On Wednesday, March 6th, we held the “Video Marketing Salon in Tokyo” in Otemachi, Tokyo. We invited Mr. Morikuni, General Manager of the Brand Communication Department at Toyo Tire & Rubber Co., Ltd., who is also a Brightcove user and makes use of video on owned media and social media, and Mr. Yamane, Senior Manager of the Digital Communication Group at the Marketing Development Department of Sapporo Breweries Ltd., to take part in a panel discussion.
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## Why and how did you start using videos?
Mr. Morikuni of Toyo Tire says, “Although tires are usually changed once every three years, what consumers focus on when buying tires is price, brand name and the recommendation of the sales staff. For this reason, it is important to increase the number of times the brand is spontaneously recalled.”
In order to make the most of its limited advertising budget, the company has narrowed down its target audience and implemented measures to get people interested in tires, rather than focusing on all aspects.
They have created videos that are aware of the target audience’s insights, such as those interested in motor sports and SUV users, in order to gain recognition and build positive feelings.
Once we have filmed one video, we create multiple versions of it, such as different lengths, to suit the characteristics of the medium, so we produce around 50 to 60 videos a year. We make effective use of each asset many times over by posting them on social networking sites such as YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, publishing them on our own media, and, depending on the content, also aiming to get them published in the media.
Sapporo Beer Mr. Yamane introduced the company’s methods for promoting the development of good customers through its own media.
The company has created a variety of brand sites as content to embody its corporate message, “Making toasts more delicious”. Among these, Mr. Yamane launched a recipe video site and a travel-related owned media site called “SAPPORO OVER QUALITY”, based on the idea that consumers who like to drink beer are also highly interested in food and travel. He says that both of these projects have been popular.
The recipe video site has around 20 one-minute videos. As most of the site visitors came from search engine traffic, the company positioned this as content to attract customers, and used it to create new points of contact with customers. SAPPORO OVER QUALITY is positioned as a way to engage with people who have become fans of Sapporo Beer, and the company is working to turn them into fans.
The recipe videos are also being used in store promotions, for example by putting QR codes for the recipe videos on flyers.
Mr. Yamane says that it is important to have “content that increases engagement at the point of contact” as well as attracting people to the company’s website.
## Why did you introduce a video management tool?
__Mr. Morikuni__
“There was a lot of work involved in publishing a single video, such as selecting thumbnails, writing descriptions, and adding tags for each social media post, as well as publishing on owned media and sharing with overseas offices. Also, even if we uploaded the brand content we had worked so hard to create to YouTube, our employees were unable to view it because YouTube access was restricted within the company. By introducing Brightcove’s video management tool, we were able to not only post videos to our owned media, but also to YouTube and social media in a centralized way, and we were also able to greatly reduce the amount of time spent on tasks such as thumbnail generation. We were also able to make the videos available for viewing within the company.”
Mr. Yamane
“Before, the only videos we had were TV commercials, but the number of videos we needed to manage suddenly increased, including recipe videos for our owned media and 6-second bumper videos for the web, and we couldn’t handle it using our previous management methods or templates for communicating with advertising agencies. By introducing Brightcove’s video management tool, we were able to reduce the amount of work required by simply granting account privileges to the agency and completing the communication request. We were also able to manage the agency.”
## What is the secret to producing a large volume of high-quality videos?
__Mr. Morikuni__
“We have TV commercials produced by major advertising agencies, but we commission video production companies directly to produce videos for the web. This is more time-consuming in terms of direction, but it is also cheaper. The secret is to work together with the people at the production company, rather than just leaving everything to them.”
__Mr. Yamane__
“The renewal of the video gallery was the impetus for us to invite people from outside the company (such as production companies) to hold study sessions, and we began to tackle brand measures with an integrated communication team that transcended departments such as advertising and branding. The trick to mass production is to decide what to shoot and package it.
