[jhou2]

The ad was terrible. It explained how Candy Japan works. I don't care how Candy Japan works. I want the why should I buy Candy Japan. It should have focused instead on the candies that you can get. Delicious, weird, unique candies only available through this service.

[avree]

Additionally, just because someone is interested in Japanese candies, doesn't mean they like anime. The high-pitched annoying cartoon voice really turned me off right away, and it's not immediately obvious in the first 10 seconds (which is how long you have to watch before you can skip on YouTube) what it's for (after all, CrunchyRoll is a service for watching anime online, not ordering crunchy rolls.)

[lugg]

I believe that is intentional. Sentence missing from the blog post is still up on the reddit post[1]:

> Here's the end result. If the video tingles your weeaboo senses, that's intentional, as I want clearly uninterested people to skip the video as fast as possible. I'll explain why next.

...

> Now you might understand why I want to get people not in my target audience to skip – it's cheaper because you don't pay when people skip your ad!

In other words - you're probably not in the target audience.

Not saying I agree with why he is saying you shouldn't be in his audience (you're clearly interested in Japanese candy) but maybe you're not because you have an interest but would likely still cancel earlier than his normal audience. (which would have a much higher lifetime value making the numbers much harder to run)

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/8062vs/what_i...

[raverbashing]

I think people are being a bit overly critical of the ad

Yes, it could have been better, yes maybe there could have been an "adult" version of it. (I don't think the narration is bad, but I'm not used to hearing native Japanese speakers, so that might be it)

What I think they should have done is have a copywriter script it.

However the phrase "would you like to try some Japanese candy" ends at 0:04 (and "Candy Japan sends you unique surprises 2x a month" ends at 0:08) so I do think they got to the point as quickly as possible

[Meekro]

They're not selling the product itself, but the cute Japaneseyness of it. And that's good, if they managed to target their ads to the right people. I really loved the ad, and I think I'm in the right segment: I love cute anime, and I want to live in Japan someday!

The blog post wasn't totally clear on this point, but it sounds like the problem was that YouTube's ad tools weren't good enough to get them the fine-grained targeting they needed. They'd put in "anime" as a keyword and then their ad would be shown on totally unrelated videos. There is plenty of anime on YouTube -- if they could attach their ad to that, and nothing else, I think it would have done well.

[dmix]

None of the actual (appealing) candy was shown in the ad nor was the most interesting part of his business (the personal need that drove him to created a delivery service) communicated. I was a subscriber to Candy Japan for a few months and I really felt it undersold his offering.

It should have been:

1) a personal story of him going to Japan

2) him going back the US... and missing the awesome Japanese candy you can't (easily) find in western countries

3) him starting a service to ship Candy (right from Japan!) to people every month for a (not-to-expensive) subscription!!!

That's a great story/ad. His ad was generic and soulless. And the honestly annoying childish voiceover really didn't help sell it the candy to me at all.

[lotyrin]

Yeah, but imagine someone who regularly visits the country, or is from there originally that wants nostalgic candy and certainly does not want to associate themselves with weeb/otaku culture.

Or someone who is a weeb but feels guilt, hides their power level and wants to indulge their inner weebness but the messaging/branding here is a step too far.

Or a proud degenerate wizard who is turned off by the quality of the animation and voice acting (perhaps it sets off his "ugh dubs" trigger despite context and logic).

I think a slideshow of actual examples of products with a quality normal adult human voiceover explaining the value prop, or a video of a normal adult human unboxing a shipment, or edited clips of several normal adult humans emoting the experience ("What are these" "I can't read what this says here... oh they're gummy haha ... mmm grape") would go a long way.

[bobbles]

Yeah, its almost like its a pitch for the company to an investor instead of an ad to an actual customer of the business

[jliptzin]

A better ad could have been made a lot cheaper and faster too by just having a friend (or an actor) opening the box and eating the candy and enjoying it with a voiceover explaining the benefits.

[janekm]

Even better would have been paying one of the popular unboxing channels to make that video (well... not too popular or it would be crazy expensive!).

[imron]

> The ad was terrible.

Agree - I found the voiceover in particular, to be very off-putting.

That said however, a brief view of the comments section on the ad showed that more than one person thought the voice was great.

Which kind of leads through to this statement from the article

> Now you might understand why I want to get people not in my target audience to skip – it's cheaper because you don't pay when people skip your ad!

If I didn't use an ad-blocker, and I was ever shown that ad, I would've skipped it straight away just to get away from the irritating voice.

[spiznnx]

"explaining" is a pretty good technique since Candy Japan is a service that people want, but might not know about. But the ad didn't need to be more than 10 seconds, "Candy Japan sends you different Japanese snacks twice a month. Try something new!". It felt like it repeated itself, and the high-pitched not-actually-japanese konnichiwa was very off-putting.

[jcims]

Spot on. Old talk by Simon Sinek presents it pretty well, start with the why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp0HIF3SfI4&t=3m20s

[avip]

I've seen that one before, and the only thing I get out of it is "I wouldn't buy a used car from this guy".

[goldenkey]

That was a great talk. One of the reasons I love the "TED video" culture. It revolves around pointing out why things everyone knows and feels are obvious...actually work. The "why didn't I think of that explanation" feeling. I guess I just love having my instincts and impulses explained and dissected. Understanding self. Higher platitudes.

[bambax]

Really enjoyed that video, thank you.

[kyo3]

I've gotta agree with this, I feel like I should have a subscription like this and couldn't talk myself into it even when I was trying.

What's so cool about Japanese candy? There are a ton of other services out there like this one, why should I get this one? These are the questions I had that talked me out of it.

I say this hoping it helps, I felt really inclined to want to subscribe from past interest and I don't know what keeps me from doing so. Best of luck, and maybe I will in the future regardless ;)

[Mithaldu]

I understand you mainly asked the questions to provide feedback, but as a subscriber i can give you some info that might help you decide:

A lot of the sweets are made with cane sugar, which tastes distinctly different from the typical american fare. Beyond that they also have some taste combinations that you usually don't encounter in the us. Savoury snacks with sea weed tastes are pretty nice.

[JonnyNova]

Agreed. For me, the ad's pacing was too slow and it didn't stoke enough excitement for the candy.

[zaroth]

The question is - for $3,000 was it possible to make something much better? If so, is this information readily available / why was it missed?

[bennesvig]

As a marketer, videographer, and someone with a sweet tooth, I agree that it's a bad ad.

[onion2k]

I have no doubt that people could make a 'better' ad within a television format, but that's not what this is. What could be done to improve it given the constraining requirement that the advertiser explicitly wants people who aren't in the target audience to skip the ad after 5s? It needs to be something that people who understand immediately want to watch, people who don't understand but are interesting in Japanese candy don't skip, but also doesn't pique the curiosity of people who don't understand it and aren't interested in Japanese candy. That's a really unusual set of requirements and something that I think would be immensely hard to make a good advert for. As soon as you make something 'better' in the traditional advertising sense people who aren't interested in the product will stop skipping the advert. That means you've failed...

[WheelsAtLarge]

This is the kind of product that should appeal to the heart, not the brain. I'm a rational person that's not going to spend lots of money for candy when I can go to the store and get a bagful for less than $5.00 bux.

But if you hit my nostalgia button or my curiosity then I'll be willing to spend so much more.

Place the how-to video on your site but go for the heart with ads.

[technofiend]

That and the voice over actress sounded like someone from the Bronx trying to sound like a child. Her accent was jarring and bled through. Should have had professional ad copy written and voiced by someone who sounds either neutral or Japanese.

[T2_t2]

Look at all the free advice it elicited. What would it have cost to have people make all the comments on this thread? I reckon this post has accrued its value already.

[ryen]

I disagree. He targeted a specific audience linked to manga and anime. It's likely that demographic already knows the kinds of treats this service would likely offer. They just need to know there's service out there that will get them to you easily and regularly.

[soheil]

Shouldn't there be a group of people who maybe care how Candy Japan works and are curious to find out and perhaps buy some afterwards?

Why didn't it work on those people?

[thrownaway954]

totally agree. showing examples of what candies you would get by subscribing would have been miles better then the animation. also, the blend in of the animation took a full second before you heard a the animated voice say hi. there was a reason Billy Mayes always started a commercial with a loud hi right from the get go.

[foota]

I wonder if this could be a culture thing?

[nkkollaw]

I thought it was fine

[TylerE]

"Fine" is how you go bankrupt. There is way too much competition out there for 'fine' to be enough.

[bahmboo]

For an indie effort on a limited budget it was fine. I got the point. I don't need to see the actual candy. If you don't already get the idea of weird candy from other countries not sure illuminating it more would make much difference. If it were me I would have invested a bit more to make 1 or 2 remixes of the ad content to see if one had more traction than the other. But yes, I'm not a successful web marketer.