Shunji Oyama from Adinnovation told us about the formation of Japanese corporate ethics in the context of the work of advertising agencies and the current situation with the advertising of Nippon koku applications.
Photo: Adrien Lemaire
Today, Japan is one of the most desirable markets for mobile business.
But unlike in Western countries, where interaction with agencies is often considered an admission of one’s own incompetence, in Japan, the ability to work with them is the key to achieving the tasks set. In this article I want to talk about the culture of advertising agencies and give some tips for promotion in Japan.
1. Fact one: an intermediary between the media and the advertiser is a necessity
For successful promotion in Japan, it is necessary to understand the local specifics of working with advertising agencies.
One of the factors necessary to understand for working in Japan is the lack of a working bundle of “company – advertiser”, despite the fact that in other, more advanced countries, this system is basic. Since such an approach to work has not been adopted in Japan, advertising agencies have gained a huge influence on advertisers and media. So they have become an integral part of the advertising industry. In most other countries, it is considered normal if the advertiser directly communicates with the media and makes a deal, but in Japan, the basic scheme will look something like this:
* Media Rep is the first web advertising agency. For advertising agencies, they will be a supplier, for media – a counter where they sell their advertising space.
The Japanese advertising industry pays special attention to these relationships.
The larger the company, the more attention it pays to the procedure.
2. Fact two: face-to-face meetings are a common practice due to geo-ordination
In reality, the distance between advertisers and agencies also took part in building corporate culture in Japan. Before the spread of the Internet, advertising agencies in large countries, such as the United States, had difficulty making appointments with advertisers due to serious distances. Interaction with several interested parties of the transaction at once by phone and fax was not very effective in terms of time. As a result, advertising campaigns came to an end without agencies.
In Japan, with its small territory and business districts, meetings and the use of agencies, on the contrary, have become a common practice. The absence of multiple time zones also pushed for direct interaction.
But here, of course, I don’t want to mislead anyone. Despite the fact that geo-location has played an important role in the formation of Japanese corporate culture, today advertising agencies, especially those working with the mobile market, freely interact with their customers, both inside and outside Japan, using email, Skype and phone.
3. The fact of tracking: pre-registrations, which advertising agencies are engaged in today, are popular
Pre-registration is a system that gives users additional values (rare things that users can get from the system) for registering on the teaser/pre-registration site before the release of the application.
Now it has become a popular strategy in the Japanese market. MMO, RPG and puzzles are key genres that receive certain advantages from such services, since the privileges of these applications are understandable and attractive to users. Getting special characters, iAP, Gacha tickets – users get advantages over ordinary players from the very beginning, so they are interested in participating.
The effectiveness of such a strategy is evidenced by the fact that a huge number of applications based on famous anime and manga are actively implementing it at home. Since the importance of pre-registration and privileges are key to successful promotion, advertising agencies today are expanding their scope, including offering it.
Pre-registration works like this: an application is selected from the teaser, after registration, a code is obtained, the application is downloaded after the release, the code is entered and a bonus is obtained (Source: ”旅のヤド)).4. The fourth fact:
Problems with local monitoring tools
How do agencies optimize ads from advertisers? The most important barometer is data from tracking services. They help in more effective systematization of advertising through data analysis. We can expect high-quality optimization results from agencies because they process large amounts of data. Since advertisers demand high profitability of campaigns in a short period of time, numerical data is necessary for offers. But today, Japanese advertisers themselves are trying to learn more about advertising. The trend was laid by two leading local mobile advertising agencies, which began offering their own tracking tools along with their services. After that, advertisers began to look for tools independent of agencies to see all the picture of the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. However, at the same time they want to enjoy the benefits that such cooperation can give. This situation increases the relevance of foreign solutions.
5. Fact five: due to the fact that Japan has had its own traffic channels for a long time, is Facebook and Twitter promotion not enough here?
As I described just above, the use of agencies in Japan is imperative for some media in Japan. This distinctive style, of course, forces some foreign players in the market to keep their distance from promotion in the Japanese market.
The problem is that they often say that “Facebook and Twitter campaigns will be enough for Japan.” But this, of course, is absolutely not the case.
Japan has created its own unique traffic channels and understanding this is necessary for promotion in our country. Cooperation with advertising agencies is definitely the best way to break down these walls.