Volume 1 - CH 11

The company I work for is an agency that deals with online advertising. Online advertising is shorthand for ads that run within the internet, and anyone with a smartphone, computer or tablet has seen them at least once.

They can be “search-linked ads” that appear when searching on Yahoo! or Google, or “display ads” that appear on websites and apps.

Ads that appear on YouTube are another form of online advertising. The same goes for ads that circulate on YouTube, whether they’re the same ads that make you say “how many ads are the same?”, ads in which a man in a suit tries to sell you some shady product, or mysterious ads in which a budding YouTube star is having a great time.

And so on and so forth.

The job of an online advertising agency is to operate and manage online advertising on behalf of those struggling companies. The number of advertising agencies have been increasing year after year, just because of the growing popularity of the Internet and social media.

Although most advertising agencies are still located in Tokyo, other centers in the city, such as the agency where I work, are also on the rise. It’s a real win-win relationship between supply and demand.

But just because demand is increasing doesn’t mean it’s easy to do business with one of these potential growth companies.

The sun was starting to set, Inami and I were on our way to our last business meeting of the day.

And the negotiations we had during the day had arguably not been too good of results. Not to say that everything was actually a disaster.

At the first company we approached, the deal could not go through as the monthly operating costs for our service seemed too expensive to them, so they tried to haggle a rebate on it. Spoiler alert: we did not.

The second company was not convinced about our work history and the companies we have worked with in the past, and there were many other advertising agencies that seemed better to work with given the type of clients they had.

I guess it takes a couple of big shots in our ranks for us to have some relevance in this business.

The third and final company was a total disaster. The guy wasn’t even interested in hiring our services, as soon as he saw Inami, he pounced on her desperate to find a wife for his son, who just turned 18 and hadn’t met a girl until now.

I guess it goes without saying that Inami’s mood was not the best. She was very frustrated and depressed as her debut as a saleswoman was not going well.

—Was I that bad at running business meetings?

—No. To be honest, you were great, you showed a lot of professionalism.

My words to Inami were honest. I didn’t say it with the intention of simply raising her spirits. She had a natural communicative ability, the way she presented herself in the meetings were very well-flowing articulate movements, and she didn’t seem nervous at any moment.

As for her presentation with the business proposals. They were too good for her first time. She was always to the point and explained everything without making mistakes or going on longer than necessary. I thought it was going to be very difficult for her, but it really wasn’t. 

—So… How come nothing I did today worked?

—Hmm. If I had to use an analogy, it would be that of… A traveling beer vendor working in a baseball stadium.

—Masato-senpai, no offense to this, but… I didn’t understand anything you just said… 

The expression with which Inami looked at me was like that of a girl wondering; “What the hell is this old man saying?”.

—No matter how good the salesmen are, no one will buy your drink if it’s lukewarm, right?

—Oh… So, the service offered by our company is at the level of a lukewarm drink?

—Haha…

—What’s so funny?

Sorry for laughing, Inami, but what you just said was funny. Right on the money, though. The advertising agency we work for is small. No matter how good you can get, you can’t compete against a bigger company in terms of services.

—You see, it doesn’t matter how good an Esports player you are, if your computer has crappy specs. You won’t be able to win a single game for the simple fact that the performance of the game will be worse than your opponent.

—I didn’t understand your second metaphor at all… But I think I understand what your point is…

I’m glad Inami understood my message despite my stupid parables. In any case, all she wants is for her efforts to be rewarded.

—The point is, you’re not the problem, just keep having confidence in yourself, and everything will be fine.

—Oh, really?

—Really.

—Well… I just hope our next client doesn’t mind drinking a warm beer.

—Hahaha… Me too.

This girl’s a quick learner.