Which Release had the Best Marketing Campaign...

[Lumos]

...and which had the Worst? Since I'm studying Business at present you can imagine we talk about this sort of stuff every once in a while and so I thought it might be fun then to apply it to Dragon Ball. To make things more interesting, it only has to be your own opinion although you could always use official statistics and the like to back up your thoughts. I also use the term release very loosely here - for example you can cite a series of T.V commercials for upcoming episodes if you so choose. It doesn't necessarily have to be a product you can buy in a shop.

I think the best marketing campaign - in my humble opinion of course - and interestingly enough also the worst would probably be anything relating to Funimation's distribution of Kai. I think they (or rather the fan community at large) did a very good job of ramping up anticipation for not only future episodes but recasts as well. For example, I seem to remember there was a palpable sense of excitement on the internet relating to Freeza's new voice. A little further down the line then, I recall when NickToons put the show on hiatus the episode before Freeza transformed and there was more excitement still as to what sort of voices he would then use for each one of Freeza's later forms. Like I mentioned above this was more so to do with the fan community than Funimation themselves. I think it was ultimately impressive then that such excitement could be generated considering how old the source material was. I must also give props to the Kanzenshuu community for getting me interested in the Japanese release so thank you for that

On the other hand though, the reason I think that the Kai marketing was bad was primarily because there was - and still is - a lot of misinformation flying around. For instance, I don't think most people know that the show doesn't just exist in a heavily edited version. This is reflected in the DVD/Blu-Ray sales figures is it not - the home release overall didn't do nowhere as well as it 'should' have done?

What about you? What release do you think had the best and worst marketing campaign and why?

[kidglov3s]

I think as a whole DB in America had its most effective marketing push in 2000, between the constant ads and airings on Toonami, synergistic efforts with Irwin and Burger King, and the saturation of the Trunks/Androids video releases in stores (this would also be the year where bilingual DVD singles were introduced). I don't have any data in terms of like yknow what year brought in the most revenue but to me that seemed to be the height of the franchise in this country in terms of visibility and I feel like marketing had a lot to do with taking the momentum of the Freeza saga's airing in America in 1999 and putting DBZ over the top in such a way that so many new eyes were introduced to it. In 2000 it seemed like DBZ was everywhere, and there were a lot of brilliant marketing decisions behind creating that impression.

For whatever their faults the DVD Season Sets that began in 2007 were a huge success from a marketing perspective. This not only sold tons and tons of copies (many to people who were aware that they were awful but felt like they didn't really have a better option) but was seemingly influential in driving that final huge push against singles in USA anime video releases.

[Hellspawn28]

DBE marketing campaign was pretty bad if you want some worst marketing campaign. I remember they release the trailer first in October on the web and didn't bother releasing one in theaters until December. The general movie goers laugh at the trailer and thought it looked awful. Even if DBE was going to be bad, they should give us a better convincing trailer. You also had all of the merchandise for the movie that was in the bargain bin like a week later. The movie would still bombed nevertheless though due to bad word of mouth.

[Lumos]

For whatever their faults the DVD Season Sets that began in 2007 were a huge success from a marketing perspective. This not only sold tons and tons of copies (many to people who were aware that they were awful but felt like they didn't really have a better option) but was seemingly influential in driving that final huge push against singles in USA anime video releases.

I was going to nominate this myself actually. Say what you will about this particular release but the orange bricks did exceptionally well and, thinking back to that very first trailer, it certainly made a very clear statement of intent (All 291 episodes to be released from beginning to end etcetera, etcetera).

Had I actually been old enough to remember it I might have chosen something to do with Dragon Ball Z at its peak during America but since I was only what, 4 and 5 years old back in 2000 the whole marketing craze sort of passed me by. It was just a show I watched every day and loved. Outside of the adverts that I saw on T.V (my memory in this department is also hazy) I was never really tuned into the promotional side of things. In retrospect, I really wish I had been old enough to experience it.

[dbboxkaifan]

For the US market? The Orange Bricks.

Despite that the OBs have awful quality they were advertised as "Digitally Remastered", "in High Definition" and "The Definitive Experience" plus having 25 episodes or so per season helped it out.

[Sin]

For me it's the Rock the Dragon set, everything about that release seemed perfectly targeted and crafted for its intended audience. The trailer was great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4ZBVoQEsm0 - it's great from a business perspective and as a fan of the series.