The second Advertising Week Asia took place May 29-June 1, 2017, at Roppongi Midtown in Tokyo. This year's event again brought together leading figures in the fields of advertising, marketing, and technology from all over the world to discuss hot topics like mobile marketing and the future of artificial intelligence.
One session featured Takaomi Saegusa, CCO of C Channel, and Masataka Yoshikawa, Director of the Institute of Media Environment at Hakuhodo DY Media Partners, discussing the kind of video content that activates viewers and communications strategies for brand lifting.
Promptly get across the message that the video is worth watching.
YOSHIKAWA: The Institute of Media Environment conducts a longitudinal survey of media consumption and announces its findings once a year. According to the survey results from Tokyo, the amount of time spent consuming media has risen steadily over the years: by 2016 it had reached almost 400 minutes per day. Time spent consuming media on mobile devices in particular has increased, as typified by the widespread habit of using your smartphone while watching TV. The decline in time spent consuming mass media appears to have bottomed out. Only on PCs has there been a decrease. Young people mainly rely on mobile technology, and young women in particular are leading the shift to mobile. Non-mobile media consumption increases among people in their thirties and above. People often look at their smartphones before going to sleep: in an in-depth interview one woman said that she flipped between a TV drama, Twitter, email, and her search engine. The survey results reveal that young people engage in "chain viewing," bringing up on screen whatever they feel like and moving seamlessly between video, content, and communications apps. Also noteworthy is the practice of "simulviewing," where it's not even clear what's primary and what's secondary anymore. That then is how young people process information these days. Today I'd like to discuss with Takaomi Saegusa how to get them to watch videos.
SAEGUSA: C Channel, which started out with the idea of becoming Japan's first global media site, is dedicated to answering women's questions in a minute. The reason for this insistence on one minute is that my experience producing videos has made me realize that the most convenient length for smartphone viewing is 45 seconds to one minute.
C Channel is a video fashion magazine and lifestyle source that focuses on topics of interest to women. Among its notable features: vertical video format, one of the highest levels of engagement in Japan, the use of what we call "clippers" to get out information, the decentralized nature of the medium (in that we also communicate via social media platforms), and our ability to produce viral videos. More than 90 percent of our users are females, and we're expanding overseas.
YOSHIKAWA: What's the secret to making videos that young people will watch? How do you get them to stop flipping to another window? If a young person decides something is a waste of time, they'll never look at it again.
SAEGUSA: First, we get across the message that it's worth watching. Specifically, young women pay attention to stuff that's colorful and cute, so even when making a how-to video we include something "Instagrammatic."
YOSHIKAWA: Something that would make a great Instagram photo, right?
SAEGUSA: Right. For example, in a video about a hairstyle, first we include a shot of how the hairstyle looks on the street, then show how to do it.
YOSHIKAWA: It's a video on how to look attractive, so it's important that it's easy to follow, but you also immediately show that the video contains information of practical use. So when making the video it's important to be confident that will get across to the viewer.
SAEGUSA: Fast motion has now become common as a means of showing a video in the shortest time possible. When demonstrating how to prepare a dish, on TV you might consider cutting something out to reduce the length, but then the viewer might not be able to follow all the steps. Fast motion is I think the right answer for smartphone viewers.
YOSHIKAWA: It's well suited to our fast-paced times.
SAEGUSA: Fast motion is the best way to show the specific steps, not just for preparing a dish but also for arranging hair. To get young people to linger you need to be inventive about every second. With TV you worried about the ratings each minute, but now it's a matter of seconds.
YOSHIKAWA: You even made a video on how to apply an adhesive bandage that went viral across the globe. How often has it been watched?
SAEGUSA: That single video has been played more than 100 million times. It simply shows how to apply a bandage, but it evidently took people by surprise.
Events are needed where people can experience the brand as they can't on a smartphone.
YOSHIKAWA: In addition to producing such videos, you also hold an event called Super C Channel. This offers valuable hints on how to create a brand for young people.
SAEGUSA: Internet videos are a virtual medium. TV is a bit more real. You don't really know whether viewers can have a genuine affection for an online video source. That's why we need to hold an event for people to experience the C Channel brand. It's important to get them to love our content and media and realize how much we love them.
YOSHIKAWA: It's hard to engage people with a brand when they only experience it on their smartphones. To truly engage them you need to give them a flesh-and-blood experience.
SAEGUSA: A real-world experience that makes them feel welcome and validates them.
YOSHIKAWA: Seeing what other people who view the same content as they do are like gives them a sense of belonging.
SAEGUSA: Absolutely. Such events are important for clients too, because they make clear that their services and products have hit the mark.
YOSHIKAWA: Real experiences are all the most necessary when people are constantly on their smartphones. They really resound with young people.
SAEGUSA: We experienced the shift from analog to digital. It's important to get young people, conversely, to experience the shift from digital to analog.
Ads should be something viewers look forward to. The secret is immersiveness.
YOSHIKAWA: Let me change the subject to the difference between commercials and programming or content. In our marketing communications, messages in the form of ads ran during breaks in the content--the programming. But a different approach is needed, right?
SAEGUSA: Smartphones are immersive. When a viewer is immersed in content and a commercial plays, it immediately turns the person off, unlike on TV. That's why native ads are important. It's important that viewers recognize the product in the course of watching the content; that ads are something they look forward to. As a general idea, I think the secret is to create something similar to the programs with a single sponsor characteristic of the early days of television, in other words, something in which the advertising and the content are one.
YOSHIKAWA: So the media consumed by young people these days are even more immersive than we think, and a conventional approach won't work. Finally, you now produce entertainment videos in addition to how-to videos. What do you think is the right approach to producing entertainment for young people?
SAEGUSA: How-to videos are problem-solving content, and people won't watch them unless they have a problem to solve. We need to make C Channel even more indispensable by entering the domain of the passions and stirring people's emotions. By making the shift to entertainment programming like dramas where people wonder what's going to happen next, we think we can increase the number of views we get. As for specific genres, besides dramas and romances we're also working on travel and food shows.
YOSHIKAWA: Thanks for your time today.
Biodata
Masataka Yoshikawa
Director, Institute of Media Environment, Hakuhodo DY Media Partners
Born in 1965, Masataka Yoshikawa graduated in commerce from Keio University and joined Hakuhodo in 1989. He served as a marketing planner and Hakuhodo Foresight consultant before being transferred to the Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living in 2004. There he worked on a series of publications forecasting the future of sei-katsu-sha and marketing, including The Assertive Society (2009), Extended Offspringhood (2012), and Dual Masses (2014). He became acting director of the Institute of Media Environment in 2015 before assuming his present post in 2016. He is the author of several books (all in Japanese), including The Future of Asia 2010 (2003) and How to Develop a Yardstick (2012). He is currently a regular guest on the NHK Radio 1 morning program This Week's Opinions.
Takaomi Saegusa
CCO, C Channel Inc.
Born in 1966, Takaomi Saegusa graduated in economics from Keio University and joined Nippon Television Network in 1989. There he worked on planning, direction, and production of the variety programs DAISUKI!, The Night of Hit Parade, and Sanma SMAP; the dramas Getting By, There's Always Tomorrow, and Tokyo Wonder Hotel; and the information programs Sukkiri, Shuichi, and ZIP!. In 2014 he became head of production and deputy director of Internet business at Hulu. He then struck out on his own in 2015, forming the new media design company Avplo and simultaneously setting up C Channel Inc. in partnership with former Line CEO Akira Morikawa. He is the author of How to Be a First-rate MC (2016).