After finishing her phone call, Da-eun returned to the conference room with a noticeably bright expression on her face.
“They said it might be possible if we adjust the scheduling time.”
“Adjustment… By how much?”
“Since airing the ad for 24 hours is practically impossible due to the commercials already booked, they suggested splitting the time around the prime time slots instead.”
Da-eun handed me what seemed to be a manually written advertisement time schedule, as if it had been made during her call.
“So, I kind of made up a tentative schedule… Can you take a look at it?”
When I took the schedule and reviewed it, the advertisements were densely spread out around commuting hours.
For the morning, it was from 6:30 AM to 11 AM.
For the evening, it was from 4 PM to 8 PM.
It was undoubtedly a prime time when there was a high foot traffic and exposure across multiple age groups.
As I admired the thought internally, Da-eun caught my glance as she gazed at me with a satisfied expression.
The atmosphere in the conference room suddenly turned somewhat awkward.
However, Da-eun quickly regained her composure, cleared her throat, and spoke to me.
“S-so, is the time slot okay?”
“Perfect, right?”
“Right? The slots are mostly empty because the rates are expensive.”
The pricing… it was no big deal.
Since the price of the advertisement wasn’t a significant issue, we could potentially get much more out of the investment by airing during those prime time slots.
“Please don’t worry about the pricing. Just send the estimate to us once you put it together.”
At that, Da-eun’s face lit up, and she nodded.
“I’ll send it as quickly as I can!”
D-7 until the Korean server launch of Reverse Arcadia.
Jae-hyun was on his way via subway to meet a friend he hadn’t seen in a long time.
They had initially planned to meet last month, but due to conflicting schedules, they were only able to meet now.
Truthfully, he’d thought about postponing it again because it was such a hassle, but he couldn’t since the Korean server of Reverse Arcadia was launching in one week.
This was a crucial time for Jae-hyun, and he needed to paddle hard while the waters were favorable.
It was uncertain when they would meet again if not now.
Arriving at the subway station entrance, he made his way down the stairs.
On the way, something caught his eye; a poster advertisement plastered on the wall.
It was an advertisement he would normally walk past without a second glance. But today, he couldn’t overlook it.
One ad at the center of the poster billboard had caught his attention.
It featured a deformed SD version of a familiar two-toned-haired beauty holding a plain sign that read “Grand Open.”
It was Henietta.
“Why is the Reverse Arcadia ad here?”
Jae-hyun was flabbergasted, never in his 29 years of life imagining he would see a subculture game advertisement featuring a smiley girl at the subway station.
He quickly snapped a photo of the poster with his smartphone and headed toward the ticket gate, since he didn’t have much time to linger.
Regretfully passing through the ticket gate and heading down to the platform, he resolved to take another look on his way home.
However, once he descended to the platform, all such thoughts melted away.
Because the scene on the platform was nothing short of overwhelming.
The digital billboards plastered along the screen doors and walls were all displaying Reverse Arcadia advertisements.
And what was even more striking was the contrast between the poster and the dynamic digital versions. While the poster had featured Henietta alone, the digital billboards showcased different characters on each screen, capturing everyone’s attention.
It was a tsunami of adorable girls, and the sight left Jae-hyun speechless.
Even as someone who made a living drawing pictures, Jae-hyun had never imagined witnessing such a spectacle.
As he glanced around, it seemed the other commuters were just as speechless.
They were either transfixed, staring blankly at the billboards or snapping photos with their smartphones.
Unable to restrain himself, Jae-hyun took out his smartphone and began capturing pictures of the platform’s scene, then uploaded them with a post to the gallery.
[Nickname : N/A]
[Title : Any Reverse Arcadia Galaxy members in Seoul right now?]
[Photos of the subway platform covered in Reverse Arcadia advertisements]
“Just came to take the subway, and the platform’s digital billboards are plastered with advertisements. Hilarious. Are other stations like this too?”
“Everyone on the platform just stares at the ads — feels both super proud and somewhat embarrassing to be an otaku.”
[Comment List][Registration Order]
-WT? Where is this station? Crazy.
-Incheon Station.
-Zihojin, you psycho! Truly sharpening the knives for the Korean server release.
As soon as the post went up, it was flooded with recommendations and comments.
Feeling pleased with the overwhelming interest, Jae-hyun was about to delve into the comments when a cheerful melody rang out, accompanied by an announcement.
“The train bound for Incheon is now arriving.”
Turning his head unconsciously toward the approaching train, Jae-hyun froze.
The sight of the approaching train was beyond anything he could have imagined.
“Wha- what is this…?”
The exterior of the arriving train was adorned with full-size illustrations of Henietta in various poses.
The interior was wrapped in an image of a ruined cityscape, covering every nook and cranny.
And upon closer inspection, even the unwrapped seats were decorated with images from Reverse Arcadia.
Staring dumbfounded at the overwhelming interior, Jae-hyun instinctively reached for his smartphone again.
His instincts as a connoisseur demanded that he capture this incredible sight.
After filming for a while, Jae-hyun turned his attention to his surroundings.
“Wow, what is going on…?”
“Is this some kind of event?”
Most of the passengers aboard the train were equally amazed, chatting with each other and taking photos.
Despite the potential for discomfort from the abundance of cute girl illustrations and the apocalyptic theme, everyone seemed more amazed by the never-before-seen spectacle.
‘These Enson GT guys are truly sharpened to the max…’
Grinning inwardly at the sight, Jae-hyun opened up the gallery on his smartphone.
He couldn’t keep this information to himself.
He uploaded the photos he had taken of the subway’s internal wrapping, causing the Reverse Arcadia Gallery to stir again.
On the sixth day of the subway advertisement campaign, with the Korean server launch only a day away, I could clearly feel the impact while monitoring various community discussions.
[Nickname : N/A]
[Title : Holy crap, how much money did these Enson GT guys drop?]
[Images of certified ads by station]
“I just compiled the certified posts on the gallery. It looks like ads are plastered across every subway station in Seoul.”
[Photo of Seoul subway map with stations marked]
Just by checking the certified stations, more than half of Seoul’s subway stations are covered. lol
How much money did these guys drop on ads, really?
[Comment List][Registration Order]
-Woah wt? Crazy.
-These guys must have made a killing from Japan.
==
[Nickname : N/A]
[Title : Did these guys also wrap the subway cars in ads?]
[Photos of interiors with wraps]
I thought wrapping subway cars was only possible in Japan. lol
They really laid it on thick.
These guys are insane. lol
[Comment List][Registration Order]
-Woah bro, look at the quality. lol
-Ain’t it awesome? This could be in the news. lol
-It’s kinda scary. lol
==
[Nickname : N/A]
[Title : Real-time Twitter trends…jpg]
[Trends Ranking]
1. Reverse Arcadia
2. Subway Ad
3. Subway Ad Title
4. Digital Signage Ad
5. Henietta
Twitter is usually dominated by “clawhammer moms,” and hardly any male-oriented game discussions make it to the search popularity rankings,
but the scale of this ad campaign was so overwhelming that even Twitter was mostly talking about our game.
Especially those clawhammer moms, they’re getting pissed off about sexual objectification and excessive exposure or whatever, but with our current influence, all their complaints are getting buried. lol
To be honest, it feels so satisfying. lol
[Comment List][Registration Order]
-If it’s even mentioned on Twitter, the ad campaign has definitely resonated. lol
-Ha ha ha. lol
-What happens after the clawhammer moms’ complaints get buried?
-I don’t know. They say they’ll file reports or whatever, but it’ll work? lol
==
“Sure enough, it was worth dropping the money.”
The subway advertising campaign, which cost the equivalent of a year’s mobile game marketing budget, was on a scale so overwhelming that it could have garnered backlash over ad pollution.
However, focusing the advertisements only during the morning and evening rush hours seemed to make public feedback more positive than expected.
Perhaps as a result, the number of pre-registration users, which had hovered at 600,000, had now exceeded 700,000 and was approaching 800,000.
To be sure, some unspecified comments about the use of public facilities for such advertisements being inconvenient were present, but only a few.
Having completed the last round of monitoring before the launch, I stood up with my weary body and left my private office.
The studio office, where all the team members had left after clocking out the day before the launch, was empty.
The office was dim with most of the lights off.
Since I had no plans to leave today anyway, I silently wished as I walked towards the tea room.
That everything would go smoothly tomorrow.
