(source)

Social media has become an integral part of global marketing strategies, and Japan is no exception. In recent years, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even the messaging app LINE have gained immense popularity as marketing channels for businesses targeting their desired audience. In this article, we delve into the world of SNS marketing in Japan, exploring its unique characteristics and offering valuable insights on how businesses can thrive in this dynamic landscape.

Understanding SNS Marketing in Japan

When discussing social media in Japan, it’s essential to note that the term “SNS” (Social Networking Service) is commonly used, rather than “social media.” The most widely adopted SNS platforms in Japan are Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LINE—a versatile messaging app with social media capabilities. Each platform boasts distinct user bases and features, making it imperative for businesses to carefully select the most suitable platforms for effectively reaching their target audience.

Adapting to the Japanese Social Media Landscape

Although LinkedIn enjoys global popularity as a professional networking platform, it has not achieved the same level of prominence in Japan. A survey conducted by Hootsuite revealed that only 2.8% of the Japanese population utilizes LinkedIn, whereas Facebook boasts a staggering 50.1% and Twitter follows closely at 46.6%. Cultural disparities, language barriers, and the preference for localized social media platforms contribute to this stark contrast.

Leveraging the Power of Twitter in Japan

In Japan, Twitter serves as not just a personal social media platform but also a thriving hub for business and professional interactions. IT journalists, for instance, rely heavily on Twitter to stay abreast of the latest industry trends and news. This platform enables them to follow and engage with thought leaders, industry experts, and fellow journalists, facilitating the exchange of valuable insights and information. Many IT journalists also share their articles and opinions on Twitter, establishing it as an invaluable platform for businesses seeking connections with journalists and the opportunity to showcase their content.

Driving Success in the SNS Marketing

To thrive in SNS marketing in Japan, businesses must develop a profound understanding of local culture, language, and consumer preferences. Crafting content that resonates with the Japanese audience is paramount, achieved through localized messaging, strategic utilization of relevant hashtags, and the creation of culturally significant content. Additionally, businesses should meticulously select platforms based on their target audience and objectives to maximize the impact of their social media marketing endeavors.

In conclusion, SNS marketing in Japan offers immense potential for businesses, provided they navigate the landscape wisely. By embracing the distinctive characteristics of Japanese social media, tailoring content to local preferences, and strategically utilizing the appropriate platforms, businesses can unlock unparalleled opportunities for success in the realm of social media marketing.

Source: https://www.bigbeatinc.com/blog/japan_social_media_2022

In this blog post, we will explore the changes that the marketing industry has undergone in the aftermath of the pandemic and how it will impact various sectors.

Work Environment: Remote vs. Office-based

(source)

Following the reclassification, many companies in Japan have transitioned back to working from the office, resembling pre-pandemic routines. However, remote work remains a preferred option for some individuals. Consequently, Japanese companies will need to adopt flexible work arrangements, including hybrid models, to accommodate their employees’ preferences. This shift creates opportunities for businesses offering gadgets, services, smartphone apps, and other solutions that facilitate comfortable home working and efficient commuting.

Desire for Outbound Travel

(source)

Traditionally, Japanese people, particularly women in their 20s and 30s, have had a strong inclination to travel abroad. However, due to border closures over the past three years, international travel has been significantly restricted. As travel restrictions ease, many individuals within this demographic are expected to seize the opportunity to explore foreign destinations this year. However, the weakened yen may pose challenges for some travelers. Therefore, destinations offering excellent photo opportunities and affordable attractions are likely to be preferred. If you are in the travel industry, such as a travel agency or hotel management company, 2023 presents an excellent opportunity to promote your services to the Japanese market.

By adapting to the evolving landscape and understanding the shifting needs and desires of consumers, businesses can effectively navigate the post-pandemic marketing landscape in Japan. Stay tuned for more insights on how to thrive in this changing environment or contact us if you’re interested in starting marketing activities in Japan!

1. Research the market and develop localized strategies

Japan is one of the most meticulous markets in the world. The first rule is to understand your market and analyze your audience. Japanese culture is more family-centered, sentimental, and multicultural. Therefore, a localized marketing strategy that naturally utilizes the Japanese language is a must. For example, KitKat was originally from the United Kingdom, but this brand is now known throughout Japan and globally. One of the major contributors for KitKat’s success in Japan is the transliteration of the product name. The name KitKat is like the Japanese word for good luck, “Kitto Katsu”. Students get a KitKat before taking a test for good luck. Therefore, KitKat is popular during exam season, which runs from January to March. KitKat also sells various kinds of flavors designed especially for certain regions. By adapting the brand to Japan, KitKat became one of Japan’s most beloved chocolate brands. In addition to working with the Japanese language, it is also effective to develop marketing strategies that are region specific.

2. Develop a customized marketing calendar

Consider Japanese holidays and events to be essential when developing marketing plans. Being aware of Japanese holidays is key to a successful marketing campaign. For example, New Year’s fukubukuro (lucky bag) is popular as a New Year’s tradition, and many fukubukuro items are worth more than the price, attracting consumers. Scarcity is part of the appeal, so people line up for the it during New Years, priced with a lucky number, such as a price matching the year. People don’t mind waiting in line, and they have a strong desire to go to stores that have queues, so why not take advantage of this new year’s Fukubukuro and create a queue at your store or business?

March is also one of the most popular months for travelers to travel in Japan, so it can be an ideal situation for travel agencies to advertise. In addition, many companies will carry out campaigns by changing product designs and releasing limited flavors to connect to the season, such as the cherry blossom design Coca-Cola bottle and Sakura mochi pie released by McDonald’s Japan. We recommend that you pay attention to Japanese holidays and create a marketing plan that goes along with the season. At the end of March, students who are graduating will have more ways to enjoy their trips like discounts at amusement parks or events, and during Hanami season, hold events to enjoy cherry blossom-collaborated products while viewing the cherry blossoms.

3. Creating a Japanese persona may help

Target personas in Japan are very different from those in other countries. Knowing the type of Japanese people will lead to a successful marketing plan. By creating personas, companies can customize their marketing campaigns and effectively reach potential consumers. For example, unlike their elders, Generation Z personas do their own research on social networking sites about the products they want, check prices on several e-commerce sites, and have great faith in word of mouth communications. Therefore, Researching the Japanese market and creating Japanese personas will help you resonate with the market.

4. Conclusion

To conclude, Japanese marketing has a unique culture, consumer behavior, and language, so it is critical that companies thoroughly research and build a marketing calendar before starting a marketing campaign. In addition, by partnering with marketing specialists or agencies in Japan, you can gain valuable insight to ensure success. Localizing your materials such as websites and images can effectively communicate with your consumers. Establishing Japanese personas and implementing campaigns that leverage appropriate digital channels will help you reach and engage your target consumers in Japan.

The estimated number of TV viewers in Japan is 600,000 people per 1% of TV ratings, so if the program has at least 3% of rating, you can reach 1,800,000 people at once. Since the influence of TV programs is huge in Japan, companies including BtoB companies are eager to appear on programs. 

How to get an interview by TV crews

To begin with, you need to know it is very difficult to get an interview by TV crews. Since a TV station is a standalone organization, they have to report from a Third-Party perspective. It is not allowed to introduce one company without mentioning the other companies. Also, to be interviewed, a story is required. 

Elements that makes a story

Here is a list of elements that make a good story:

・Seasonal topics

・Trending topics

・Latest news (car accidents, earthquakes, etc.)

・Innovation

・Shocking/surprising news

・Rare information

・Awards

・Future prospects

・Gender specific information

Create an example story

What if your company’s new product is ginger dumplings, how would you make a story that could be aired on Japanese TV? Try to think about it with the points listed above.

In this case, the cold weather (a seasonal topic) can be one of the elements to create a story. Every winter, dishes that keep the body warm such as spicy curry, traditional nabe cuisine etc. are often shown on Japanese TV. Since ginger is known as a food that keeps the body warm, pitching to the media in winter would increase the possibility of TV coverage.

Japanese TV crews love the latest and most popular food or desserts. This is because most TV audiences in Japan are women. There are a lot of women who do daily chores and watch TV at the same time; therefore, TV programs air news which they could be interested in, and food is the most popular topic among women. If you have products or services targeting women, trying to get a Japanese TV appearance might help increase sales. 

Here is an example story that Japanese TV crews might create

It is getting colder, and there was a winter storm which hit Hokkaido last weekend. During this season, everyone prefers to eat something warm. Ginger is a helpful food that keeps your body warm and helps maintain a healthy metabolism. Companies in the food industry have launched new ginger-based foods such as ginger dumplings and ginger soup.

This story is very simple and easy because products are targeting consumers. 

What if your company’s new product is an online funeral reporting tool which is targeting ceremony companies not consumers?

Create an example story2

The following example story is a real story which is aired at Hiroshima’s local TV station.

Our customers are based in Hiroshima, and they wanted to be interviewed by local TV stations. We made a proposal which assembled the funeral tech companies in Japan including our customer and suggested a story. 

Here are the elements we added to make a story and get media coverage. Elements were 1. Related to the latest news and 2. Innovative topics.

Here is an example story that Japanese TV crews actually made 

The funeral industry has been in a difficult situation during the COVID-19 pandemic. People tend to be reluctant to attend the funeral and have a big, traditional funeral ceremony now. The funeral industry has lost a large amount of expected sales, and many of the funeral-related companies in Hiroshima have been trying to overcome it with digital technology. Company A regularly organizes the end of life planning seminar inside of the Kongo-In Temple. Company B offers a Projection Mapping Funeral, and there were only two families that used this service during pandemic. The ceremony hall C installs an innovative funeral reporting service.

The story hook is the COVID-19 pandemic, but by itself it is very weak. Therefore, we researched funeral-related companies which are innovating the funeral technology such as the Projection Mapping Funeral. We needed to do so, since TV programs will not introduce just a single company. Even though the service is targeting ceremony companies, because of a story, we made it look like a consumer product, allowing TV crews to see the useful information and the potential to become an innovative topic. 

Summary: You can succeed in the Japan Market by a TV program interview

In summary, you can reach out to over a million people by pitching to Japanese TV stations. In order to do so, you need to consider a story with elements that TV crews would love to air. If you need help developing a story, please feel free to consult with us.

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been many world changes. Japan has also changed significantly since then. For example, remote work was uncommon for most Japanese workers. Due to the state of COVID infections, Japan has entered multiple states of emergencies since the first on April 7th, 2020. This state of emergency prompted many workers to work from home, and the only people working on-site were essential workers like those in the medical field.

#StayHome Products

At first, many workers struggled to create comfortable work spaces in their home. This is partly because Japanese homes are considerably smaller than the homes in other countries. Due to this, there has been a surge of work from home related products such as the AirPods Pro to increase comfort during online meetings, and ring lights to give the best face lighting, and luxury desk chairs for better posture. Products weren’t just work-related, but brands like Nintendo continued to promote Switch games that encourage physical activity to promote physical health. The games could be enjoyed together with family and friends which was also a big part of the messaging. Alcohol brands pushed messaging along the lines of enjoying a drink while at home.

Changes in Consumption after COVID-19

Around 2015, the Japanese market saw the Gen Z consumption trend known as experiential consumption (in Japanese: コト消費), where Gen Z consumers would much more interested in experiences than purchasing products. This consumption trend changed remarkably after the pandemic due to quarantine as consumers were now starting to purchase more luxury products than before as well as joining virtual events.

To make up for the experience, consumers were putting in orders for local foods of other countries. TV shows, magazines, and web media also started featuring delicacies of other countries. Virtual travel events grew in popularity, and HIS, one of the major travel agencies, has offered over one thousand virtual trips. In addition, the virtual event market scale expanded to about 45 billion yen according to the following survey. What all of this suggests is that consumers are willing to experience virtually to make up for the inability to go outside.

As of the end of November 2021 more than 70% of the population have received their second dose of the COVID vaccination. Even if the risks of the virus variants exist, many consumers are still willing to experience more than just virtual events looking towards 2022. According to the following survey from the Prudential Gibraltar Financial Life Insurance Co., LRD, what people wanted to do most next year was travel.

In conclusion, the new normal that has been speculated will start to show itself more around 2022. Japanese consumers will tend to spend more in the upcoming year meaning an increase in business opportunities.

According to data from Google Brandcast, the number of YouTube users in Japan increased dramatically in 2020, and 74% of users said viewing time has also increased. 

The biggest reason for this is COVID-19 as people tended to watch YouTube to kill time while staying at home. Another reason is that their popularity could be attributed to a cultural shift from blogging to vlogging.

Breaking down users by age group: the age group of 10s to 29 are at over 90%, 30s at 85%, 40s at 80%, 50s at 75% and 60s at 45%. From this data, it is clear that YouTube is a great platform to reach a wide range of generations. 

According to a survey by Trenders, which interviewed 800 Japanese social media users aged from 15 to 49, 62% of them use YouTube to kill time, 40.7% to gain updates on topics of interest, and 39.8% for discovering something new.

What kind of channels are the most popular in Japan? 

There are many kinds of channels on YouTube recently, but what is the most popular topic on YouTube in Japan? 

Usually, entertainment channels take up most of the top YouTubers chart every year and gameplay videos are also enjoyed by all generations. Most YouTube users don’t have their own channel.They log in to it just for watching videos and to deepen their understanding of what they like such as topics and hobbies they are interested in.

That’s why YouTube is easier to reach core fans and business targets than other social media platforms. Moreover, young people are likely to use YouTube instead of watching traditional TV. 

What products and businesses are great for using YouTube in Japan?

According to data from Cyber Agent, one of Japan’s biggest online advertising companies, the YouTube advertising market will be expand more in the future. 

The biggest strength is that videos can show content with voice and movement which is effective for products such as cosmetics, skincare, games, and many other genres that need explanation and practice. 

Recently, many companies also started their own YouTtube channels to promote their products to make a great impression of their company. For example, Japanese the variety store , “Hokuohkurashi no Dogutenn” has their official channel which is very popular among people aged 30 to 40. It provides not only product introductionsand company informationbut also documentaries and dramas. Creating interesting content for their core target is also great for making loyal customers for their stores. 

Furthermore,  the funeral company’s official YouTube channel, “Sougi Channel” has 910,000 subscribers, despite the fact that funerals are a very niche subject. 

They provide useful information about funerals which increases their popularity. 

The style differences between Japan and other countries

There is no big difference about the content but regarding the visuals, Japanese YouTube channels tend to be more complicated than other countries. It is because Japanese YouTube channels use  subtitles more often. This culture came from Japanese television. 

Also compared to the other countries, Japanese people have a tendency to prefer colorful thumbnails. 

Concluding remarks 

As a result, YouTube has gained a lot of popularity as a platform for personal video viewing, but it has also been a valuable tool for businesses. 

YouTube also gives brands the possibility to customize how their channel looks, so it is important for any kind of marketer to update their YouTube channel to reflect their brand identity in order to stand out among the competition. 

Public Relations (PR) is the work done to raise public awareness about a company or brand. It’s the job of managing a brand’s reputation by providing positive news, earnings reports, job listings, and more to the media and other influential sources.

Originally the concept of Public Relations came from the United States, but the PR in Japan developed differently compared to the US and other western countries. For example, the Japanese Media requests press releases first. They don’t do rapid response, and we normally create press releases or newsletters to distribute to the media before we start media pitching. There are generally many differences, but here are the basics of PR in Japan.

Elements that make up a PR strategy

A public relations strategy consists of five elements:

Crisis management: A rigorous management plan to prevent negative news and information about the brand interfering with business operations.

Media contact and reception: Building relationships with journalists and press staff is paramount When there is newsworthy content, we will send the information via the media. because when there is newsworthy information, these are the people who develop content about that information.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Companies often benefit from being part of the local community, and PR personnel are responsible for establishing communication between the company and the community in an open and smooth manner. Through these CSR activities, companies can attract new talented people and give consumers a positive image.

Internal communication: Internal communication is very important to create a situation where all employees in the business understand the direction the company should aim for. Communication tools include emails, press releases, corporate announcements, and more.

Event Management: When it comes to hosting a press conference or event to share corporate news with an outside audience, it’s common for the PR department to organize it.

Specific examples of PR

Public relations activities are diverse, so here are some typical examples.

Investor Reporting: Providing quarterly investor reports on the status of the business to maintain investor confidence in the business.

Media production: Producing informational video and audio content about companies and disseminating them internally and externally. The goal is to provide valuable information to the target audience in an easy-to-understand manner.

Marketing Communication: Sharing information more efficiently by utilizing a channel dedicated to marketing. It includes activities such as posting articles on Facebook and Twitter to reach more people.

What makes PR important?

With the recent rise of social media, trending news can spread in an instant. In response to this trend, PR has become an even more important function for companies. Here are three important points that PR brings to a business.

Damage Control: Fake news have an instant negative impact on any business. As a result, PR professionals are responsible for properly implementing damage control measures and minimizing the damage that news can do to their company.

Branding: Contrary to common belief, it’s possible to create a recognized world-class brand by sharing company news, maintaining transparent business activities, and regularly publishing profit reports. Doing so may also drive product sales without complicated marketing/sales strategies.

Internal communication: As the company grows and opens new locations, sharing common values and knowledge of the company becomes more difficult for employees. The people in PR can manage these internal communications so that all employees can work toward one common goal.

What is the difference between PR and marketing?

Public Relations and Marketing often work together, but they are not the same role and require different skills to be in their respective fields. Now, we look at the difference between PR and marketing.  The differences:

Targeted Markets: Marketing departments speak to potential and existing customers to encourage them to buy more products. The PR department approaches those who are interested in the brand, who may become investors, journalists, or customers in the future.

Goals to aim for: Marketers focus on increasing ROI (return on investment) through sales. PR professionals, on the other hand, focus on building the brand and telling the story of the company around the world.

Duration of activities: Marketing activities can be divided into long term (SEO measures, content production) medium term (email marketing) and short term (advertising strategy such as PPC advertising), with measures that contribute to a variety of objectives. On the other hand, PR activities tend to emphasize the long-term activities of “building a brand.”

In Japan, there are many companies without separate PR and marketing departments, and companies often have a merged marketing communications department that handles both PR and marketing activities.

The idea of crafting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was born at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro in 2012. The main objective was to produce a set of universal goals that would meet the urgent social, environmental, political and economic challenges that our world is still facing right now.

SDGs actually came to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which deployed a global effort in 2000 to tackle the indignity of poverty: “MDGs were able to establish measurable, universally-agreed objectives for tackling extreme poverty and hunger, preventing deadly diseases, and expanding primary education to all children, among other development priorities”.

Later in 2015, The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was discussed and adopted by all United Nations Member States in order to provide a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people around the world and the Earth, for now and for the future. 17 Sustainable Development Goals (commonly known as SDGs) were crafted to be at the heart of this Agenda. An urgent call for action by all countries – both developed and developing – in a global partnership has been launched since then. 

*Sources:

https://sdgs.un.org/goals

Among all major issues our planet is facing, all stakeholders have  recognized that “ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests”.

To implement those 17 GOALS, there are 169 Targets decided, 960 Events carried out, 1205 Publications made, and 5132 Actions taken worldwide so far. Of course, the progress of SDG implementation differs from country to country or region to region. Very detailed reports on sustainable development show this evidence.

*Source: Sustainable Development Report 2020(https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/downloads) 

The situation of SDGs implementation in the business world in Japan 

Japan is now more than ever acting on sustainable development goals.  As a major player within the United Nations system is not left behind, the Japanese government is now investing a lot of efforts to promote SDGs and is urging the public sector organizations, families, schools and companies belonging to the private sector to embrace this new global trend or lifestyle. Traditional media and social media have been of great use in terms of contributions that they bring into raising awareness among the occupants of this planet.

*Source: https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Japan-acting-on-sustainable-development-goals2 

In addition, a few Japanese companies started to incorporate the implementation of SGDs while conducting their businesses.  This can actually be challenging as stated in an academic paper on “Scaling Up Business Impact on the SDGs” jointly published in 2019 by JICA Research Institute, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies and other organizations:

“Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires redefining the purpose of business and scaling up their impact. However, there are challenges such as the gap between good intentions and real actions; conflict between the current economic system and SDG thinking; limited understanding of how business is embedded in society; and capacity constraints in developing countries to take full advantage of emerging business opportunities.”

Data reported in the same academic paper also was pertaining to probably the most important aspect of this topic, namely:  how to  convert SDG awareness into concrete business actions!  In fact, a survey on inclusive growth carried out by Deloitte (*) in 2018  showed that while 92% of business executives support SDGs, only 17% have plans or policies to achieve them. Another survey conducted by PwC (**) in the same year indicated that although 72% of global companies mention SDGs in their annual corporate or sustainability reports, only 50% had undertaken the crucial process of prioritizing which SDGs were most relevant to their business.

(*) Deloitte Global  Inclusive Growth Survey which surveyed 350 company executives in 2018.

(**)  PwC SDG Reporting Challenge that surveyed 729 global  companies in 2018.

* Source: https://t20japan.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/t20-japan-tf1-8-scaling-up-business-impact-sdgs.pdf

On the other hand, the Keidanren or Japan Business Federation published a very detailed report on Innovation to SDGs, Road to Society 5.0. published in 2018, in which steps to achieving global goals and making a new society with higher life standards are explained. There are many details of examples and case-studies related to Japanese companies that are already taking actions in terms of SDGs implementation within their business operations, nationwide and overseas as well.

All stakeholders from both private and public sectors are now tirelessly working towards the realization of a new society, by considering SDGs  in all business plannings and actions to achieve this ultimate goal.

 In the aforementioned report, there are a few examples of Japanese companies that have already started to implement SDGs, coming up with wide-range innovations that are significantly contributing.

It is very important to mention that Japanese government released an important document “The Guide for SDG Business Management” in 2018 and also put in place a useful mixed body called “SDG Management / ESG Investment Study Group”, which operates under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). The main mission of this study group is  the promotion of ESG investments by taking advantage of SDG business management.

*Sources:

Report of the SDG Management / ESG Investment Study Group Compiled 

(https://www.meti.go.jp/english/press/2019/0628_002.html)

The Guide for SDG Business Management (https://www.meti.go.jp/press/2019/05/20190531003/20190531003-4.pdf )

The main idea promoted in this figure is that we can only create change and therefore a new society by transforming ourselves. And there is a perfect guide to all world citizens to get used to SDGs implementation in people’s daily lives called:  “The Lazy Person’s Guide to Saving the World ” (https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/takeaction/).

Special note on PR & marketing campaigns with respect to SDGs covered by Japanese media

In 2018, Dentsu Inc., Japan’s leading advertising agency firm announced the release of “SDGs Communication Guide”, suggesting guidelines for corporate managers, people working in advertising and ad agency professionals when planning out communication initiatives in line with SDGs and ESG investments as well. (*)

(*) Note: ESG investment refers to investment carried out giving the priority to the companies that take into consideration the environment, social issues and governance.   

As a matter of fact, Dentsu decided to establish an internal body that will be in charge of planning and implementing strategies to create more value and a sustainable future for all, via advertising. More concretely, “Dentsu SDGs Communication Guide Creation Committee”, including eight expert panels,  was created in 2018 with the mission to compile useful guidelines providing ”things to know” and ”things to pay attention to” for successful advertising and promotional campaigns with SDGs in mind.

In order to improve “corporate value” and gain good reputation from customers and society, Dentsu suggests that it is important for organisations to incorporate “advertising communication using SDGs” elements in their marketing/PR strategy. This implies that an organisation can only be considered as a “sustainable company” if it complies with the philosophy of SDGs and keeps in mind the future and the society.

*Source: https://www.dentsu.co.jp/en/news/release/2018/0601-009548.html 

Additional Implementation case is here; early 2020, Japan Times one of the biggest media in Japan signed an agreement with the United Nations to participate in the “SDG Media Compact”, which was established by the UN-Secretary General in September 2018. The main purpose of this media platform is to seek to inspire media and entertainment companies around the world to leverage their resources and creative talent to advance SDGs. The Japan Times will continue to work as a media to resolve 17 issues of the SDG, such as poverty, climate change and hunger. Not only the Japan Times but many of Japanese media such as TV stations and Newspapers have been participating in this media compact. This movement will give Japanese conservative companies to start considering SDGs. 

*Source: 

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/n2u/2020/02/10/the-japan-times-to-participate-in-the-un-sdg-media-compact-to-raise-awareness-of-the-sustainable-development-goals-sdgs/

Future perspectives 

Since the implementation of SDGs requires a large amount of actions to reach an audience of 2 billion people across the globe, media plays an indispensable role in nurturing public dialogue, promoting sustainable development and spreading knowledge on how SDGs can be achieved.

“The SDGs are currently leading the variety of transformations and innovations that are required of companies. That opens up the possibility of sustainable business management focused on the future.”

*Source: Dentsu, SDGs Communication Guide 2018

(https://www.dentsu.co.jp/en/csr/team_sdgs/pdf/sdgs_communication_guide.pdf)

The United Nations has called on major media outlets, and therefore on PR and marketing agencies as well, to join the SDG Media Compact and cooperate in increasing participation in achieving all SDGs. It is almost unanimous that only via a coordinated communications strategy that this can be possible. Organizations need to continue to raise their general awareness on important global issues when doing business, in the hope that our environment will be kept safe and that all socio-economic challenges will be taken  care of.

“Business is a vital partner in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Companies can contribute through their core activities, and we ask companies everywhere to assess their impact, set ambitious goals and communicate transparently about the results.”

－ Ban Ki-Moon, United Nations Secretary General

*Source: SDG Compass Guide Executive Summary

(https://sdgcompass.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/SDG_Compass_Guide_Executive_Summary.pdf)

The road is still far to go as 10 more years are ahead of us, to evaluate how much can be accomplished. So, each media platform has the ability to define its own action method based on guidelines – especially the Media Compact –  provided by the United Nations, in line with its own values, rules and policies.

Technology and advertising have evolved a lot in recent years, becoming one of the most influential aspects of doing business in a modern and fast moving world.  Nowadays, mobile advertising has become the most efficient way to approach customers to market different types of commodities. 

Mobile advertising can be understood as, according to Techopedia,  “the communication of products or services to mobile device and smartphone consumers”. From this definition, the mobile advertising spectrum can then range from short message service (SMS) text to interactive advertisements. This makes mobile advertising a component of mobile marketing, and therefore part of a specific digital marketing strategy. 

Mobile advertising trends in 2019 onwards

While predicting trends of digital advertising, a report sourced from emarketer, cited by MobileAds last year,  said that: “In 2019, worldwide digital ad spending was going to rise by 17.6% to $333.25 billion. That means that, for the first time, digital will account for roughly half of the global ad market.” 

* Source: 

• https://www.mobileads.com/blog/mobile-advertising 

According to Global Digital Ad Spending 2019, digital marketing has already become the dominant ad medium in some countries, including the UK, China, Norway and Canada. In Russia for instance, half of the total advertising budget would go to digital.  However, the situation is not yet the case in other regions, namely southeast Asia and Japan which are now catching up.  

※ The situation in Japan

Currently, in-app advertising is growing in popularity in Japan, but concerns remain over media quality, according to a new report by digital marketing experts. In fact, Digital InFact surveyed 100 media buyers (brand advertisers and advertising agencies, including trading desks) and findings are showing that Japanese ads buyers embrace in-app ads despite a few quality concerns. 

* Source:  

• https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/news/japanese-buyers-embrace-in-app-ads-despite-quality-concerns/42972 

Here are some of the key findings from the research :

• Excluding walled garden apps such as Facebook and LINE (*), the most popular app verticals among media buyers are News (71.4%), Health/Lifestyle (50%) and Gaming (40.5%); 

• While 50% of media buyers say that they buy in-app ads on Facebook, Twitter, LINE and Google APP Campaigns, only 16% use a DSP to buy in-app ads programmatically.

—————————————————–

(*) LINE is an instant messaging, voice and video calling application developed by the LINE Corporation. It allows people to exchange text messages and make toll-free calls with family and friends by transmitting information in the form of data. LINE is the most popular messaging app in Japan.  

In addition to the above, another data from Statista shows that the ad production expenses in Japan has been significantly increasing since the past 10 years.  

* Source: Published by Statista Research Department, Sep 17, 2020

• https://www.statista.com/statistics/918466/japan-internet-advertising-production-cost/

The production cost of internet advertisements in Japan reached a new high of more than 335 billion Japanese yen in 2019. The value doubled since 2010, indicating an increasing importance of the internet as an advertising medium.

Here is a more detailed figure from Dentsu, the largest advertising company in Japan, showing how internet advertising costs have evolved in the past 5 years. 

* Source: 

• https://www.slideshare.net/JenniferGuevara5/marketing-in-japan-section-1-part-1-of-3 

The image above shows an update from 2016. It is clear that there has been a significant increase in internet – therefore mobile – advertising expenditures in Japan. The Dentsu 2019 report shows a breakthrough in  internet advertising costs, as explained below:

“ Internet advertising expenditures, driven mainly by major platformers and the additional estimation of advertising expenditures for Merchandise-related EC Platforms within Advertising Expenditures in Japan (106.4 billion yen in 2019), resulted in expenditures of 2,104.8 billion yen (up 19.7% and accounting for 30.3% of spending in all media), achieving the sixth consecutive year of double-digit growth…

* Source: 

• https://www.dentsu.co.jp/en/news/sp/release/2020/0311-010026.html 

This is the first time spending has surpassed the 2,000-billion-yen mark, exceeding Television expenditures. Internet advertising media expenditures were 1,663.0 billion (up 14.8%), including expenditures on digital advertising carried by traditional media companies of 71.5 billion yen (up 22.9%), an increase of 215.0 billion yen compared with the previous year. ” 

※ A note on mobile advertising agencies in Japan 

The following figure (in Japanese) show Japan’s ranking of mobile advertising agencies in considering their sales (updated in May 2020): 

* Source: 

• https://proten.jp/magazine/knowledge/19 

The above chart does not show it, but Dentsu is certainly the largest agency in the advertising industry  reaching over 1 trillion yen in sales on its own.  

Referring to the above, another big agency is CyberAgent, which is ranked first (see the above chart) as it has been growing by more than 20 billion yen every year since 2010. It is ranked third in the advertising industry as a whole after Hakuhodo.

The 2nd place is occupied by D.A. Consortium Holdings, a subsidiary of Hakuhodo dealing with the internet advertising system. It is important to mention that Dentsu and Hakuhodo DY Media Partners announced their investment in AbemaTV which was  a big topic recently.  (*)

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(*) AbemaTV is a Japanese video streaming website owned by the entertainment company AbemaTV, Inc. which provides multimedia services to customers in Japan.

Future perspectives 

Mobile advertising is growing to become the most powerful marketing tool  as almost 4 billion people are now using mobile devices i.e. smartphones, according to Statista. This trend is causing more business owners in Japan to shift from traditional advertising methods to digital advertising to adapt to a new way of doing business. As changes keep occurring in the digital marketing industry broadly speaking, the industry integration and restructuring movement is not over yet; therefore laying out the possibility that the rankings will change significantly next year. 

Advertising is an art. For years, people from different backgrounds have been using the art of advertising to convey a message that is dear to them while promoting a new product or service. In today’s world, more than ever, images are mostly used in this industry because, as it’s been said for decades: a picture is worth a thousand words.       

There are multiple ways to define advertising. A classic academic definition suggested by Study.com highlights that: “the ultimate goal of advertising art is to persuade consumers and/ or convey a message”. In most cases, visual images are utilized by organizations to communicate a concise, clear and attractive message, idea, or point of view in order to conquer their audiences. 

Advertising in Japan

Advertising market in Japan is the 3rd largest advertising market worldwide. In recent years, the total advertising spending registered a steady growth of  more than ¥6 trillion as of 2018. Additionally, the size of the advertising market puts it among the most important markets for Japan, because it represents more than 1% of the country’s GDP.

* Source: 

• https://www.statista.com/topics/5853/advertising-in-japan/#:~:text=It%20is%20noteworthy%20that%20the,establishing%20an%20emotional%20and%20memorable 

From the previous figure, it appears that most advertising in Japan was done on TV until the end of 2018, as in some other countries around the world. However, the trend has been reversed because now most advertising in Japan is done via the internet, according to a report published by Dentsu in 2019 on Advertising Expenditures in Japan. 

* Source: 

• https://www.dentsu.co.jp/en/news/sp/release/2020/0311-010026.html 

Indeed, all other advertising tools or media platforms are still used in Japan to advertise products and services, namely: newspapers, magazines, directories, direct mail, catalogues, leaflets, radio, cellphones, online/internet, social media platforms, and so on. However, compared to what is known in the western world or other regions such as Asia, the way of advertising in Japan may show some differences from a cultural standpoint.  

In Japan for example, while analysing the trends of old media in Japan to see how relevant they still are today, experts suggested in 2019 that: “Traditional media is facing issues of declining viewership and revenue in this new age of how Japanese are consuming media. However, some are getting creative to stay relevant by leveraging new technologies and incorporating new media into their ecosystems”.

* Source: 

• https://blog.btrax.com/media-trend-in-japan-how-old-media-stay-relevant/ 

* Source: 

• https://tvjapan.net/en/advertisement/

Major advertising agencies in Japan

In Japan, there are numerous advertising agencies, but here are a few major ones,  according to HR Force, as described below.  

* Source:

• https://www.hr-force.co.jp/careerdojo/1901251647 

• Dentsu 
• URL: https://www.dentsu.co.jp/en/ 

Put particular strength on mass media, overseas, and sports. Dentsu’s strength lies in its global expansion with mass media such as TV advertisements.

It is no exaggeration to say that the mass media, including Japanese TV advertisements, is dominated by Dentsu, and its high share compared to its competitors is obvious.

The size of TV advertisements is very large, and it is only Dentsu that youth can be involved in such large projects.

 The company succeeded in raising its global position in the advertising industry among the top in the world. 

• Hakuhodo 
• URL: https://www.hakuhodo-global.com/ 

Put strength on collecting and analyzing consumer data. Hakuhodo has strengths in data collection and analysis.

Marketing that focuses on the use of data is called data-driven marketing, and the ability to devise effective marketing measures based on data will become more important in the future era.

Hakuhodo is particularly good at consumer data, and we are also developing a medium called consumer data driven marketing communication.

• Asatsu-DK 
• URL:  https://www.adk.jp/e/

Differentiate with content such as animation. ADK has a strength in content rather than media like Dentsu and Hakuhodo.

For example, there are anime contents such as “Doraemon”, “Crayon Shin-chan”, and “One Piece”, and in addition to planning and production, they undertake a wide range of work such as commercializing characters and product tie-ups. Therefore, it can be said that the network with distributors and publishers is one of the points that is superior to Dentsu and Hakuhodo. 

In particular, anime content is gaining popularity overseas, and ADK anticipates future growth.

In a nutshell 

Even though TV is still the biggest platform of advertising in Japan, the advent of digital marketing and social media has brought about other forms of advertising. In fact, more people are using social networks via their mobile phones to connect with families, friends and colleagues  just for fun or for business,  now more than ever: this is the era of mobile advertising heading to its sharpest, in Japan as well.