industry: Other

Strict advertising regulations meant there were limitations to optimizing media allocation

Q. Mr. Nakamura, please tell us the role of the department that introduced MAGELLAN.

As CMO, I am in a position to oversee the entire marketing of the business. The team that introduced MAGELLAN this time is the marketing team that is mainly responsible for advertising and media allocation. This time, we introduced MAGELLAN to analyze the matchmaking app "Pairs."

Yuichi Nakamura, Director and CMO

Q. What are the characteristics of the market and the challenges in marketing?

The matching app industry has very strict advertising regulations. In the past, the term "dating" was often heard, and especially when the industry first entered the market, it often had a negative image, and advertising placements were quite restricted. Therefore, in terms of marketing, even if we wanted to expand our advertising placements, we were limited in the number of media we could use, so we had difficulties in that we could only take limited measures. Specifically, we could not place advertisements on TV commercials, transportation ads, or YouTube. We started from a situation where "even if we wanted to expand our advertising placements beyond digital, the only thing we could do was some billboard ads."

In order to change the negative image of "dating sites" and create an atmosphere that "it's okay to use them" and "it's normal to use them," direct response advertising alone is not enough. Since we need to make people who are not our target aware of and understand the service, we placed great importance on branding advertising.

To maximize the effect of branding, it is natural to allocate media starting with the most effective one, but in our case, we were unable to do that. The most difficult thing was that we were unable to implement TV commercials or transportation ads, which are thought to be the most effective in terms of generating volume. Even though we were placing ads in limited media, we were worried about whether the branding effect would actually be achieved.

In these tough circumstances, we have embarked on branding activities with determination, through trial and error. Although we have not yet achieved clear optimization, I believe that it is because we have pursued this with determination that we have been able to establish our position as a leading company today. Now, advertising restrictions are gradually being relaxed, and we have finally been able to choose our media.

Want to clarify the optimal media allocation to maximize advertising effectiveness?

Q. Please tell us why you introduced MAGELLAN.

Until now, while there were advertising restrictions, we have been increasing our advertising budget in the order that restrictions were lifted. Now, we finally have more options, and we can implement the highest priority based on the cards we have at our disposal. The reason we introduced MAGELLAN was to clarify the optimal media allocation to maximize the effect.

Q. When considering optimizing media allocation, did MAGELLAN come up immediately?

In fact, we first tried to optimize allocation in-house. Since we belong to a group company called Match Group, it is often faster to discuss with group companies using unified standards when deciding on a budget. Therefore, we thought it would be better to develop it in-house. However, since the maturity of the matching app market in the United States, where our parent company is located, is different from that of Japan, we found it difficult to apply the unified standards as they are in Japan. Therefore, we decided to separate the reporting method and the review method. We thought it would be better to create reports in-house and use external Japanese tools for review, and as a result, we introduced MAGELLAN. We will use MAGELLAN to conduct optimal media allocation analysis tailored to the Japanese market and then consider the content of our advertisements.

We want to optimize the balance between short-term gains and medium- to long-term branding.

Q. What are your particular expectations regarding the analysis of MAGELLAN?

When we think about "efficient advertising," we tend to look only at the visible numbers, but what we expect from MAGELLAN is that we can help optimize advertising that is not visible (cannot be quantified) as well.

The matching app industry has always had a bad image, and some people still feel that way. I feel that it is an industry with a lot of potential customers, but not so many actual customers. In marketing, if the goal is to only acquire immediate users, it is fine to reap the rewards with direct response advertising, but that alone will not last. I believe that people gradually start to think, "Maybe I should try it," after seeing an advertisement in a reliable media, seeing it multiple times in multiple places, or being introduced by a friend. In other words, direct response advertising alone is not enough, and I believe that branding advertising, which is difficult to see in numbers, such as billboard advertising and transportation advertising, is very important. On the other hand, no matter how important branding advertising is, I believe that there are of course meaningless places and meaningless amounts, so I would like to optimize those as well.

We believe that the balance between advertising aimed at short-term sales and advertising (branding) with a view to mid- to long-term sales is extremely important in business management. We hope that MAGELLAN can help you achieve the optimum balance.

Q. Is there anything else you would like to analyze with MAGELLAN?

When multiple advertisements with different purposes are run in the same media, I think there are cases where it works well and cases where it works badly. For example, in our case, we run both branding advertisements and direct response advertisements on YouTube. In the future, we would like to clarify how this affects the results. We would like to formulate and verify hypotheses while gradually changing the analytical points.

The ultimate ideal is to "not place ads"

Q. Lastly, please tell us about your goal in marketing.

The ultimate ideal would be to not advertise. I think it would be ideal to acquire users entirely organically. To achieve this, branding is important. I want to create a flow where "Pairs" is the first thing people think of, and when they feel like using it at their own moment, they remember it, start using it, and introduce it to people around them.

For that reason, as a short-term goal, we would like to be chosen by people who are closer to the potential demographic. Until now, we have been chosen by people who are relatively proactive in their search for love and marriage. From now on, we would like to be chosen by people who say, "I haven't thought about marriage yet, but I want a partner," or "I want to get married, but I can't be proactive."

The most important thing is the ability to consult with others, which has become our unique strength.

Q. Please tell me your responsibilities.

I am in charge of the brand strategy for our services. We believe that brand strategy is very important when considering business strategies. Our mission is to embody our philosophy for couples considering their weddings and for the wedding venues that are our partners.

Specifically, we are working to increase brand recognition and spread our image through TV commercials, transportation advertising, social media, etc. We are also unifying the brand image on our website and in our stores, which are our points of contact with customers.

Q. Please tell us about the characteristics of the market and your company’s situation.

A characteristic of the market is that the number of couples holding wedding ceremonies is decreasing year by year. The reason behind this is an increase in couples who choose not to hold a wedding ceremony even after registering their marriage, and the reasons for this are diverse, including "financial reasons," "the difficulty of preparation," and "not being good at ceremonies." Since each couple has their own way of resolving their worries and anxieties, it can be quite difficult for them to solve them on their own. Therefore, since the start of our service, we at Hanayume have focused on the "consultation skills" of our advisors, with the aim of eliminating "no weddings."

For example, when an advisor consults about a wedding, they listen carefully to not only the couple's worries and concerns, but also about how they met and how they spend their weekends. They believe that this kind of consultation will help them realize their "dream wedding."

As a result of continuing to value this "consultation ability," we have been ranked No. 4 in the "Wedding Venue Consultation Counter Ranking" for four consecutive years.^■and has received high praise within the industry.

*2017st place in the Oricon Customer Satisfaction® ranking for wedding venue consultation counters from 2020 to 1

There was a problem with visualizing the effectiveness of offline advertising

Q. What are some of the challenges in marketing?

In fact, many couples are not aware that they are worried about their wedding. As long as their worries do not become apparent, they will not feel like consulting someone, so it is necessary for them to first become aware of their worries. Therefore, it is difficult to communicate with them to make them aware of their worries.

Therefore, in our TV commercials and other creative content, we aim to clearly communicate the concerns that many couples have. We hope that this will help couples become aware of the concerns they may have had and that they can understand that "consulting Hanayume can help resolve those concerns."

Q. Why did you decide to use MAGELLAN?

As the amount of offline advertising, such as TV commercials and transit ads, increases, we felt that it was necessary to carefully assess the efficiency of each medium and make optimal investment allocations.

Hanayume originally focused on online advertising, as they also operate a website. However, because online advertising, which is centered on acquisition measures, has limitations in approaching couples who have worries and anxieties, they began to place emphasis on offline advertising as an awareness measure.

Unlike online advertising, the effectiveness of offline advertising cannot be measured by the number of conversions or CPA. Until now, we have mainly evaluated the quality of offline advertising through fixed-point observations of awareness surveys. In addition, we had a rough idea of ​​how much we should invest in each medium based on past performance. However, when asked whether this was truly an appropriate investment allocation, we felt that it was a challenge because it was difficult to explain the effectiveness of each medium with clear numerical evidence. Therefore, we decided to introduce MAGELLAN with the aim of clarifying the optimal investment allocation for each medium, including offline advertising, and increasing the efficiency of our investment.

We want to realize optimal investment allocation of not only advertising but all management resources.

Q. What are your impressions of the MAGELLAN analysis results and how will you use them in the future?

In the MAGELLAN analysis, I was surprised to see that some media had the same impact as I had expected, while others contributed more to the results than I had imagined. From now on, I would like to optimize my advertising investment allocation based on MAGELLAN's suggestions, and improve efficiency while verifying the results.

In addition, MAGELLAN can quantify not only advertising but all the variables that make up sales. For example, there are multiple variables that make up sales other than advertising, such as the number of call centers and the number of venues listed on the site. In the future, we would like to verify the optimal investment allocation of all management resources, not just advertising, and achieve overall optimization.

Aiming to promote understanding of our services in order to embody our philosophy

Q. Lastly, please tell us about your goal in marketing.

Our number one goal is to embody the philosophy of "giving as many couples as possible the opportunity to have their dream wedding." On that basis, we would like to first establish a system that allows us to propose the ideal wedding that suits each couple, and to establish the recognition that Hanayume will definitely solve their problems if they consult with us. In the future, we aim to further expand our recognition and create a situation where people do not have to bear their worries or anxieties alone, but can consult us about any worries or anxieties, no matter how trivial.