Evangelist Finder (Promotion Business Division, Shingo Hiraoka)

"EVANGELIST FINDER" is a solution that matches products/services with influencers. To uncover its true nature, Kimezo—who knew absolutely nothing about it—interviewed Shingo Hiraoka from Dentsu Inc. Promotion Business Division, the person in charge.

 

──So basically, it's about finding a suitable influencer and having them promote your product on their blog or social media with something like, "This time, thanks to an introduction from [Company Name], I tried this product..."

Hiraoka: Broadly speaking, that's what we have influencers do, yes. The uniqueness of this solution lies in the fact that anyone can easily find influencers suited to their product or service beforehand.

──Well, it took me five all-nighters to reach this conclusion. Is this Dentsu Inc.'s original idea?

Hiraoka: That's right. There are other sites and systems that let you search for reader model bloggers, but those are just what you'd call "girl search systems" where you can find bloggers by gender or age.

EVANGELIST FINDER is fundamentally a "solution search system" from the client or planner's perspective. You input the type of product or service you want to promote, the PR methods, target media, budget, etc., and it instantly calculates the optimal combination of influencers for that promotion and the expected results. For exposure media, you're not limited to blogs; you can select various SNS platforms like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and more. For Asian influencers, it also supports Weibo and blogs from other countries. I don't think there's another search system in Japan that comprehensively covers media and regions to this extent.

──What sparked the idea for this system? Could my influence have played a small part in it?

Hiraoka: (smiling) Not really. I was originally in the IC Bureau at Dentsu Inc. Kansai for about four and a half years starting in 2004, working in the department that bought digital media. That was right when blog promotions were booming, and I started doing blogger-based promotions here and there. But as we ran them, we found a lot of issues.

For instance, when we tried using fashion bloggers with page views (PV) comparable to celebrities for food campaigns, the results weren't as effective as expected. Also, while monthly blog PV was often used to gauge influence back then, we realized you couldn't accurately measure influence without looking at article-specific PV. Getting involved in various tasks made me feel that many aspects—like selecting the right blogger for a campaign or calculating effectiveness—were a black box for clients (and even for ad agencies).

This is especially true regarding the compatibility between campaigns and bloggers. Even when we asked blog agencies to handle casting, sometimes we'd get suggestions like, "Why this person for this project?" For instance, someone who frequently writes about budget-friendly items being cast for a luxury car campaign. Readers of those articles would likely feel something was off. It's not just about having influence; the person recommending the product or service needs to be a fan of it. Ideally, they should be an authority in that field. That's why I believe it's essential for such recommendations to come from someone like that. It was this desire to visualize these black boxes that led to the development of this system.

──What's the origin of the name? Is it true the final "ー" in "Evangelist Finder" comes from the "ー" in "Kimezo"?

Hiraoka: ( Closing his eyes briefly, then opening them slowly) No, that's not it. It comes from the meaning of "evangelist" – a missionary. Because someone with genuine affection for the product introduces it, they become its missionary. As a result, readers feel convinced, the message naturally resonates, and it becomes effective.

Until now, selections were based on gut feelings, like the handler and blogger getting along well, or "this person's in magazines and seems stylish." The challenge for EVANGELIST FINDER is how precisely we can refine that matching process.

──How are clients responding positively?

Hiraoka: One key point of appreciation is definitely the precision of the matching. You can search based on magazines influencers read, but even within fashion magazines, someone reading ViVi has a completely different style than someone reading CanCam, right? Fashion clients have been really happy about this lately. If someone who reads CanCam introduces ViVi-style items, it feels off. When they feature items on their blog, they often coordinate them with other pieces they own, so you can clearly see it doesn't match in the photos.

──Yeah, it'd be weird if someone who always wears jackets over bare skin started promoting dress shirts.

Hiraoka: Recently, I handled a client for a shoe brand. We searched based on magazines and cast people who happened to genuinely love that brand. Around Christmas, when we sent them the product shoes, one person said the shoes she got as a gift from her husband were also from that brand (laughs).

What surprised me even more was that I sent each blogger several different boots that seemed like they'd suit them, and two of them had boots that were exactly the same color and style as the ones I sent! (laughs) That really made me think it was a true match.

──That's seriously impressive.

Hiraoka: Our current matching looks at basic personal attributes and region, plus categories, hobbies, and magazines they read, but I think there's still a lot more we can do.

For example, even with something like donuts, introducing donuts from famous domestic chains might work better for some people, while introducing famous donut shops from overseas might work better for others. Strictly speaking, they should be different. I hope we can refine it to that level.

──By the way, I want to be stored in EVANGELIST FINDER too. Are there any requirements?

Hiraoka: For Twitter, there are five tiers. The lowest is D-rank, starting at 3,000 followers.

──I have 600 Twitter followers.

Hiraoka: (Cheerfully) That's not even close!

──Can't you store me at X-rank?

Hiraoka: (Brightly) No way! By the way, we still have a mountain of challenges ahead. We can show things like "this many page views on a blog" or "this many followers on Twitter," but going forward, we want to visualize the influence of the individual themselves—how much influence they have—by looking holistically at all the media they own. Such metrics already exist overseas, but Japan still lacks major ones.

Also, when we run campaigns, we see individual differences in results even among people with the same PVs or followers. We want to build a system that aggregates those results and feeds them back into future search results—a system that enables continuous PDCA cycles.

──If we can do that, we'll become one of a kind. Like me.

Hiraoka: (Briskly ignoring him) Recently, we've started cataloging influencers across Asian countries to expand EVANGELIST FINDER into Asia. Once we cover the entire region, I believe it will truly become an unparalleled solution.

──By the way, what are the characteristics of bloggers with high view counts?

Hiraoka: First, they update frequently. Frequency is key. Readers look forward to updates and visit repeatedly.

Next, they take great photos. Bloggers who skillfully use smartphone camera effects and style their articles like magazines are popular.

And they respond thoughtfully to comments. Simply put, it's steady, hard work.

──Isn't there more? You don't plan on making me an evangelist? Hey, Hiraoka, I'm serious here.

Hiraoka: Well...

There are other tips for boosting views too. Like events. From personal ones like Christmas or birthdays to official ones like reception parties. Blog readers often come with a bit of envy, so they're curious about what gifts someone got for their birthday or what brands invited them to what kind of reception. That's why including words like "gift" or the event name in your title can sometimes boost views.

──Thanks. I'll give you a hug as a thank you.

Hiraoka: (Shaking off Kimezo's arm as he tries to hug her) Stop it.

For clients, we propose every possible method to boost an article's appeal—from these tips for increasing views on promotional pieces, to creative approaches for product placements, and even structuring events to make them more likely to be featured in articles.

──By the way, Hiraoka, what were you doing back in your student days? Were you an evangelist?

Hiraoka: This was around 2000. When I was a graduate student, I ran my own online research business with about 20,000 research monitors. And those 20,000 people each had their own areas of expertise. Some were strong in this genre, others were super niche about certain topics. I wanted to create a platform where I could database that information and think, "If I match this person with that person, we could create an interesting project," or "A new product could be born," and that would benefit companies and society. But back then, I didn't have the funding to fully realize it.

So this time, by chance, working as a blogger and identifying these challenges and needs led to creating this. I hope it can realize that original vision—not exactly the same, but in a similar form. That new projects and products emerge starting from these evangelists. It feels like that vague idea I had as a student is finally starting to take shape.

──So that dream is actually starting to come true.

Hiraoka: We already have several product development projects led by evangelists. For example, developing new drink menus using products from a food manufacturer and actually selling them in cafes nationwide, or hiring a certified nutritionist and culinary researcher to develop new recipes using our products from a child's food education perspective.

But personally, I feel like we've only achieved about one-hundredth of what's possible. I still have so many things I want to do.

──Why don't you tell us about the clients you'd like to try working with next?

Hiraoka: Currently, our largest clients are in beverages and toiletries. Recently, fashion clients have also been increasing.

For future trial clients, I'd like to explore travel-related industries like airlines and travel agencies, and further develop the Asian projects we're currently expanding into. Since blogs and SNS can deliver authentic articles in real time, I feel there's more potential for travel-related projects where the authenticity of word-of-mouth is crucial. Also, while Japanese blogs often focus on food and fashion, Southeast Asia has a relatively high number of travel bloggers. For example, national tourism boards or agencies could become clients. They could have travel bloggers from target countries (like China or Indonesia for Japan) visit Japan and share its appeal with their home country's readers. With tourism promotion efforts intensifying globally, I think this kind of demand will grow.

──Can you share some examples? By the way, I've never actually dated a woman.

Hiraoka: Let me share a case study from the Japanese launch of an overseas fashion brand's e-commerce site. They engaged fashion bloggers nationwide for promotional and customer attraction initiatives. At the time, the brand's e-commerce site was operating in over a dozen countries worldwide. With almost no other campaigns like mass media efforts, I heard Japan achieved the highest initial sales volume globally upon launch. However, effectiveness varies significantly depending on the industry and product. For instance, promoting a relatively high-priced item like a motorcycle wouldn't necessarily lead to immediate sales – that's a tough sell. Some products are better suited for branding purposes.

──Whoops, time for me to hit the job center. I mean, I'm unemployed, after all. Anything else you want to say?

Hiraoka: I see this solution purely as a client's door-knocking tool. It's rare to hire someone directly from the search results. Instead, using that list as a base, we collaborate with the client, and things like "We'd prefer someone more like this" or "Facebook is better than a blog" come up. Ultimately, analog work follows. It doesn't wrap up just with the system. In fact, I think the analog operational know-how that comes after is the real strength.

However, for clients, the systemization has made influencer strategies—previously a black box—much clearer. They appreciate the transparency in selection criteria and expected outcomes, and it often leads to immediate orders. I'd be thrilled if this solution serves as a breakthrough, helping expand Dentsu Inc.'s business by connecting to events featuring influencers or magazine tie-ups they appear in.

──That was interesting. Thanks. Oh, and hire me.

Hiraoka: (With a hearty, loud voice) Thank you very much!