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IPod Nanos on Tokyo Metro

From the heart of Japan’s youth culture — Tokyo’s trendy Shibuya district — Flickr user Purpin describes how Apple is advertising the iPod nano:

As part of their rather unique advertising campaign, huge iPod nano posters now adorn the platform walls of Toyoko Line Shibuya Station.

As you depart the train you’ll be faced with a stream after stream of 1:1 iPod nano cutouts, in which you can pull off and take home. Obviously, I helped myself to a few as well.

Needless to say, with its tens of thousands of people passing through Shibuya station daily, those iPod cutouts won’t last very long.

Fortunately, I was lucky enough to be able to catch a glimpse of the staff furiously “refilling” the empty spaces with new cutouts in between the waves of departing passengers (I took the pictures after the evening rush. I can only imagine how busy these guys can be during rush hour!).

Much to my suprise, I later realised that these cutouts weren’t made of cardboard but of plastic, and are very rigidly built too. On the reverse side were the URL and QR Codes of a site where you can download iPod nano wallpapers for your mobile phone.

Having living somewhere way out from Tokyo, I was very lucky to be able to get my hands on these cutouts AND witness those “refillers” in action. Hats off to Apple and their wonderful advertising.

Update: Apple Japan has more pix of the nano promotion, which give a good idea of its placement in the subway.

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14 comments

    Gamla och nya lagringsmedier – och mÃ¥nga av dom
      De här tvÃ¥ sakerna hänger ihop pÃ¥ nÃ¥got vis. Fill in the dots du. BÃ¥da är frÃ¥n Japan. Kassettbandsporr:…

    iPod Nano en el Metro de Tokio

    Interesante la forma en que Apple está anunciando su iPod Nano en Tokio, en la estación del metro hay un poster gigante que tiene unos “iPod Nano” de papel a tamaño real, los cuáles la gente puede desprender y llevarse.
    Apple acaba …

    iPod nano Japanese subway ads
    Came across this on the Cult of Mac. Interesting way to get the size of the Nano into people’s hands.

    This is cool! Why doesn’t Apple do this in the US?

    Apple donne des Nano gratuits au Japon !!
    Superbe campagne de buzz marketing pour le iPod Nano par Apple Japon, il y a même une page dédiée à lopération sur le site dApple.

    Apple donne des Nano gratuits au Japon !!
    Superbe campagne de buzz marketing pour le iPod Nano par Apple Japon, il y a même une page dédiée à lopération sur le site dApple.

    iPod Nano in your hands
    Nice idea here for iPod Nano in Japan – let people see the actual size by putting one in their hands. Apple has created a display with 1:1 plastic cutouts of their slim and stunning iPod Nano that people passing

    iPod Nanos on Tokyo Metro
    From Cult Of Mac Blog – iPod Nanos on Tokyo Metro – This is a great (if a little expensive) promotion. Especially loving the use of photo message QR codes on the back of the dummy Nanos (in case you don’t know these are like barcodes that you ph…

    Publicidad Apple… IPod Nano, Metro y Tokyo
    Apple y su IPod Nano, lanzaron una nueva campaña de
    publicidad en Japón, que ha tenido su mayor
    repercusión específicamente en el metro de Tokyo.
    Para mi ha resultado una idea publicitaria hilarante, que ha tenido una
    respuesta masiva, y ha res

    IPod Nanos on Tokyo Metro/nanoの壁
    IPod Nanos on Tokyo Metro/nanoの壁 さすがApple。お金かけてますね~。これ良いですね。持ち帰り自由ですか!? 東京渋谷と大阪梅田駅周辺の写真ですが壁に人がたかってますね~。おもしろいぅ

    This is great idea.
    I want to see this in Nagoya too…(I’m living in Nagoya)

    It is really nice!!!. I would like to have this in Madrid (Spain) Subway.

    LOUCURA!!!!!!
    MEUS PARABENS AO DISIGNER QUE CRIOU ESSA PROPAGANDA!!!!!SUA IDEIA FOI EXATA!!!!!!
    JA PENSOU ESSA PROPAGANDA NO METRO DA SE EM SP NOSSAAA!!!!!!!

    PARABENS!!!!

    TUBA

    ..So where does all this plastic go once people have visited the url and no longer need this pseudo-nano..

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