1) Case Study : Nissin Cup Noodles: Building Communication with the Mobile Consumer
2) Industry Report: Mobile Marketing Conference 2006: Spotlight on the Latest Industry Trends
3) Mobile Research: 58.4% use mobile coupons and discounts more than once per month
4) Carrier Trend: DoCoMo iD and JR East Suica: e-cash and Infrastructure Mobile Subscribers
5) Japan Cellular Subscriber Data

The main aim of the new Nissin Freedom advertisement series launched in April of this year has been to create a very active image targeted to reach younger generations. TV commercials behind the campaign managed to broaden the appeal of Cup Noodles by bringing together a leading team of innovative creators including industry-leader Katsuohiro Ohtomo and a number of others in a unique collaboration that gave the campaign a totally new angle.

It has been some 35 years since Nissin Foods introduced the first cup noodle in 1971, which are now sold in approximately 80 countries with cumulative sales of 25 billion units. According to Mr. Shirasawa of Nissin Foods' PR Department, one goal of the new Freedom ad campaign is to show how cup noodles, which have brought about a worldwide revolution in food culture, stand as a symbol of freedom.

The new ad campaign will include not only TV commercials and a PC Web component but will for the very first time also include a mobile and transportation ad segment. By utilizing a variety of different media and establishing multiple points of contact, the campaign aims to build strong communication with the consumer.

The TV commercials will air from May through July. In order to celebrate the 35th anniversary of cup noodles in September, Nissin will launch an official site that will offer the first episode in this series of ads free of charge to users. Afterwards, Nissin plans to retail a special DVD featuring all six episodes of the story.

The mobile site, which was launched in early April at the same time as the transportation advertising campaign, features the latest information about the promotion, the plot of the Cup Noodle story and an archive of other digital content such as wallpapers and screensavers.

This site is also run in parallel with a PC internet site. In addition, the site uses mobile Flash on the latest NTT DoCoMo and au high-end handsets to display an even more dynamic and creative appearance, thus conveying the innovative style of the Freedom campaign.

Within the context of this large ad campaign, the mobile site performs a valuable role in bringing together the stories told in the TV commercials.

This places the mobile site in the key position to merge the image of freedom and the Cup Noodle product. The campaign also makes innovative use of the 2d barcode placed on the underside of the Cup Noodle lid, enabling users with compatible phones to link quickly to the mobile site.

Amid the variety of media currently in use, mobile is particularly effective way to bring consumers into closer contact with products. According to a company spokesman, while TV commercials will in the future continue to remain at the center of advertising campaigns, mobile will be used with increasing effect to realize closer communication with the consumers.

On June 20 of this year, the third annual Mobile Marketing Conference was held at the Tokyo Prince Hotel. It was organized by the Mobile Marketing Solutions Committee of the Mobile Contents Forum. Over 1,400 people visited the event, which consisted of a main seminar, exhibition booths and a number of mini-seminars, all serving to showcase the latest trends in Japan's cutting-edge mobile marketing industry. The main seminar was titled Innovative Strategies in the Mobile Business and featured NTT DoCoMo's Director of Multi-media Services Natsuno, President and CEO of Rakuten Mikitani, and President and CEO of the Culture Convenience Club Masuda. It was moderated by Editor-in-Chief Tanaka of Senden Kaigi magazine. Natsuno, speaking of DoCoMo's new credit platform iD, which was launched this spring, emphasized the importance of promoting these shopping tools directly to consumers. Masuda spoke about the realization of true "click and mortar" commerce, referring to the fact that 70% of the Tsutaya on-line members (872,000 since its launch in 1999) are mobile members. Meanwhile, Mikitani of Rakuten Ichiba reported that mobile sales had risen 159% over 2005 with mobile sales for shops selling furniture comprising 40% of their sales. Expectations are that these trends will continue, especially with the introduction in February of a free catalog that also integrates mobile, called Rakuten Magazine. He also commented on the fact that mobile usage times had far exceeded initial expectations of just "commuting" times, with users using their mobiles after 11p.m. at home and in parallel with watching TV or using their PCs.

In the next seminar, titled New Communication Strategies and the Role of Mobile, Calpis Advertising Department Manager Yasuda spoke about the increasing diffusion of media choices among the population. He explained the concept of maintaining a mobile site, commenting that, "It is important to aim for AISAS, even when selling at a low frequency." Next were remarks made by Mr. Ohshiba of Jam Japan Marketing LLC, who spoke about the state of marketing in the United States. With the broad diffusion of consumer-generated media, such as blogs and SMS, word of mouth has become increasingly important with viral marketing playing a key role in driving sales. According to Ohshiba, "In the future, we will see increasing development of spontaneous media like mobile in the peer-to-peer space." Last, D2C Communications President and CEO Fujita spoke about the importance of "maintaining PC and mobile sites as a bi-directional hub to manage contact with customers." This year's Mobile Marketing Conference focused on implementation trends around mobile wallets and credit services at each company. Visitors were also intensely interested in the demonstrations being held at the display booths of NTT DoCoMo with its DCMX and Mitsui Sumitomo Financial Groups' iD credit service.

Each company spoke about its strategy in the session titled Mobile Wallets: The Customer Relationship Revolution. This featured Director of the NTT DoCoMo's Multi-media Service Alliance Promotion Division Hirano as Moderator, and featured as speakers Rex Holdings' Managing Director Yoshiaki Fukui, Mitusui Sumitomo Card's Board Member Sawamura and Family Mart's Managing Director Ohno. Fukui of Rex, which operates am/pm, talked about usage trends of Edy, commenting that it offered great convenience in efficient transactions and expressed hope for its increased penetration among consumers. Meanwhile, Family Mart's Ohno remarked, "Up until now, we've seen different e-cash services in specific areas, but have now selected iD as an e-cash service that we can introduce nationwide," affirming Family Mart's specific commitment to deploy the iD system. Finally, Mitsui Sumitomo Card's Sawamura commented, "The mobile phone is already an intimate feature of daily life and could become the first credit card for many users." In the end, each company voiced expectations of emerging standardization of devices and the adoption of methods to acquire more customer information.

In the brief six year period since the launch of i-Mode, we have seen the mobile phone become an essential part of the infrastructure in our daily life. Between this year and next, we will see the introduction of several new technologies that will further mark changes to this infrastructure, including one-seg, GPS, and the emergence of new mobile operators. All in all, the event left all participants with a strong sense of the rapidly changing environment and the fast pace of development in mobile marketing.

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Result of Survey : March 7 - March 14, 2006 (1 week)
Respondents 6,846 i-mode users
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The following is a survey conducted on mobile coupon usage in Japan. It was conducted by the Internet-based DTR (Desktop Research) service INFO PLANT Co., LTD (Head office: Nakano-ku, Tokyo, Japan; Masaki OTANI, President, http://www.info-plant.com). Data was collected via a nationwide survey of mobile phone users from the Toku-suru menu on NTT DoCoMo i-mode, and based on valid responses from 6,846 users during a one-week period between March 7 - March 14, 2006. InfoPlant is dedicated to the expansion of research using mobile phones.

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<Survey Results Overview>
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58.4% Using mobile coupons and discounts more than once per month

According to the survey results, the majority of respondents reported using mobile coupons or discounts 2-3 times per month (26.9%), followed by approximately 1 time per month (25.4%)、1 time every 2-3 months (20.5%). In addition, 58.4% reported using them an average of about once per month, including some who used them more than once per week. Looked at by gender, females were more likely than males to use mobile coupons more than once per month (males、females【See Table 1】

Main methods of accessing mobile coupons and discounts are via leaflets and direct mail (63.3%), free papers (55%), and the mobile the mobile Internet (47.3%)

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The most popular method of accessing mobile coupons and discounts was via leaflets and direct mail (63.3%), followed by free papers (55.0%), the mobile Internet (47.3%), and shops (45.7%). Looked at by gender, males were most likely to find them via the mobile Internet (47.0%), followed by shops (43.2%), free papers (42.7%), while women were more likely to find them in free papers (61.0%), followed by the mobile Internet (47.5%).

Looked at by age and gender, the majority of males and females in the 20s secured mobile coupons via free papers, while males in their 50s were most likely to find them in shops. Most users in other age groups tended to learn about mobile coupons via leaflets and direct mail. The majority of users who favored magazines and the mobile Internet were mostly in lower age groups.【See Table 2】

Mobile coupons are used in eating/drinking establishments (78.7%), fast food (68.7%), and movie theaters (51.0%)

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In terms of where people make use of mobile coupons, the most popular place was eating/drinking establishments (78.7%), followed by fast food (68.7%), movie theaters (51.0%)、and CD/Video rental shops (50.0%). Looked at by gender, both males and females used mobile coupons most in eating/drinking establishments (males、females、females、females、females、females、clothing shops (males、females【See Table 3】

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Survey Overview

Questions

1). How often do you usually use mobile coupons or discounts? (choose one answer)

2). From which of the following places have you gotten the mobile coupons that you have used? (multiple answers possible)

3). When you use mobile coupons, in which of the following places do you use them? (multiple answers possible)

Survey Method: Open Survey via Toku suru menu on i-mode Portal
Target Audience: i-mode Users Nationwide
Survey Period: March 7 - March 14, 2006 (1week)
Valid Reponses: (Male:33.5, Female: 66.5)

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Q1) How often do you usually use mobile coupons or discounts? (choose one answer)

<Table 1> = By gender/age =

Q2) From which of the following places have you gotten the mobile coupons that you used? (select multiple)

<Table 2> By gender and age
*Population Parameter: 6,622 people who have used mobile coupons

Q3) When you use mobile coupons, in which of the following places do you use them? (multiple answers possible)
<Table 3> By gender and age

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About the Survey Sites
i-mode sites: Tokusuru Menu
Access method: i-menu top page -> Tokusuru Menu
For more information, please contact D2C Communications at press@d2c.co.jp
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On July 27, JR East and NTT DoCoMo announced the establishment of a limited liability partnership to operate a joint infrastructure that utilizes a multi-transactional service combining Suica e-cash and the mobile credit system known as iD used in DoCoMo's mobile wallet phone. Plans are for each party to invest approximately 200 million yen sometime in October of this year and to manage and operate a joint operations center, which will begin operation in January 2007. Those shops that introduce this multiple-transaction service will, by using this common infrastructure, reap the benefits of reduced set-up space and lower terminal costs. At present, there are some 7.8 million Suica pre-paid e-cash cards in use (source: JR East Statistics, June 2005). Meanwhile, the post-pay micro-payment service known as iD was launched in December 2005 with plans for deployment of some 300,000 readers and writers. In the e-cash sector, Edy and Suica are market leaders. However, next Spring, 7-11 and i-Holdings plan to launch a new independent brand known as nanaco. 7-11 and Ito Yokado shops boast some 40,000 readers and writers combined.

With a variety of e-cash standards cropping up, the development of this common infrastructure by JR and NTT marks a strategic move in the upcoming battle for the growing e-cash user population.

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