Social Media in Japan in 2021
A look at the most popular social media apps in Japan in 2021 - user numbers, usage trends and more.
Whether you’re trying to market your business to Japanese consumers, make Japanese friends, or keep in touch with a Japanese person you met on a trip or on an exchange, being in the same “communication space” is very important.
You can download this “Social Media in Japan in 2021” deck
I put together for free.
It covers:
Media consumption trends by Japanese people
The shift of attention in Japan
Activities done in mobile devices
A breakdown of the most popular social media apps in Japan
If this looks interesting to you, download the full deck here:
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Clubhouse - My First 48 Hours With the Audio Social Network
The latest social network to buzz, this one is different - it’s audio only.
Clubhouse is the latest social audio network to take off, starting in 2020 and reaching Japan in January 2021
It is designed to replicate real life events and social interactions
It’s growing from Millennial and Gen-X thought leaders
Clubhouse is one of the most recent social apps to take off. Unlike the other major networks, this one is different - it’s audio only.
I’ll talk about what the app is, how to use it, how it’s growing, monetization, and my thoughts on it.
What is Clubhouse?
Clubhouse is a social audio app that is designed to mimic offline events and social interactions.
Think of going to an expo around your interests. There are probably multiple rooms and booths, speakers giving keynotes, discussion panels you can listen to, Q&A sessions, and random run-ins with acquaintances as well as new introductions. You can stop and listen to them, participate, or move along to the next thing.
The app’s design, which I’ll show below, is made to replicate this experience.
Even when a new user joins, any acquaintance they may have that is already on Clubhouse is pinged to welcome them. The co-founders also host weekly talk sessions to welcome new users.
People have been using Clubhouse for just under a year, with the earliest users being allowed on between spring and summer 2020. It began gaining more users towards the end of the year, and started being all the buzz in Japan in late January 2021.
Availability
At the moment, it’s similar to early Facebook in terms of exclusivity. Think 2004-2005 when you needed an email address from specific universities in order to create an account.
Joining is through invitation only so the platform is entirely community-driven at the moment. People receive 2 invites to give out initially and then gain more as time goes on.
It’s also mobile-only and only available on iPhone. Android is aimed to launch in 3-6 months, and they’re building out their development team now, according to co-founder Paul Davison.
Priorities
Clubhouse has 4 general priorities:
Performance - To ensure a good user experience. This is why they’re carefully scaling rather than immediately opening it up to everyone.
Support - To maximize the in-room experience, they want to provide creators and moderators the tools they need
Safety - Clubhouse has a one-strike policy when it comes to misconduct and will ban anyone who breaks etiquette. They feel diversity is the best thing about the platform, and encourage a variety of people to come together to express their opinions and have thoughtful, difficult discussions. They prioritize maintaining that.
Discovery - To help people find the conversations that best suits them, they plan to work on algorithms and optimize feeds.
How do you use Clubhouse?
There are 2 main screens to focus on: The Home feed and the Room.
The Home feed
Home feed
This is a feed of rooms tailored to you. Think of it as a personalized schedule of what’s happening at the expo. This feed is tailored based on the people and “Clubs” (communities, groups) you follow.
Above are a few icons. From left to right: Search (to find people and clubs), Invites (to invite new users), Calendar (a list of upcoming events that are outside of what you follow but may be interested in), notifications, and your account profile.
At the bottom lies the option to start your own room. You can make it “Open” for anyone, “Social” for people you follow or find interesting, or “Closed” and private.
When you create a room, mutual followers will get pinged.
Room
Room
This is the actual event. You’d think it’s intimidating to join because it’s like entering a phone call, but it’s not.
You are automatically muted when you enter, and there are no notifications that go off. You can tap the hand icon to raise your hand for a chance to speak if you want to, hit the “+” button to ping friends about the room, and leave quietly whenever you want. Ghosting is actually encouraged by Clubhouse.
The design of the room is also meant to mimic real life.
The Room is divided into 3 sections.
The Stage (or Speakerbox) - The room creator, moderators, and speakers
People followed by the speakers - Think of them as VIP guests in the front-row
Others in the room - The general audience, where you’ll be in most cases
Growth & Usage
People may think a social platform’s growth is initially driven by the young. While it’s common, Clubhouse is more akin to Twitter, which had a lot of Silicon Valley and tech Millennials and Gen-Xers onboard first. Clubhouse’s early users are of a similar makeup.
This is important for a few reasons.
Clubhouse is extremely reliant on people’s ability to provide users value through audio only. Users need to want to listen to dialogs in order to decide to spend time on the platform and invite their peers. There’s no visual space to show amazing photos or captivating b-roll transitions. Having enough to say in a way that provides value to listeners comes from experience and education.
Rooms need to be moderated by actual people, not algorithms, to maintain a quality user experience. This also comes with experience and practice.
Younger people are more willing to listen to older people or others of a similar age that they can learn from rather than the other way around. This is seen in offline keynotes and speeches as well.
Clubhouse will likely grow beyond these primary, informative and engaging talk sessions, but growing this way allows the platform to establish their core culture and scale better.
Trends
Peak usage is said to be between 4PM and midnight, but the platform’s cofounders are aware that things may change as the Covid situation changes.
Some thought leaders and companies have created Clubs, where members or staff will host scheduled events. This helps build their brand and grow awareness, just like online livestreams.
Clubs are created to host conversations and grow a community, or just to communicate within an organization. To start one, you have to request it manually by emailing Clubhouse support.
This again highlights how companies need to reassess the talent of their staff, and make sure they can help the company maneuver in the increasingly interactive, digital-social environment that our guides our society today.
“PTR”
Clubhouse only has one visual - your profile pic. Because of this limitation, people who want to quickly show a photo will temporarily use it as their profile pic and tell listeners to “PTR”, or “pull to refresh”, before changing it back.
Clear Profiles
Because of only having an icon and first name shown when in a room, it’s best to use a clear face photo of yourself and real name (which they ask for). Almost all users do this. Wearing a mask to an expo with a nickname on your name tag may be seen as poor etiquette, so you shouldn’t here either.
Profiles should be written simply, and due to a lack of messaging capabilities, you should link your Twitter and Instagram accounts to your profile, capabilities provided by Clubhouse.
Monetization
Right now there is no monetization but Clubhouse plans to build out a monetization platform.
They’ve stressed that they only want to make money from creators who are making money, and they don’t want to interrupt the user experience with invasive ads.
While Clubhouse is still working things out, they will likely start with the ability for people to tip creators. After that, they may introduce other monetization methods such as membership dues or tickets to events or private sessions, etc.
Personal Take
My Clubhouse profile: barrettish
Clubhouse has a lot of potential, it’s already buzzing and not many people are yet aware of it. The trajectory of growth may likely be affected by changes related to Covid, but it’ll be around as a dominant platform in social audio communication.
Twitter also is testing their Spaces, an add on function that looks to have similar capabilities - the ability for people to gather in rooms and talk. We’ll see what happens with that, however, it’s important to understand that having the same functionality doesn’t mean the same user experience. Instagram copied TikTok with Reels, but the algorithm, user emotions and experience are different.
I myself am more of a visual person - I take photos, make YouTube videos, learn by watching more than reading. Because of this, Clubhouse won’t become my go-to platform. However, I’d definitely tune in if there’s value being provided to me there.
While the lack of visuals may not be my personal preference, it works well for many and I am enjoying the app. If anything, it lowers the hurdles immensely to create content, host discussions, provide value, and even participate.
No camera. Lower hurdles. Frictionless experience. They're huge.
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Instagram in Japan in 2020
All about Instagram use in Japan in 2020. Information from the House of Instagram Japan online event held by Facebook Japan.
House of Instagram Japan was held in online on November 26, 2020
Instagram has over 33 million monthly active users in Japan
Users in Japan in particular use Instagram for search
Instagram remains one of the most significant social networks in the world and continues to be huge in Japan.
On November 26, 2020, Facebook Japan held their House of Instagram Japan, or インスタハウス in Japanese, online seminar event, going over the latest usage statistics and behaviors on the platform.
Globally, Instagram has 1 billion monthly active users, now 10 years after it first launched. It’s been a pretty big part of my daily life since I signed up in May 2011.
Anyways, here are some interesting facts about Instagram in Japan.
The Japan market
The Japanese market is said to have more than 33 million monthly active users. This number hasn’t been updated in a while as this was the same number announced last year at Instagram Day Tokyo 2019, so we can only speculate as to why.
Japan is an important and unique market for Instagram, Facebook Japan CEO Masahiro Amizawa said. In fact, Japan holds their only development team outside of the United States.
Instagram users in Japan have a high rate of searching via hashtags, says the Facebook Japan CEO.
In addition to browsing and discovery, users in Japan use Instagram for search purposes more than users in other markets. Compared to the global Instagram user average, users in Japan search via hashtags 5X more.
This makes Japanese hashtag strategy very important for brands.
Instagram users in Japan have a high rate of seeking shopping information
Another point of difference in Japanese usage is that Instagram users in Japan seek shopping information more.
Utilizing functions such as Instagram’s shopping tags, users in Japan are 3X more likely to look at product details compared to users in other countries.
Not utilizing shopping tags or having them link to a non-Japanese eCommerce site is a wasted opportunity.
Maintaining organic posts is important to provide further information
It’s also worth noting that advertising to Japan from a global account isn’t enough. 42% of users who become interested in a brand will visit the brand’s profile in search of more information.
I’ve seen many international brands in particular advertise in Japanese but from a single, global account, with all the posts written in a foreign language.
The truth is that English capability in Japan is notoriously low, and the type of social media content that they like is often very different. This potentially cuts off the interest cultivation in the Japanese user.
Japan-first Developments
Three functions that began in Japan were highlighted, developed due to behavior in the market.
Instagram’s account QR code
Account QR codes
This has been around for quite some time now, but it allows users to quickly connect to other people and businesses. Japanese were used to scanning QR codes from before, and you’ll likely see them around if you’re in the country.
Instagram’s event tagging
Event tagging in in-feed posts
It looks similar to shopping tags where you tap a post and information comes up. In addition to products, event information can also be tagged inside of in-feed posts. This let users set reminders to be notified 15 minutes before its start.
It was tied to high usage of the Instagram Live function after COVID-19/Coronavirus began to spread.
Instagram’s seasonal topics
Seasonal topics
A list of 10 hashtags around topics beginning to trend are curated. This is due to Japanese users’ searches by hashtags being 5X the global average, their cultural affinity for the seasons and trends that occur in them, and their strong desire to know what’s currently happening.
If you need help with Instagram or Instagram in Japan, send me an email and I’ll see if I can be of help!
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Social Media Marketing Lessons From Presidential Campaigns
A Presidential candidate's social media campaigns can provide good lessons for people looking to promote their business or themselves on social media.
2020 - It’s a Presidential election year in the US. While the Coronavirus has undoubtably caused some changes in the way candidates have run, for a brand advertiser or marketer, I believe there’s a lot to learn from the way they conduct themselves on social media.
Why are a presidential candidate’s social media campaigns good to study?
Because they need to build massive awareness
They need to bring people through the funnel so they convert - aka vote for them
They have a limited time frame
They are directly battling a competitor
That’s pretty similar to most businesses.
It wasn’t really until Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign that a candidate actually tried to connect and communicate with younger voters. Until then, it was all about TV and other traditional forms of advertising. Maybe a website at best.
Fast forward to 2020 and the battleground is very different. Social media and modern communication channels have come to play a huge role. So…
How do politicians utilize social media to promote themselves, and what can we learn from them?
You’ll see there are two large, overarching themes: They’re fast and they’re detailed.
This post isn’t meant to be about the actual politics or a debate about the effects of a two-party system or Electoral College. In this case, I took a look at Joe Biden since he’s the competitor.
1. They dive into who they are and what they’re about.
These Joe Biden ads reveal different sides of him and appeal to different interests - faith, military families, auto industry jobs.
People like brands for different reasons, whether it’s a corporate one or personal one.
These Joe Biden ads showcase different sides of him, what he’s for and against, and what he’s done. They are then run against target audiences that have a high chance of having the same interests, beliefs and concerns.
There is no one message that fits all. These ads reflect that and take advantage of social media’s ability to craft multiple ads for multiple, detailed targets.
2. They’re contextualized to the audience
These Joe Biden ads are contextual to the target audience’s location - Florida, Georgia and Michigan.
These ads may look the same at first glance, but they’re actually speaking to people of different states.
Because we can target ads by location (even more specific than entire states), we can “speak” in more specific terms.
There’s a better chance that someone in Michigan will feel that the ad is for them if it’s addressing Michigan specifically, rather than the entire US.
Even though people live in the same location, however, they may be of different backgrounds and cultures, and may speak a different language altogether.
These Joe Biden ads are contextualized to the target audience’s culture and language.
The US may be thought of as an English-speaking country, but around 41 million Americans speak Spanish at home (~13% of the population) and 58 million are native speakers. This means that getting their vote is very important, so Joe Biden and other politicians will run Spanish-language ads that feature people that resonate with the target.
Things get even more diverse when looking at what the most spoken language is in each state after English and Spanish:
The most popular language spoken in each US state after English and Spanish.
Some candidates will even run ads to these targets as well. Bernie Sanders apparently did so in Korean.
3. They aggressively A/B test
These Joe Biden ads show an A/B test of copy
One benefit that social media ads allow for is the ability to A/B test. Aggressively.
Most of us are used to gathering our marketing teams and coming up with one or two creatives that we think are on-brand and have a high chance of being effective. This had to be done when running a print or TV ad.
The problem is it’s a completely subjective opinion of a handful of people at best.
Advertising on social media technically allows us to test as many creatives as we want, as much copy as we want, to as many people as we want, for as long as we want.
The Joe Biden ads above are testing various ad copy against the same creative. The ads below are testing both different ad copy and ad creatives along a similar message.
These Joe Biden ads show an A/B test of copy and creative
Another thing noticeable when looking through the ad campaigns is how fast they happen.
The ads aren’t just run for 30 days and then reviewed at a performance meeting. Multiple ad campaigns are launched every day, then adjusted or stopped after a couple of days. The speed is incredible.
Speaking of speed, this applies to organic social media as well.
4. They’re relevant to the current conversation
Pitch in $5 to help this campaign fly. https://t.co/CqHAId0j8t pic.twitter.com/NbkPl0a8HV
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 8, 2020
October 8th was the Vice Presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris. A fly happened to land on Mike Pence’s head for a couple minutes, and it quickly became the trending conversation online.
Almost instantly, Joe Biden’s Twitter account tweeted a picture of him holding a fly swatter with a call to action using copy that creatively plays on the word “fly”.
That tweet earned him over 216k retweets, 57k quoted retweets, and more than 910k likes.
Then, within 41 minutes, the Joe Biden team tweeted this fly swatter centric graphic, leading users to an eCommerce shop page selling these branded fly swatters to raise money.
Swats away flies and lies. Get yours today: https://t.co/ehsECKfDPO pic.twitter.com/oVLHHmq85c
— Team Joe (Text JOE to 30330) (@TeamJoe) October 8, 2020
This attention to realtime online conversations and the speed to react, plan and put something out immediately is incredible. It goes to show we’re past the generation of careful planning and week-long designing.
5. They’re authentic
It’s good to remind the audience that you’re just a part of the community. It humanizes and it increases believability.
In this case, Joe Biden rides the #NationalDessertDay topic, and shares some of the desserts he’s enjoyed while campaigning.
The fact is, people don’t only want to hear about your company, what you’re selling and your promotions. With social media putting both people and businesses in similar-looking profiles that share content into the same feeds, businesses need to be a part of the conversation.
6. They build audiences in other channels
These Joe Biden ads aim to collect leads
One issue many marketing on social media have is that they don’t connect it to any other channel. Even within social media, they’ll rely on one main channel.
Being reliant on one channel is a big risk.
Here, Joe Biden’s ads are asking people to join other channels. In this case, probably SMS (text message) and email. This allows for communication to happen in other channels, as well as for them to keep a connection should that person change or delete an account, or the channel loses popularity altogether.
It’s worth noting that in the middle ad, they are asking users to complete a short survey.
Many companies like to present an image that they know what they’re doing, but directly asking the target audience helps gain insights and shows that you care about how they feel. Also, being that it’s only 2 questions, it immediately tells users it’s short, therefore lowering the participation barrier.
7. They utilize influencers
These Joe Biden ads use influencers to speak on his behalf, in this case, Star Trek actors.
Influencer marketing is, at its core, word of mouth. It’s getting someone recognizable that has a following to say something good about your business or product.
In this case, Joe Biden uses video speeches posted by Star Trek actors and turns them into ads. We can assume that these ads were run against Star Trek fans.
8. They go where the target wants to be
Back in President Obama’s first Presidential run in 2008, the idea of going where the target wants to be came into play. It was social media.
In 2020, if a candidate or consumer-facing business doesn’t purposefully do social media, they’re probably losing relevance and giving competitors a chance to steal their fans.
eSports and gaming continues to become a huge pillar in entertainment today. This means attention lives here, which means a chance to connect with people.
This isn’t what Joe Biden did, but US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, also known as AOC, collaborated with streamers Pokimane, HasanAbi, and several others on October 20th to livestream her playing a game on Twitch.
Anyone want to play Among Us with me on Twitch to get out the vote? (I’ve never played but it looks like a lot of fun)
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 19, 2020
You can watch highlights here, but the stream peaked at 435k viewers and became one of the biggest streams ever.
AOC, a digital native, probably should be analyzed in a separate post due to her prolific usage of social media that earns her higher engagement rates than any other major US politician. Her testing of Twitch though, is a look at how businesses should go where the people pay attention and actually want to be.
In conclusion, whether it’s a business or a personal brand, connecting with and building a relationship with the end user is key. That often happens by going where they are and being relevant at all times.
Analyzing how political candidates do it is a good way to learn.
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How Coffee and Cafe Brands are Marketing in Japan
Japanese consumers and coffee, as well as an analysis of a few popular coffee and cafe businesses in Japan to see how they’re marketing and building their brands.
Coffee and cafes play a big part in many people’s lives in Japan, and it’s been that way for a long time. In fact, it was Japan’s kissaten coffee culture that inspired Blue Bottle Coffee founder James Freeman.
Looking around Japan, like many other countries, there seems to be a lot of coffee shops popping up. The truth is however, that the number has actually been decreasing over the past decade according to the Japanese government’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
Despite this and other changes in the market over the past several years, Japanese consumers are spending more on coffee than ever.
Average annual spend on coffee per person in Japan
This is led by the under-30 year old demographic.
Prices at chains such as Starbucks and Ueshima have gone up, but that’s not the only reason for the increase in spending.
The majority of coffee, 6.54 cups per week, is actually not consumed at these chains but rather in the home.
Even though the number of coffee shops have decreased and consumers in Japan are spending more than ever, there is another battleground that wasn’t as big before: The digital space.
Coffee is a commodity, which means branding and marketing are more important than ever.
Yes, the beans, the drinks, the locations, the prices, online availability - these all matter and contribute to the success of a coffee or cafe business.
If we take a look at the coffee and cafe-related brands growing and succeeding, they have the same thing in common: Purposeful branding and marketing.
This goes beyond having a cool name and running Facebook Ads.
It’s a mix of tactical implementations that help build a relationship with potential customers and gain their trust - something of utmost importance when it comes to selling anything to Japanese consumers.
Together with my colleague Takumi Kishimoto, we compiled a brief that takes a look at the latest information around coffee and cafes in the Japan market, and then dove into what a few successful ones are doing marketing-wise to help them grow.
If you or someone you know is looking to grow their coffee or tea brand, cafe, restaurant or eatery in Japan, this might be interesting.
You can find the download link on our agency post here, or feel free to contact me and I can send it over to you.
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Creating Brand Value for Social Commerce
Commerce and communication have merged as social networks become direct eCommerce channels. Here’s how businesses should think about social media now.
As e-commerce plays an increasing role in how people make purchases, communication in the digital space becomes ever more paramount. Research shows that once someone experiences buying a packaged good online, they’ll continue doing so.
Here in Japan, 31.6% of consumers said they increased e-commerce use between March and May 2020, and 55.6% feel that they will continue doing so going forward.
As direct-to-consumer brands become the standard for shoppers, businesses face the urgent need to fine-tune the communications that incentivize those conversions. I’ll discuss social media realities and how brands can approach value creation there.
Commerce and communication have merged.
Entire customer journeys to purchase are happening within the smartphone. Social networks have been thought of as purely communication channels but are increasingly being used to sell directly.
Facebook Shops and Instagram Shops link with e-commerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce and others. In Japan, they also work with the popular Stores.jp and Base. Social networks like TikTok, Snapchat and LINE have also dabbled in the e-commerce space.
Purchases made completely within social networks will eventually become a new norm, and forcing someone to visit a website, app, or store to make a purchase will act as barriers, especially as more competitors stop requiring people to do so.
Getting social media right is now a do-or-die situation, but many struggle with the fundamentals.
Big challenges for businesses: Categorization, Depth vs. Width, and Supply & Demand
The challenge of categorization
Most businesses have an advertiser relationship with media, and treat social media the same way.
Social media fundamentally changed the advertiser-publisher-consumer dynamic.
Any individual can post social media which means more content from more publishers than ever is being put out and consumed. This means more fragmented attention, making it harder for single ads to have the impact they used to in the pre-social media era.
Because people intend to consume content when they use social networks and are accustomed to the accounts they follow putting out interesting content, businesses should actually be categorizing themselves as publishers on social media.
The challenge of depth vs. width
Many want fans and a huge audience, but in reality, only a few successfully accomplish both equally.
Generally speaking, prioritizing reaching a large audience comes at the expense of creating relationship depth with a specific target, and vice versa. Most brands will find themselves on either side of the light blue line in the chart below to varying degrees.
Because major social media channels are mature with a lot of competition, the current trend is to lean towards the side of depth, focusing on micro-communities. This leads to the next challenge.
The challenge of supply & demand
Social networks are like stocks or real estate in the sense that investing in it early can help produce bigger results.
As a platform grows so does competition. This means standing out and providing unique value to users becomes more difficult. More resources - whether it’s in strategy, creative or production - are often required because you’re competing against similar brands that have similar products that put out similar content. There’s also more advertiser money being put in.
We can see supply and demand issues come into play when social media marketing tactics produce lackluster results.
Pretty pictures have become expected, influencers featuring products in their posts are now an everyday thing. Giveaway campaigns request user actions such as follows for a 0.001% chance of winning something from a brand they don’t have a relationship with and for a product not in purchase consideration.
We know people follow, become fans and consider purchasing because they’re being provided value of some sort. So how can value be provided on social media now that communication and commerce have merged?
Provide experiences on social that are more human.
Social commerce is about straying away from a transactions-based approach and providing people with more “human” experiences online. It’s more marketing and storytelling than advertising and clicks.
In a market where barriers to entry have decreased and commoditization is rampant, the human truth is the biggest differentiator.
The goal should be to bring a neighborhood mom-and-pop shop experience to a social media space that’s been overrun with big box retailer and superstore dynamics.
Be authentic and connect
That’s another way of saying be real and be a part of the community. One of the main reasons we support small businesses is because of its human aspect - the people, the story, the connection to the neighborhood.
In fact, 77% of consumers in a survey said that they sometimes purchase products or services solely because they believe in the brand’s values/reputation and want to support them.
Instead of only relying on a product’s features to differentiate, brands should dive into the who, what, where, when, why and how’s of their business. Then with a publisher’s approach, connect through content around those areas that may interest or benefit their specific target on that particular platform.
Allowing the target to virtually experience different aspects of the business lets them learn about how it relates to them. This grows community, builds trust and increases purchase intent.
Scale in-store interactions
When someone asks a question or makes a comment in a store, it’s expected that the owner or employee will respond. This needs to happen on social media as well.
There are two big reasons why:
Consumers think of social media as a customer service channel, and it’s also now a point of purchase.
In Japan, younger people surveyed said they prefer connecting via email (30.8%) and social media (26.4%) over phone (22.6%) and in-person (21%), so this is a primary communication touchpoint for brands. As a window into the near future, 32.2% of teens in the survey favored social media.
It provides free consumer insight into what works and what doesn’t, what people want to know about and what they’re tired of hearing and seeing.
These interactions makes the business more accessible, and with e-commerce capability built in, the consumer can seamlessly make a purchase.
Give added value
As a business enables these human experiences to happen through their social account, the ability to recognize bigger fans and customers increases.
This opens up the opportunity to strengthen the relationship with them even further. This is when businesses can provide added value. This can come in the form of coupon codes, exclusive experiences, early access, gifting and more.
Giveaway campaigns also tend to work better here since it’s targeted to followers who have some context and relationship with the brand.
Choosing fans to surprise and delight can also lead to positive reactions and increased word-of-mouth.
This message from J. Crew's CEO, for example, is thanking the customer for choosing to shop with them when there are so many options available. It's worth noting that this wasn't included with a purchase and isn’t a coupon to entice future spending- it is purely a gift.
In pre-social media days, businesses started with a product and then built an audience. Now, more and more businesses are starting with the audience first, then releasing a product after.
We can see this trend coming to play when we look at artists, celebrities and influencers increasingly launching their own brands.
As commerce increasingly shifts to various online communication channels, it is of utmost importance for businesses to focus on audience, and social media.
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UNIQLO’s Initial Black Lives Matter Statement Highlights Japanese Marketing Struggles
UNIQLO’s initial Black Lives Matter post highlights the struggles Japanese brands sometimes have when marketing to an international audience.
Today, June 3rd, 2020, is a tumultuous time right now in the US as many Americans protest against the systemic racism that has plagued society for hundreds of years.
It's a time for us, at the very least, to listen, learn and reflect.
As an American working at an agency doing marketing in Japan, I’ve become aware of the differences in marketing strategies, brand communication, customer expectations, internal struggles, etc. in Japan versus the US.
UNIQLO recently posted a statement during these protests in which they got heat for. They were able to make up for it nicely, but it does highlight an issue Japanese brands face when marketing internationally.
On average, Americans care a lot more about than just if a product is good, affordable, or from a longstanding brand. In the social media era, where everyone has a camera, production studio and mass media broadcasting capabilities in their hands, people care about transparency.
What is the role you feel your company plays in society? What are its values? Sure, you make a good product but how do you treat your employees?
Research has even shown it to be good for customer loyalty.
64% of consumers who have a relationship with a brand cite “shared values” as the main reason.
77% of consumers say that they at least sometimes purchase products or services from a brand solely because they believe in the brand’s values/reputation and they want to support them. 2 out of 5 young people make purchases based on this regularly.
Because of this, we often see companies in America communicate about their actions and values. When the effects of COVID-19 began to take place, many were quick to communicate about the measures they were taking, even before government decisions to lockdown.
It's the same for Black Lives Matter. Here are some examples.
There are many more examples.
Each of these posts clearly state their values and their positions on the issues. It should also be mentioned that when some have asked if they're making donations, some brands (like Diamond Foundry) have responded to them saying exactly where they're donating.
Now let’s look at UNIQLO’s initial post:
Some of the popular comments:
This is so vague. If you're going to put up a support message, address the community that you intend to support, address them directly because they need the support. Posting an empty message like this is nothing short of following a trend....
U SAID NOTHING.
Fire your PR team. This is a pathetic collection of words at a time when words and action are everything. That's a whole lot of words to say absolutely nothing! Way to use your platform to take zero stance.
Is this the first AI-written PR message? Because it's so non-specific and feels like an imitation. Sorry, but a bunch of vague words in white on a black background isn't it.
When I first read the post, I also stopped and though, "Wait, what did they actually say?"
In the other examples, the brands clearly state their position on a specific matter, even released statements about which organizations they're donating to and what actions they are taking in order to support their position.
UNIQLO didn't initially do this. They did not define who is feeling the pain, what diversity means to them, what specific actions they're taking, etc.
The reluctance to take a firm stand or voice a strong opinion is a common shortcoming of many Japanese companies.
There is a fear of being disliked, especially due to being rooted in a group-oriented society with comparatively low diversity. There’s a lot of trying to stand out without disrupting, and the outcome is often vanilla messaging: “Cute!”, “The most popular!” “Great for everyone!”
That type messaging doesn't work in markets with greater ethnic, religious, sexual and intellectual diversity and individuality.
My guess is that there was probably an internal struggle between the UNIQLO US team and UNIQLO Japan office, and that's why the message became a diluted mess.
UNIQLO, to their credit, managed to respond to the situation quite well.
Here is UNIQLO’s follow-up:
They showed that they’re listening and got specific in explaining what actions they’re taking. So far, the response has been largely positive.
It's a good example for future Japanese brands with foreign aspirations to learn from.
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The Professionals Using TikTok to Grow
Opportunities arise when there’s awareness of a business, and lawyers, medical professionals and others are using TikTok to grow their awareness.
TikTok often gets mistakenly written off as a network of nonsense. The reason why I say “mistakenly” is because this is a recycled conversation that’s happened with every new network before it and at the end of the day, how we judge something has no real impact on the reality.
Hundreds of millions of people around the world are using TikTok and consuming content there. In Japan, 9.5 million are as of the latest official announcement.
Many eyes and ears tune into TikTok, which means while they do, they’re not in Instagram, Facebook, etc. While people are there, many - even professionals - are building awareness about themselves and what they do in life.
As is with anything, awareness leads to opportunities.
Here are a few people I’ve come across, and each has gotten tens to hundreds of thousands of playbacks on videos, if not more, and amassed a following. Now think, how much would it cost to run an ad or TV commercial for those views?
LAWYERS
MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS
TEACHERS
The reason why I chose to show examples from the legal, medical and education fields is because most wouldn’t say they fit on a network that gets stereotyped as childish, dancing and singing nonsense.
If people in these types of respected fields are growing, imagine what chefs, trainers, fashion designers, athletes, musicians and others are doing.
Now, TikTok is completely different from other networks and is, in my opinion, difficult. But if it continues to grow like expected, the sooner we try it out the better.
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How Hawaii Brands are Responding to COVID-19
A list of Hawaii brands taking admirable actions to help the local community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the days and weeks following the COVID-19 / Coronavirus outbreak, as a marketer and just out of curiosity, I began to pay attention to how people and brands were responding.
Many have admirably stepped up around the world, but I’ve paid a little more attention to my hometown in Hawaii. Even more than I expected, many in the community have come together to do their share.
I put together a list of brand actions I’ve seen so far that I found admirable.
Central Pacific Bank: “Keep Hawaii Cooking”
Because Hawaii was put on lockdown, business basically came to a halt and small businesses are some of those who feel it the hardest.
To help keep things moving, Central Pacific Bank launched the #KeepHawaiiCooking campaign where they would split the bill and pay a 50% refund via DM and PayPal to people who ordered delivery or takeout from local eateries.
They launched a website with details on how to participate as well as all of the restaurant options (categorized too!).
In less than a week, they’ve reached 75% of their goal of sharing 10,000 meals and have given back $100k to local restaurants.
https://www.keephawaiicooking.com
Hawaiian Airlines: Mahalo to the Healthcare Community
In order to help local hospitals and clinics manage the logistics of their healthcare personnel, Hawaiian Airlines is providing free inter-island flights to their medical professionals so that their work goes as smoothly as possible throughout Hawaii.
https://newsroom.hawaiianairlines.com
HONOLULU MAGAZINE: Shop Local
In an effort to support local designers, artists and boutiques, Honolulu Magazine teamed up with over 50 local brands to host an online shopping event.
People, while shopping from home, can access special deals through their promotion.
Recognizing that it’s not just restaurants and small businesses that are being hit by effects of COVID-19, many small businesses in the food industry have helped to do their part.
A Cake Life: Essential Workers Giveaway
In addition to giving out cupcakes to healthcare workers and first responders, they also let others participate for giveaways.
People were invited to nominate friends and family working in essential roles, and those being put at risk at work. Posts for jobs in healthcare, restaurants, hotels, first responders and supermarkets were done, and free bags of cake cups were given to winning nominations.
Asato Family: Community Thank You
To show their gratitude to those in the community working in healthcare during this pandemic, family-owned and popular local sherbert shop delivered bags of individually cupped sherbert to hospitals.
https://www.asatofamilyshop.com
I’ve come across Stories being shared of other businesses helping out as well.
Watanabe Floral: Bouquets for Healthcare
Bouquets were given to healthcare workers to help brighten up their day. Watanabe Floral is also posting videos on DIY tips as well as their brand story on Instagram.
Enjoy Snacks: Snack Bags for Healthcare
Gift bags of favorite local snacks were given to healthcare workers .
Other brands and musical artists are providing content to entertain people while they stay at home.
Salvage Public: Artist Showcase
Fashion brand Salvage Public is showcasing local artists through Instagram’s IGTV as well as letting artists do account takeovers.
Jack Johnson: Together At Home
Musical artist Jack Johnson is a goodwill ambassador for the UN Environment Programme, and in collaboration in collaboration with Global Citizen in support of the World Health Organization (WHO), put on a #TogetherAtHome livestream concert from his living room.
I should have expected Hawaii, a place with a strong culture of community, to react this way. It’s great to see, and after all, we’re all in this together.
I’m sure there are many other campaigns and stories of positivity, so tell me if there’s one I should know about!
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Japanese Celebrities to YouTube Stars: Haruna Kawaguchi
Haruna Kawaguchi is the latest Japanese celebrity to become a YouTuber.
Bloggers, artists and others who’ve gained fame through social media have been moving into the mainstream for a while now, and over the past few years as social networks became our primary communication channels, it’s gone the other way as well.
Celebrities, athletes, business people and more have been increasing efforts in building a presence on social networks and YouTube.
Will Smith is a prime example.
In Japan, celebrities becoming social media stars is just beginning.
Enter Haruna Kawaguchi.
The actress/model already has the 33rd most popular Instagram account in Japan (as of April 1, 2020) with 2.5 million followers.
Rather than put out a highly curated feed, which can be expected at times in Japan especially due to overly controlling agencies, some of her posts are almost questionable (photographer’s bias!).
It’s clear that she’s providing the value of access.
She often provides relatively honest, inside looks at her life - where she talks about things from dealing with emotions to the pain of a pimple.
And now that access is being provided on YouTube.
In February 2020, Haruna Kawaguchi became Japan’s latest celebrity to become a YouTuber.
Posting around a video per week so far, she’s been vlogging about things like grocery shopping with her mom, spending time at her parents’ house on a small island off of Nagasaki, and trying to learn English.
This authentic, real life approach seems to be working.
In about 2 months, she’s put out 10 vlogs and has grown her channel to over 882k subscribers, adding as many as 15k subscribers each day in the past 30 days, according to TubeBuddy.
This YouTube audience places her well inside Japan’s top 300 biggest channels.
She’s also gotten a total of 23.5 million views. For reference, it would be typical that these views have earned her tens of thousands of US dollars each month from ads so far.
Her latest video got over 1 million views in the first 24 hours.
The more celebrities dip into vlogging, the more will follow.
For actors like Haruna Kawaguchi and Will Smith, YouTube in particular provides entertainment in a format (video) that people are already used to seeing them in and want to see them in.
The increased exposure through these vlogs provides fans increased access, and it allows them to be relevant them during the times they’re not on TV or in theaters.
This also helps strengthen existing connections, giving them more leverage in the future than they’d likely have just relying on traditional media.
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Japanese Consumers and Media Attention in 2020
About Japanese consumer attention in media in 2020, what channels they use, where they shop, and how they pay.
Media attention in mobile accounts for 36% of all media attention in Japan
Japanese have media contact for 411.6 minutes/day, the highest ever
Amazon is the biggest e-commerce platform in Japan, and Amazon Prime Video is the biggest subscription video service
Japan is often seen as a difficult market with consumer mindsets and behaviors that are very different from the West. This is true, and the ability to understand is made more difficult by the fact that there’s not a whole lot of information available in English.
I put together a report that gives some insight on what Japanese consumers are doing now - where they’re in contact with media and what channels and platforms they’re using. I decided to share some of that here.
Breakdown of Japanese consumer attention in media in 2019
Media attention in mobile channels continues to grow at the expense of every other channel. Linear TV is still the biggest single channel, and that can be expected due to Japan’s population skewing towards the older demographic. It has shrunk though - in 2006, TV accounted for 51% of the total.
Japanese consumer attention in media in 2020 broken down by age and gender
Generally, mobile phone use is more prominent in younger age demographics and TV use is more prominent in older age demographics, but there is some discrepancy between males and females.
15-19 year old females consume the most mobile media, and the age group that consumes the most linear TV media are females in their 60s.
The average time per day Japanese are in contact with media
Japanese continue to be in contact with media more and more. In 2019, that number reached 411.6 minutes per day, a new record.
Mobile phone use saw the biggest increase with people spending 14.5 minutes more per day (117.6 min/day total) than they did in 2018.
Survey results asking whether or not people feel they overuse their mobile phones
Despite media consumption in mobile devices increasing, Japanese generally don’t feel they’re overusing them compared to consumers in other countries.
While 30% of Japanese consumers reported over-usage of their mobile devices, 46% of Koreans and 65% of Chinese consumers responded in the same way.
The same survey showed that Japanese make little effort to curb usage compared to others.
A survey showing which device Japanese consumers use
The percentage of Japanese consumers who use smartphones is still relatively low (74%).
In China for example, that number is 96%, in South Korea 92%, in India 93%, the UK 88%, Australia 91%, Canada 83%. This shows Japan lags in speed of adoption but may suggest that there’s still much growth to be seen as feature phones are being phased out, phone service plans change and 5G service begins.
The amount of time Japanese spend doing each activity on their mobile device. Weekdays (left), Weekends (right).
While mobile device use increases, there’s a lot of activities that are being done with the device. The above chart breaks down exactly what people are doing.
Work-related activities such as email have high usage rates during the weekdays while video sites and social media see boosts during the weekends.
Social media use is the highest overall activity, and the discrepancy between male and female social media use is considerable (a difference of 12.9 min on weekdays, 15.2 min on weekends)
Japanese juniorr high school and high school app/site usage in 2016 vs 2019
The biggest social media channels in Japan are Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. The messenger LINE continues to have an incredibly high usage rate, especially since Japanese typically don’t use text messaging or iMessage.
To get a sense of where things are trending, we can look at junior high school and high school student usage in 2016 vs 2019. While there’s no significant shift, it does show that even apps like LINE, which has an 86% daily active user rate in Japan, isn’t invincible.
For reference, 37.3% of junior high students had a smartphone in 2016 versus 60.9% in 2019, and 85.5% of high school students had one in 2016 versus 94.5% today.
Streaming video on demand (SVOD) usage in Japan
Streaming video services are still relatively new for mainstream Japan, and only started to take off within the last two years or so.
Amazon Prime Video has the biggest marketshare largely due to its tie in with Amazon Prime. Hulu is second and Netflix third.
The most popular e-commerce platforms in Japan in 2019
Amazon also is the owner of the most popular e-commerce platform in Japan, although Rakuten is right behind it. Shoppers using the two platforms are increasingly becoming mobile-only.
Amazon grew 10% while Rakuten grew 8% over the last year.
CtoC services Mercari and Rakuma grew 33% and 34% respectively.
Payments of choice for Japanese consumers broken down by age
Japan is famous for being a cash-based society, and it still very much is. 2019 showed that things are slowly changing, however, and the Japanese government is aggressively pushing for Japan to be less cash-dependent.
48.4% of consumers surveyed said cash was their most used payment of choice. Credit cards came in second at 34%.
Males are bigger users of mobile and contactless payments, accounting for an average of 65.5% of the transactions.
Users of the most popular mobile payment services in Japan
A lot of companies are looking to gain majority marketshare in Japanese mobile payments. The biggest marketshare holder as of right now is PayPay, part of the Softbank/Yahoo Japan group.
There’s more to the actual report, such as the breakdown of social media channels in Japan. If you’d like the report, feel free to contact me and I’ll send it to you.
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Instagram in Japan in 2019
All about Instagram use in Japan in 2019. Information from the Instagram Day Tokyo 2019 event.
Instagram Day Tokyo 2019 was held in Shibuya in October
Instagram has 33 million MAU in Japan that uploads 7 million Stories every day as of March 2019
Mobile usage outdoes TV for Japanese in their 10s-30s
Instagram is one of the largest social networks in the world as of 2019, and arguably the most impactful on modern day pop culture. It has been rapidly growing in Japan as well.
I attended Instagram Day Tokyo 2019 on October 29, 2019 at the Hikarie Building in Shibuya, Tokyo.
The event was open to mainly press, agencies and various companies using the platform. Company speakers from their global, Japan and APAC offices came to talk about the platform’s latest.
Instagram’s VP of Product, Vishal Shah, discuses Instagram’s mission.
The presentation began with some general information about Instagram as a whole:
500 million accounts use Stories every day
Instagram is very focused on furthering online shopping capabilities from in-app checkouts to new product launch methods
AR ads currently being tested will allow potential customers to engage with brands in ways such as “try-on” products (ex: lipstick)
The most used Sticker in Stories in 2018 was the Question Sticker, highlighting a desire to communicate
Shortly after, the talk centered around the Japan market. Here are a few highlights:
Instagram is “loved in Japan”
INSTAGRAM IN JAPAN
Since March 2016, Instagram has been exploding in Japan and has more than tripled its monthly user base. The latest numbers show that there are more than 33 million monthly active users in the country (as of March 2019).
As of March 2019, Instagram has 33 million monthly active users in Japan
Users in Japan upload 7 million Stories each day.
This is related to the overall trend of media usage in Japan.
Media contact between mobile vs TV in Japan for males (L) and females (R) in their 10s-30s
People under 40 in Japan are highly active smartphone users, so media reach is said to be better on mobile than through TV.
For males, mobile outdoes TV 40% to 27%, and 45% to 33% for females.
Instagram users in Japan between the ages of 18-29 spend more than 100 million hours using it each month
People in Japan in their 40s and up have been jumping onto Instagram more recently but it’s still looked at as a “young” platform overall.
Rightfully so, it was said that users in Japan between the ages of 18 and 29 spend more than 100 million hours in the app each month.
That’s an increase of +201% since 2017. The right side of the slide compares Instagram usage to 4 other services, however those services weren’t named.
When 18-29 year old Instagram users in Japan use the app throughout the day
The same demographic uses Instagram throughout their day, and the slide above breaks down their usage during the weekday.
From left to right: Wake up, early morning, breakfast time, late morning, lunch time, afternoon, early evening, dinner, late night, bed time.
83% of users in Japan “took action in the moment”
While the definition of “action” wasn’t clearly defined, according to research, 83% of Instagram users in Japan have taken action right after seeing something on Instagram.
I assume that it can mean anything from “click on website link” all the way to “make a purchase”.
INSTAGRAM IS CONSIDERED A SOURCE OF DISCOVERY
Instagram is widely thought of as a place of discovery, information and inspiration.
It’s said that:
83% of users discover a new product or service on Instagram.
61% of users feel that Instagram keeps them up to date on current trends.
50% of users consider Instagram a source of inspiration.
Elaborating further, the trend of people starting to utilize Instagram as a search engine instead of Google has increased.
While this isn’t for every type of search, there is an increase in exploring Instagram’s tags (location tags, hashtags) rather than Googling.
This theme that Instagram is a “source of discovery” was highlighted in usage by young women in Japan. Compared to other unnamed services, young women in Japan use Instagram as an information source for:
Fashion: 44% (Instagram) to 8% (other service)
Food spot: 36% (Instagram) to 17% (other service)
Leisure spot: 31% (Instagram) to 19% (other service)
In addition to various guest speakers from different companies and agencies, Japanese influencer Yukos was brought out to talk about her experience growing on Instagram.
Influencer Yukos livestreaming as she’s introduced on stage
Former Japanese “idol” from the group HKT48, Yukos (@yukos0520) gave some insight about growing on Instagram.
The influencer/business owner has 456k followers on Instagram with a 3.8% engagement rate as of Nov 2019.
A few key points that she made was how she realized that there’s only so much “influence” one can have by taking nice pictures and cute selfies. Working to consider what her audience cared about, searched, and then being able to address them in a quick manner helped play an important role in her growth.
Here’s a glimpse of the event:
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Japanese and Social Media — A Little Different
Japanese have adapted to using international social networks, yet, their preferences and usage differs a little.
When I moved to Japan in 2009, everyone in the country was on mixi, the Japan-only social network. In the following years, Japan finally stepped out and began using international networks for the first time.
Still, their preferences and behaviors are a little different. Here are my observations:
1. LINE
Japanese prefer LINE as their go-to social app, and it has the most users out of any in the country. They may prefer it because it’s Japanese, for one, and they started a “cute sticker” culture that matches Japanese “kawaii” culture quite well.
It allows for private communication with people they know, without requiring info like their phone number to be given out, lessening risk which works well for their risk-averse culture.
More popular messenger apps like WhatsApp is almost non-existent in the country, as the typical person has no need for it.
2. Twitter
Twitter is used like a big chatroom more often than a global listening and a direct engagement tool.
Many keep their accounts private and use icons that are not their normal selves (ex: anime characters, highly modified photos, a celebrity’s photo, etc.). Many ignore engagement from people outside of their circle completely. After tweeting at someone, I’ve seen people tweet out “A stranger tweeted me…” or reply and ask “Who are you??” (Not a ‘Who do you think you are?’ type of way but literally a ‘Do I know you? Why are you contacting me?’ way).
3. Facebook
While not as big with the teenage and early-20’s demographic, Facebook is big. It loses out on potential users early on, however, as I’ve noticed many not being able to figure out how to use it. There must be some UI issue that has trouble hurdling the culture.
One big difference in how Japanese use Facebook versus say, the US, is that it is also kind of their LinkedIn. Many will use it for business connections and will frequently post job-related topics.
4. Instagram
Instagram is gaining in popularity but is still far less popular than Twitter, even for the young. Similarly to Twitter, many will keep their accounts private and a significant amount of them will choose to not post their faces and keep their identities ambiguous.
Since Instagram Stories got released, I haven’t noticed any significant difference in usage between Japanese and other nationalities. It’s worth noting that Snapchat has yet to crack the Japan market, and while SNOW (the Snapchat copy) is popular amongst the young, it’s not used as a social app but rather just a face lens app.
My observations are also reflected in the monthly active user count for these networks:
Japanese MAU in Japan as of 12/2016, by IMJ Backyard
And for reference, you can see that Japan’s preference of social apps are quite different from most other countries:
Generation-Z social app preferences, by LSA