The Japanese digital marketplace has been steadily catching up to the UK in terms of sophistication and saturation but is still arguably around two to three years off being entirely caught up. As such, we can take an informed approach to predicting the next major marketing trends.

The good news is that all trends point to sustained growth and an increased digital dependency. Although the nation holds its deep rooted traditions and social conventions closely, it is starting to accelerate its reliance on digital commerce and marketing.

Trend 1: Overall Digital Spending Increasing

Japan’s Ministry of Economy, reports that trade and industry growth for digital spending has been accelerating at a strong and steady rate of 10% year-on-year for the last three years. On top of this, 2018 saw digital media expenditure exceed that of the traditionally favoured PR and events industry. The figures now reveal that only television advertising spend in Japan is higher than that of digital spend.

Until recently, the Japanese market for social media and internal platform advertising was very much disguised to appeal to the audience by only a very subtle differentiation from an organic presence. Recently though, the various platforms have started to roll out more obvious and more varied advertising options. Search engines, social media platforms and big brand commerce sites including Amazon have all increased the number of advertising units and options available, meaning Japanese consumers are slowing being exposed to more advertising and accepting it as the norm. With all these progressions digital ad spend is only going to continue to soar.

Trend 2: Adoption of Multiple Channel Advertising

As with any early market where competition has yet to reach high levels of saturation, many brands have been able to get away with focusing time and resources on a single primary channel, such as paid search. As digital spending increases and competition rises, these brands will find that the margin and success of a single channel approach starts to fail. As such, some forward-thinking Japanese businesses are acknowledging they will need to branch out across multiple channels in order to get consumer attention and maintain a healthy positive return on investment. Expect to see content marketing and social media soar over the next 12 to 18 months.

Trend 3: Ecommerce Becoming King

With consumers adjusting to the idea of shopping online on a regular basis and brands like Amazon and Japanese rival Rakuten doing increasingly well, other brands are following suit. Many traditional brands, supermarkets and department stores are recognising that they are becoming less relevant and unable to compete with the shift online. As such, we expect to see a big shift in the overall standard and focus on ecommerce for all Japanese retail brands. Even the more stubborn businesses and brands are now starting to recognise that resistance is futile and digital is the way forward.

Tags: digital marketing, ecommerce Japan, advertising, paid search, content marketing, social media