At first glance this campaign seemed to be another example of the growing gaming travel services, where fans of a game get a chance to visit the real locations that are the inspirations for their favorite levels.
However, in fact it’s a normal New Year campaign for leading travel company H.I.S., fronted by popular otaku idol group AKB48. These (very) young ladies seem to be everywhere, including making an appearance at the Kohaku, the NHK New Year’s Eve music concert show that is one of the most-watched programs in Japan. They were also one of the top twenty products of 2010, according to Dentsu.
It is definitely proof that they have moved into the mainstream, though their charms may still seem opaque to outsiders. On the surface they are a multi-member girl band who dance and sing, dressing in a cute but still risque way, dexterously balancing sex appeal with childlike innocence. In other words, an otaku idol band.
Their managers are pretty astute, though, and have their eyes set not just on the yen from their diehard fans, but from wider consumers too. One interesting recent step is that they now have an official YouTube account broadcasting music videos of their songs, unusual in the Japanese music industry.
And now 16 girls from the group are fronting — in requisite cabin attendant uniforms — this Hatsu Yumei Fair (”first dream fair”) campaign for the most mainstream travel company in the land. H.I.S. appear to believe that the AKB48 member’s pulling-power is mostly with people not possessing the biggest wallets, since the campaign’s strongest advertising is for reduced trips (apparently down, appropriately enough, to just 48 yen). Examples of these offers include Taiwan, Hawaii, Guam and Seoul, all of which are also safe and predictable travel destinations for Japanese tourists.
I’m not yet wholly convinced that the consumers buying AKB48’s CDs or photo books include anyone but the typical idol-loving male, yet their allure is apparently now strong enough to sell other people’s products.
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