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Marketing an Anime Club


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The Fall 2008 semester has started and I was wondering if anyone had tips on marketing anime clubs?

I've found that while there are lots of people interested in anime, most of them don't go to anime clubs or other anime related events.

Are any anime fans here that choose not to go to anime clubs? If so, could I ask why is it you decide not to go or what turns you off from anime clubs?

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The Fall 2008 semester has started and I was wondering if anyone had tips on marketing anime clubs?

I've found that while there are lots of people interested in anime, most of them don't go to anime clubs or other anime related events.

Are any anime fans here that choose not to go to anime clubs? If so, could I ask why is it you decide not to go or what turns you off from anime clubs?

I have kids, and during the school year there's just not time to do so on a School Night. And then weekends we're usually away.

So there's no time.

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The Fall 2008 semester has started and I was wondering if anyone had tips on marketing anime clubs?

I've found that while there are lots of people interested in anime, most of them don't go to anime clubs or other anime related events.

Are any anime fans here that choose not to go to anime clubs? If so, could I ask why is it you decide not to go or what turns you off from anime clubs?

Well I graduated from college 17 years ago, and there really WEREN'T very many anime clubs in 1991.

But I think the main reason clubs have a rough time succeeding *now* is that most of the old club functions -- finding new stuff to watch, watching it, translating it, talking about it -- have moved online. Unless you have a particular focus that requires in-person interaction, clubs can be a hard sell.

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Sadly, I don't attend most anime clubs in my area because half the time a good 80% of its attendees are immature and unintelligent. My high school's anime club consisted of members who just sat there and begged for mainstream anime to be played and nothing else, making the club rather unproductive. They also made quite a racket and drove the supervising teacher nuts. Shortly after the president gave up and made the motion to screen mainstream shows, many of the club's regular attendees ceased to attend. I'm not even sure if they're still around. The anime club at the community college I attend was also disbanded due to the group's rude behavior at an inter-club awards ceremony. So while I am not stereotyping your average anime fan as a selfish noisy brat and giving up on anime clubs altogether, I've been rather unsuccessful in my attempt to find one that I actually enjoy attending. There's a rather sophisticated anime club that I've attended with my older friend at the University of Buffalo (which I'll be attending in two years) whose meetings are very engaging. They even organize their own convention every year which has been very successful in all the years it has been around.

In short, what you can't find in the flame-fest, say-whatever-you-wish chatrooms and message boards that discuss anime is the sophistication and maturity that most anime clubs for the most part lack entirely.

Edited by Otaku Ru
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Otaku Ru:

I get what your saying though. The anime club I help out with has been fortunate enough to have sensible people in leadership. There is a notable presence of "silly nonsense" that happens. Most of it being rude and unproductive.

The club has discovered a natural, almost organic like technique to separate the "anti-anime" people from the interested in watching anime people. That technique is setting up 2 rooms, one for Video Gaming / Card Caming, one for quiet, dark room / projector style anime viewing. It seems silly, but it seems the children go to the video game room and the sensible adults go to view the anime.

If there was a way to brand and market this, do you guys think it would attract more "pro-anime" people?

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A lot of casual (and even not so casual) anime fans live in fear of being labeled a "cartoon watching freak." Joining an anime club would be painting a big bullseye on their back. So they'd rather sit at home watching anime in private and discussing it online with other anonymous fans.

Going to the (unofficial) anime club in college for me however introduced me to a lot of anime and gave me friends for life (several of whom were in my wedding party last November). But I'm one of the few people out their who doesn't care what people say about my geekery.

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Otaku Ru:

I get what your saying though. The anime club I help out with has been fortunate enough to have sensible people in leadership. There is a notable presence of "silly nonsense" that happens. Most of it being rude and unproductive.

The club has discovered a natural, almost organic like technique to separate the "anti-anime" people from the interested in watching anime people. That technique is setting up 2 rooms, one for Video Gaming / Card Caming, one for quiet, dark room / projector style anime viewing. It seems silly, but it seems the children go to the video game room and the sensible adults go to view the anime.

If there was a way to brand and market this, do you guys think it would attract more "pro-anime" people?

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You need good people and good events. At Towson Anime, we got our members to start caring, then we coordinated special film screenings, started volunteering at Sakura Matsuri and really got the club out there doing stuff. And we saw the fruits of that labor in the form of increased attendance, more legitimacy in the eyes of the SGA, SGA money to do events, and now we're doing Tigercon with the full thumbs-up of everybody we've talked with about it at the university.

The key here is to be active and make more accessible events to draw people in. Last year, for example, we brought in Geek Comedy Tour and everybody loved it. It got butts in the seats, and publicity all over campus.

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To me, it seems most of the people are there "to be served." Some go to meet people, most go to watch anime.

On Halloween, the school usually has a Halloween party, we do a good job @ running a game / DJ / Freestyle room. This year however, a local anime con is running it's event on Halloween. I myself volunteered for the anime con. (This is bad because I usually DJ for the Anime / Game side of the party.)

Would asking members to volunteer @ a local anime con be a worthwhile endevor?

Edited by Gordon
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  • 2 weeks later...

Wow, we just brought our anime club back from the dead, and this brought alot of insight. The club was horrible last year, but this year the pres. and me(VP) are going all out, fundraising for a secret end of year event ( ITS BIG!) lolita/cosplay tea party-picnics, cosplay halloween parties, probally gunna bring them to the con at towson, movie screenings, eating out at japanese restruants, and the all time fav. of watching anime. And we're just a highschool club. :) I guess that means we're doing a decent job.

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