A new Japanese language edition of Guerrilla Advertising: Unconventional Brand Communication (written by CR’s Gavin Lucas, art directed by Mike Dorrian and originally published by Laurence King) has just been published by Tokyu Agency Inc in Japan…

Tokyu Agency Inc. is a full-service advertising agency that also serves as a media representative of Out-of-House (OOH) advertising media and and also the transportation media of the private railroad system in the south-western part of Tokyo - which gives the agency a competitive media advantage in the Japanese capital. When their publishing department decided to publish a Japanese language edition of Guerrilla Advertising they decided to redesign the book’s bright yellow cover a design tweak to further its visual impact. Tokyu Agency’s Ryoko Nagamatsu, the creative designer, came up with the idea of a bag-like book that people can carry around. The cover is hardback with the front and back cover extended beyond the pages of the book to include cut out carrier-bag style handles. The agency took pictures of people of all age groups and walks of life carrying the book around in fashionable parts of Tokyo, such as Ginza, Aoyama and Shibuya – thus creating a record of a guerrilla style campaign for the book itself. These pictures (some of which are shown here) appear on the inside front and back covers in the Japanese version.

“Since the English version is also available in Japan, I wanted the Japanese version to maintain the same color, typeface and cover design” explains Nagamatsu. “I wanted everyone to instantly recognize this as the Japanese version of the English book. I also hope that people will carry this around using the handles and consequently advertise the book.”

Photography by Daisuke Yamashita

The Japanese edition can be found on Amazon’s Japanese site here: http://www.amazon.co.jp/誰かに先を越された広告-ゲリラ広告事例集-マイケル-ドリアン/dp/4884971051?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195718798&sr=8-1