Hello everyone,
For those of you who are interested in the challenges of becoming an
official i-mode site, here is an interesting article about virgin airline's
efforts to do so courtesy of a british airways colleague. Even more
interestingly, I heard a rumor that northwest (the only foreign airline on
the i-mode menu) became an official site through its 50 year relationship
with japan air systems. Sounds as if crony capitalism is alive and well in
Japan and it is only a matter of time (maybe its already happened) before
some government (probably the US govt) claims that i-mode's unclear
evaluation of sites is a non-tariff trade barrier.
Jeff Funk
Associate Professor
Kobe University
Research Institute on Economics and Business
-----Original Message-----
From: ARIF ZAMAN [mailto:arifzaman@lineone.net]
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2001 8:57 AM
To: Funk Jeffry Lee
Subject: Re: i-mode site
Jeff
It was indeed good mtg. you too - I found our conversation stimulating and
insightful; hope you felt likewise.
I'm writing up my report on imode and will send over a summary - you may
even
have comments!
Vodafone's moves in Japan taking BT's stake are no surprise but still I
suspect from DoCoMo's view unwelcome. Thoughts?
If you are able pls. email over yr pres. that you gave while here or
possibly
an extract.
Attached below is the article on Virgin:-
> 25/1/01 JAPAN: VIRGIN GETS A RESPONSE WITH INTERACTIVE AD.
> Japan shuffled into the 21st century, it was accompanied by a brave
experiment
> in advertising. On their way to the country's most important shrine in
downtown
> Tokyo to pay their New Year's respects, tens of thousands passed an ad
billboard
> that wanted to interact with them for the last time.
> >From 1 December 2000 to 1 January 2001, Virgin Atlantic Airways's crimson
> glowing wall in Harajuku ran a location-based wireless campaign promoting
its
> Tokyo-to-London flight. What made this particular hi-tech promotion a
first was
> that it was aimed at arguably the world's most advanced mobile Web users:
i-mode
> subscribers, a potential 17m of them. Japan's burgeoning wireless
advertising
> strategists hope this type of marketing will develop into a whole new type
of
> interactive advertising that Internet ads on PCs can't match. Subscribers
in
> Japan can already check their email and surf on more than 20,000
i-mode-tailored
> Web sites.
> A phone's screen doesn't give advertisers much space to make an impact,
but a
> huge red billboard announcing real-time incentives might get the message
across.
> So goes the theory. Every hour from 8am and 10pm, a different general know
ledge
> question appeared on the wall via the Virgin LED screen. All the mobile
user had
> to do was punch in the Web address, answer the question and they'd be
entered
> into a lottery to win a prize.
> Picking the right place
> The site took up a plum location. Situated at street level between a busy
> railway station and a shopping district popular with the under 30s, the ad
was
> well-placed to appeal to Virgin's target audience: Japan's peripatetic,
> cash-rich youth market. The space had become available thanks to major
> construction work going on behind it.
> Response figures have been disappointing, though. The Virgin Atlantic
i-mode
> site received fewer than 200 ring-throughs a day on average. However, this
> probably reflects how little modern people are affected by advertising in
> general, points out Martin Belcher of GomaGoma, a multi-discipline design
> consultancy that programmed the i-mode system.
> "Because you can measure accurately, you get low figures," he says. "It
just
> reflects the effects of ads elsewhere. Location-based interactive
advertising is
> a natural for rating the success of advertising, whereas TV and newspaper
> advertising, or any other type, aren't. They just assume that they're
raising
> brand awareness. With this type of ad, we know how many people it affected
> because they either rang through or they didn't."
> Another revealing factor was the most popular time of day for entering the
> competition, which, despite the student-heavy traffic in the area, seemed
to
> defy conventional wisdom. Most competition players accessed the Virgin
i-mode
> site between 11am and 12 am, and then around 3pm. The least popular time
was
> between 8am and 9am.
> "The times of day are quite surprising. I'd have expected more people to
access
> after traditional work hours, when you'd expect them to be walking at a
more
> leisurely pace," says Belcher. "Obviously the location is a key thing
here. The
> dynamics of people's movements through the location are of paramount
importance.
> A campaign in a station or similar modal point would have different usage
> profiles from one in a shopping area."
> The campaign also helped to raise awareness of the Virgin brands and,
perhaps
> more importantly, to cement its presence on the i-mode service. Virgin
also
> learned a great deal about mobile communications technology and how
effective it
> can be as a marketing tool, according to spokeswoman Takao Ikoma.
> "It taught us how essential it is to make it as easy as possible for the
user to
> reach your campaign site," she explains. "I'm sure that getting onto the
main
> menu page for the i-mode phone would have boosted usage considerably, but
even
> without doing that we've generated a database of potential customers who
have
> asked us to keep them up to date with Virgin through their mobile phones.
We're
> now well placed for further adventures with this technology."
> Joining the i-mode gang
> Virgin is just one the thousands of 'unofficial' sites that are listed on
> DoCoMo's runaway-success i-mode service. Had it secured an official
listing -
> about as likely as a non-Japanese becoming prime minister there - the
project
> would possibly be looking at Eldorado. An official listing would have
placed
> Virgin on the main menu that pops up every time i-mode users get onto the
> 'evernet'.
> "God knows what you have to do to please or convince Docomo that your
company is
> worthy," says Mark Dytham of Tokyo-based architects Klein Dytham,
responsible
> for the design and planning of the Virgin billboard campaign. "But once
you
> achieve main menu status you're guaranteed returns."
> Content on i-mode is typically Japanese and therefore created to drive
revenue.
> What's so different from the rest of the world's WAP experience is that
Japanese
> users are getting their wireless services through user-friendly,
inexpensive
> i-mode. Thanks partly to the novelty value perhaps, even wireless ads are
> enjoying a surprising high click-through rate.
> Obviously the novelty value of what was claimed to be the world's first
truly
> interactive billboard campaign has also enjoyed the knock-on effect of
being
> featured by traditional news media. In fact, the campaign received so much
radio
> and TV coverage, plus exposure in more than 30 magazines and newspapers,
that
> ironically, this probably did more in achieving Virgin's goal of raising
> awareness of the Virgin Atlantic brand the one-off billboard itself.
> Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors.
> NEW MEDIA AGE 25/01/2001 P51
>
Arif
Funk Jeffry Lee wrote:
> Hi Arif,
>
> It was a pleasure meeting you the other day. I wonder if you could send me
> the reference for the article on virgin airlines failure to become an
> official i-mode site.
>
> thanks,
>
> Jeff Funk
[ Did you check the archives? http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/ ]
Received on Tue May 8 03:55:22 2001