THE BRIDGE

tag hatsune miku

The state of online marketing in Japan

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For western companies, entering the Asian market is no easy task. There is the inevitable language barrier, not to mention the cultural differences. We had a chance to talk to Anji Ismail, the CEO of online marketing platform DOZ, in order to hear his thoughts on what makes the Japanese market especially different. For starters, online marketing in Japan is very well-developed. According to a study by Dentsu published in March of this year, online marketing budgets in Japan grew by 107.7% compared to the previous year. Anji adds: Japan is actually the second biggest market with over $8.1 billion in total spending in 2012, and it might reach $11 billion in 2015. Mobile is really hot in Japan, with $1.8 billion spent in 2012, ranking as the second biggest market for mobile advertising expenditures, just behind the US. Although Japanese people are known to open their wallets for digital contents such as mobile apps, games, and newsletters, it turns out that they are not especially keen to click on ads. On the web, it’s interesting to note that almost 40% of Japanese never click on sponsored ads on search engines, and only 6% of those who do have bought…

Tokyo-Shibuya-Simon-le-nippon
Photo: Simon le nippon on Flickr

For western companies, entering the Asian market is no easy task. There is the inevitable language barrier, not to mention the cultural differences. We had a chance to talk to Anji Ismail, the CEO of online marketing platform DOZ, in order to hear his thoughts on what makes the Japanese market especially different.

For starters, online marketing in Japan is very well-developed. According to a study by Dentsu published in March of this year, online marketing budgets in Japan grew by 107.7% compared to the previous year. Anji adds:

Japan is actually the second biggest market with over $8.1 billion in total spending in 2012, and it might reach $11 billion in 2015. Mobile is really hot in Japan, with $1.8 billion spent in 2012, ranking as the second biggest market for mobile advertising expenditures, just behind the US.

Although Japanese people are known to open their wallets for digital contents such as mobile apps, games, and newsletters, it turns out that they are not especially keen to click on ads.

On the web, it’s interesting to note that almost 40% of Japanese never click on sponsored ads on search engines, and only 6% of those who do have bought something after clicking. Actually, Japan has one of the lowest click-through rates, with only a 1.4% click rate on web ads. However, budgets are growing for search engine and social media optimization.

While Japanese people do click on ads, the CTR remains low. A relevant survey by Goo Research shows that almost 63% of respondents have clicked on ads shown on search results, while 24% have not. When asked what type of ads they are more likely to click, the most popular response was banner, images, or Flash at roughly 46%, and text ads on search results ranked second at about 28%. Links within newsletters, affiliate links within contents, and links within blog posts (content-match advertising) followed at around 25%.

Of course, entering the Japanese market cannot and should not be just restricted to online marketing. It’s a mixture of offline and online tactics, and some US companies have done it very well. Evernote is one good example. The company marked its third year anniversary in Japan back in March. There are over five million users in Japan and it’s the second most active market after US in terms of active users, with 30% of its revenue coming from the country.

Evernote was a typical case of what is called ‘blogger marketing’ in Japan. They reached out to tech savvy and influential people online, people who acted as ambassadors for the service. Lots of meetups were held, and these ambassadors also helped Evernote with promotion in book and other publications. Searching for ‘Evernote’ on Amazon Japan now yields over 500 results.

Google is another company that many Japanese people find appealing. In a survey about popular online brands, Google ranked third after Rakuten and Yahoo. That score is calculated from important factors such as usability, number of visits, and website loyalty. But the company’s unique promotions have likely been a factor in its popularity. For Google+, the company collaborated with the all-girl idol group AKB 48 and fashionista/pop star Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. To promote its Chrome web browser, the company aired a TV commercial featuring the popular virtual diva Hatsune Miku.

Of course these are just a few cases, and there are many others. And given the money to be made in this lucrative market (especially on mobile), marketing to Japanese consumers will continue to be a challenge — but one with a big payoff for those who do it right.

Survey says virtual pop star Hatsune Miku has gone mainstream

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From electronic products to snacks sold at convenience stores, it seems every possible product or package in Japan is adorned with a character of some sort. In a culture where consumers grow up with manga at their bedsides, many Japanese companies create original characters and leverage them as part of their branding strategy. There are even what are called ‘gotochi’ characters, or “local characters” for every prefecture in Japan. But perhaps the most successful character in terms of recognition is the virtual vocaloid diva Hatsune Miku. That’s according to a recent survey conducted by Tokyo Polytechnic University. The survey targeted those who like to listen to music, polling 1,000 people between the ages of 12 to 39. When asked about their preferred genre, 40% of teenagers answered Vocaloid music (created with voice synthesizing software). When asked about their awareness of vocaloid characters, 95% of all respondents were familiar with Hatsune Miku. Many respondents first became aware of the virtual diva through TV and video sharing sites such as Youtube and Niconico-Douga. This survey is pretty remarkable because a previous poll in 2010 by Yamaha, the company behind vocaloid technology, showed that only 60% were familiar with Hatsune-Miku. That means that…

HatsuneMiku-recognition

From electronic products to snacks sold at convenience stores, it seems every possible product or package in Japan is adorned with a character of some sort. In a culture where consumers grow up with manga at their bedsides, many Japanese companies create original characters and leverage them as part of their branding strategy. There are even what are called ‘gotochi’ characters, or “local characters” for every prefecture in Japan. But perhaps the most successful character in terms of recognition is the virtual vocaloid diva Hatsune Miku. That’s according to a recent survey conducted by Tokyo Polytechnic University.

The survey targeted those who like to listen to music, polling 1,000 people between the ages of 12 to 39. When asked about their preferred genre, 40% of teenagers answered Vocaloid music (created with voice synthesizing software). When asked about their awareness of vocaloid characters, 95% of all respondents were familiar with Hatsune Miku. Many respondents first became aware of the virtual diva through TV and video sharing sites such as Youtube and Niconico-Douga. This survey is pretty remarkable because a previous poll in 2010 by Yamaha, the company behind vocaloid technology, showed that only 60% were familiar with Hatsune-Miku. That means that in a span of less than two years, the vocaloid character has gone fully mainstream.

In the past year alone, Hatsune Miku has been appearing all over the place:

  • Featured at a panel event at Mercedez-Benz fashion week
  • Featured in a fun aumented reality Domino’s Pizza app
  • Vanquish used Hatsune Miku as its model in stores
  • Family Mart, one of the largest convinience store chains in Japan, began to sell original Hatsune Miku merchandise at their stores
  • Google, to promote its browser Google Chrome, has taken advantage of Hatsune Miku in their TV commercials as well. See the video below.

Domino’s Hatsune Miku app boosting pizza sales in Japan. We gave it a test run. [Video]

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Last week we mentioned a new augmented reality iPhone app from Domino’s Japan featuring virtual pop star Hatsune Miku. The app overlays a virtual song and dance performance right on top of your pizza box using the iPhone camera. Domino’s has reportedly even seen shortages of its new Hatsune Miku pizza boxes at some locations, with some stores reporting a 10x increase in sales. As we noted last week, Kamakura-based studio Kayac was involved in the planning and development of the application, and it certainly looks to be a successful campaign so far, in terms of publicity. Domino’s even has pink Hatsune Miku branded motorbikes for deliveries! In order to get a better idea of how the app works, I went ahead and ordered a pizza. These are the sacrifices we make for you, dear reader, so I hope you appreciate it! Check out Hatsune Miku’s augmented reality performance on pizza boxes in our video below.

dominos-pizza-hatsune-miku

Last week we mentioned a new augmented reality iPhone app from Domino’s Japan featuring virtual pop star Hatsune Miku. The app overlays a virtual song and dance performance right on top of your pizza box using the iPhone camera. Domino’s has reportedly even seen shortages of its new Hatsune Miku pizza boxes at some locations, with some stores reporting a 10x increase in sales.

As we noted last week, Kamakura-based studio Kayac was involved in the planning and development of the application, and it certainly looks to be a successful campaign so far, in terms of publicity. Domino’s even has pink Hatsune Miku branded motorbikes for deliveries!

In order to get a better idea of how the app works, I went ahead and ordered a pizza. These are the sacrifices we make for you, dear reader, so I hope you appreciate it!

Check out Hatsune Miku’s augmented reality performance on pizza boxes in our video below.

See how one Japanese fashion company has mastered digital marketing

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As far as digital efforts in the fashion industry goes, there is an unfortunate lack of innovation in Japan. Even the more enthusiastic brands have only gone as far as releasing dedicated mobile apps for customer loyalty. But I recently stumbled upon a Tokyo-based company called Ceno which might be an exception to the digitally challenged status quo in the fashion industry. Ceno operates seven different lines of clothing, with one of the most famous brand being Vanquish. Its main customers are men in their early twenties, but the brand has managed to even attract teenagers and men in their forties. Vanquish received a lot of attention recently for an in-store collaborative project called Vanquish Venus, created in cooperation with Team Lab, a local organization famous for their digital creativity. Vanquish installed something called ‘TeamLabHanger’ at their stores, and when an item on a hanger is removed from the rack, it triggers video and audio on a screen overhead. The idea here was to bring in customers who would normally just walk past the Vanquish store, and for those already inside it would show them different ways to coordinating clothes. The project recruited famous female artists and celebrities to model…

Vanquish: in-store manga camera
Vanquish: in-store manga camera

As far as digital efforts in the fashion industry goes, there is an unfortunate lack of innovation in Japan. Even the more enthusiastic brands have only gone as far as releasing dedicated mobile apps for customer loyalty. But I recently stumbled upon a Tokyo-based company called Ceno which might be an exception to the digitally challenged status quo in the fashion industry.

Ceno operates seven different lines of clothing, with one of the most famous brand being Vanquish. Its main customers are men in their early twenties, but the brand has managed to even attract teenagers and men in their forties. Vanquish received a lot of attention recently for an in-store collaborative project called Vanquish Venus, created in cooperation with Team Lab, a local organization famous for their digital creativity. Vanquish installed something called ‘TeamLabHanger’ at their stores, and when an item on a hanger is removed from the rack, it triggers video and audio on a screen overhead.

The idea here was to bring in customers who would normally just walk past the Vanquish store, and for those already inside it would show them different ways to coordinating clothes. The project recruited famous female artists and celebrities to model in the videos, and it currently features Chiaki Ito from the popular pop group AAA. To keep things fresh, videos are renewed every two months with different models.

But perhaps the most notable model of all was virtual star Hatsune Miku (see video below), who attracted not-so-fashion-savvy netizens to the Vanquish brand, thus expanding its fan base a little beyond who the audience they normally sell to. Ceno even ended up creating an orginal Vanquish song by Hatsune Miku under the supervision of music label Karent.

There are also manga camera machines installed at three Vanquish stores (pictured above), including the Shibuya and Ikebukuro locations. These original purikura machines convert photos into unique manga-like images, which are then uploaded to the Vanquish Facebook page. The customers are then brought to the Facebook page where the company hopes they will click the ‘Like’ button [1].
vanquish-facebookpage-manga

Ceno has already expanded to Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, China, and even Australia. Its next project is the launch of a Vanquish ecommerce site for BangKok, scheduled for this April. The brand is pretty well received by consumers around Asia, as the pricing is not too expensive. After going through different vendors to reach overseas markets, many Japanese brands end up being high-priced luxury brands (whether they want to or not). Ceno has partnered directly with different vendors in locals market to ensure this doesn’t happen.

The company has also started another brand called Gonoturn which sells unique hats and facial masks that mimic cute animals. It looks like a fun company too, as you can see below. Here the employees are pulling off another Harlem Shake video while wearing their own products.


  1. In case you were wondering, Ceno began this manga camera project before the popular Manga Camera app appeared on the app store.  ↩

New iPhone app from Domino’s Japan has virtual star Hatsune Miku dance on your pizza

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Domino’s Pizza has announced a pretty interesting high-tech collaboration that will create a new version of its already popular mobile app by adding the geeky appeal of virtual Vocaloid superstar Hatsune Miku. The app is free and has the normal functions of the Domino’s app, including the ability to order pizza, check the status of your order, and collect coupons. And in addition to the aqua-colored Hatsune Miku theme, it also has a few fun features, most notably an augmented reality function called ‘Pizza Stage Live.’ After your pizza arrives, you simply point your smartphone camera at the Hatsune Miku-themed Domino’s pizza box, and it suddenly becomes a stage where the animated singer begins a performance. Apparently the song, dance, and costume were all created by the folks at Domino’s Japan. Domino’s new app also includes a ‘Social Pizza Camera,’ a simple photo application that superimposes an image of Hatsune Miku – wearing costumes designed by Domino’s staffers – on top of any given scene. Once you take the picture, you can then share to Facebook or Twitter as well. Of course, Domino’s has added their logo at the bottom in the interests of some self-promotion. Domino’s employees have also…

dominosDomino’s Pizza has announced a pretty interesting high-tech collaboration that will create a new version of its already popular mobile app by adding the geeky appeal of virtual Vocaloid superstar Hatsune Miku.

The app is free and has the normal functions of the Domino’s app, including the ability to order pizza, check the status of your order, and collect coupons. And in addition to the aqua-colored Hatsune Miku theme, it also has a few fun features, most notably an augmented reality function called ‘Pizza Stage Live.’ After your pizza arrives, you simply point your smartphone camera at the Hatsune Miku-themed Domino’s pizza box, and it suddenly becomes a stage where the animated singer begins a performance. Apparently the song, dance, and costume were all created by the folks at Domino’s Japan.

dominos-pizza-japan-hatsune-miku-2

dominos-pizza-japan-hatsune-miku^3

Domino’s new app also includes a ‘Social Pizza Camera,’ a simple photo application that superimposes an image of Hatsune Miku – wearing costumes designed by Domino’s staffers – on top of any given scene. Once you take the picture, you can then share to Facebook or Twitter as well. Of course, Domino’s has added their logo at the bottom in the interests of some self-promotion.

Domino’s employees have also gotten in on the action, producing some fun Hatsune Miku videos and songs, also featured in the app. Even Domino’s executive vice president has gotten involved in a truly cringe-worthy promo video for the application, which you can check out below.

If you’d like to try the app for yourself, you can get it for free over on Apple’s Japanese app store.

Update: We subsequently received word that Kamakura-based developer/publisher Kayac worked on this app. Impressive!

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