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Dreamworks' Brad Woods Joins Viz Media as Chief Marketing Officer


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pikopika



Joined: 21 Nov 2014
Posts: 195
Location: United States
PostPosted: Mon May 18, 2015 4:56 pm Reply with quote
Congratulations to Brad Woods!
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Kadmos1



Joined: 08 May 2014
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PostPosted: Mon May 18, 2015 5:54 pm Reply with quote
A member of a major Hollywood studio joining the Viz family. I think this is more of the way that Hollywood should do it when they try to handle anime.
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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
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PostPosted: Mon May 18, 2015 6:38 pm Reply with quote
It's about his connections
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CaRoss



Joined: 11 Nov 2014
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PostPosted: Mon May 18, 2015 7:01 pm Reply with quote
This could be a real boon to Viz. They've had decent marketing in the past, but one thing that Dreamworks has definitely been is a master of marketing, and if we now have someone from Dreamworks (especially someone who held so much power over the marketing) working there, I cannot wait to see what this leads to. Maybe more people will be drawn towards some of these series and products. After all, a good marketing campaign can be a wonderful addition for any product.
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Tempest_Wing



Joined: 07 Nov 2014
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PostPosted: Mon May 18, 2015 7:32 pm Reply with quote
Has something like this happened in the past? This seems unexpected considering anime's supposed niche audience. I'm just surprised a major player in Dreamworks would join Viz Media.
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noblesse oblige



Joined: 22 Dec 2012
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PostPosted: Mon May 18, 2015 10:40 pm Reply with quote
I'm a big believer in promoting from within, especially in specialized industries with niche consumer bases. Curious to see how this works out for them. At least his connections in retail should prove useful.
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Hiroki not Takuya



Joined: 17 Apr 2012
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PostPosted: Tue May 19, 2015 1:06 am Reply with quote
I hope this guy is a marketing genius and helps put anime "on the map" but I can't help thinking that I wouldn't buy a used car from him.
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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Tue May 19, 2015 1:50 am Reply with quote
CaRoss wrote:
This could be a real boon to Viz. They've had decent marketing in the past, but one thing that Dreamworks has definitely been is a master of marketing, and if we now have someone from Dreamworks (especially someone who held so much power over the marketing) working there, I cannot wait to see what this leads to. Maybe more people will be drawn towards some of these series and products. After all, a good marketing campaign can be a wonderful addition for any product.


On one hand, I'm glad to see that DW higher-ups are starting to flee the sinking ship (it can and it will, gentlemen, it is a mathematical certainty), and find work elsewhere, but on the other, I'm worried that Viz might catch any contagious diseases.
They're already a bit too corporately messed-up, without associating with execs who still think audiences are waiting for Kung Fu Panda 3.
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CoreSignal



Joined: 04 Sep 2014
Posts: 727
Location: California, USA
PostPosted: Tue May 19, 2015 2:49 am Reply with quote
Tempest_Wing wrote:
Has something like this happened in the past? This seems unexpected considering anime's supposed niche audience. I'm just surprised a major player in Dreamworks would join Viz Media.


noblesse oblige wrote:
I'm a big believer in promoting from within, especially in specialized industries with niche consumer bases. Curious to see how this works out for them. At least his connections in retail should prove useful.


I don't know what to make of this hire either. I guess it's good they got someone who worked for a huge company like Dreamworks but on the other hand, does he have any experience at all with the more niche anime market? Well, hopefully this works out for Viz.
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
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PostPosted: Tue May 19, 2015 4:07 am Reply with quote
Seems like a step down, vice president a giant company, to marketing in a smaller company.
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PurpleWarrior13



Joined: 05 Sep 2009
Posts: 2024
PostPosted: Tue May 19, 2015 4:07 am Reply with quote
I've always liked anime to be pushed into a more mainstream market, and Viz is a good company to do it. Most of Viz's catalog consists of stuff that could more easily be marketed to a broad audience versus, say, Sentai, or especially NISA, whose catalogs lean heavily more toward niche titles. I especially hope this means they're pushing Sailor Moon into the mainstream here like it was 15-20 years ago.
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Ali07



Joined: 01 Jun 2014
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Location: Victoria, Australia
PostPosted: Tue May 19, 2015 7:22 am Reply with quote
noblesse oblige wrote:
I'm a big believer in promoting from within, especially in specialized industries with niche consumer bases. Curious to see how this works out for them. At least his connections in retail should prove useful.

Read my mind.

While I've not seen this type of move happen before (hollywood to anime), I've seen a lot of similar things happen in sports administration. And, a lot of the time, the guys moving from one sporting code to another seem to think that everyone is just a "sports fan", rather than a fan of the actual sport itself.

Let's hope that this move works out, and that he doesn't think that broad strokes will work.
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Kadmos1



Joined: 08 May 2014
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PostPosted: Tue May 19, 2015 7:33 am Reply with quote
Tempest_Wing wrote:
Has something like this happened in the past? This seems unexpected considering anime's supposed niche audience. I'm just surprised a major player in Dreamworks would join Viz Media.


Not to my knowledge. However, being hired as the marketing leader certainly means that Viz has a chance of getting more anime potentially quicker which means potential new talent to their VA list.
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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
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PostPosted: Tue May 19, 2015 9:20 am Reply with quote
Hiroki not Takuya wrote:
I hope this guy is a marketing genius and helps put anime "on the map" but I can't help thinking that I wouldn't buy a used car from him.


That last comment sums up my feelings better than I could. Very Happy

I think they're going on the idea that DW "never misses a trick" where self-promotion is concerned, and has the #2 obsession with trying to beat #1 By Any Means Necessary, which will help Viz establish themselves out of Funi's monolithic shadow.
Viz still seems to be the "Manga talks!" company when it comes to anime, and seems to turn up their nose at wide-broadcast or wide-distribution opportunities for their series like a cat turning down cheap canned food. If it's not a fight serial with at least six or seven years in it, it can go hang.

To compete with Funi, the new streaming/Blu industry needs someone shameless, hungry, and determined to be the King of All Media, like CPM was back during the VHS and Sci-Fi Channel days: They may not have had the good series, but the ones they had, they made sure everyone knew about them.
(And CPM should have been as lucky to have had Ranma, Sailor Moon and Maison.)
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Usagi-kun



Joined: 03 Jul 2013
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PostPosted: Tue May 19, 2015 2:19 pm Reply with quote
He looks like a friendly, open-minded guy in that picture, at least. Good luck to him; I guess we will see how this shakes down. Dreamworks has had several sucessfully marketed animation titles. I wonder if this will turn out to be some kind of shift for Viz? I would not really call them irrelevant in the American anime market, but other than manga releases and a handful of titles in the last few years, I don't really hear as much from them. Funi and Sentai kind of duke out over the current anime releases, but I believe Viz has the wisdom an overseas connections to sit back and make their bank in a different way. Hmmm. Could be interesting.
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