DTC Brands in Japan are Finding Success Using LINE Ads
LINE is one of the major platforms for DTC, or direct-to-consumer, brands marketing in Japan right now.
Recently, for example, Japanese healthy snack subscription service snaq.me saw an 8.4X increase in conversions utilizing LINE Ads.
So how should brands view and utilize LINE?
First, what is LINE in Japan?
LINE is a communication application in Japan that launched in 2011. It currently has over 89 million monthly active users in Japan, covering over 70% of the Japanese population.
For reference, Instagram’s last announcement showed that they have 33 million monthly active users in Japan.
Users can enjoy free voice and video calls and chats with each other regardless of whether they are in Japan or overseas, and regardless of communication carriers.
From the perspective of communication in corporate marketing, the two main features are the ability to deliver advertisements within the LINE platform, and the ability to operate a company's official account.
LINE Ad formats include still images, video, and carousels. The ads are delivered on the Timeline, Chat, and News screens.
snaq.me Case Study
What is snaq.me?
Established in Japan in 2015, snaq.me is a DTC “snack experience box”. With an aim of "making snack time worthwhile," the brand delivers natural and healthy snacks that can be eaten by consumers with peace of mind and enjoyment.
The service sends customers a customized snack box based on their preferences they learn from a "snack diagnosis". They are socially conscious, add no artificial sweeteners, utilize packaging with low environmental impact, and support their producers.
snaq.me and their usage of LINE Ads
On LINE, snaq.me utilizes an official account, promotional stickers, and runs ads. New customer acquisition is done through their efforts with LINE Ads.
Compared with other media, the two strengths of advertising on LINE are:
The age range of LINE users in Japan is wide
The user base of LINE in Japan is large, and so are the ad placement options
Due to the snaq.me’s subscription business model, the most important thing for them to focus on in marketing is to increase LTV, or lifetime value.
In order to achieve this, the company has set two KPIs: The number of new registrations and the retention rate. LINE Ads have been able to capture conversions from a wide range of people, contributing greatly to hitting these KPIs.
We see this when we run LINE Ads as well.
There is a segment of the Japanese population that says:
"I don't use Instagram or Twitter, but I do use LINE,"
This is due to the fact that LINE is a super app in which people can use for a range of purposes from communicating with friends to checking the news, to getting shopping coupons.
Ad Effectiveness achieved through testing of creatives
Copywriting
In terms of what copy themes snaq.me utilized, there were two main messaging approaches:
Functional appeal: “Monthly delivery of snacks just for you.”
Benefit appeal: “The reason I stopped buying snacks from convenience stores is ____.”
The results showed that the benefit appeal performed better, with a 2X difference in conversion rate.
When appealing a service or product, however, it is important to conduct research such as user interviews to avoid discrepancies with the benefits that the brand thinks they offer versus how users actually feel.
Visuals
When it came to visual creatives, there were two general types that snaq.me used:
Professionally created that were “on-brand”
UGC-style (user-generated content) visuals created by customers
The results for visuals showed that the UGC-style ads outperformed the professional-looking ads.
LINE Ads appear in places such as the Chat screen, which is used for text messaging and the Timeline screen, where users' posts are displayed, and it’s thought that user-generated content naturally fit user expectations and motivations while looking at those screens.
User-generated content for snaq.me on Instagram
User-generated content for snaq.me on Twitter
On other popular social networks such as Instagram and Twitter, a lot of user-generated content for snaq.me can be seen.
This type of content is more natural for the users that snaq.me is targeting, and that is one of the reasons why they’ve been able to utilize it and see success running LINE Ads.
LINE usage is not as common in other countries. However in Japan, it is one of the platforms that play a key role in the country’s communication infrastructure, and it has a huge presence as it’s almost always on people’s smartphones.
