animated, yet features the same elements of a live-action super hero series; it was produced by Toei Animation Co., Ltd., while Bandai acted as sponsor and toy manufacturer. It was followed by a sequel series, two movies, and three spin-off series, with the latest ending in January of 2008. In the story, the heroines received mobile phones33 from cute alien creatures that want to save the “Garden of Light and Earth” from a terrible evil. The phones act as communication devices between the heroines, other humans, and the aliens; the phones also act as the transformation device that gives the heroines their powers. When in combat, the girls swipe different magical cards into their phones to produce powerful attacks. According to a 2004 questionnaire distributed by Bandai, the number one answer to the question, "If you could become anything for just one day, what would it be?" was "Pretty Cure". The number one answer to the question, "What do you want for Christmas?" was “Pretty Cure character goods” (“What’s Cool in Japan…” 2005).

The use of mobile phones in these shows continued with the 2007 series, Kamen Rider Den-O. The main hero received a magic phone halfway through the season. He first used the power of the mobile phone to bring three of his magical creature-friends back to life. Later, the phone was used many times to combine the energies of the magical friends, creating the hero’s most powerful evil-fighting form.

Whether it is for pure marketing reasons, or that mobile phones make an easy medium for fantastical storylines, or due to the popularity of mobile phones in Japan, Bandai’s implementation of mobile phones into its programs could be having a powerful

33 See #29 in appendix.