No.6 February 10, 2004
Contents
1) Column: Mobile for Media <Part 5>
2) Case Study 1: Collaboration of TV and mobile
3) Case Study 2: Cash Back via Mobile Email
4) Industry Report: Association and Mobile Marketing
5) Mobile Research: New Year greeting mail
6) Carrier Trend: Enhanced and Multimedialized Mobile
7) Japan Cellular Subscriber Data
1) Column: Mobile for Media <Part 5>
Enhanced Screens and Progress in Creative for Mobile
It has been said that the small size of mobile mobile phone screens has been a major limitation to the growth of mobile advertising as compared to the PC or other media. However, recent advances in high-resolution screen technology will enable the mobile to take a significant leap forward as an ad medium in 2004.
2003 saw a great deal of progress in mobile phone screens. The number of phones equipped with QVGA screens increased rapidly, and screen resolution reached resolution levels equivalent to PC monitors. In addition, mobile screens and their content display capabilities became significantly richer, as shown by NTT DoCoMo's newest 505i and FOMA 900i series handsets, which incorporate Macromedia Flash technology and support true animation.
Such improvements in mobile functionality have also raised the quality of mobile advertisements, which can now utilize motion media well beyond previous levels. Previous ads have had to rely heavily on limited creative expression, smaller banners, and text copy as means to attract user attention.
Improved visual capability will bring two basic benefits to mobile advertising. First is improved visual appeal. Previously, the creative element of banner advertisements was mostly focused on triggering clicks and increasing the click-through rates. Better screen display and proper presentation of corporate logos will enable creative work of higher quality. Still another key benefit of better screens is that users will be able to enjoy richer color content. Mobile is a personal medium which has emphasized individual entertainment and the offering of various digital gifts to users. Better screens will support the development of ads that offer ever more impressive and humorous expression that will boost the user experience.
For 2004, we can look forward to more richly expressive phones and a greater role for creative in mobile advertisement.
2) Case Study 1: Collaboration of TV and mobile
Campaign Name: TV Asahi Integrated Mobile "Media Mix" Campaign
Period: November 2003 -
Description:
For contents holders such as TV stations, utilization of own contents is key issue. TV Asahi Corporation made collaboration of mobile and TV program and added its value successfully.
Official mobile site of TV Asahi "tv asahi com plete!" provides various contents related to TV program, such as news, on-air info, showbiz, wallpaper and ringing tones of TV programs. The concept of this official site is thorough collaboration with TV programs. Through mobile site, "tv asahi com plete!" has taken not only announcement of programs and communication with audience, but also made use of mobile as participation tool to TV programs. The proposal of this development was far beyond making high audience rating; making a relationship. Programs would be much fun if one watches them with mobile on hand! The one can obtain information of TV program at anywhere!
Recently, with existence of mobile marketing, mobile represents more than communication tool: major media tool. Meanwhile, TV is downing its media power, however, collaboration with mobile seems bring new value to TV stations that more media mixed programs are likely to have been produced than ever. Furthermore, high-resolution screen seems broaden possibility of cooperation with TV program and mobile. For instance, TV Asahi Corporation has implemented trial live broadcast and publicity of programs taking videophone function of FOMA (*).
Communication ways with audience using mobile is getting extremely various and so are collaboration ways with an expectation.
* More information on FOMA, see http://www.nttdocomo.com/
3) Case Study 2: Cash Back via Mobile Email
Campaign Name: TAKARAJIMASHA Inc. Campaign - Case XX and Mobile
Period: May 19 - 26, 2003
Description:
Mobile Advertisements are used in a wide variety of product promotions. One group of products expected to see the greatest use of mobile promotions is CD and books. The reason for this is that online commerce leaders such as Amazon.com and TSUTAYA Online (Japan's leading online retailer of videos and entertainment software) make active use of mobile and mobile advertising to boost online shopping.
In Japan, books are promoted mostly via train and newspaper advertising. However, in the case of the novel "Case XX and Mobile", collaboration between the publisher and TSUTAYA Online enabled the book to be promoted via the Tokusuru Menu (*) and sold Online.
The campaign was designed as follows: users first answered questions in a quiz (based on the novel "Case XX and Mobile") completed via the Tokusuru Menu and were then entered in a drawing to win 1,000 yen cash back reward. The cash back was made possible by eBANK Corporation's "Merumane (Mail Money)" service. As with the popular PAYPAL service, prize money was deposited directly into the winners' accounts. Announcement of winners are made via mobile email. To receive their deposit, recipients of an award email need only input their mobile email address, name, and bank account information.
The campaign was very effective in Japan, where a fixed pricing system for books prevents booksellers from competing via lower resale prices. Through this cash back strategy, publisher TAKARAJIMASYA Inc aimed to give buyers the sense they could get a sort of rebate, thereby attracting a new layer of customers.
Up until now, wallpaper and ringing tones have been one of the mainstays of digital premiums offered to users. In this case, offering cash can be used to appeal to all targets and provides distinctive value in any type of campaign. The cash back campaign is expected to become more popular in the future.
* Tokusuru Menu is an original service developed by D2C, accessible by selecting item no. 4 from the i-menu of NTT DoCoMo's i-mode service portal.
4) Industry Report: Association and Mobile Advertisement
The Japan Internet Advertising Association (JIAA) is an organization dedicated to Internet advertising, covering a variety of areas including ad agencies, media, and telecommunication. It has a number of specific divisions, including the Broadband, Media Data, Privacy Policy, and Mobile Divisions.
The mobile division conducts research on the shared effects of mobile creative, advertising, and advanced technology. Its working groups carry out case studies of "media mix" campaigns and other promotions in order to improve their effectiveness and promote a good environment for future development.
JIAA contributes to market expansion by organizing seminars that feature lecturers from advertisers or advertising agencies. It established the Tokyo Interactive Ad Award, the first such award of its kind in Japan. It also exchanges information with international organizations such as IAB and CASIE.
By the way, recently, advertising companies have begun to change their approach to mobile advertising. Previously, mobile development was limited to the interactive department. Nowadays, however, mobile activity has spread to the sales promotion and marketing departments. This is due not only to the strong results of mobile marketing, but also to its increasing flexibility. Particularly in the case of media mix campaigns, different divisions of ad agencies are now able to collaborate on different aspects of the same campaign, while telecom companies are also developing marketing solutions.
5) Mobile Research: New Year greeting mail
In Japan today, a wide variety marketing surveys are conducted directly from participant's mobile phones. These surveys can prove extremely valuable in collecting otherwise inaccessible information about new consumer markets. The survey featured below focuses on New Year's E-Cards.
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Result of 109th Survey January 9, 2004
68.2% of i-mode (*) users sent New Year Greeting Cards using either postcard or/and email or both (either i-mode or/and PC). Among them, 98.2% sent seasonal greeting messages via i-mode.
Respondents: 23,751 i-mode users
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In Japan, people send seasonal postcards mostly around the New Year period. The following is a survey conducted to study the sending tendencies of i-mode users. It was conducted by Internet-based research service INFO PLANT Co., LTD (Head office: Tokyo, Japan). Survey data was collected via the "Tokusuru Menu (**)" on i-mode from 23,751 i-mode users between December 29, 2003 to January 5, 2004.
<Survey Results Summary>
68.2% of respondents sent New Year's greeting messages using either postcards and/or email (to either or i-mode and/or PC or both). By gender, 58.3% of males sent seasonal greetings via email (using either or i-mode and/or PC or both) while 72.1% of females did as well. When looked at by both gender and age, the proportion of those who sent greeting messages via email (using either or i-mode and/or PC or both) was high, especial in the layer of under 19 female users, 72.1%. (See Table 1-1)
98.2% of the target group sent greeting messages via i-mode email to both i-mode email or/and PC email or both, while only 10.3% used PC mail to send greeting messages to the email of i-mode and/or PC or both. By gender and both gender and age, in all layers, more than 90% said they sent greeting messages via i-mode mail to i-mode email and/or PC email. By contrast, as age goes up, those sending greeting messages via PC to either i-mode and/or PC or both increases among both genders. (See Table 1-2)
94.0% of the group that sent greeting messages via i-mode said they sent the messages to their friends. Those sending messages to job-related acquaintances was 27.9% and to boyfriends/girlfriends was 26.0%. There was no difference between the people to whom different genders sent their messages. By gender and age, as age goes up, the portion of those sending messages to friends decreased among both genders. Both male and females in the upper 50s range showed a high rate of sending greeting messages to family members. And the segment sending to relatives was high in the female upper 50s range. (See Table 2)
83.4% of respondents sent New Year's greeting messages via postcard. By gender, 77.5% of males used postcards for New Year greetings while 85.7% of females did so. As the age range goes up, there was an increase in the rate of both male and female who sent New Year greetings via postcards. 90.5% of those who sent greeting messages via post sent them to friends. Those sending them to job-related people and to relatives followed at a rate of 65.3% and 60.4%. By gender, males sent more to job-related acquaintances people and females tended to send messages more to teacher or students as compared to the opposite sex. (See Table 3-1) By gender and age, as age increased, the portion of messages sent to relatives also increased. (See Table 3-2)
When comparing messages sent to people via i-mode versus postcard, the rate of messages sent to friends and boyfriends/girlfriends was higher in the case of i-mode email. The use of postcards was higher when sending to other groups. (See Table 3-3)
* For more information on i-mode, see http://www.nttdocomo.com/
** The Tokusuru Menu is an original service developed by D2C, accessible by selecting item no. 4 from the i-menu of NTT DoCoMo's i-mode service portal.
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<Survey Description>
Questions:
(1) Are you going to or did you sent New Year's greeting via email (either or both i-mode or/and PC)? (Choose one)
(2) Choose all the people to whom you sent or will send greeting messages via i-mode mail. (Multiple choices possible)
(3) Choose all the people to whom you sent or will send greeting messages via postcard (Multiple choices possible)
Survey method: open survey, using "Tokusuru Menu" on i-mode site.
Survey period: December 29, 2003 - January 5, 2004. (one week)
No. of valid responses: 23,751
Rate of valid response by gender: male 28.2%, female 71.8%
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Q1) Are you going to or did you sent New Year's greeting via email (either or both i-mode or/and PC)? (Choose one)
<Table 1-1> By gender and age
| Send via email (either to i-mode or PC) | Do not send via email (either to i-mode or PC) | |
| All | 68.2% | 31.8% |
| Male | 58.3% | 41.7% |
| Under 19 | 77.4% | 22.6% |
| 20th | 67.8% | 32.2% |
| 30th | 53.5% | 46.5% |
| 40th | 49.8% | 50.2% |
| Above 50 | 55.0% | 45.0% |
| Female | 72.1% | 27.9% |
| Under 19 | 86.2% | 13.8% |
| 20th | 75.8% | 24.2% |
| 30th | 65.1% | 34.9% |
| 40th | 66.8% | 33.2% |
| Above 50 | 59.4% | 40.6% |
<Table 1-2> By gender and age
| Send via i-mode email to i-mode and/or PC | Send via PC email to i-mode and/or PC | |
| All | 98.2% | 10.3% |
| Male | 96.7% | 15.1% |
| Under 19 | 99.6% | 6.2% |
| 20th | 98.0% | 12.6% |
| 30th | 96.3% | 16.6% |
| 40th | 94.7% | 19.4% |
| Above 50 | 91.6% | 19.8% |
| Female | 98.7% | 8.8% |
| Under 19 | 99.6% | 5.9% |
| 20th | 99.1% | 7.6% |
| 30th | 98.1% | 10.9% |
| 40th | 97.8% | 11.4% |
| Above 50 | 96.7% | 15.8% |
Q2) Choose all the people to whom you sent or will send greeting messages via i-mode email. (Multiple)
<Table 2> by gender and age
*Population parameter: those 15,916 who sent greeting messages via i-mode email to i-mode and/or a PC.
| Family Member | Relatives | Friends | BF/GF | Job-related | Teacher / Student | Else | |
| All | 14.4% | 9.9% | 94.0% | 26.0% | 27.9% | 3.3% | 5.7% |
| Male | 11.3% | 7.9% | 90.6% | 28.6% | 28.4% | 2.4% | 7.7% |
| Under 19 | 7.0% | 8.8% | 96.0% | 28.9% | 10.6% | 7.3% | 9.2% |
| 20th | 11.3% | 8.3% | 95.0% | 33.0% | 27.5% | 3.0% | 6.1% |
| 30th | 10.7% | 7.1% | 88.9% | 27.3% | 31.6% | 1.3% | 7.4% |
| 40th | 11.5% | 7.3% | 84.7% | 22.9% | 29.2% | 1.7% | 10.8% |
| Above 50 | 26.9% | 13.8% | 80.0% | 23.8% | 34.6% | 0.8% | 9.2% |
| Female | 15.3% | 10.5% | 95.1% | 25.1% | 27.7% | 3.6% | 5.0% |
| Under 19 | 8.8% | 11.2% | 98.7% | 29.1% | 13.1% | 9.5% | 6.8% |
| 20th | 15.5% | 10.0% | 96.7% | 29.0% | 29.5% | 3.4% | 4.0% |
| 30th | 15.6% | 10.3% | 92.4% | 19.4% | 29.3% | 2.0% | 5.8% |
| 40th | 19.4% | 12.1% | 91.4% | 17.5% | 27.6% | 2.7% | 6.7% |
| Above 50 | 31.9% | 20.7% | 85.3% | 17.2% | 35.3% | 7.8% | 7.8% |
Q3) Choose all the people to whom you sent or will send greeting messages via postcard (Multiple choices possible)
<Table 3-1> by gender and age
| Send via postcard | Do not send via postcard | |
| All | 83.4% | 16.6% |
| Male | 77.5% | 22.5% |
| Under 19 | 57.9% | 42.1% |
| 20th | 66.2% | 33.8% |
| 30th | 82.5% | 17.5% |
| 40th | 86.6% | 13.4% |
| Above 50 | 90.3% | 9.7% |
| Female | 85.7% | 14.3% |
| Under 19 | 76.2% | 23.8% |
| 20th | 82.4% | 17.6% |
| 30th | 91.4% | 8.6% |
| 40th | 90.5% | 9.5% |
| Above 50 | 94.1% | 5.9% |
<Table 3-2> by gender and age.
*population parameter: those 19,807 who sent greeting messages via postcard.
| Family Member/s | Relative/s | Friend/s | Boyfriend/Girlfriend | Job-related | Teacher / Student | Other | |
| All | 33.9% | 60.4% | 90.5% | 12.0% | 65.3% | 31.3% | 16.4% |
| Male | 32.4% | 61.3% | 86.0% | 12.4% | 73.8% | 22.5% | 19.6% |
| Under 19 | 10.2% | 30.7% | 81.5% | 18.5% | 10.2% | 39.0% | 10.2% |
| 20th | 25.5% | 43.2% | 79.4% | 18.4% | 65.7% | 22.3% | 14.8% |
| 30th | 38.1% | 64.8% | 87.9% | 11.0% | 78.6% | 21.0% | 19.1% |
| 40th | 32.0% | 75.7% | 89.7% | 7.6% | 82.9% | 22.3% | 26.6% |
| Above 50 | 33.0% | 86.7% | 89.7% | 10.3% | 83.7% | 24.5% | 27.5% |
| Female | 34.4% | 60.1% | 92.1% | 11.9% | 62.2% | 34.4% | 15.2% |
| Under 19 | 6.6% | 39.4% | 89.0% | 13.9% | 12.0% | 44.3% | 10.3% |
| 20th | 29.4% | 51.5% | 90.2% | 15.2% | 61.6% | 30.3% | 11.7% |
| 30th | 46.1% | 70.2% | 94.9% | 8.6% | 70.5% | 36.3% | 18.4% |
| 40th | 36.1% | 79.6% | 93.7% | 6.8% | 72.6% | 41.7% | 23.7% |
| Above 50 | 37.4% | 82.1% | 90.5% | 5.3% | 61.1% | 32.6% | 26.3% |
** Questions and Interviews for this survey**********
INFO PLANT CO.,LTD.
http://www.info-plant.com/ info@info-plant.com
TEL : +81-3-3367-1967, FAX : +81-3-3367-1961
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6) Carrier Trends: Enhanced and Multimedialized Mobile
As described earlier, one of the big features arriving on the Japanese mobile phone scene is the high-resolution screen. Since last year, there has been a significant increase in the number of QVGA-equipped mobiles. The realization of PC-quality screens on phones is expected to inject new vitality into all aspects of the mobile business, including mobile content, commerce, and advertising. Currently, the only operator offering Macromedia Flash-enabled devices is NTT DoCoMo.
Vodafone KK has released Japan's first analog TV tuner-equipped mobile (the V601N by NEC). The phones support a maximum viewing time of 60 minutes. Users can not attach images from TV programs to mobile email, but they are able to capture images and keep them in their phone memory. The television built into the phone is analog and is not linked to the phone's telecommunication functions. However, it does mark an important step forward in the development of multimedia services.
At KDDI, the operator has released the A5503SA (Sanyo), which is equipped with an FM radio tuner. This device phone's telecommunications are linked to the FM radio, and expectations are that content service companies and record companies will find commercial applications for this. One example will be FM radio stations that not only broadcast music but also provide the content of radio program, such as song names. This will enable users to download music being broadcast as ringing tones. Record companies are regarding this as a business opportunity whereby ringing tones can be used to audition or promotion of new songs.
One further innovation is finger print recognition for mobile phones (NTT DoCoMo's F505i by Fujitsu). Currently, this is used as a security feature for the phone address book and email, but is expected to be used in mobile commerce in the future. In addition, the newest 3G phone from NTT DoCoMo (FOMA 900i series) supports TV, HTML, email, Flash, a two-dimensional bar-code reader. It seems almost certain that we will see more and more multimedia functions and applications in the future.
7) Japan Cellular Subscriber Data
Here is the latest Japan cellular subscriber data for your reference.
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