The brief
A European subscription brand had been running localized creative for Japan since mid-2025. The localization was a translation pass on their EU creative by a generalist Japanese-language vendor — competent translation, but visibly translated. CTR had drifted from 1.4% to 0.6% across two quarters as audiences burned out on the same recycled assets.
They came to us with a clear question: “We know our offer works in Japan because we have signups. What’s wrong with the creative?”
The approach
We started by reading their Japanese landing pages and looking at the existing banners alongside what competing brands in the same segment were running on the same placements. The diagnosis was straightforward — visual cues, copy register, and CTA framing were all reading as foreign. Japanese users could tell within a half-second that this was an overseas product, which set their guard up before the offer even registered.
The rebuild went in three directions: native copy written from scratch (not translated from the EU originals), visual treatments referencing patterns that work for Japanese audiences in this segment, and a softer CTA language pattern that fit local conversion conventions.
We shipped 24 banners across six sizes, with 12 distinct copy variants. The client A/B tested in pairs over four weeks.
The result
Within six weeks of testing, the new creative was running at an average 1.45% CTR on the same placements — a 2.4× improvement against the previous quarter’s numbers on identical traffic.
The client extended the engagement into a monthly retainer in week five.