Note to corporations: Hiring Hiro is great for your business!
In my daily search on Japanese message boards for any Hiro-related news, I found a link to a Nikkei story about Olympus shares reaching an all time high! (The Japanese symbol/code is 7733 and it's a Nikkei 225 component.) Since 60% of the company's revenues come from overseas markets (25% from European countries), Olympus is clearly a beneficiary of the Euro's recent rise against the Japanese yen, but I contend that investors and traders alike were clearly taken with the full-page ad of Sanada-san that appeared in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, otherwise known as Nikkei. (Photo provided by my special friend in Japan.)
But seriously, the Nikkei article does note that market analysts and institutional investors regard the hiring of Japan's top actor, especially someone who's as popular and talented as Hiro as a great move on Olympus' part to boost its share value and brand image. And the former investment banker in me wholeheartedly agree!!
I also noticed that there is a new version of the television commercial (version "B") plus the newspaper ads on Olympus' website -- they also posted a series of behind-the-scene photos of Hiro's TV commercial shoot -- so please check them all out over here!
