Ghibli's latest work "The Boy and the Heron”: successful advertising-free strategy

"The Boy and the Heron" was released in theaters in Japan on July 14, 2023. It took on an unusual approach with no promotional videos, no big billboards, no flyers, and no introduction of the characters. The only "information” provided prior to the movie’s release was a picture of a mysterious bird and that it was a Studio Ghibli film directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Without any information about the cast, it was quietly released as if it were some urban legend, and conversely, it attracted attention.

It seems that because there was so little information, many people turned to searching on the Internet. The graph below shows the changes in the number of people who searched for “The Boy and the Heron.” You can see that there was a sharp increase in July when the movie was released.

It is speculated that the increase in the number of people searching in December 2022 was due to the reports that it would be released in the summer and the introduction of the movie's thematic picture (only a picture of a bird). After the news coverage, there were no big advertisements whatsoever, so you can see that it was hardly searched until its release date.

Next, let's look at the user attributes of people who searched for "The Boy and the Heron.”
As you can see in the graph below, for the male-to-female ratio, there are more females at 53.0%, and the age group is mostly in their 40s, but as one would expect, it seems that Ghibli movies are popular among different age groups, ranging from people in their 20s to their 50s.

Now, let's explore what kind of information people wanted to know about "The Boy and the Heron" based on the searched keyword combinations.

"Synopsis" ranked in No. 3. While there was no information, it seems that there were many users who wanted to know the general plot of the movie. What is worth paying attention to is "voice actor (4th place)" and "cast (7th place)." Every Ghibli movie is has used the voices of a star-studded cast, so it seems that expectations were high this time as well.

The cast was actually announced on the day the movie was released. It included famous people like Takuya Kimura, Masaki Suda, Aimyon, and other stars, causing the movie to attract attention once again.

We have seen the tendencies of people searching for "The Boy and the Heron,” a movie riddled in mystery.
Next, we will predict what kind of positioning this film will take among the many Ghibli works.

First, let’s compare user attributes with those of other popular films.

The graph below shows the user attributes of popular Ghibli works.
We covered the most recent work (released in 2013) "The Wind Rises," as well as films most frequently broadcasted on terrestrial TV "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (20 times)" and " Castle in the Sky (18 times)," and "My Neighbor Totoro (18 times)."

Looking at the share of gender and age groups, we can see that it is similar to the people who searched for “The Wind Rises.”

“The Boy and the Heron” has attracted attention for its unusual advertising-free strategy, but did you know that a unique Ghibli advertisement was actually being executed on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter)?
It includes the "Use it freely within the bounds of common sense" series and the grey heron that cries (or says?), “Fraark! Fraark!”

The grey heron that suddenly appeared as the profile picture of Studio Ghibli’s official X (formerly Twitter) account and the illustration of Nausicaä was printed with the July 14 release date of “The Boy and the Heron." The grey heron has been frequently making an appearance ever since.

Let's analyze the effectiveness of the promotional activities on X (formerly Twitter).

The graph below shows the number of users on the Studio Ghibli official website and Studio Ghibli’s official X (formerly Twitter) page. We can see that both increased sharply in July 2023.

In addition, the number of people visiting the official website via social media also increased significantly in July.
Ghibli’s official X platform (formerly Twitter) posts don't necessarily have a link to the official website, but still 90% of the social media traffic in July were from X (formerly Twitter).

In this article, we explored how users reacted to the advertising-free strategy of “The Boy and the Heron,” Hayao Miyazaki's first feature film in 10 years.

▼Data from Dockpit was used in this case study. Dockpit is an online behavior analytics tool provided by VALUES, Inc., and it allows you to access online behavioral data (updated monthly) via your browser so you can research competitor websites and investigate trends. There is a FREE version of Dockpit, so if you are interested in using it, please register below.