■MicroAd ＜9553＞ Company Overview

・Shirarrell for the BtoB industry

This product is a data platform that supports BtoB marketing. We are developing a service that distributes targeted advertisements using large-scale business data of 10 million or more to companies aiming to expand awareness of corporate products and services. The characteristics of this product are “using abundant data, making precise targeted advertisements possible,” “reporting services after advertisement distribution are substantial,” and “the effects of advertisement distribution can be visualized through questionnaires.” In particular, there are so many data sources that can be used for BtoB marketing, and they are linked to corporate information using corporate IP addresses, business card information databases, and large amounts of data held by various media for business people. Thus, detailed targeting and approaches such as enterprise names, industries, occupations, positions, etc. can be performed. Also, with regard to the report function, data on industry type, listing category, sales scale, capital, etc. is provided in report format after advertisement distribution. By utilizing this report, customers can confirm consistency between advertisement distribution results and marketing strategies, and then reflect it in marketing strategies from the next time onward.

・IGNITION for the automotive industry

This product is a marketing data platform specialized in the automobile industry. By combining massive site browsing data from automotive-specialized media with AI analysis unique to “IGNITION,” we acquire a potential customer base leading to store visits. Specifically, automobile purchasing possibilities for each user are scored from data on multiple automobile specialized media, and user behavior up to purchase is modeled as a purchasing process. Furthermore, the number of examiners has been maximized by advertisement distribution based on purchasing possibilities. In addition to large databases, it is also characterized by the fact that it is possible to visualize and compare the effects that accurate targeting and advertisement distribution by modeling the purchasing process have on users. These functions solve problems faced by customers such as “I want to distribute to those planning purchases,” “I want more detailed targeting than the automobile interest group,” and “there are few customers that lead to a contract even when visiting a store.”

・Pantry for the food and beverage industry

This product is a marketing platform specialized in the beverage and food industry. Online marketing based on purchasing activities at physical stores is realized by utilizing payment data such as credit cards at physical stores and historical data from various point services. By analyzing beverage and food brands that consumers regularly purchase, digital marketing based on offline purchasing trends is possible, such as realizing marketing that encourages brand switching online. Also, by analyzing how much the effects of the implemented digital marketing contributed to product sales at physical stores based on purchase data, reporting is also carried out to visualize the advertising effects. These functions solve problems faced by customers such as “I want to do marketing based on real consumption behavior” and “I want to grasp the extent to which digital marketing measures have been effective on sales.”

One of the characteristics of “UNIVERSE” is that “since owned data is combined, there is no need for new system development, and it is possible to immediately provide new products.” As a new marketing product utilizing data held by “UNIVERSE,” the company has been steadily introducing multiple services to the market, such as the marketing product “Machiage” specialized for local governments in 2023/2, the advertisement distribution service “UNIVERSE for the New NISA” for the financial industry in June of the same year, and the marketing product “Marble,” which specializes in human resource recruitment in August of the same year. Recently, in 2024/5, they began providing a new tourism promotion support service “Machiage with AIT,” which was jointly developed with JTB Communication Design Co., Ltd.

・Marketing product “Machiage” specialized for local governments

This product is a marketing product specialized for more comprehensive local governments, including “UNIVERSE for nationwide travel support” and “UNIVERSE for hometown tax,” which the company has provided until now. Browsing history and location information data such as travel/outing media, etc. with which “UNIVERSE” is linked can be analyzed, and layers with higher affinity for various policies implemented by local governments can be captured, and local governments that want to carry out promotions such as attraction to user demand such as migration, travel, and hometown tax will be able to distribute more appropriate targeting advertisements according to their own needs and issues. Also, by comparing before and after advertisement distribution and measuring effects, it can be applied to future promotions.

・MARBLE, a marketing product specialized in human resource recruitment

As demand for human resource recruitment increases, this product has expanded new functions to advertisement distribution services for human resource recruitment up until now, and has been introduced to the market as a marketing product specializing in human resource recruitment. By utilizing the web browsing history owned by “UNIVERSE” and job hunting media data provided by partner companies, and analyzing the intentions of students who may be the target of appeal, targeted advertisement distribution is carried out to student groups that are estimated to be highly likely to enter the company. This promotes raising corporate awareness and supports better population formation in new graduate recruitment activities. It also has functions such as preparing an analysis report after advertisement distribution. As social and economic activities resume due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (hereafter, COVID-19), labor shortages at companies are serious, and we anticipate that demand for the same products will continue to be steady in the future.

・Enhancing the performance of existing products through data linkage, etc.

Also, in addition to developing new products, performance enhancements and function expansion of existing products are continuously carried out by utilizing data linkage, etc. In addition to strengthening the function of “Machiage” by doubling the total amount of location information data to be linked in 2023/10, the Hiroshima branch office was newly established in 2024/2 and the Sendai branch office in April of the same year as an effort to expand sales of “UNIVERSE.” This is to respond to growing digital marketing demand from local governments and companies surrounding the base.

Under these circumstances, the number of operating accounts, which is the main KPI of “UNIVERSE,” has been doing well. The cumulative number of active accounts for the second quarter of the fiscal year ending 2024/9 expanded to 1,741, up 11.0% from the same period last year. In addition to timely market introduction of new products and enhanced performance of existing products through data linkage, it looks like the transformation into a sales organization specializing in customer attributes implemented in the 2022/9 fiscal year contributed. Also, it seems that a sales strategy of promoting horizontal expansion to other brands within the same customer and expanding the number of operating accounts also contributed. By specializing in each industry, it is expected that customer demand for the company's products, which enable more accurate data analysis, will continue to increase in the future, and we infer that the number of operating accounts will also be steadily changing. Also, specializing in the industry also leads to a deep understanding of the KPIs of client companies, and the fact that insights extracted from data can be proposed to customers while appropriately relating them to KPIs is also attractive. In fact, repeat accounts maintained a high level even in the 2nd quarter of the 2024/9 fiscal year, and it seems that the company's high proposal ability has led to continued customer use (although the ratio of repeat accounts in the 2nd quarter of the 2024/9 fiscal year was not disclosed, the ratio of repeat accounts to operating accounts for the 2nd quarter of the 2024/9 fiscal year was as high as about 80%). The deep understanding of client companies' KPIs and proposals based on them are backed by the company's long history of business activities. In this sense, it is difficult to imitate, and it can be said that it has become the company's competitive advantage.

(Written by FISCO Visiting Analyst Yoichiro Shimizu)