Hasta La Gadget!

It’s not hard to get us excited about a post at CScout Japan, especially not when it involves sampling an ice cold beer on a sweltering hot day! Beverage manufacturer Kirin has introduced their new “Ice Plus Beer” which pretty much does exactly what it says on the can, cold beer designed to be poured over ice. Hitting the shelves today, the new beer from Kirin seems to be generating quite some chatter, especially as they have been pushing out their social marketing campaign, tweeting “cold jokes” and 100 different “hidden” commercials.

Consuming beer with ice may make the beer connoisseur shiver, however the manufacturers have touted that the Ice Plus Beer has been specifically designed to be poured over ice to enrich the taste and enhance the aroma. After sampling it, surprisingly the advertisements aren’t far off and it does seem to taste better over ice than consumed straight from the can (however it did take three or four to verify it!). There is no escaping that it still is a cheap and cheerful Kirin beer taste though, all be it a colder one. As with many Japanese products that have to compete with other seasonal items, the packaging is interestingly designed also. On the back of the beer can itself is a nice pop-art style 4-frame comic that illustrates how to enjoy the product, complete with swooning girl over alcoholic male. The convenience stores didn’t miss a trick either, a nice tie in offering a discount “Ice Cup” with the each Ice Plus Beer, to help the thirsty consumer enjoy it as soon as they step out the shop and drive sales during the humid months.

The marketing build up has been well thought out also, punning on the ability of the beer to “Cool Japan” and some self-effacing tweet gags that run on the phrase “samui” (cold) which refers to a bad joke. They did however miss a trick not tying it into Coll Biz though, anyone who has seen a drunken salary man in Tokyo on a weekday night knows the comedic potential there! On the product’s own homepage is also a secret collection of 100 short (approximately 30-60 second) and humorous commercials featuring the cartoon characters to advertise Ice Beer Plus, further drawing the consumer into the brand.

Seasonal products are big business in Japan with a particularly competitive FMCG (fast moving commercial goods) market. Pepsi and Kitkat for example, are constantly coming out with new flavors to keep the public’s appetite satiated, and on the shelves in the convenience store we purchased this beer in, we also spotted a new Pepsi “Caribbean Gold, White Sapote” flavored drink….although we did have to Google white sapote before we knew what it was!

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Facebook

Already this series has been examining the growth of Facebook in Japan, the issues it faces and its efforts to combat its initial stagnation.

There’s no getting around the social networking site’s global success. Nielsen figures for May indicate that its usership increased 18% and it will likely secure a 17.7% share of the U.S. online advertising market for 2011, overtaking Yahoo’s 13.1%.

Internet surveys by Mobile Marketing Data Labo. and Metaphase have revealed fairly clear local trends. In particular, users in their twenties and thirties are rapidly increasing, and businesses are starting to see returns on the “like” functions on their official Facebook pages.

MMD’s April survey of 152 — admittedly, not a vast number — SNS users found that Twitter had by far the most success with consumers following corporate accounts (55.9%). Facebook came second with 35.5%. Meanwhile, separate year-long tracking of Twitter and Facebook among 1,300 social media users revealed large gains in Twitter usage for users in their twenties and thirties, but a slight dip among teenagers. More decisively, Facebook saw zero movement among teenagers in the same period but massive jumps of 30% and 40% for users in their twenties and thirties respectively.

The Metaphase June survey of 300 users found that over 60% of users who log in to Facebook at least 3 times a month were clicking “like” on official corporate Facebook pages, and thus sharing brand content with their friends. Over a third of these users recognized that Facebook offered unique information and content on these pages and over 30% of users who “liked” a company’s page also actually purchased their services.

The suggestion is that the young digital native generation is still preoccupied with localized sites, but slightly more mature users are perhaps starting to turn away from the typical Japanese need for anonymity on SNS. In particular, no doubt upwardly mobile and entrepreneurial types see great benefits to Facebook and to utilization of the media as a promotional tool, as opposed to merely for viewing blogs about cats and meals. (Roughly 98.7% of all Japanese online content revolves around those two themes. Probably.)

Of course, anonymity has been one of the key differences between Facebook and mixi, but, perhaps aware that Facebook is at last making some inroads here, mixi has just recently introduced display changes so that your friends’ full names are visible. This is not necessarily a sign that mixi is abandoning its protection of user privacy, as previously it has flirted with this kind of change, only to back down following member hostility.

Bijin Tokei Goes National

Bijin-Tokei, the website clock service that features ordinary beautiful girls (”bijn”) on the street holding up boards with the time, has been a favorite of this blog for some time, and is no stranger to product collaborations, numerous spin-offs and imitators, and even updates on the state of Tokyo’s power supply.

In late June the site re-launched, now offering you simultaneously perusal of the ladies from different regions and, temptingly, even a voting function now. The girls with the most votes graduate to SUPER bijin-tokei, which offers a kind of crowd-sourced Japanese version of the “Beauty Map” study by the dubious British eugenicist Francis Galton.

3D game apps on Gree

Remember all the hype last year about 3D TVs that did not require glasses? The trend is still plodding along and now appears to be spreading to mobile gaming. Gree has started offering smartphone 3D apps using Unity, an American game development tool. Among the first titles there is CosmoLightning for iOS and Billiards by Gree for the Android.

CosmoLightning features a light ball that can be slid around the screen by your fingers, whereas Billiards by Gree is of course a version of billiards, but with 3D visuals and sound. Both games are free for registered Gree users. Neither sounds particularly exciting to this blogger but often the simplest of games win the most hearts.

This is the latest in a series of blogs based on newsletters provided by our local research partner, INterRIDE Inc.

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KDDI R&D laboratories has successfully created one of the first integrations of mobile gaming and neural science. Introduced at today’s International Modern Hospital Show , this app’s ability to measure the amount of concentration and meditation occurring in the brain while the users perform simple tasks or are heavily indulged in their video game, truly grasped our attention.

The user first wears a headband-like headset embedded with tiny sensor chips that detect neural activity in the human brain. A paperclip-like device is then attached to the ear, which acts as a stabilizer to ensure that everything is “balanced” and also as a pulse detector. The app is downloadable for smart phones, and in this case, the Android was our first test device. Three different games were introduced to us and for each, the amount of neural activity going on in the brain was measured. As can be seen below, the games are fairly simple, but require a fair amount of attention. After 30 seconds of play, the app displayed a chart graphing both concentration (focused-state) and meditation (relaxed-state) levels. A diagram also appeared, representing the different areas of the brain that was most used during that span.

The device can be used in other situations as well. Users can focus for around 30 seconds on something that they are passionate about or evokes a particular emotion. The app then displays a graph of the user’s brain activity relating to the amount of focused attention during that period for analysis.

Although still a concept and not on shelves yet, KDDI’s new technology can be seen as a stepping stone towards more interactive neural technology made available for the general public. We can see this type of neuro-wear being implemented not only in people’s daily lives, but in advertising and marketing as well. It would be a great advancement to see this technology being used to detect what sort of ads prove to be the most effective by measuring the amount of generated interest by the consumers.

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Purikura, the photo booth printing trend popular among teenage girls for years, is a versatile beast. We’ve seen it morph into video versions, mascot and character-themed booths, lend itself to FMCG packaging, and even inspire whole digital camera products. Now Sega is opening Japan’s largest purikura facility, named the P+closet, which is remarkable not just for its size but also for its integration of fashion and apparel into the purikura experience, apparently the first of its kind. Opening on July 16, visitors can try on a range of clothes and see how they look in them through purikura photos. Essentially, the booths will now become social changing rooms with the “costumes” being real fashion from brands.

An exercise in very experiential tryvertising for the 13 brands involved, the clothes will become for the target female users another “cute” tool for making themselves look better (or just different). Initially there are some 26 types of items available for trying on (two “co-ordinating patterns” each), from brands like BEAMS, OLIVE des OLIVE and Pageboy. Significantly the opening event will see a dokusha model (”reader model” or a pseudo-amateur model) attend. Purikura is another way for girls to make themselves more beautiful and model-like while having fun with friends, and adding fashion elements both enhances the experience for the girls and provides a new marketing channel for brands.

For the uninitiated, in a nutshell Purikura allows you to take cute pictures with your friends in the booth, and then digitally customize and decorate the images with letters, slogans, motifs and all manner of cute extras before printing them out. The ability for this trend to evolve always surprises and impresses us. The first booths emerged in 1995 and a generation later are still very much around, especially where girls congregate. However, since 2002 booth numbers have been falling, so purikura has been making efforts to enhance its functions as technology and lifestyles/fashion have changed. Now you can send the images directly to your phones and SNS pages using infrared transmission, FeliCa readers and QR codes, or even use your iPhone camera to make purikura pictures when an actual booth is not around.

Of course, fashion and beauty has also evolved. Perhaps most notorious has been the Jewella Eye machine for its dekame (big eye) effects, tapping into the trend for local girls to want to make their eyes look larger. However, it would appear, nigh two decades after their genesis, the very recognizable purikura brand of cuteness itself is still holding strong the tides of change simply because it’s a real world, social activity.

Additionally JJ, a fashion magazine popular among the teenage girl market, is also hopping onto the boat at P+closet with Sega. A terminal will be available inside P+closet that offers JJ’s recommended clothes and accessories, connecting visitors to the magazine’s e-commerce site so that they can purchase anything that catches their eye (including, presumably, the items they try on for the purikura photos). It would be exciting to see other brands catch onto this trend, and perhaps in the near future, purikura takers would be able see themselves carrying a Louis Vuitton handbag or even try on Swarovski x House of Hello Kitty accessories.

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Japan is well known for its online match making services, most of which take advantage of the male libido and end up causing them to spend hundreds of dollars on “points,” which are purchased to send and receive mails, as well as exchanging photos and phone numbers with the opposing party. However, out of the many fraudulent websites, there exist a handful of legitimate ones. Tying this into the “konkatsu” (marriage hunting) boom that has been apparent in Japan during recent years, Nugget, a Japanese web design company, has created “Aerura,” an online “konkatsu” service that is specifically targeted at the otaku (the endearing term for geek) market. There have been many dating websites created for a particular target segment such as doctors and lawyers, but Aerura is the first of its kind aimed at this specific market.

The vast world of otaku is much more complicated than it seems on the surface, it is not just about loving anime, collecting premium toys, and sipping “special coffee” at the notorious maid cafes. Numerous classifications of obsession exist, and Aerura seeks to furnish each type by offering these as search categories, such as figures, trains/railroads, voice actors, etc. Determined to helping members find the perfect match, the service heavily focuses on these “hobbies,” and even arranges “omiai”(arranged blind dates) parties that are restricted to a certain genre. These specific theme-based events cost around 50 to 100 dollars each, but to those who spend more than 300 dollars on a life sized pillow with an anime character imprinted on it, it may be a cheap price to pay to meet someone of the opposite sex that shares the same interest. On top of all this, Aerura also offers free relationship and marriage counseling to all members.

The website itself has a very “clean” appearance, increasing its credibility as a legitimate dating service. It uses Nico Nico Douga, the growing Youtube equivalent for the Japanese geek segment, to advertise its presence; a marketing strategy aimed at at their direct audience. Amusingly, there are actually certain qualifications that these marriage seeking otakus must possess in order to find their one true “ani-mate.” Although any sort of women are allowed to join (as long as they are over 25), men must be single, over 25, have an income paying job, and have Japanese residency. On an online forum discussing the website, many reviewers have said that Aerura’s intentions are directed at a more “high end” otaku community base (defined as the geeks who have jobs and have intentions of eventually having a family of their own), which is interesting to see how the geek world also has hierarchy.

Otakus have been part of Japanese culture for decades, and quite frankly, I’m a little surprised that this genre of online dating websites have not taken its appearance until now. It will definitely be worth seeing whether this movement will cause a revolution in the lifestyle of otakus and if they will be able to find mates who do not seem to mind (or in fact even share) their significant other’s obsession with CG Idols such as AKB48’s Eguchi Aimi.

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