Pas Communications is one of Japan’s oldest and most established OOH

Mutsuo Hoshino, CEO of PAS Communications

Big Screen media owners. Founded in 1991, the companies shareholders include Panasonic, Dentsu (Japan’s largest advertising agency), and Canon Marketing. We spoke with Mutsuo Hoshino, Founder and President of PAS Communications to get his perspective on the Digital Signage market.

1. What is the current state of the large Out Of Home LED business in Japan?Business is has been getting pretty tough recently. The economic downturn has put a lot of pressure on advertisers to scale back their media buying activities. To be honest, the industry is still surprisingly small. On the hardware side, LED screens from Taiwan have brought a lot of price competition to the market and it is cheaper than ever to deploy a big screen. Up until 2007, we were seeing new screens going up quite frequently, but over the last couple of years, a number of those screens, particularly the ones in less popular areas, have shut down.
2. How did you company start out? We started in 1991 as a content developer for Large LED screens. In those days, the hardware was incredibly expensive. One square meter of LED cost around $150,000 dollars. Obviously that put a pretty tight limit on the number and size of screens that could be deployed. By 1996 the cost had come down to around $50,000 to $100,000 and now it is just a fraction of that. So we saw a lot of screens come on line in the late 90s and early 2000s. The market expanded pretty rapidly, perhaps too rapidly and Japan ended up with some screens that could just barely sell enough advertising to stay afloat. With the economic downturn, many got shut down, which actually helps the screens that are still running. we are proud to say that we have been profitable for the last 8 consecutive years.
3. When did you switch from developing content to actually owning a media?In 1996 we launched our first screen in Tokyo’s Harajuku district. We put the screen on one of the busiest and trendiest intersections in Tokyo. It is the perfect place for an OOH LED. We really wanted to pick a location that would have some staying power and Harajuku brings together a powerful combination of things that make it ideal for and OOH Media. First of all, it is the area where Japan’s fashion trends originate. To make it in the Japanese fashion industry, designers have to have their cloths seen in Harajuku. People from around the world look to Harajuku to find out what the latest is in Japanese fashion trends. In addition to that, Harajuku is just a couple of blocks from the Meiji Jingu (Emporers Shrine) which is a major cultural treasure and tourist attraction. The government keeps the area clean and always will protect the surrounding neighborhood because of its proximity to the shrine. Millions of people visit the shrine every month and most also visit Harakuku at the same time. Harajuku has always attracted lots of tourists, going back to the days when American soldiers came to the area after WWII. It is one of the most international areas in Tokyo. Redevelopment of the area has brought in a lot of new high end stores, Omote Sando Hills is one of the trendiest shopping malls in the world. The combination of fashion, tradition, culture, shopping and millions of people make it the single best place for an OOH LED screen in Japan.
4. Are you considering launching any new screens, even as we are in the midst of an economic slump? We are actually. The downturn has changed our plans and thinking regarding new media development, but it has not stopped it. We need to be more conservative about where we want to launch, and costs, but there are still real strong opportunities. OOH is growing in Japan as traditional media provide weaker CPM and advertisers lose interest. Radio and print are suffering much more than other areas. We are looking at the Ginza (Japan’s most upscale shopping and dining district) as a potential location for a new large LED deployment. Obviously location is important, but even in an appealing area like Ginza, picking the right place for a display is critical. Ten meters in one direction or another can make all the difference in the success or failure of a media. When you really start to analyze the number of potential places to deploy a display, in a small geographic area like the Ginza shopping district, you quickly go from thousands to tens, then to just a few. The rent is very expensive and the CPM has to be real or advertisers will not pay, its that simple. We are determined to find the right location and make the media fit our budget or there is no point in doing it. We are not trying to prove a new model, Large Screen OOH is a mature market in certain Tokyo districts. Its all about making the right choices.
5. How about new technology? Integration with mobile phones? We are highly interested and are constantly looking for interesting models that have potential to cross over to out of home. Japan’s mobile developers are driving that more than OOH and Digital Signage companies. QR codes have some limited potential, but are more suitable to static advertising. I am not sure how other technology will integrate with Digital OOH but we are watching carefully.
6. Do you plan to deploy new mobile technology? If advertisers want it. We need to educate advertisers about what is possible and what new technology currently exists and has been deployed. We are a very demand focused company, but sometimes advertisers do not know what their options really are. So much is possible. We want to help advertisers achieve their goals, which are more CPM based than rich media oriented.

Thank you for your time today Mr. Hoshino, you have provided us with a fantastic perspective of the Japanese OOH market.

Here’s a snapshot of each piece of content we did followed by a brief description…

1. Social media scramble. Official #dsj2010 tweets, replies and mentions, all tweets related to the DSJ show; messages mailed in by cell phone; and announcements from the show organizers.
2. Time announcements on the hour were provided by Booth Ladies around the show. The paper clock was pretty analog, but the content management by Vanten’s EngageMedia plaform was decidedly digital. Virtual time announce slots were pre-arranged, so the photos could be shot on-site and uploaded on the fly. No need to worry about exactly how many photos we get for each hour. The software automatically slideshows through the photos available for each designated hour.
3. YouTube sensation Magibon (most all-time viewed channel in Japan in early 2009 with over 60 million views) joined Vanten in getting lots of fresh and fun content on DSJ Vision during the show. Magibon roamed the show posing for photos with her fans. The photos were then uploaded on the fly into EngageMedia, and combined with one of seven pre-recorded videos of magibon and a catchy comment. The result was Magibon looking with different expressions (hilarious, happy, confused, etc) at the photo while her comment appears as a thought bubble. Fans were seen chasing down Magibon for a photo shoot, then chasing down one of the roughly 20 DSJ vision displays for a chance to see themselves!
4. Even Yodobi-chan, the star character on the Yodobi media in Tokyo and Osaka took time out of her busy cyber-schedule to appear on DSJ vision
5. Kyodo News. Three separate news feeds showed general news, sports news, and World Cup special news.
6. More Booth ladies – can you ever have enough Booth ladies and don’t you just love those socks? Ed – around the show got the chance to plug their booth and strut their stuff on DSJ vision. This was another very hot piece of
   content and probably generated the most buzz next to Twitter on DSJ
   Vision. Again photos uploaded on the fly through EngageMedia.

Digital Signage Japan attracted 131,771 people between June 9 and June 11 in Chiba, Japan.

It will be held at the Makkuhari Messei Convention Hall in Chiba Prefecture, just outside of Tokyo.

Take a look at the web site here (currently Japanese only).

Here it is running on the big LED signs at Yodobashi Camera in Tokyo and Osaka last Saturday.

Japan's Largest Outdoor Screen Deployment

From Yunika Corporation’s press release we quote “It will showcase a variety of content ranging from commercials to original productions. The triple-screen system offers various display options, making it possible to show commercials in new ways. YunikaVision also features a digital signage system to incorporate real-time visual information.“

Yunika Corporation have created an English web site packed with detail about the screens, including an advertising rate sheet for the new landmark deployment.

Read more from the PDF here.

“Massive Display and Digital Signage 2010” edition, a comprehensive industry overview with profiles of all the key players.

This yearbook was initially launched when Japan led the world in outdoor LED screen technology and Sci fi movies like Blade Runner prophesied a cityscape rife with large scale OOH deployments.

Since then Massive Display has become the Bible for anyone involved in OOH Video and now OOH Digital advertising. Until recently, the coffee table sized volume has been called ‘Massive Display 20xx‘ with no mention of Digital Signage.

Now with new deployments and plenty of buzz surrounding Digital Signage, the title has been expanded. Fully half of the 222 page report covers digital signage!

The volume runs the gambit with everything from database run deployments by Vanten to massive OOH screen rollouts by Panasonic. Packed with detail, ‘Massive Display and Digital Signage 2010‘ is for anyone serious about the Japan market, only problem is you better know Japanese or have a good translator.

Anyone interested in purchasing a copy and/or getting chapters translated can get in touch with the author of this article. The book retails for $120 and targets industry insiders.

Screens embedded in the walls opposite waiting passengers, roll TV style commercials, while captive audience members wait for trains. Tokyo Metro got around the problem of excessive noise by installing directional speakers that limit audibility to those people standing directly in front of the screens.

The surprisingly unobtrusive media has popped up in Tokoy over the last 2 months, part of a stealth rollout of the OOH Subway media. The network consists of 72 displays, 12 in each of six train stations total, each 65 inches and high definition. The official launch date is October 1st, but screens have been up and running and packed with paid advertising.

In-house affiliate Metro Ad Agency has signed a number of agreements, including deals with global interests Paramount, Disney, Coca-Cola, as well as with local darlings Hitachi, Aicom and HIS Travel.

Ads loop in 4 minute rolls, containing 16 ads, each 15 seconds long. Advertisers can target their audience by choosing from one of three daily time periods, morning, afternoon and evening.

The six stations are located in downtown business districts and boast a ridership that is 73.1% made up of ‘Business Persons.’

Vanten K.K. (Tokyo, Japan, CEO: Neil van Wouw) and Quividi (Paris, France, CEO: Olivier Duizabo) recently formed a strategic partnership where Vanten will act as an integration and sales partner to assist Quividi’s entry in the Japanese Digital Signage market with its automated audience measurement solution.

As part of this strategic partnership, Vanten will add audience measurement metrics to the existing Ad reporting in EngageMedia, Vanten’s Intelligent Signage Platform. The new service will be available starting Sept. 30, 2009. Both technical teams will work together to increase their competitive advantage in the market and investigate further options such as localizing and jointly operating Quividi’s VidiCenter service in Japan.

EngageMedia currently stores playback information in a database for all content and includes location, time, and actual duration as well as a time-stamped screenshot of each content playback. Customers can easily create reports for any content, time period, or group of displays. New functionalities will add information from Quividi’s VidiReports, keeping track of how many people looked at each content item and for how long. It will also record how many people in the vicinity of the displays have an Opportunity To See (OTS) the screens and how long they remain in range (dwell-time).

Vanten started testing Quividi’s audience measurement system at Yodobashi Camera’s in-store media, YodobiTV, in December 2008. The test period showed impressive results with a very high data collection accuracy and remarkably low requirements in terms of computing resources.

Until recently, audience measurement systems have been slow to detect faces and have used significant amounts of computing power, often requiring special, dedicated computing hardware. The accuracy was also insufficient for producing reliable metrics or quality customer reports. The high price tag also proved to be a major barrier to widespread adoption of the technology. Whereas alternative systems are usually deployed only in key locations, Quividi’s affordable pricing model makes it possible to consider audience measurement with each and every display.

“We’re very excited to be working with Quividi”, said Neil van Wouw, CEO of Vanten , “Our evaluation showed them to be a best-of-breed solution. Quividi showed commitment to standardization by quickly demonstrating consistency with the OVAB audience metric guidelines, and in our estimation, Quividi is currently the only practical way to bring true audience measurement to every display in a large scale deployment. Together we can leverage EngageMedia’s ability to bring more content and advertising variations than ever before, and Quividi’s ability to provide automated and precise metrics at fine grained, single content play level. This is the vision we are striving to realize.”

“Vanten is rapidly emerging as the leading player in Digital Signage in Japan, and we’re delighted to be teaming up with a such a visionary company”, said Olivier Duizabo, CEO of Quividi. “Vanten’s plan to include audience measurement in its standard offer is perfectly tuned to our own vision: ubiquitous real time metrics will generate trust and sharpen the execution of marketing campaigns to ultimately boost the performance of Digital Signage networks. We’re confident that, jointly, we will deliver a superior solution to the Japanese market”.

About Vanten

Vanten has been operating since September 1998, and currently delivers a full suite of digital signage services and solutions. Vanten’s Intelligent Signage Platform, EngageMedia, offers world class digital signage advertising and content management, data network management, security and dynamic content feature modules. Vanten also makes award winning content for Digital Signage, and with its AdChoice division, is a leading DOOH Agency in Japan.

The seminar will feature interesting speakers making inroads into Japan’s instore market. Sony, B2B Solutions Departmenrt will lead off the event with a speech about their Mirutokuchannel service. The service targets supermarkets and provides value added content such as sale information, recipes, news and advertising.

The second speaker is from supermarket operator Summit and will introduce Summit Vision, their instore media channel. Summit uses a combination of screen, projector and LED technology to deliver instore content to shoppers.

Lastly, advertising agency powerhouse Asatsu DK, will deliver a presentation on Promotional Media development. ADK will cover instore puchase decision making and their vision of the future of instore media.

The half day event comes with a Japanese price tag as well, USD 250 per attendee.