SoftBank, Hard Money (pt. II)

Continuing on my last post, here another ad campaign that helped SoftBank Mobile turn around and become one of the fastest growing cellphone carriers in Japan.

I present to you this lovely family portrait of the "Whites."


This nonsensical, fictional family is centered around Aya (seated top, right), who is a SoftBank store clerk. Pictured are also her African-American brother, mother and a talking dog as her father. Puzzled? So are the 128 million people in Japan.

But the tongue-in-cheek campaign is a hit, and I personally am a fan as well. This campaign also ranked 2nd for the annual Top 10 TV Ads as selected by the All Japan Radio & Television Commercial Confederation. (And as a sidenote, SoftBank's Cameron ads came in 4th.)

The ad initially gained popularity because of Aya Ueto, a popular actress/singer, who plays Aya. But the clever quirkiness and humor of the ads ultimately makes it so appealing.

For instance, in the ads, the brother is known as "YO-SOU Guy." This is a play on words from the Japanese phrase yo-sou-gai which means "unexpected." Gai by itself also means "foreign," hence, his name = Unexpected Foreign Guy (As Brother).

Details of the "White Plan" (which offers unlimited calling for family members and friends) are weaved into the conversations the characters have.
Here's the debut ad which started the campaign in Spring 2007:

This ad is basically quirky, meaningless talk to introduce each character. The quirkiness makes each character memorable, and as SoftBank rolls out each new commercial, you slowly learn more about each. This is a great way to keep audiences hooked, since it really feels like you're watching a mini-TV series.

And here's a recent commercial from which aired earlier this month:

Here, Aya and her mom run into Yo-sou-Guy in the park, who is accompanied by an unknown girl. Aya teases her brother about the girl, when the girl declares she and Yo-sou-Guy are tada friends, with tada meaning "just."

In another play on words, tada also means "free" in Japanese, so Aya responds by asking "so you guys are FREE friends?" This of course is a shameless, yet somewhat funny lead-in to SoftBank's "free friends" campaign, which is subsequently celebrated in an over-the-top friendship ritual at the end.

So far there are about 10 clips in the series, all available on YouTube. Although some of them don't make any sense (even if you understand Japanese), most are cute and worth a look.