@asudja, it does make sense. The chance to meet them establishes a connection with the fans. It's one thing to watch an idol on TV, but it's a different reality when we can meet them. @akb48, we've gained another Takamina fan and it's your best friend. That's awesome. @Bookman, a fun method is a great way to introduce akb and it gets your friends to think about it. If some of my friends wouldn't understand the appeals of an idol then I'll have to find another way. It's more effective to introduce unfamiliar content by talking about something familiar so I use the topic of MONEY. I'll talk about how Akimoto-producer is a role model for me and how brilliant he is. I'll talk about his strategies and the different ways fans support the group. Once your friends understand that the industry is very profitable then they'll wonder why people like them so much. At this point, you can talk about anything you want. Preferably from the "idols you can meet" aspect as well as the chance to see their growth.
I do almost the same thing except I call Akip a crazy evil idol hording genius, who's trying to expand his empire and eventually take over the world Spoiler And I also said he'll employ half of the Japanese female population before the world ends [sealed] Spoiler My brother finds it rather intriguing
I converted one of my friends to kpop back when i was a fan of kpop and now shes obsessed with Kpop and listens to nothing elese right now im working on converting her to AKB48, hopefully i can make her obsessed akb too so we can talk about AKB stuff
correct!! not all ppl understand the concept of "idol in japan" itself.. thus the "AKB" concept which is very different to any other groups.. a week ago I almost debated my whole big family when JKT48's doing a performance on TV. but I knew it won't get me nowhere, so i stopped before it began.. lol.. I'll try another route to infect my cousins
I was discussing akb and their sister groups with my step-dad today . He finds the concept very intriguing and thinks Akip is a genious. When I said he's expanding to more Asian countries, he thought it was a smart business move and that he's gotta be stacked. We even talked about what if he made a USA48 but we both agreed it just wouldn't work. :dunno:
^ It's great that you introduced it to your step-dad. He may not be a fan, but it wouldn't stop him from mentioning it to someone else if it was relevant to the conversation. He carries the fandom with him and he doesn't know it yet.
My trick is to pretend that none of their cutesy song exist and just show off their more serious songs lol
Well, recently without prompting from me, a friend of mine said "I like RIVER..." I had told him about AKB48 a long time ago and wasn't sure whether he was referring to them.. "AKB48?" I asked. "Yeah, Who else" he replied. Well, thats good I thought. Hmmm... Its been a long time since I've posted on S48.. Now that my gf is back in Japan and my mock exams are over, I've got more time on my hands.
^River is a good song. Every time I read that word to my students, I end up saying River 3 times. The moment it doesn't get any laughs, I'm going to reintroduce River to the entire school on the speaker system.
Converting my sister's family? Uh, no way, they're so Americanized to a huge extent as they think I'm "weird" by their standards (they also have First-World Problems).
My mom really likes Mayuyu (she saw the photobook I have and loved the photos), and my father thinks it's funny that I like a big japanese idol group so much. My sister didn't like AKB so much at first, but since I'm always in her room, she knows maaaany stages songs and singles because I like to watch the DVDs and sing along lol. Even so, AKB wasn't her tea of cup, but, recently, she's been talking to a japanese guy. He told her that AKB is nice, so she's always asking me about songs and, now, is trying to learn how to dance Nagisa no Cherry. I'm always talking of Mayuyu to my boyfriend and friends. They actually don't understand why I love her so much.
I find trying to convert people to AKB is really difficult >.< Everyone seems to make sharp, rash, snap judgements about them... Plus, being a male fan, people end up judging you as well ._. In England (Other countries can probably relate), it is not 'common' to like something which is not in English which is /really/ annoying, and people end up being all mergh about it. Like previous comments above, every automatically think the girls was all really young teenagers, and thats it, and they think there is no depth to the band, just looks so people can gawp at them. If you manage to get someone past this typical stage, i think its safe to say you have a fair chance of converting them :') ((Im still not successful T^T)) Also...ease them in with the more serious PVs and emotional lives T^T
i don't know how, but with out realizing it i've been exposing some of my relatives to akb little by little. they're pretty much all i ever post about in my facebook page. not really surprising since i only made an account for that dc group and only started posting in my page cause they wanted to know what im into now and all that. a while back i posted a vid of oteage lullaby and later during a chat my aunt told me that she really liked it. she even said that takamina will be her oshimen too when i told her that she's my oshi, but i told her not to just for that reason cause thats not how takamina would want to become someones oshimen. anyways she's not a fan, but liking one of akb's songs is a start and who know who else is liking or getting interested about what im posting.
I showed my sister the River PV, and I thought she would hate it because she's really into indie music, but she kind of laughed and said it was "entertaining." I played Beginner to her and she seemed to really like it, she said the beats were cool. As for strategies, I think taking the gimmicky angle is a good way to go about it, because lots of people find the idea of a group made of 50+ Japanese girls pretty (for lack of a better word) omoshiroi, and the handshake events and all the senbatsu business is also pretty out there.
tried converting 48 fandom to close friends ... it actually worked thanks to AKB 1/48 in guam they see me playing it in school .. lol they got quite interested in the game .. longer by longer they got intrested in akb .. but too bad they only get intrested in the members .. i mean like a friend got intrested in yukirin and myao .. so they don't really care about the songs and etc.. just only there fav members .. so i guess rather than getting into akb they just like there fav member .. only that but sometimes when i watch concerts and stuff they kinda join and watch for a while .. but only just wanna see the member they like .. lol and about trying convincing my family to liking 48 fandom? won't try to convince them... though my mom got an interest in takamina .. she says she's cute
this is interesting, i had a few friends that got into AKB because of me but i didn't had the intention to convert them at that time I just showed them cause I saw something interesting. I remember once I showed my brother a video of Mariko getting "pissed" off at a prank in a classroom and starting raging and swinging the kendo stick around, it got his slight interest and when I showed him Majisuka he actually went on to finish the first two seasons. There was this friend I have and I can't remember why I showed him Tomochin performing Dear J, I didn't even do anything afterwards he became a fan after watching that video. I think it depends on the type of girl your friend likes. To me the success rate is also higher if you don't just show them the big amount of girls the first time round. Maybe just show them 1-2 girls that you think may pique his interests and slowly work from there. At least for me I started from a single girl as well before moving on to find out about others from videos I watched when I searched for the particular member's videos.
I recently bought a magazine which features an article on the marketing success of AKB48 and I let my brother and sister read it. I also posted AKB48 content on my Facebook so my friends can know and like them too. Promoting AKB48 to people has to be consistent. Many Filipinos do not know about AKB48 but Korean acts, which I find exciting and challenging to introduce AKB48 to those who will be interested. Promoting AKB48 should not come from media or even FM radio, but from dedicated listeners.
I actually somewhat converted my mum I started to like AKB via the anime (as a girl, the first thing I saw of them was HebiRotes PV and gravure photo books, so that wasn't really encouraging). Japan also kind of killed my interest with their over-advertising (the university I went to had a drink machine with their faces plastered on it - when they were doing Wonda Coffee) Anyway, I decided to buy the Tokyo Dome Box Set. I asked my mum and pop for money for Christmas. Mum was horrified at the price, but let me get it anyway. When I finally got to watch it, my mum watched bits and pieces with me (she watches anime with me, so it wasn't majorly odd). She thought it was weird and some of the costumes were stupid. I then watched it through a second time and she watched the entirety of every single day (she made me skip the MCs though) Now she really likes "the tall one" (Mariko) and even cried a bit for Acchan's last performance. The other day she watched the first day of Request Hour with me and laughed - "some of the girls just can't do sexy, can they?" Whenever we're in the car, she fiddles with my iPod until she can find HebiRote, Gingham Check and Oogoe Diamond On the other hand, I tried to get my male friend into AKB. I'm making slow progress [clap] I think the way to do it is make them interested; like, my friend doesn't listen to J-Pop, so I'm starting him with 00 and explaining the in-jokes. I have another friend who likes Milky, but not the group (but we lived in Osaka, so he has an obvious bias there) - I just make sure that I put stuff on my facebook and mention it casually without shoving it down people's throats.
i was just talking to my dad who lives in the Philippines and we some how got to talking about akb. he goes to japan often and he knows about them. so we were talking and and i mentioned that im planing on visiting japan someday(in like a year or two) and visiting akihabara and the AKB theater. so we got to talking about exchange rates, how expensive it can be there, and how i expect friends of mine to buys them akb stuff while im there. we anded up making plans of meeting there and visiting akihabara and the theater together and visiting a relative that lives near there. and he said he could help me too if i end up buying a lot of stuff cause he works for PAL. so anyways i know it's not happening yet but if things all fall through then we would be spending time doing akb related stuff while there and who knows he could start liking them too. and if he bring my lil brother along he could become a fan as well
