The exhibition room this year was in line with the topics presented and discussed during the days of ad:tech Tokyo. As in previous years there were a range of solutions and products aligned with the need of proactive action that help run digital platforms.

Marketing in the digital world has become an incredible mesh of granular tasks that if not planed and run carefully can become an incredible time consuming venture.

This year we have seen many companies offering tools to help marketers do more in less time with better and more effective solutions that not only automate and schedule tasks, but also bring the data mix to live action.

Today and in Japan we are seeing many marketing automation and tracking tools that can deliver and track ads, deliver social updates, track logical and social responses and deliver ROI all in one stop. Needles to say, the issue of content management now across multi channels appeared to have been taken more seriously than ever with tools that control delivery of content of different nature to many devices while of course providing interaction with multi tracking services.

While the event sessions focused heavily on the present and future of the industry, the exhibitors present at the exhibition room did a very good job at showing solutions that are right for our present and will most definitely help us drive the future discussed.

The day of engagement and gammification

On this 3^rd day of ad:tech Tokyo 2011 we explored customer relationships, story telling and engagement under a playful approach.

Early in the day we learned from Razorfish that we live in a world of change and that Marketing is everything we do to make a product unique. We are dealing with complicated and more granular channels of communication and interaction so, when in doubt we must “do.”

Take-aways from the early morning:

1. Change reality

2. Think like a product developer

3. Come up with big, but different ideas

4. Plan from idea down

5. Promote creative collaboration

6. Have more fun

7. Achieve more satisfaction

8. And more importantly, do something

Later on Microsoft told us not to be so fascinated with technology per se and to think more deeply about how to use technology with purpose. This opened the way for The Financial Times to make a clear demonstration of how to have purpose at the time of being creative and acquire, and more importantly retain, a large base of subscribers.

With HTML 5 and an innovative approach that lowers costs and maximizes value, The Financial Times showed a successful multichannel strategy that while playful is making its business thrive at a time and in a world where people have grown used to read the news for free.

At a local scale we heard from the Nikkei Newspaper with a similar model based on four steps to generate subscriptions and increase page value

1. Gather

2. Organize

3. Deliver

4. Inform

The afternoon took engagement very seriously and focused on how engagement and gammification connect. From very creative examples like Space Balloon by Galaxy to the now rationalized AR developments we learned about how conversion happens as a result of engagement which subsequently occurs as a result of a gammification process.

All things coming together, we then learned about how important it is to tell stories and integrate traditional with social media, promote gammification and collect big results.

Closing the day was the last keynote by Facebook’s Asia Pacific leader Erik Johnson who told us that we leave in a better world because it is connected and that a more connected world will bring upon us a better world. In this world, we have to do three things:

1) Share

2) Connect

3) Create communities

This was a great day and a great ad:tech. We learned immensely about the role of the social media and its relationship with CRM and taking things further today, we learned how engagement amplified by the concept of gammification is now and more than ever accelerating the advertising and digital communication industries.

The day started with the traditional key note in which we learned two important things about local and international trends.

1) Social media is well established in the US while it is a
revolution in Japan

2) Mobile is well established in Japan while it is a
revolution in the US

These two trends set the tone of the day. Tone that was followed by most sessions conducted throughout the day.

We learned from adidas that engagement equals participation and that in today’s world we can’t afford to stop user participation when enough users are involved in a particular brand. We also learned that social engagement doesn’t have to be complicated and while time-demanding, keeping a certain degree of simplicity goes a long way when it comes to driving audiences.

Long content is no longer such the king it used to be, but length depends on context and relevancy. For some companies short videos work, but for companies like Heineken long videos are essential especially when about 9,000,000 people are interested in watching their stories before Heineken hits the TV set with a new commercial.

With a present and future that is about 360 (degree) exposure and 365 (day) frequency and while looking at revolutions and well established platforms depending on where we are, we must also look at how we globalize trends while being local. Part of succeeding in the communication industry in Japan has a lot to do with how we integrate global trends and export our well established practices.

On the particular topic of CRM, data collection and management and its subsequent socialization, we can safely say quite a lot. Data is something we have in Japan and while multichannel communication strategies can look at either communicating from data out or from media in, we are always talking about engaging audiences for the purpose of communicating over a long period of time and of course keeping them engaged (now and more than ever) with each other.

Both local and international social media players are looking at the time beyond this time with innovation that creates a direct connection with data. A connection made based on certain patterns of behaviors that serve the process of architecting information to then later serve the purpose of tracking and catering to refined behaviors.

The 2^nd day of ad:tech Tokyo 2011 has set the stage for a journey that starts with social media, continues across multi channels, entertains by choice (and for as long as a user wants), tracks, crafts and re-crafts behaviors and fine tunes carefully thought refined behaviors to then repeat the process all over again for further refinement. This day 2 at ad:tech Tokyo 2011 has told us a great deal about the maturity of the communication industry in Japan and where as marketers we are going…or should go if we want to make the most out of trends and revolutions.

The overall tone an manner of ad:tech Tokyo 2011 was painted as originally anticipated, with a heavy focus on Social CRM. The afternoon and only session of the day focused heavily on what it takes to involve users and consumers socially and more importantly, how we are involving them in conversations these days.

From playful examples built around the birthday of Kit Kat to the latest social exchange platform soon to be released by Nestle and various examples of engagement and response provided by Co Tweet in the US, we learned how audience engagement functions these days.

The launch and maiden flight of the dreamliner 787 by ANA continued the afternoon bringing an interesting tone to things done and planned with social media from the ground up.

Finally the views of Family Mart, Sony and Starbucks rounded up the day with three important approaches to take away.

Family Mart involved in every possible expression of social media is driving audiences towards product development while creating emotional bonds that translate into foot traffic and sales.

Sony not so much engaging audiences in product development, but product experience tells us that they are able to bring brand and product experiences to the masses that ultimately try and buy their products due to cross-audience engagement by promoting certain standards that are shared and amplified by social participants.

Starbucks thinks of the social media as a core element of engagement amongst staff to create their own connection with their related audiences which consequently results in micro granular boosts of sales depending on what a particular Starbucks person likes.

The first day at ad;tech Tokyo tells us that many social experiences have been standardized with the maturity brought to the market and industry by the big players who have created a commonly denominated way of communicating on their platforms. Big takeaway today: it is all very playful, but still too early to call what good ROI measures and standards should be. For now we have to play and influence audiences, they definitely are driven to specific purposes and while ROI is being influenced by social activity, we have to wait longer to figure out or craft the investment-returning rules marketers will most definitely embrace for granted in a not-so-distant future.

いよいよ10月27日～28日に迫った ad:tech Tokyo。カンファレンスのセッションの他にも Google が

スペシャルブースを出展し、情報発信を行います。

With only a couple of days to go till the start of ad:tech Tokyo 2011, I can't express my excitement in words. It is just going to be fantastic. We will spend almost three days talking about fascinating developments in the communication industry in Japan crafting multiple opinions with participants from all over the world.

One, if not the, most important topic bound to dominate the event is the fantastic growth in all forms of social media in the country with the consolidation of the big international names.

We now know what it takes for people to properly communicate utilizing the social media, but more importantly we are experiencing a revolution that is finally pulling all pieces together in the digital communication field. Search is not dead…it’s socialized. Gaming is not the same gaming…it’s socialized. Video is more than ever socialized and all sorts of content creation…well, they are socialized too. Even buying has been socialized.

Everything we do as we go about life today, and now more than ever, requires constant communication with other people via multi-channels of interaction that carry social content. We are now and without hesitation constantly developing further and deeper social ties at home, work and on the go.

All things considered, it is safe to say that ad:tech Tokyo will scrutinize all and everything happening in the local digital industry with a critical eye that is bound to generate more creative ways to communicate products and services, to make clients and agencies happier and more importantly to impact the growth of the local and perhaps regional economies.

Very looking forward to seeing you at the event this week!

Recently the latest membership figures of Facebook in Japan have been released. As imagined, the social network has continued to gain ground in the country. This increase in membership is a clear sign of maturity in the local social media accompanied by cultural change. The type of change that has made people more comfortable about using their real names when joining social sites.

As ad:tech approaches the topic of social media in Japan per se and its relationship with CRM programs are picking up steam. While immersed in the market it is difficult to notice the particular aspects of the two and how they relate to the local industry. More importantly how they differ and at the same time overlap with international trends. In search of answers I went out and knocked the doors of two international agencies with offices in Japan and spoke with two industry colleagues. Jeff Lippold, Digital Strategy Director with Euro RSCG Japan and Satoko Ozeki, Digital Strategist with Ogilvy One. In my search I was expecting an industry pulse checkup, but was greeted with extreme passion and excitement about what is happening now and what is likely to happen in our local industry.

On my quest I approached my guests with a 1st basic question to start the dialogue. What's the state of the communication industry in Japan in lieu of the latest social growth and developments in the country?

Jeff tells me that we have seen a major shift this year. People are now much more open towards the idea of using their real names when joining social sites and participating in on-line conversations. This has created a major case in favor of Facebook which is now poised to dominate the Japanese market with its long-standing model of networking. He wonders "How many friends in Mixi add others?" The answer is perhaps an easy guess for a platform notorious for promoting interests over individuals.

Satoko shares the excitement by saying that finally the foreign social players have come into play changing the Galapagos reality that has not only characterized the mobile-phone market for many years, but also impacted the local social media and kept it isolated from global trends. In her words "The black boat carrying the media has arrived." and I must say, it is obviously here to say.

My dialogue continued with a 2nd important question. What excites marketers in Japan these days?

Influence. The ability to influence people via social media and to gain traction through the social power appears as a clearly defined trend. Of course this is not new and the same applies to pretty much every market these days. However Jeff tells us that relevancy is amplified in Japan by the power of corporations participating in the social media and that the current status of the space has created opportunities for B2B activities of social nature that in a recent past did not exist. "if you don't have well-known institutions participating in your dialogue, you don't have a share of voice" adds Jeff while I think that his statement in hand with a changing perception in the role of corporations and their regained credibility in recent years is nothing but a key to succeed for marketers in Japan today. I confirm my perception when Jeff adds "if you think about it, podcasts never took off because there was no real participation validated by big names." His closing remark " As business get involved in platforms like Facebook, there's more legitimacy and this is what is going to continue to drive growth in Japan."

Satoko gives a different view in line with the economic reality of Japan. Today, while challenges exist in the global economy, we still retain the 2nd largest buying power in the world mainly powered by demand of luxury goods. This together with the well-established technological platform we enjoy these days means that we don't have to educate consumers to do a particular thing. They already know and in some cases they have already known certain things for a while even though they did not have a particular reason to learn them. All things considered, and added to this reality the fact that we are in a homogeneous society with widely adopted standards in terms of education an behavior, we can market faster and perhaps more effectively than in other markets. In other words, or in her words, "marketing can be planned more effectively with better expected results than in other markets."

Looking ahead I asked a 3rd question. Perhaps one, if not the, main question everyone who has read this far wants to know. What is the immediate future of our industry as seen by you and your agency? Yes, this the typical question many people are likely to ask this time of the year. What happens in Japan in 2012?

A re-rationalization of overall spend that allocates more budgets and activities to the digital side of the communication strategies clients plan or ask the agency to plan for them is something that pops to Jeff's mind. This will likely be followed by the allocation of discretionary budgets to digital. Budgets that in previous years were allocated to other activities.

Satoko expects further growth in the channels of influence and sees more clear chances to influence audiences building upon the maturity acquired by the social media so far. While all platforms, especially the foreign ones will continue to gain ground, there is already a big, diverse audience that can be marketed to. This alone can be characterized as a big trend and is something that will bring more growth and expanded maturity to all digital communication efforts with more carefully thought-out campaigns and better digital/social planning.

My dialogue concluded with one final big question. What's your take on social CRM? Big question with a few takes and possible answers. In a country that has been collecting data for a number of years I was particularly curious to learn the view of the two agencies.

Jeff sees that the whole key to running a successful CRM program in Japan resides on having the right ways to integrate social in it. As we stand now, many CRM programs in Japan are in a nice box, but they need to be socialized. What this means is that people who have given their names and are participating in a CRM program have to be communicated in specific ways that enable them to participate in certain social activities. In other words Jeff says "We should expect a social connection from CRM out to social." This in his view is the first step towards integrating CRM with social media and actually creating social CRM programs.

Social platforms are established and they already carry a CRM capability asserts Satoko and in today's Japan market and especially when it comes to building and/or converting CRM efforts into social engagement, "we must look at the nature of the social platform" she adds. We know what people are doing in certain networks, we can clearly target them, we can figure out what they're talking about and can actually listen to some conversations so, we can therefore target individuals much more effectively and these are individuals that are likely to be interested in giving us their names to participate in a one-to-one engagement mechanism. CRM from her perspective is about creating, developing and converting users with the power of the self-segmentation characteristics the social media already offers.

Fascinating topics that are most definitely going to be part of many physical and social-media conversations in the days ahead prior, during and after ad:tech Tokyo 2011. We should expect the event to help us delve into the views of agencies and participants and deeply explore many views that along the lines of Jeff's and Satoko's are crafting the digital-communication reality of Japan as we speak.

A multichannel strategy these days requires work in line with defining what multi channel means. It is incredibly surprising to see people who just think of a multichannel strategy as a good balanced combination of ABL and BTL often forgetting the possibilities offered by digital channels and just thinking of the later as an after-thought in the strategic thinking.

In today’s world this is not the case anymore and while multi channeling means….well, exactly that, the use of multiple channels to communicate, we are now greatly and more than ever heavily exposed to multi channeling as a merely digital experience across the communication spectrum. In Japan, even traditional media has become digital so, in everything we do we have clear measurement. From digital OOH, to digital TV as well as multiple, if not infinite, ways for individualization across platforms, mobiles devises and applications, we can now reach very narrowed-down individuals who fit a particular characteristic of a group just by understanding their behaviors. This makes the planning process a much more complex and yet simple one when it comes to reaching individuals with a precise approach.

at ad:tech Tokyo we will look into the trends happening in Japan these days while learning from multi-market experiences that are bound to return benefits for every marketer in the Japanese market.