Similarities between the US civil rights movement and the buzz in the advertising industry. XICA's new vision is a "pledge for civil rights"

In 2020, XICA has updated its vision, the destination that companies aim for. "Create a fair world filled with talent development." This is our new guidepost. What does "talent development" mean here? And isn't this world a "fair world" right now?

I will ask Hirao about this later, but there are many ancient customs in the world that have become part of our daily lives and are taken for granted. Even if these customs contain some kind of irrationality, we often fail to notice this strangeness.

However, the world is changing every day. The world is constantly changing, seeking better economic experiences and greater fairness. Nowadays, it has become easier for anyone to voice their discomfort. A small message from one person can become a major wave of change for the times. As the world evolves, we must destroy remaining unfair practices and reconstruct new systems.

XICA aims to disrupt such unfair structures, make the manufacturing cycle healthier, and create a fair world in which the efforts of those who make things are fairly evaluated.

We spoke to CEO Yoshiaki Hirao about the future that XICA is aiming for.

The ideal world that advertisers and media have been striving for since the birth of marketing is drawing closer.

Hirao　If you ask me what kind of company XICA is, I would answer like this.A civil rights leader in the advertising industry.,When.

He is just like Martin Luther King, the driving force behind the American civil rights movement, known for his "I have a dream" speech. In the past, in America, where African Americans' "right to live equally (with white people)" was violated, he sought to correct discrimination based on skin color and origin, and to grant freedom and democracy to all. Many citizens who were forced into inequality without freedom of choice due to an unfair social structure wanted to leave the world where things were decided by invisible dynamics and create a country where "their efforts are properly evaluated."

This movement was finally resolved with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, about half a century ago.What if the unfair conditions I have just given as examples still exist in society?

Let's continue with examples from the United States. The impact of the "Media Transparency Report" published by the Association of National Advertisers in June 2016 was tremendous. The report disclosed the cost price for advertising fees of an unspecified number of advertisers. As a result of the clear exposure of strange money flows such as kickbacks and cashbacks, the stock prices of major American advertising agencies fell and have not recovered yet (※6).

*1: This issue became a major problem around 1, one year after the Association of National Advertisers released its report. The share price of WPP, the world's number one advertising agency, fell to half its value in 2017 compared to its peak in 1. It has continued to fall from there to the present. The share price of Publicis, a major French advertising agency that operates in over 2017 countries around the world, has also fallen by 2019%.

The enormous information asymmetry cannot be ignored.

I think the background to this trend is the contribution of online advertising, which has made a great impact over the past 20 years. Cost-effectiveness, which was previously invisible, has become more visible, and advertising results can now be understood to a certain extent. Following online advertising, it is not surprising that questions arise such as, "So, what about offline advertising? What about TV commercials?"

XICA has been working to create a world where everyone can analyze data and properly evaluate the value of advertising.ADVAis a service that utilizes data science to maximize the results of marketing, especially commercials.

Advertisers are investing huge amounts of money in advertising and promotion. There are some industries where advertising and promotion costs account for more than 10% of sales (※2).Top 300 companies with the highest advertising expensesCompanies with the highest advertising expenses ratio (the percentage of sales that advertising expenses account for) invest more than 6% of their sales in advertising expenses.

Despite such huge expenditure,It is difficult to say that advertisers are making decisions based on proper information.I feel a strong sense of discomfort about this current situation.Someone has to do something about this huge information asymmetry.I think.

Since the two of us founded XICA in 2012, we have been aiming to "democratize data analysis" as "analysts." Nine years have passed since then, and XICA is still working to democratize data analysis, leveraging the data science expertise we have accumulated.

ADVA isIt's a solution to clients' marketing problems, but also a pledge to put everyone on a level playing field and win civil rights.

*2: https://www.dentsu.co.jp/knowledge/ad_cost/2018/business.html

"To create a fair world where talent can flourish"

Based on what I have said so far, XICA has set a new vision for 2020: "Create a fair world where talent flourishes."

Talent development here refers to a state in which an individual's capabilities are fully utilized, and the targets of talent development are advertisers and the media. Companies that create good products and services, and media that create advertisements and content that move the hearts of consumers.Create a fair world where the value created by each craftsmanship is evaluated equally in the market, without being influenced by industry structures or information asymmetry..

This may sound like a given, but it's because people don't realize that it's not fair. I think you can see that from the few examples I've given so far.

Revolutions that have taken place around the world up until now have been fights to eliminate injustice and seek fairness. Fairness is both difficult and precious. If the root cause of injustice, information asymmetry, could be eliminated, the world would change.

This may sound like an exaggeration, but think back. Isn't it true that everyone comes into contact with advertising every day? To a greater or lesser extent, advertising influences our daily consumption activities. There are rows of detergents lined up on supermarket shelves. If there was no significant difference in their effectiveness, we would all have the experience of picking up a product based on the image in the advertisement, thinking, "That commercial I saw recently had a good feel to it." This means thatThe market we are optimizing is a global economic market of 65.3 trillion yen (※3), exceeding the global advertising market size of 9,200 trillion yen (※4).I think so.

It's such a big challenge that it's naturally difficult. But I can say with confidence that this is a business I'll be proud of when I look back on it on my deathbed. It will change the lifestyle and world that we've taken for granted up until now. For us, it's a grand challenge, just like Ford, who created the automobile, or the Wright brothers, who flew the plane.

*3: Based on Dentsu Group's "Global Advertising Expenditure Growth Forecast (2020-2022)," converted into US dollars/yen at the rate as of February 2021, 2. https://www.group.dentsu.com/jp/news/release/8.html

*4: IMF “World Economic Outlook Database (https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/weo-database/2020/October）" converted to US dollars/yen at the rate as of March 2021, 3.

"Democratizing data analysis": How to get there

Along with the renewal of our vision, we have also renewed our mission, which shows how we will move towards that vision: "Democratize data analysis and democratize marketing due diligence."

To be honest, our company's guidelines up until now have been too vague for this enormous challenge. It was as if we were telling people to run for the sun. We wanted to keep the passion the same, but make it more concrete and easier to visualize. This is why we have corrected not only our vision, but also our mission.

In 15 years, I hope that "democratizing data analysis and marketing due diligence" will become commonplace. By then, I'd like to be able to laugh at the current state of the advertising industry. "Apparently, in the past, you couldn't see the effects of advertising! You couldn't analyze it yourself! That's impossible!"

I think you can now understand why our vision and mission state "creating a fair world" and "fair evaluation." We are players in the liberation front that will change a biased society. "Fairness" and "fairness" may look good on paper, but they can only be achieved through a violent revolution.

A world where people who create things sincerely, without being content with the inequalities they unconsciously accept, can blossom into their talents.That is the future we aim for.

*The affiliation and title of the interviewee are those at the time of the interview.