What kind of year will 2021 be for Japan’s
internet advertising
industry? Integral Ad Science has compiled and announced the results of an attitude survey of 175 people involved in Internet advertising in Japan in “Industry Pulse 2021 Japanese Edition.”
It included information on industry issues and trends for 2021 predicted by Japanese internet advertising experts.
Industry challenges for 2021 are “deprecation of third-party cookies,” “data privacy law,” and “adaptation to contextual targeting.”
The top industry challenges for 2021 were “deprecation of third-party cookies,” “data privacy laws,” “accurate measurement,” “adaptation to contextual targeting,” and “cross-device attribution.”
Tightening regulations regarding personal data privacy are expected to continue to have a major impact on the Internet advertising industry. “Third-party cookies” are cookies that are placed on your computer by a third party’s (such as an advertiser’s) server to track you. This allows you to see what kind of web content that third-party user is viewing.
Displaying advertisements based on the user’s areas of interest identified in this way is a method of targeted advertising. However, in June 2020, the revised Personal Information Protection Act was enacted, and the use of cookies now requires user consent. If users refuse the use of cookies, traditional targeted advertising will no longer work.
This is why “contextual advertising,” which does not rely on cookies, is attracting attention. This uses AI to analyze the keywords, text, images, etc. of the web page that the user is viewing, and displays advertisements that match the context of that page. It is recognized that adapting to such advertising methods will be a challenge in 2021.
The value of mobile media will further increase, and the shift to OTT/connected TV will accelerate
According to Dentsu Inc.’s 2019 Advertising Expenditure in Japan, Japan’s mobile advertising budget in 2019 was 1,262.3 billion yen, which was more than 80% of the total digital advertising budget. The importance of mobile media in digital advertising is expected to grow even further as 5G adoption expands and mobile technology evolves further.
Additionally, there is a consumer trend away from traditional TVs to OTT (video distribution sites with large-capacity content provided on the Internet by carriers and other providers) and connected TVs (large-screen TVs connected to the Internet). This shift is progressing and is expected to accelerate in 2021.
The importance of social media and programmatic advertising continues to grow, but transparency challenges
The top media priorities for 2021 were “social media,” “digital video/OTT streaming,” and “mobile web.” Investment in social media advertising is said to be increasing every year, and is expected to increase further in 2021.
However, on the other hand, advertisers are also strict about the quality of social media advertising. Ad fraud (the act of inflating results such as the number of closed deals using impressions or clicks that are otherwise invalid) is also a concern, and there is hope for greater transparency regarding media quality on social platforms.
Programmatic advertising continues to grow and is expected to achieve even greater growth in 2021. However, some industry players feel the need for advertising verification as they are seen as vulnerable to brand risk. Integral Ad Science expects transparency to improve in 2021 as new technologies emerge and industry partnerships strengthen.