Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Onetwenty. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Onetwenty , thanks for joining us today. One of the most important things we can do as business owners is ensure that our customers feel appreciated. What’s something you’ve done or seen a business owner do to help a customer feel valued?

My answer is more a series of things rather than one action. In my industry I can only have about ten maximum customers at once. Most likely I have a deeper connection with the customer than a cashier with someone at a supermarket. I get time to understand them as a person and what matters to them. After a project is completed; I show my appreciation by showing up to their events if they have any, purchasing their merchandise when available, and sharing their social media content if it seems important to them.

I try to do this with all of my customers especially my VIPs so they know I value them as a person and not simply for their business.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m the CEO of Lokyo Multimedia JP. We like to tell people that if an idea can be heard, or seen online; then we can make it. If we can’t we know someone who can. My industry is mainly multimedia but I’m also a vocalist and have a thriving career in Tokyo.

I got into the business through identifying an expensive part of being a music artist. I identified a need to have more video content but also understood it could be quite expensive. So I decided to learn how to use a camera myself. This led to many opportunities and helped streamline the process of being an artist in all its forms.

The types of products we offer include

– photo shoots
– music videos
– video editing
– promotional videos
– wedding videos
– graphic design
– artist bio/press kits
– photo books
– 3-D VFX
– Background music/custom tracks
– Commercial vocals
-stock photography/video

We also sell art prints of our personal collection, paintings, NFTs, and artwork in other physical mediums.

What sets my business apart from others is our roots and quality of network. We pride ourselves in being rooted in both Japanese and western cultures. This means we care deeply about the comfort of our clients yet are able to provide fresh and daring ideas. We also strive to strike a balance between the clean beauty seen in Asian media and the more gritty nature of the work from revolutionary creators such as Guy Bourdin or Jean Michael Basqiat.

As a musician i can say much of the same things. I’m from Brunswick Ga in the heart of the North American southern states. Yet I’m able to understand the Japanese mind when it comes to art and music. This can be seen in my music as I aim to balance the perfection and challenging melodies heard in Japanese music with the swooning swagger and style of southern hip-hop or R&B.

What I’m most proud of is seeing the brand’s growth with my business partner and how our ideas have developed over time. If a younger me could see what we’ve developed now; I don’t think he could understand how it came to be. I look at some of our artwork and can’t believe we made it. I used to watch my music videos and compare them to those of big name artists and could never understand what was so different that made the great videos look so polished. Now my team is able to create things like that and it makes all the hard work feel worth it.

Have you ever had to pivot?

During Covid a lot of people couldn’t remain in Tokyo. It’s expensive to live here and my wife and I started noticing budgets dry up. Music videos were our main source of income at the time so we decided to change the way we were thinking. What we came up with is something we take into business dealings to this day. Since we weren’t willing to lower our price; instead we started giving people less of our time. We’d shoot the whole project in half the time. This also came with a beefy set of conditions to turn the tables more in our favor. We also purchased a better set of lenses so simultaneously we could give our product to clients at a cheaper price while upping our overall quality yet protect the price we had worked hard to earn. Since there weren’t many customers we didn’t go out and instead spent our time studying our equipment so we could shoot more in less time. Once a month we would go out and find musicians at a different party each month. In this way we built and are continuing to build a huge network of musicians who needed our product. Additionally, many respected our price but were unable to pay so they really appreciated the good deals during Covid and remained with us as clients. The smart ones booked several shoots in one day.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I built my audience organically. It’s all people I’ve met at one point in life or who resonate with my brand. My current social status is comprised of those who have supported me for most of my career as a cameraman and as a vocalist. Using the platform to further my dreams seems like the logical things to do.

I’ve always tried to build myself as a brand. This goes as deep as what I’m doing in my personal time. So when I do post a snapshot of my lifestyle it’s usually unusual. It may be a photo shoot or a nice dinner somewhere but these are the things I enjoy doing. In terms of the impact on social media, although I don’t have many followers, the ones I have are very loyal. So with a bit of polishing (SEO, hashtagging, crossposting etc) I’m able to provide my followers with quality content and it’s always interesting. Additionally since people know me and what I’m about it’s much easier to push a product on my page.

My advice is to be genuine. Don’t discuss politics if you don’t need to. Get straight to the point and show off what people like about you. Take the extra step to make it quality in terms of presentation and you’re well on your way.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onetwenty360?igsh=N3A3Mjhvdm9rank0&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1Xa2vWEKzf/?mibextid=wwXIfr
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@lokyotvislit?si=g-FXoNTWy_bnvjm4
• Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/BPP2Yqxq6YDtmyjA8
• Other: https://youtube.com/@onetwentyofficial?si=uonSkHLGIQpsCcCJ

Image Credits

Ryo Iwaki