If you are not familiar with Anime, animation cartoons from Japan, and its incredible fan base, you can get the inside scoop here. Bob Robinson, VP of Creative Services for Funimation, recently talked with AdChat. Here are some highlights.
Adchat DFW: Who is Funimation?
Bob Robinson: Funimation Entertainment is one of the world’s most prominent anime-based entertainment companies. Over twenty years ago, our founder Gen Fukunaga first brought Dragon Ball Z to the United States from Tokyo, and today we’re home to some of the most iconic anime; Attack on Titan, Fullmetal Alchemist, One Piece, Tokyo Ghoul, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Hellsing, Ghost In The Shell, Steins; Gate and many others. Big anime brands like these have helped us become one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the acquisition, production, marketing, and distribution of Japanese television and theatrical content.
Adchat DFW: What is Anime? How many episodes do you produce yearly?
Bob Robinson: Anime refers to animation from Japan, although even within the anime community, there are arguments over what constitutes anime. I mean is anime a style of animation, a genre of entertainment, or any animation that comes out of Japan? Depends on who you ask. For many fans, it’s more of a lifestyle. We translate, dub, and market hundreds of new titles every year. And we re-release existing catalog titles through out the year, as well as manage brand new theatrical releases. For example, we are currently planning to re-release all Speed Racer episodes for the first time on Blu-ray, and releasing our newest feature film, Shin Godzilla in theaters this fall.
Adchat DFW: Is your production in-house?
Bob Robinson: We handle in-house production almost 24/7. That means translation, recording and editing. We may be the largest production studio in Texas.
Adchat DFW: What about marketing?
Bob Robinson: Most marketing is handled in-house as well. We have brand managers, marketing managers, media planners, merchandisers, social teams as well as a convention team that travels the world. Much of our marketing is focused on digital.
Adchat DFW: How is running an in-house agency different from using external agencies?
Bob Robinson: Having managed creative teams at both external as well as internal agencies, there are differences. In the traditional agency, teams are bounced from client to client and seldom have time to truly understand a client’s business. An internal agency allows creatives to become fully immersed in a brand, and not have to focus so much on bill rates and utilization. The quality of the work is the same if you have the right people. This year for example, we have won over twenty creative awards including winning 2 national ADDYs, and we were just notified we are finalists in 2 categories for The Clio Key Art Awards.
Adchat DFW: Do you still use external vendors? For what services?
Bob Robinson: Media buying, PR, Event Marketing are just some of the skill sets that don’t make sense to handle in-house. Even with a large creative team of 25 folks, we still outsource. It doesn’t make sense for us to have everything in-house either from a time, talent or cost perspective.
Adchat DFW: Is it fun working on such an exclusive product like Anime?
Bob Robinson: It is very fun to be able to work on brands you grew up with and loved for years. But you have to think of it like candy. Tasty, sweet and a treat, but if that’s all you eat everyday, you’re going to grow tired of it. So a lot of our creatives have outside creative outlets. Some paint, some act, and some even dance. But let’s be honest, helping people enjoy movies and shows featuring characters they already love isn’t really work. Digging ditches is work. This is fun.
