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People handing out tissue packets to passersby outside train stations have been a common

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A scene on the street of Japan

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Any one who has visited Japan will have seen them: groups of people clustered outside train stations in the major cities handing out packs of pocket tissue. Not any old packs - these are surrogate leaflets, each containing a printed sheet or mini-booklet advertising a bank, a restaurant, a perfume, you name it.

Pocket tissue can carry any message you want

Of course, like any successful idea, it has been exported: A London-based firm, the Original Pocket Tissue Company (OPT), was formed in 1997 by partners Sarah Hannan (sales director) and Jonathan Paul (managing director), who had spent the previous three years living and working in Japan: she for an advertising agency in Tokyo, he in engineering.

Hannan explains more about the Japanese model: "Pocket tissues are handed out just about everywhere," she says. As well as the more familiar (to western eyes) outdoor distribution (which is often carefully targeted), packs are also given away to customers with almost every transaction, whether withdrawing money from a bank account or buying a coffee. According to Hannan, the three sectors that make most use of pocket tissues as a promotional tool are (in descending order): consumer finance, travel and leisure, and beauty and health.

An estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 pocket tissue packs are distributed each day in Japan. Yet this doesn't affect tissue sales in the country. "They seem to have a love affair with pocket tissues," notes Hannan (this has even extended to the language: The Japanese name for the item being 'poketto tisshuu'). Statistics from the country's paper association show that Japan consumed more than 1.7 million tonnes of tissue in 2001, with the majority of that being of the pocket facial variety. "It's a far bigger market than anywhere in Europe," points out Hannan.

However, transplanting the flower of Japanese marketing innovation to the very different soil of the UK proved tricky. "It was difficult at first," explains Hannan. Japanese pocket packs are a different size from those found in the UK or elsewhere in Europe (the standard European pocket tissue pack is: 110 mm x 55 mm x 20 mm; the Japanese packs are wider - 120 mm x 80 mm x 10 mm). "The larger surface area obviously facilitates a larger advertising area," notes Hannan. "The tissue in some senses is incidental… It's a leaflet that you'll keep because it contains something useful."

After attempts to find machinery in Italy, Germany and the UK capable of producing the larger packs came to naught, OPT had to source its equipment from Japan. "We're the only firm in the UK with a machine of this kind," boasts Hannan. Naturally, with such a competitive advantage, OPT is not too forthcoming on the specifics of its technology. "Most of the machinery is fully automated", explains Hannan. The company has just eight employees at its factory in Camberwell, South London, with four people working in offices above.

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