Idolmaster Million Live campaign has fans pay to promote the series on their own 

A recently announced commemorative campaign for The Idolmaster Million Live anime will consist of fans receiving official promotional car decals to decorate their cars and driving around in them to show their support for the series. Fans who wish to apply will have to pay a not-so-humble participation fee and will receive commemorative merch as rewards if they achieve certain mileages with the decals equipped. 

The long-awaited TV anime adaptation of The Idolmaster Million Live will tell the story of the 39 new idols introduced in the series and of their activities and growth at the 765 Theater Agency, while focusing on the main characters Mirai Kasuga, Shizuka Mogami and Tsubasa Ibuki. The anime is scheduled to start airing from October 2023, but there is a three-part theatrical pre-screening planned in Japan starting August 18, over the course of which all 12 episodes of the anime will be shown in advance in movie theaters all over Japan. 

To commemorate the start of the theatrical pre-screening, a collaborative promotional campaign by The Idolmaster and Cheer Drive was announced on July 29. The campaign will last from August 18 to October 31, while applications to participate are already open. 

The campaign consists of applicants decorating their personal cars with promotional car decals provided by the campaign partner Cheer Drive and essentially just driving around to contribute to the promotion of the series. Those who wish to participate can choose from three available plans that vary in price and size of decals.

The “Mini Plan” that includes a small rear sticker has a participation fee of about $17.5 and achieving a mileage of 500 km in the campaign can win you an Idolmaster leather keychain. The full rear decal plan costs around $46.7 and the rewards for a 500 km mileage are a leather keychain and an original Idolmaster car sunshade. The same rewards can be obtained for a 300 km mileage in the “three-surface plan,” which has a participation fee of about $57.8. 

While many fans found the idea of the campaign interesting and the rewards attractive enough to want to try and participate, a portion of users felt that something was off about the idea, as it essentially boils down to fans of the series paying a fee to do the business the favor of advertising. One could argue that participants receiving the official decals and (possibly) the reward merch is enough to compensate them, but taking into account fuel expenses and time spent driving as well as the participation fee, a keychain and sunshade don’t seem like much of a deal. Perhaps a lower fee or prizes more valuable than a keychain would make the campaign more worthwhile.