Becastled is a game about siege warfare.
So during this pitch a while back I made the mistake of listening to client feedback instead of staring at the lock screen of my phone while the client's hangers-on justify their existence by asking a litany of double whammy questions. These are questions that:
1. Are answered by slides on the deck.
2. Prove they don't understand their own product/market but conveyed in a way to imply you don't.
Anyway, the "Assistant global digital product marketing managing director in creative sales APAC" managed to slip an interesting thought into his twenty-minute pedantic, meandering, and racist diatribe on why the plan will and won't work. He said, "I find it so cool how the urban community has adopted Japanese Anime. Such an Odd Couple!"
My second mistake was taking the bait. I replied, "Nah, it's not so odd. Japan and the "Urban" community have done the fusion dance for the last 40 years." The room collectively clutches its pearls. How dare I not only have the audacity to speak out of turn but to openly contradict a client's myopic view of reality? They asked me to unpack the statement, I was like, "Sure."
I said, "Ok, so Japan creates the turntable, which sells like shit in Japan, nobody knows what to do with it. They got all this extra product collecting dust, basically gave up on the product regionally, so what to do? They offload it at discount to the American "Urban" community who know exactly what to do with it. Add a dash of 808 and you have pop culture as we know its origin story."
The room leaned toward its strengths and continued to ask dumb questions. "Well that certainly tracks, but that still doesn't explain the "Urban" communities love for Japanese cartoons. It's baffling!" I responded, "Not really. Animes are hero's journey parables that reinforce the idea that with a positive attitude, a strong work ethic, and a good heart, the least of us can do great things. The urban community find positive role models in Goku, Naruto, and Luffy, something no American markets provide."
The room was done with me after that, no response and immediately started closing out the meeting. My contact in the building later told me they accepted the pitch but refuse to work with me. Say I'm "combative." I respect it... I get it... I really do. I'm so not good in the room, and honestly don't want to be. Such is life.
Anyway, shouts to information and a special note; This ain't us, and if it's you, you ain't us. Love is wise, hatred is foolish. Rip TB rip TC rip Tall-T. Get out there and do great things, we believe in you. Also Jobs.
