It was gorgeous real girls that brought New Zealand-trained barrister Gregory Ho to media — but it’s equally gorgeous animated girls keeping him there now.
Having already qualified to practice law, the Singaporean Ho turned instead toward a media career upon his return home. “The prettiest girls were there,” he laughs – then of course he found himself in radio. But the experience proved excel-lent training, he says. “Radio was once programmed by day parts, but now it’s all about understanding your audience segment — which is exactly as cable has evolved.” Not to mention the Internet.
Oddly for Ho, his audience kept growing younger as his career rose. From law, to business media, to action, and now anime. Fortunately for the boyish, voluble Ho, that reverse arc has been very successful.
From radio, Ho moved to CNBC Asia, then to SPE (Sony Pictures Enter-tainment) Networks-Asia, initially as Director of Marketing for AXN. While there, his brand campaigns and events helped turn AXN into one of Asia’s top TV brands.
AXN’s programming is much more what one expects of a 40ish guy like Ho: adventure, extreme sports, guy stuff. A golfer and serious F1 ‘petrol head’, he’s at dead center of the AXN demographic.
Which is not what you can say of Animax. Greg admits that he knew little about anime before becoming the channel’s Vice-President & General Manager. But in true lawyerly fashion, he’s since become an advocate. “It’s an amazing genre, very Asian yet somehow giving young people an outlet to pursue their identity and live their individual dreams.”
This is what Ho has done with LaMB, the first animated film made under the US$6 million Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) – SPE Networks-Asia (SPENA) Joint Production Fund. LaMB is Animax’s first all-original animated film: not licensed from Japan, but nurtured through production from an original script by Filipino writer Carmelo Juinio.
“Had I known how hard it was going to be, I might not have done it,” Ho admits. But he fell in love with the beautiful script, and with the chance to test the concept of a ‘multi-platform experience.’ Thus viewers can dive into the LaMB universe not only onscreen, but online, via mobile phone, and even through user-generated content (in a blogging contest). The new content is not merely film excerpts, but exclusive, separate material that expands the on-air story.
Unlike finished anime which have tight controls on their marketing, LaMB allowed Animax to explore sponsor partnerships (one character drives a Volkswagen) and explore multiple ways to engage viewers. The film has already been sold to Latin America, and may soon air in Europe and Africa as well.
With LaMB on air at last, Ho orchestrated his next coup: the landmark airing of two much-anticipated anime within one week of their premieres in Japan. This was historic, a huge break with past practice, where fans outside Japan could only pine for months, and scour websites for footage and reviews.
How did he manage to break tradition? "We’ve always known that our audiences are extremely passionate about anime, and what they really want is to watch top quality shows as soon as they are aired in Japan. It has always been Animax’s objective to achieve this goal even though it was regarded an impossible task, until now," explained Ho.
"Making the breakthrough —and in so doing creating TV history — was the culmination of months of hard work and discussions with Japanese studios and distributors. The logistical challenges were huge. And when one attempts something different, it is always extremely difficult to change not just standard operting procedures, but also mindsets. Therefore, we are very grateful for the fantastic support and collaboration of our japanese counterparts in realising the dream for Animax Asia and our viewers," he continued.
For anime fans across the region, to watch Tears to Tiara at the same time and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood in the same week [as in] Japan is like offering them the ‘ultimate happiness.’ And given the current period of gloomy economic recession and depressed senti-ments all across Asia, Animax is committed to bring joy to our viewers who are in search of brief moments of happiness to escape to," Ho added.
Whether it’s original content or the very best from Japan, Greg Ho is determined that Asia’s teens will get it first from Animax Asia. To borrow the slogan of its creation LaMB, at Animax the future will always be beautiful.
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