Mobile coupons are mainstream in Japan

Using mobile coupons to get a discount is a common thing in Japan and a recent user survey by Update/MMD just confirms that. Out of 4,453 survey respondents 71.6% said that they are subscribed to receive flyers with discounts from a particular business. Among those, 43.5% get coupons from 2-4 businesses. The most popular category of businesses distributing mobile coupons is the fast food chains followed with pubs/restaurants/cafes and CD/DVD rental shops. The top three popular shops among respondents turned out to be as follows:

1. McDonald's (78.3%)
2. TSUTAYA (Japan's Blockbuster) (44.5%)
3. KFC (29.3%)

Source: MMD via Keitai Watch

KDDI au signs up one million fitness fans

In penetrated markets you need to dig deeper past the usual gender and age demographics to uncover untapped user segments. The proven method is to utilize a lifestyle marketing catering to different user needs. The first thing that would come into mind is probably sport and fitness lifestyle. And KDDI au recent endevour with au Smart Sports service shows that it works - the carrier has just announced one millionth subscriber. The au Smart Sports service offers two options Run & Walk and Karada Manager (Body Manager). With Run & Walk compatible phones you can set various modes like running or cycling mode and track and upload the data onto the web. Karada Manager offers means to set your personal health goals and provides advices on achieving them. KDDI au also partnerd with Adidas to provide branded phone pouches for au Sport Smarts users.

Source: KDDI au press release

Mobile marketing primer: coupon service Toruca in baseball promo

Local baseball team Seibu Lions claims to be the first in Japan to implement a mobile content distribution system to please their fans. The system is using NTT DoCoMo's Toruca service, which allows Seibu's fans to get players' pics, their profiles and team schedule onto the phones via NFC terminal installed at the fans booth in the stadium. All they need to do is just to wave their Toruca-compatible phones in front of the reader and the data will be pushed wirelessly to them.

Source: Seibu Lions

Japanese are quick to feature Obama's dog in mobile game

Japanese game maker Hudson Soft quickly reacted to the news about Obama's dog by releasing a free Flash game for DoCoMo's FOMA handsets featuring Obama himself and his pet cheering up the player to finish the game successfully. The White House is yet to issue an official statement in regard to this matter.

Source: Hudson Soft via Keitai Watch

Mobile marketing: showcasing clothing collections on 3D avatars

Japan’s Any, a PC/mobile social network focused mostly on women, is offering fashion brands an innovative way to promote their clothing collections. The idea is to send Any’s users virtual gifts like fashion outfits. The reason why this idea maybe brilliant is that Any’s users are 3D avatars who resemble the looks of their owners (a user sends her picture and Any creates an avatar based on that picture). The sent clothing pieces can be tried on by avatars giving their owners an ability to look in a three-dimensional view how the new collection would fit them. With more than 300 thousand women onboard Any is in a sweet spot to strike advertising deals with fashion houses aiming at brand-hungry Japanese female buyers.

Source: PlusD IT Media

Related mobile marketing articles:

• Japan mobile ad spending up 59.2% in 2007
• AdMob eyes Japan’s mobile advertising market
• Mobile advertising in Japan: $236m spent in 2005

Japan mobile ad spending up 59.2% in 2007

Dentsu has revealed its annual report on Japan’s advertising spending in 2007. Overall, the industry grew up 1.1% from last year to record 7,019 billion yen (roughly $65 billion).

Internet segment showed healthy growth dynamics at 24.4% up when compared with the previous year. In 2007, Japanese advertisers allocated approximately $5.5 billion on online advertising campaigns, which accounted for around 8.5% of country’s total advertising expenditure. Internet now is more popular with marketers than magazines in Japan. The expansion of Internet segment was spurred with mobile screens attracting increasing amounts of advertising dollars. The mobile ad spending claimed more than 10% or $574 million of online advertising budgets, growing at 59.2% year over year. The mobile advertising spending more than doubled from 2005 when we first reported about it.

Dentsu also provides a breakdown of mobile advertising total number by reporting that more than $78 million or 13.7% of it was allocated on search-based advertising.

While the mobile ad spending is increasing with every year, it just accounts for nearly 1% of total marketing budget, promising a huge growth potential.

Source: Dentsu

Related mobile marketing articles:

• Mobile marketing: showcasing clothing collections on 3D avatars
• AdMob eyes Japan’s mobile advertising market
• Mobile advertising in Japan: $236m spent in 2005