1) Case Study :Using Brand Appeal in an Appli Simulation Game / Higa Industries
2) Industry Report: Music Download Business Drives Content Market: iTunes in Japan
3) Mobile Research:Use of Mobile Email
4) Carrier Trend:"One Seg" Terrestrial Digital Broadcasting on Mobile Phones
5) Japan Cellular Subscriber Data

1)Case Study : Store Simulation i-appli Game Leverages Brand Appeal / Higa Industries

Higa Industries is the company that developed the Domino's Pizza franchise worldwide in over 50 countries. The company, which started its pizza delivery service in Japan, distinguished itself as an industry leader through its understanding of Japan's transportation situation and the use of delivery scooters, building up a significant business. Recently, it has branched out aggressively into internet-based orders and a membership service using mobile email. Now it has teamed up with game content developer and provider G-Mode to offer customers a game called "Hot Out of the Oven! Domino's Pizza."

 

In this store-simulation game, users play the role of Domino's Pizza staff, doing everything from taking orders to making pizzas and delivering them in a series of actions that must be completed within a set time. The game makes use of actual menus and real images to give the game a strong sense of reality. In addition, along with the game's title, the menus, characters and delivery bikes all feature Domino's Pizza logos, reinforcing brand awareness among users in a very natural way. Furthermore, if users hit certain targets, as a bonus they can win actual discount coupons that can be redeemed on their next Domino's pizza order. Advertisements for the game were featured on banner ads.By using as well as in posted fliers and menus. The creatives of the banner ads included the Domino's Pizza logo and animated employee characters, capitalizing on visual elements of the product and brand to appeal to users.

 

Based on the percentage of game coupons that were redeemed during a three-month period through early July, ad conversions surpassed tens of millions of yen. As for future use of mobile, a company spokesman for mobile said that together with developing present 100,000 members, they will be looking to use mobile to increase communication with these users . In addition to providing entertaining content and applications to mobile sites that users can continually enjoy, Domino's has future plans to offer an even fuller user experience featuring information services that utilize location-based searching and more. Through such creative advances, mobile advertising is expected to become increasingly more valuable as a branding tool and will see greater use as time goes on.

2)Industry Report:Music Download Business Drives the Content Market

The Arrival of iTunes Music Store in Japan and the Rapid Growth of the Real Tones Market

 

Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store was launched in Japan in August 2005. Using proprietary iTunes software, users were able to download music at the cost of 150 yen per song. In the four days following the launch of the service, over one million songs were sold. It was a turning point marking the major penetration of music download services in Japan.

 

In one sense, downloadable ring tones and real tones for mobile phones have been forerunners of the on-line music store in Japan. In particular, NTT DoCoMo's "Chaku Motion" and au's "Full Chaku uta" are examples of the first music downloads services delivering full songs. Furthermore, KDDI announced in September 2005 that its cumulative downloads of full "Chaku uta had surpassed 20 million, and according to a survey by the Mobile Content Forum (MCF) the "Chaku uta" market size grew rapidly to 20 billion yen, an increase of 731% over the previous year. This demonstrates the importance of mobile in Japan to the music download business.

3) Mobile Research:Use of Mobile Email

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 the frequency with which i-mode users visit mobile Internet websites.

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Result of 191th Survey August 9 - August 16, 2005
Respondents: 9,379 i-mode users
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The following is a survey conducted to study the download patterns of mobile game users. It was conducted by the Internet-based research service INFO PLANT Co., LTD (Head office: Tokyo, Japan; Masaki OTANI, President). Survey data was collected via the surveys of subscribers to the NTT DoCoMo network, based on valid responses from 9,379 people during a one-week period from August 9 - August 16, 2005. InfoPlant aims to expand the scope of research conducted using mobile phones.
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<Survey Results Overview>
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92.4% of users use mobile phones to send email

92.4% respondents said that the device from which they ordinarily send email is their mobile phones, followed by those who said they sent mail from both PC and mobile equally (4.8%) and 2.8% who sent mail from their PCs. Looked at by gender, more women said they sent mail from their mobile phones (95.4%) than men (85.9%). Looked at by age and gender, young men and women more than other age groups used their mobiles the most to send email. In addition, even among the lowest frequency mobile email users (men in their 40s), the percentage using mobile email was greater than 80% (see Table 1).

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24.6% send and receive mobile email 3 to 5 times per day

The majority of respondents (24.6%) said that they send and receive mobile email 3 to 5 times per day, followed by those who used it 6 to 10 times per day (19.8%), 1 to 2 times per day (13.5%), and 11 to 20 times per day (12.5%). Looked at by gender, there were no great differences between males and females. However, more women than men reported using mobile email over 6 times per day, with nearly half giving that response (females: 49.6%, males: 38.1%). Looked at by age and gender, the frequency of usage was highest among lower age groups, with 38.2% of teen females and 31.2% teen males using mobile email more than 21 times per day (see Table 2.1).

Looked at by profession, students use mobile email more frequently than other groups, with 18.7% using it more than 31 times per day, which was more than 10% higher than the average total.

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22.4% reported receiving 2 to 3 email magazines weekly on their mobile phones from companies

When asked about the number of mobile email magazines received from companies each week, the most frequent answer was 2 to 3 per week (22.4%), followed by 4 to 5 (19.2%), 6 to 10 (18.1%), and more than 21 (14.8%); while 6.7% said they were not registered for any mobile email magazines and did not use mobile email. There were no noticeable differences when looked at by gender or by age and gender. Men in their 40s were more likely than other groups to receive more than 21 per week (20.6%) (see Table 3).

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<Survey Description>
Questions:
1)Ordinarily, which device do you frequently send email from? (Select one)

2) How frequently do you send and receive email from your mobile phone? (Select one)

3) How many times per week do you receive email magazines from companies on your mobile phone? (Select one)
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Survey method: Open Survey, i-mode Tokusuru menu
Survey period: August 9 - August 16(1 week)
Valid responses: 9,379
Rate of valid response by gender: male 31.8%, female 68.2%
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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. It carries beneficial information such as campaign information. For more information, please contact D2 Communications at press@d2c.co.jp
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Q1) Ordinarily, which device do you frequently send email from? (Select one)

<Table1>(By Gender/Age)

 

Q2)How frequently do you send and receive email from your mobile phone? (Select one)

 

<Table 2-1>(By Gender/Age)* Parameters based on 9,371 people who use mobile email.

 

<Table 2-2>(By currently owned handset type)

 

Q3): How many times per week do you receive email magazines from companies on your mobile phone? (Select one)

 

<Table3-1>(By Gender/Age)

 

** Questions and Interviews for this survey**********
INFO PLANT CO., LTD.
Email:info@info-plant.com
TEL :+81-3-3367-1967, FAX :+81-3-3367-1961
**********************************************************

4)Carrier Trend:"One Seg" Terrestrial Digital Broadcasting to Mobile Phones to Begin April 1, 2006

The association for the promotion of digital broadcasting (D-PA) has formally announced that "One Seg," a one segment digital terrestrial broadcasting service, will begin on April 1, 2006. Lately, there has been an increasing interest in the fusion of broadcasting and communications,it would like to be illustrated by the realization of television and mobile phones. In addition, in the mobile marketing sector, there has been increasing attention paid to cross-media campaigns that link a variety of media. One Seg is expected to have significant impact on the mobile marketing business.

 

One Seg is a special service developed in Japan that broadcasts digital terrestrial television in the six-megahertz band by dividing the signal into 13 segments and transmitting video and audio data through a single segment. This approach is ideally suited to television viewing on mobile phones and mobile terminals that demand simple information processing and low energy consumption.

 

One of the special features of digital terrestrial broadcasting is that it can transmit other data in addition to video and audio so that when One Seg delivers content to mobile phones, users can view information broadcast on a split screen. In addition to program information about what is currently on screen, One Seg is expected to be used to display links to websites featuring more details, quiz games for users, ringtone download services, and other services that merge television programming and mobile internet. In this way, One Seg harnesses the power of television as a mass media, the interactivity of the mobile phone and constant portability in ways that should have a significant impact on mobile marketing.

 

At launch, the One Seg service is expected to offer 45 bureaus across Japan with no viewing charges to users. In addition, moving forward, there are plans to consolidate mobile television broadcasting services such as those to mobile phones under the name "One Seg" to raise awareness and boost penetration.

At the same time as the announcement about One-seg digital terrestrial broadcasting, NTT DoCoMo announced the rollout of its FOMA handset P901iTV, which features capability to watch television programming. KDDI also introduced the next-generation W33SA, and Vodafone demonstrated its own trial device.

 

NTT DoCoMo's P901iTV is a FOMA terminal that enables users to watch digital terrestrial One Seg broadcasting on their phones. In addition to video and audio, the devices also can receive data broadcasting, access websites using packet data and get program-related information. They also allow users to watch terrestrial analogue broadcasts. The stereo headsets included in the package contain an antennae function that improves reception when worn. The phones also come loaded with i-Appli that can read from an electronic programming guide (EPG). The phones are also loaded with a FeliCa chip that functions as a mobile wallet. The battery life for the phones is over 2.5 hours when watching One Sag broadcasts and 1.5 hours when watching analogue broadcasts.

Here is the latest Japan cellular subscriber data for your reference.
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