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The company mainly operates in Asia and North America. Brands such as KFC, SK-Ⅱ, and Magnum have cooperated with them. The company as a whole has entered the top vHuman company queue.
Compared with the current mainstream two-dimensional vTuber, vHuman, as its derived vertical branch, is still relatively niche. However, its super-realistic and novel features make vHuman highly match advertising endorsements. Advertisement realizes stable realization.
According to Takayuki Moriya, founder and CEO of Aww, the compatibility with advertising may make vHuman a brand-new endorsement choice in the future.
For a new virtual idol company, how to accumulate seed users in the early stage to consolidate the artist’s fan base and how to efficiently monetize in the later stage are the two most critical issues.
For this reason, East-West Culture and Entertainment combined with Japanese media moguravr’s interview information with Moriya Kiyuki in early October to summarize Aww’s operating model.
(Photo source Instagram@imma.gram)
Aww’s business model
Before and after 2018, the recognition of the concept of virtual idols in the Japanese market continued to increase. While the mainstream two-dimensional image vTuber was realized through song albums and concerts, the advertising industry and fashion industry also produced virtual idols. A higher degree of attention.
Takiyuki Moriya, who has the foundation of 3DCG technology, has seen the demand for virtual idols to monetize advertising. In 2019, Aww was established, and based on CG technology, it created and operated Japan’s first vHuman “imma” with commercial endorsement functions.
Pink bob head, exquisite facial features, and real-looking skin, these elements make imma have a clear difference from the two-dimensional vTuber at that time.
After the market accepted the concept of vHuman, Aww used its main business to carry out the systematic content creation and daily operation and maintenance of vHuman.
Since then, Aww has also expanded its outsourcing business MASTERMODEL business supported by self-research engine technology, and two sectors of emerging business related to AI technology and xR technology.
After imma, Aww has successively launched the “Ria”, “plusticboy” and “Asu” three-digit vHuman, and through the MASTER MODEL engine to create a variety of virtual digital fashion that simulates real materials, and 3DCG technology has become a fashion industry A new choice for clothing display.
It is worth mentioning that the company stated in its public information in April this year that the company will increase its development and investment in emerging technologies in the future. Through AI technology, its vHuman will have an intelligent soul and exclusive voice, and through xR The technology achieves multi-scene interaction in real-life scenarios.
Aww company vHuman’s early user retention strategy
From the perspective of the retention of seed users in the early stage, in terms of current trends, the traditional methods of real-life artists’ ground-shop advertisements and new talent shows are poorly integrated with virtual idols.
The reason is that, on the one hand, the concept of virtual idols has not yet been widely popularized in a true sense. From the perspective of risk management and control, the brand has a clear advantage for more systematic live artists.
On the other hand, the world’s leading virtual idol companies are still exploring the path of variety shows for the purpose of publicity, and there is still no path to get through.
This is why it is difficult to promote in the initial stage, and it is difficult to choose the medium to reach the general users. In turn, it is difficult to form spontaneous Amway among fans, and it is difficult to generate community-based UGC creations. This has caused problems such as difficulty in retaining internal fans and slow or stagnant external expansion.
Aww entered the virtual idol industry from two angles on this issue.
1. The novelty and high technology of vHuman conceptMonetization of ads.
Taking its imma as an example, it has been frequently exposed in the first and second quarters of this year’s Japanese financial report. The more well-known advertising endorsements include the cooperation with Menglong in April. As the spokesperson of Menglong in China, they filmed and launched TVCM.
In August, imma cooperated with IKEA as the image spokesperson for IKEA(IKEA) in Harajuku, Tokyo, and previously cooperated with SK-Ⅱ, KFC, etc. Big factories have cooperated.
In addition, imma also appeared on the cover of fashion magazine GRAZIA as a fashion model.
It is not difficult to see that the choice of advertising endorsements is mainly based on direct consumer goods close to the consumption of young people. While meeting the audience, it did not go too far down the line, maintaining the overall image in a novel range.
The vHuman avatar also has a sense of technology, which can continue to stimulate users’ curiosity.
In addition to novelty, vHuman also has a cost advantage over live artists. Looking at the domestic environment, the price of celebrity endorsements is not determined by the market, but mainly determined by the brokerage company, which means that it is difficult for brands to have the right to bargain.
From this perspective, vHuman often considers the initial market management and revenue aspects. This will make the brand endorsement cost lower. It can be said that vHuman and the brand are a win-win situation.
It is worth noting that Aww does not plan to open up a path for music realization.
In the interview, Moriya said that at present, we still operate the overall reputation with human management and advertising endorsement. Considering the cost and quality of music content, we cannot guarantee that our products are significantly different from real people.
Aww company founder and CEO Moriya Takayuki
Interviewer: moguravr editorial department
Interviewee: Aww company founder and CEO Moriya Kiyoshi
Q1: What were the reasons and opportunities for choosing vHuman?
Moriya: First of all, I personally came from the image entertainment industry, and I mainly focus on CG production.
Before and after 2012, the social media of Facebook and Twitter developed rapidly.
People’s popular entertainment model has shifted from television to online social platforms. In 2018, the concept of vTuber was very hot, and mainstream vTuber was mostly in the two-dimensional and semi-cartoon image.
In this context, the current COO Koichi Kishimoto and I conceived a super-realistic vTuber based on CG technology that is highly similar to real people, and called this special vTuber as vHuman.
In fact, the concept of “vHuman” or “virtual human” has been around for a long time, and I first encountered this concept in a PS4 game around 2015.
At present, in addition to producing original avatar IP with real person’s details and proportions, our company also has the business of transforming real person into realistic avatar.
Q2: From the perspective of the company, what is vHuman’s performance in monetization?
Moriya: Taking our company imma as an example, advertising endorsements are our main monetization channel as well as our PR channel, such as cosmetics brand “SKⅡ”, ice cream brand “Magnum”, furniture The brand “IKEA” is our customer.
At the same time, I think the advantage of vHuman is its novelty compared to real person endorsements. The setting and story behind vHuman are very attractive. When the essence is the same as the real endorsement, that is, the basic logic of advertising monetization.
Q3: What activities does vHuman currently carry out?
Moriya: Whether it is imma, plusticboy or Ria, they are all active on graphic social platforms, with Instagram as the main platform.
Upload real life photos, such as outdoor sports, food photos, landscape photos, etc. Of course the selection of these photosAnd release nodes are systematically planned and managed by a professional team.
At the same time, regarding this and advertising monetization, we don’t want our vHuman to become a tool for advertising monetization, but we want their fans to feel that vHuman is alive, so we keep every daily submission. The sense of enterprise is too strong.
Take imma as an example. She has a real personality, “Do what you like” and “Never do what you don’t like”. In other words, we design and control the human set clearly.
Q4: What will vHuman do in the future?
Moriya: The current vTuber can be divided into two categories: the second dimension and the surreal direction. According to the type, the field of expertise is also different, such as the second dimension. It may be more suitable for live broadcasts, and super-realistic ones are more suitable for endorsements.
As far as the current trend is concerned, the second dimension is definitely still the mainstream.
But from the perspective of social platforms, you can see the rapid development of short video platforms such as TikTok in recent years, and the ultra-realistic ones are more compatible with short video platforms. vHuman may become the mainstream in the future.
This article is from WeChat official account:East and West Entertainment (ID: EW-Entertainment), author: Yucheng Chen, editor: Yue hung