VIZ Media Combats Piracy by Making Content Freely Available

It's quite possible that alumni of stellar brands such as Lexus, Mattel, Warner and DreamWorks have seen Brad Woods' work up close. Always looking for more innovative challenges, the now-executive vice president and CMO of VIZ Media has taken on the world of Japanese manga to push him even further. But with very passionate fan bases and a continually growing community for the genre, issues may arise that could impact business models, such as piracy. A worldwide problem for sure, but Brad shares the story of how he and his team at VIZ Media took a complete 180, doing what many fear would cannibalize their business. Read on to discover how that was not the case, and in fact, yielded higher mainline sales. ADWEEK: How did you get to where you are today? Any noteworthy aha-moments along the way? I started my career as an ad exec working on Lexus automobiles. As an account executive, I learned the intricacies of the creative process but quickly realized that my true passion was with the actual product and made the decision to switch to the brand side. I returned to graduate with my MBA and began my post-graduate career at Mattel working on Hot Wheels, which was a dream come true. After many years, I made the switch to Warner, and then to DreamWorks to manage the U.S. licensing operations. When I left DreamWorks, I realized that my style and drive were better suited for a medium-sized company seeking growth. As a result, I now find myself in a role where each year is more challenging than the last and my passion for driving the success of the business continues to grow. What's the most innovative thing you're currently working on? I am most intrigued by our current Shonen Jump digital service. Shonen Jump is the umbrella brand for all of the hottest Japanese manga (comics) from Naruto to Dragon Ball. VIZ Media has been the leader in delivering physical books to fans for over 35 years but we’ve always been faced with the issue of online piracy: with people scanning the works and making them available for free. Often, these scans are poorly executed, hurting sales and also risk damaging the brand. A year ago, we did the unthinkable: we combated piracy by offering our content online for free. Now anyone can read the latest chapters as they were meant to be enjoyed, in the highest quality layout and art form. The fear in this model is that we would cannibalize our mainline sales, but that wasn't the case. At Mattel, with our Happy Meal promotions, the fear was that if you gave a toy away, no one would buy the same branded toy at retail. But in reality, mainline sales rose as a result of the added awareness. The same holds true for our manga: we’ve pulled in customers who would otherwise go to a pirate site and created new fans for the content and the company. Our service also has paid options that give access to our entire vault and the membership numbers have been nothing short of amazing. The innovation is not the technological execution, rather the approach. We took our fundamental product and transformed it into a marketing tool, widening our audience, increasing sales, and fighting piracy. It’s rare in my experience to find a single initiative that can deliver on multiple goals the way this has. What new or up-and-coming innovation(s) are you most excited about and how do you think it will change the future of marketing? There are two areas I find particularly interesting: “real-time” marketing and the use of AI in digital marketing. With real-time marketing, companies can target a message to the user while they’re shopping and when they're most open to receiving a message about a product or service. Campaigns that were once viewed as a nuisance can now be a welcome addition to an online search. AI advancements have huge potential for growth and refinement. Using data in real-time to adjust ad placement and campaign messaging is a game-changer. Imagine your service team knowing customers’ entire history: purchases, returns, preferences, tenure with your brand, etc. How much better can that customer experience become with this knowledge? https://twitter.com/VIZMedia/status/1367656110791012352 What’s one piece of work from your career that you’re the proudest of? When I joined VIZ Media, it was the first time I held a truly blank canvas. I joined a company that survived the economic downturn of 2008 and now needed to create a platform for growth. We have an incredibly smart and inspiring CEO who gave me carte blanche to reimagine our corporate image, restructure our branding, and build a team to drive our continued growth. It has been an entrepreneurial dream come true and the pride comes in seeing the team run with this vision and further reinforce VIZ as the leader in our market. Was there ever a time where you questioned your career path? How did you handle that? Absolutely, probably several times. I spent eight years at DreamWorks Animation growing the CPG and licensing efforts for brands ranging from Shrek to Batman. However, as a licensor, you are one step removed from the end product. I wanted to get back to core marketing and brand management, so I sought advice. I cold-called a multitude of industry-leading CEOs and entrepreneurs. These conversations opened doors and I soon found myself consulting for various companies, which ultimately led me to VIZ Media. What is one skill that you think is currently underdeveloped in Marketing? Brand development. It seems to be largely overlooked in today’s world; particularly with newer-to-market companies. Much of a modern marketing team’s duties revolve around the ways in which we can more effectively reach an end-user. But we aren’t spending much time defining why this customer would want to engage with our brands. How should your product make someone feel? What emotions does a person have when they encounter your logo? Without answers to these questions, you aren’t building any true brand association and certainly won’t enjoy brand loyalty when the competition comes knocking. VIZ Office Library How do you pick and develop the talent on your team? I tend to seek people who express a good level of self-awareness, are humble but not to a fault, and who, when they ask a question, actually listen to the answer and provide a thoughtful response. When hiring someone, I need to know that the person is thoughtful and assesses how their decisions affect both the team and the company. I always ask in interviews to tell me a criticism people make about you (true or not) and how that makes you feel. There’s no right answer, of course, only an insight into the person’s honesty and self-awareness. What's a way that you predict marketing will change as more people begin traveling/going out again? Hopefully, we’ll see a resurgence of compelling outdoor and location-based marketing. Small businesses are opening up and will need to draw foot traffic. We’ve been trapped shopping online for a year and these in-person marketing efforts will want to be fun and truly experiential to make a difference. What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? Treat every job as if you were an owner of the company. If you see trash on the floor, pick it up. If you see an issue that needs addressing, don’t wait for someone else to solve it when you can make a difference. If you engage your career as an owner and put forth the effort that a founder would give, you become vested in the success of both the company as well as yourself. You remain motivated to ensure growth and you do the little things that make a difference.

Innovators

To Combat Piracy, VIZ Media Made Its Content Available to Fans for Free

The EVP and CMO shares how the unthinkable approach resulted in increased mainline sales

Julian Gamboa

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Julian Gamboa