Hey gang! Like I mentioned the other day, Phase II is actually happening all the time — think “content strategy” moreso than “obvious activity,” and always evolving — and there’s a separate little project happening right now that made me think that I may as well introduce this one component.

Terry’s started up a project of building playlists of idols for fans of other idols. So, like, if you’re into PassCode, you might also like these things, and so on. It’s a good idea! Continue reading →

Hey gang, this is just a thank you and quick little update on the outcomes of the idol Match Game thing — I’d share the feedback directly like I do with the other polls, but in addition to these forms having butt output, people put A LOT of detail into their descriptions, and it’d be kind of a cumbersome mess to try to display all at once.

What I can say is this: You’re some clever-ass people. Continue reading →

Happy Monday, gang. This coming right on the heels of that sayonara Karen’s way is a real mood-setter, ain’t it?

Again, thanks to everybody who added their input to the surprisingly-still-kind-of-going comments on the original feedback ask for Phase II (you can see the overall results and stuff here). I did mention last week that I’d have this up over the weekend, but a podcast and some life stuff intervened and I didn’t get the time to be additionally thoughtful about this like I wanted, so we’ll have it for the early part of this week instead.

So where are we? Basically, now that you’ve had a chance to consider who might have some viability to Western audiences and why, put yourself in the shoes of somebody who’d have to promote them. You obviously want your target audience to be people who are the most likely to respond well to the idols’ sound and stuff, so who do you promote to? Continue reading →

I really do want to thank you guys for throwing your votes and thoughts into that rather open-ended poll dealy from the other day.

The way that the poll itself shook out was really interesting. I expected a good percentage of votes for BiSH, for instance, because it’s starting to look inevitable that, with their momentum, Watanabe will want to test the waters (as pointed out in the comments); what I didn’t expect was the large amount of support for Guso Drop, who claimed the plurality of specific votes. And, for what it’s worth, the #1 vote was for Other, which suggests that sentiments around the ability of particular groups to break through and become A Thing outside of Japan are even more varied that I thought.

For what it’s worth, the loose plurality of support in Other was for Kamen Joshi, with THE SPUNKY, BiS (I had a feeling!), Deathrabbits and — the biggest surprise — Arrow Heart picking up multiples of support.

I’m withholding comment on those results for the time being, but I want to address the comments that a number of you contributed. Continue reading →