Aap! - Alternative Advertising Possibilities

Tomoyuki SAKAGUCHI delivers an amazing set of eerie photographs of the suburban Tokyo landscape in his coffee table book “Home.” Oddly parked cars, flowers, and overpowering vines, line small houses of mixed styles in haunting absent photos of Tokyo homes. The familiar densely arranged homes with anonymous street corners are rendered strange and almost set like by glowing overhead street lights.

Highly recommended.

Enjoy prints and photos @ the photographer’s website

Aap!Global is presenting @ Pecha Kucha - San Francisco August 29th on the topic of Legal Graffiti and New Media!

Come meet with us and others to talk about design, art, entrepreneurship and innovation.

New to Pecha Kucha?

Pecha Kucha (pronounced peh-chak-cha) was started in Tokyo, Japan in 2003 by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Klein Dytham Architecture, as a way to attract people to SuperDeluxe, an event space they had set up in Roppongi.

A Pecha Kucha night is an event format in which presenters show a slideshow of 20 images, each of which is shown for 20 seconds â?? giving a total presentation time of 6 minutes 40 seconds. Each event usually has 14 presenters. Presenters (and much of the audience) are usually from the design, architecture, photography, art and creative fields.

The event format has been replicated in 42 other cities, including New York, London, Mexico City and Shanghai. Events are usually limited to one each month per city.

More info @ http://www.pecha-kucha.org/

Illegal and a first for Japanese Politics - upper house member Kan Suzuki has opened a virtual office in Second Life in hopes of winning a 2nd term. Suzuki is using Second Life to discuss policy, field questions and to propose new policies with net citizens, deliver lectures and also hold meetings.

But Mr Suzuki, who is seeking a re-election in the upper house in July, could be breaking the electoral law. Japan’s Public Office Election law, which was drawn up more than 50 years ago, limits the distribution of text and images for use in election campaigns to postcards and pamphlets. Sounds like a great idea - but Japan’s fifty year-old Public Office Election limits election campaigns to using only postcards and pamphlets.

Officials have recently ruled that web pages cannot be created or updated during the official period of campaigning for elections.

While probably a PR stunt - Suzuki’s act bring up some interesting questions and points:

- Is Suzuki breaking the law if he passes out “virtual” postcards & pamphlets while “chatting” with citizens in Second Life an act he is allowed in the “real” world?

- Is Suzuki - an active upper house member actually trying to engage younger people instead of the usual practice of targeting the old - the only who vote in large numbers in Japan?

-Isn’t it time the entire Japanese political campaign trail went viral and virtual - letting us sleep in morning without hearing the campaign blasts of their loudspeaker equipped vehicles?

RFID-enabled posters have been installed at the JR Shinjuku Station of Tokyo adding yet another medium of interaction between static outdoor media and cell phone equipped users. These “Suipo” short for “Suica + Poster,” billboards interact with passengers when passengers “swipe” their RFID tickets (SUICA cards) at the posters. The posters then parse relevant information, prizes, coupons and ads to user cell phones in the same fashion as QR, Bluetooth or other mobile marketing communication formats. ”

RFID readers located between the posters. First time users need to associate their RFID ticket IDs with their mobile phone email addresses, using a nearby kiosk terminal.

What’s hot is how well the outdoor prints are directing users to interact with the Suipo points.
What’s not is that users must first initialize their cell phone with Suipa readers.

Very frustrating, but from early reports - there is a high rate of adoption.  Compared to QR Codes and Bluetooth - swiping your phone is very, very easy and comfortable.
All in all - more great stuff for bored commuters waiting.

Must Read Article on Suipo/Suica Posters
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Learn more @ the Suipo/Suica website

Learn more about Jeki - the company building the RFID units

Oh yes - you do want to buy Peach John…

Hakuhodo DY Group i-Business Center and IT DeSign have developed the â??movie QR code,â?? a new proto-type of the popular QR code that incorporates moving video into its design.

QR code is a type of two-dimensional barcode that has grown popular in Japan in recent years, because it provides a simple, automated way for users to enter data into their mobile phones. By using mobile phones to scan QR code that appears in an outdoor advertisement, for example, users may be directed to a website containing more detailed product information. [read about our work using QR Codes and other mobile technologies in out of home media]

The problem with printed QR Codes is their chaotic barcode like arrangement.  IT DeSign recently developed the â??Design QR,â?? which incorporates static images of logos, characters or photos into the code. Movie QR takes pushes the idea forward with incorporation of moving images into the design.  Movie QR Codes are optimized for use on video screens and will allow potential scanners to interact more effeciently with the codes.

There is great potential for this type of technology for media clips. A Coke Commercial could end with a QR code snap inviting users to scan the code and be taken to special download coupon areas etc.

As the blog Pink Tentacle adds this type of thing is already happending > “A commercial video containing a mock QR movie code has been circulating the web for a while. The video, called â??Kung Fu High School Girlsâ?? (Kanfuu Joshi-kousei), begins with two high school girls talking about Black Jack (the famous manga character). Things get nasty when the girls disagree about whether Black Jack is a foreigner or Japanese, and a full-on kung fu battle ensues. After a while, a boy wearing a giant QR code headpiece arrives on his bicycle and urges the girls to stop. By scanning his face, he explains, they can find the answer to their question and settle their dispute. (This is a cue for the viewer to scan the computer screen with a cellphone QR code reader.)”

For those with QR Code readers - try it out on the following clip.

Everyone loves free stuff!

Oceanize - a Japanese company is offering university students free photocopies in exchange for printing adverts on the back of each photocopy.  The paper, which is slightly thicker than normal prevent ads from shining through.

Campaign rates range start at JPY 400,000 which puts advertisers message on 10,000 sheets of paper.

Tadacopy machines have been placed at a few dozen campuses, and are a big hit with students. The company was founded by students at the universities of Keio, Chuo and Hosei, who installed the first free copy machine in April of last year and has garnered press in many national papers.
More info @

Website: www.tadacopy.com
Contact: info@oceanize.co.jp

So itâ??s official â?? fixies or fixed gear bikes have broken from the underground communities of Hipsters and old school Japanese fixed gear bike racing to becoming part of the main stream - Fixies have arrived to the cultural mainstream and were recently used by Nike in an large outdoor media campaign launched in Shibuya with the great slogan “No brakes, No Problem - Just Do It - Nike”

Its not uncommon for main stream companies like Nike to use underground trends to market themselves as hip and cool, however these marketing tactics don’t always work and can back fire as in the case of this advert.

Spontaneously - furious discussion started up on the bicycle board of 2-channel, a Japanese internet forum which is thought to be the largest in the world. 2-Channel is a significant influence in Japanese society, approaching that of mass media such as TV, Radio and Magazines. After the erection of the advert forum members launched a flash mob of phone calls and campaigns against Nike, police departments and other government bureaus. The mob reminded the officials of the dangers of biking without brakes - less than 48 hours later - the bill board was taken down.

With civilian backlash - “No Brakes - Big Problem!”

Its great to see this type of civilian accountability towards corporate messaging motivated and channeled through the net, but as a fan of fixies internet parenting is more terrifying.

Read more on the power of 2-Channel by Lisa Katayama’s Wired magazine article “2-Channel Gives Japan’s Famously Quiet People a Mighty Voice“

Today’s campaign of note is Common Design Room’s integrated campaign for popular sports drink “Pocari Sweat.”

Trying to capture the teenage market - Common Design Room, the agency behind this campaign attached removable “Puri Kura” or print club stickers with girly handwritten notes written to Pocari Sweat bottles in supermarkets shelves. Purikura is very popular among young girls who often carry around books containing purikura to show and swap with their friends. The intention of the campaign was for teenagers and other fans to collect the bottles and attach pictures of the starlet to their “techo” or schedule books.

The campaign integrated well across television and other media spots which featured the young starlet who would voice small heartwarming messages about the drink. The campaign stickers mirrored televsion copy like “I’ll protect you with Ions and Water Content (Heart)” and “Tangerine, Kotatsu (Japanese seat) - Pocari)”

Why it works:

Japanese teenagers often shoot themselves with superimposed stars, celebrities and more - in this campaign , individuals have a real print club with one of the fans. Fans then feels as if they are friends with the star and the brand integrates into some of the most personal spaces.

A simple, light campaign. Highly Commended.

More info:

“PuriKura” - Wikipedia provides you with info on this popular Japanese teenage obsession.

Onitsuka Tiger of Japan has recently launched a promotional mini-sitelet displaying a mosaic shoe made of thumbnails and image links to Japanese sites.  Clicking on tiles takes teh visitor to one of hundreds of sites craweled by flash engine.  Images and links appear to refresh to reflect different models of brand.

Definitely fun and fresh - plus a unique way to explore the web.

While a bit nationalistic for our tastes with the “Made of Japan” slogan - we commend the agency for their creativity.

Visit the site - you’ll have fun

Okay even this shook us by surprise. We present another totally useless but fun innovation from Japan - the Fishtank/DeepFryer!

Its difficult to describe - a Japanese restaurant has combined a deep-fat fryer with a functional goldfish tank â?? the boiling oil floats on the surface of the cool water, and the fish get to eat all the crumbs of batter that dribble down.

Why? - Well it seems to us - just because they could. Watch the video for a better understanding of this truly “amazing” device.

Read more…

How’s it work you ask?

Well it appears the laws of chemistry hold true - even at 163 degrees Celsius oil floats on water creating a barrier in which goldfish happily stay away from the surface. The amazing part is that as food is fried overhead small crumps fall through the oil/water barrier to the surface.

Maybe afraid of the shock to viewers - the tank/fryer is stored away from customers providing entertainment and enjoyment to the cook.

Developed by the WaterFryer company - the device took more than 10 years to develop.

Our take? We love it - its funky fun and totally useless.

UPDATE! WE WERE WRONG - Its funky and USEFUL!

We’ve taken the liberty to do some reading about the WaterFryer company. The fish aren’t part of an evil torture device or a strange marketing campaign - but instead part of a demonstration of a rather unique solution to a common problem for chefs and cooks worldwide. As demonstrated by the video with the wok example. Food or items with water will create explosive dangerous splatter. This frying machine with its underlying water tank limits the splatter effect by causing the potential splatter to be released into the water below. AMAZING!!!