The Ghibli Wave: How Remini app turned a viral moment into Growth

Unless you’ve lived under a rock (or completely disconnected but then you would not be here reading this), you must have seen the Ghibli trend taking over the internet in the past weeks.

While i am totally against using and diluting art for entertainment, i cannot deny the impact it had and quickly it spreads across the world. Unlike the 90s yearbook trend, where no harm or intellectual properties were used, we have here a trend based on the craft of a respected animation studio.

In this piece, and using the DICE framework, we’ll review how the Photo & Video apps took advantage of this trend, and focus on Remini – AI Photo Enhancer app by Bending Spoons.

DICE – [D] for Data

It all started the 25th of March during the OpenAI live event – when Sam, Gabriel and Prafulla took a photo together and casually transformed it into an anime-style pictures.

A few hours later, Grant Slatton followed up with a post of him, his wife and their dog – in Ghibli style. That was it, the start of a viral trend that took over the internet.

Grant Slatton tweet that started it all.

From there, it went global. You couldn’t scroll without seeing someone’s face (or their cat’s) turned into a dreamy anime version. Family pics, old vacation shots, film scenes. They all got the Studio Ghibli treatment.

We quickly started seeing the impact in real data. Google Trends lit up with searches like “Studio Ghibli” and “AI studio Ghibli”.

Google Trends insights in the US for [studio ghibli] & [ai studio ghibli]

On the App Store, keyword volume for “studio ghibli” also went up, fast.

Volume History for [studio ghibli] keyword in the US, from 13/01 – 31/03/25 | Mobile Action data

Less than 24 hours after the first viral posts on the 25th of March, traffic around those keywords spiked hard. The signal was there. Virality had hit. Which meant more Search Volume. More potential downloads of apps with the feature. More potential users willing to pay or subscribe.

DICE – [I] for Innovation

At this point, when you see a trend taking off like this one, you have 2 options:

1. Sit back, try the trend for fun, post your pic, and move on.
2. Do something with it.

If you’re in the tech industry, whether in growth, marketing, product (…), you have to be pro-active to stand out. Therefor you know that you really only have 1 option.

That’s why, almost instantly, a wave of Photo & Video apps jumped on it. They saw the opportunity, understood the intent, and went for the opportunity. Most of them added Ghibli-style features into their apps.

One of my favorite example is Remini – AI Photo Enhancer. The Bending Spoons team, behind Splice – Video Editor & Maker, moved fast.

They rolled out an update with the anime-style feature on the 29th of March. They did not mention “Ghibli” for legal reasons, but it was very clear what the feature was.

This kind of speed and reactivity, that’s where innovation lives. It’s not always about having the most original or best idea. It’s about acting fast, smart and efficiently.

DICE – [C] for Creativity

This is where things get interesting. Because great, you got a new feature. But how do you market it in the AppStore?

• Smaller developers started changing their app icons and even titles & subtitles to include “Ghibli” keyword. Just to catch the extra search volume.

  

• Some mid-size and larger Photo & Video apps started highlighting the new feature in their screenshots, with captions like “Ghibli Style”. We also saw the use of in-app events to promote it. Once again, very efficient to get users’ attention.

• For those running Apple Search Ads campaigns, like Remini or Glam AI by Glam Labs, they started bidding on “studio ghibli“ keyword. Both apps also used Custom Product Pages to showcase the Ghibli-style feature. That way, anyone searching for “Studio Ghibli,” “anime AI,” or even just “cartoon filter” would land on a page that looked like what they had in mind. Seamless match between search intent and app visuals = better conversion.

App Store Acquisition (ASO + ASA) is all about being agile and quick when an opportunity appears.

This trend was everywhere. However, only a few apps made it feel like they owned it. It’s complementing Data, Innovation & Creativity. Which leads us to the last pillar – Engagement.

DICE – [E] for Engagement

Let’s talk results. Because yeah, we need numbers now.

Take Remini, for example. They went from an average of 7k downloads per day in the US on iOS, to 55k per day within a week. Just trend riding & brilliant execution.

The app also went up the charts in the US and worldwide, and not unnoticed. On March 28th, they were sitting at #14 in Photo & Video category. A couple of days later, after the app update, they hit #2. By 7th of April, they were still ranking in the top 3, right behind CapCut & Instagram.

But it doesn’t stop there. They also entered the Top 10 Free Apps overall in the US on the 2nd of April, ranking #7, and staying for days after. Not just in their category. All categories. That’s when you know it hit.

How did this happen?

• They launched the feature (but didn’t name it directly for legal reasons).
• Updated screenshots to showcase it clearly.

• Created Custom Product Pages for Ghibli/anime-related keywords on ASA.

• Launched paid media across networks showing before/after transformations.

Ad Analysis on Mobile Action

The whole strategy was brilliant. The full UA loop, in less than a week, and at scale.

Next steps?

There’s always more to do. So here are some of my recommendations if Remini would like to go even further and make the most of the trend until the end.

• Push an in-app event to support the trend even more.
• Try to get featured on the App Store.
• Launch Search tab and / or Today tab campaigns using CPPs.
• Add keywords to Apple Search Ads campaigns.
• Test even more variations of CPPs to see what converts best.
• Move on to “action figures” current trend.

From a UA perspective? This was a masterclass from Bending Spoons team. Bravo.

In this fast moving industry, it’s important to stay relevant and always be on top of trends. The Ghibli trend gave us a real-time case study on how Data, Innovation, Creativity, and Engagement work together when you execute fast, clean, and in sync.