What is the integrated TV and digital planning strategy supporting Marugame Seimen's upward trajectory?

This series explores the evolving landscape of television media, introducing new services and showcasing case studies of advertisers utilizing these services. We'll explain how to effectively leverage TV commercials, considering advertisers' KPIs and challenges.

This time, we focus on the "Integrated Marketing" approach of Marugame Seimen, operated by Toridoll Holdings.By measuring the effectiveness of both TV and digital advertising using the same metrics, they achieved sustained growth not only in reach but also in store visit analysis. Mr. Sōju Eda, the company's marketer who approaches media planning from a long-term perspective, along with Dentsu Inc.'s accompanying media planner, Mr. Shunsuke Yoshioka, and business producer, Mr. Yasuaki Yamashita, discussed the challenges behind Marugame Seimen's efforts and the insights gained.

The "Marugame Integrated Planning Method" for Practicing "One ID Based Marketing"

──First, could you explain Marugame Seimen's fundamental marketing policy?

Eda: Our foundation is providing "a warm, human dining experience" and "surprise and excitement." To achieve this, our marketing activities focus on two key axes: "creating the 'perception' that makes us chosen" and "creating the 'impulse' that makes us chosen."

Thanks to this, Marugame Seimen continues to grow steadily in both sales and business scale. Behind this growth lies a sophisticated marketing strategy that strategically integrates and leverages television and digital media to drive business expansion.

Yoshioka: Dentsu Inc. supports Marugame Seimen's marketing efforts. In our integrated TV and digital marketing, we meticulously design campaigns around the target customers we want to experience Marugame Seimen's products, ensuring they take action.

Therefore, Dentsu Inc. carefully executes two key tasks. The first is reach measurement. We utilize panel data that can measure the reach of each TV and digital medium separately. We aim to accurately gauge how well the ads are reaching the target audience using Dentsu Inc.'s tool, "MIERO Digi×TV."

MIERO Digi×TV
A dashboard that centrally manages TV and digital ad placements. Enables precise reach and frequency measurement across TV, PC, mobile, and connected TV.

Yoshioka: The other is analyzing whether ad exposure leads to store visits.We utilize Dentsu Inc.'s integrated on/off marketing platform "STADIA360" for this analysis, linking it with a data clean room to verify the connection between exposure across various media and subsequent increases in store visits. Another distinctive feature is the use of data from unerry (*), a company with proven expertise in location-based analysis. One of its strengths is the ability to measure the effectiveness of ads in driving store visits using location logs.

STADIA360
Enables analysis by linking TV viewing data (with user consent) with various data sets held by different data holders (surveys, websites, digital ad exposure, app measurements, entertainment, location data, purchases, customer first-party data, etc.), as well as multi-faceted verification of connected TV ad effectiveness through large-scale ID data analysis.

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Yoshioka: The uniqueness of Marugame Seimen's integrated marketing lies in analyzing the contribution to store visits by media type. Based on past performance, we calculate estimates to maximize the store visit contribution score and optimize the media allocation ratio.

Eda:We place great importance on what Mr. Yoshioka just described, calling our entire media strategy the "Marugame Integrated Planning Method." At its core is "One ID Based Marketing," which visualizes the contribution of integrated media plans to store visits using Dentsu Inc.'s "STADIA360," data clean rooms, location data, and other ID/data sets to formulate plans. We also find Dentsu Inc.'s media planning capabilities highly compelling.

※ unerry=A company that analyzes human flow big data using AI to capture real-world human behavior, providing marketing services and developing smart city projects. It has a strong focus on data privacy.

Leveraging various services to enhance TV effectiveness

──What insights did you gain from analyzing customer behavior?

Eda: Previously unseen metrics like "how many customers actually visited the store" have become visible through highly accurate verification. This enables planning based on precise information, not just intuition. The ability to execute PDCA cycles based on accurate data has shifted us from blind experimentation to "strategic, correct challenges." I feel this represents significant evolution and a reassuring "systematization enabling confident decision-making to push forward."

Yamashita: Exactly. Solid metricization provides clear criteria for media selection, which is shared across the team. With unified goals for the team, Dentsu Inc. can make proposals without deviation. I feel we are achieving high-quality media plans.

──Could you explain how television is utilized within your media planning?

Eda: We utilize television as a medium capable of rapidly achieving overwhelming reach not only to the "main target audience" but also to the "peripheral audience" and "low-interest audience" within the "passive mass audience." For Marugame Seimen, it is positioned as a "core medium that delivers stable ROI and can be executed reliably."

Yamashita: Recently, we've also implemented strategies to deliver messages more efficiently to the "main target audience" via television. Since Marugame Seimen offers products for various target groups, when running multiple campaigns simultaneously, we utilize the TV ratings prediction system "SHAREST." Using AI, it forecasts viewership rates for each target group, allowing us to strategically allocate CM placements in advertising slots best suited for the "main target audience."

Yoshioka: SHAREST is a system provided by Dentsu Inc., and as a result of using it, we were able to significantly improve our reach efficiency to the F1 demographic (women aged 20 to 34).It has been rated as very easy to use, and depending on the area, we have succeeded in improving the reach efficiency to the F1 demographic by up to 20%. In addition, we started using Nippon Television's "Greer" immediately after its launch. By using "Greer," we can place ad orders immediately and further improve effectiveness during the campaign period.

Sugree
A service that allows you to order the same slots as TV spot advertisements on an impression basis, in line with digital advertising standards. Orders can be placed online up until the day before broadcast. Creative can also be replaced up to 20 minutes before broadcast.

Yoshioka: TV commercials account for a large portion of Marugame Seimen's media plan budget, but after analyzing the data, I realized once again that television is a very efficient medium. I think the reason for this is that Marugame Seimen has enormous potential and is able to capture consumers throughout society.

Eda: Even within television, efficiency varies by region and time slot. We analyze and understand these factors together, seeking the optimal balance. Our approach is to "continue operations while strengthening our strong points."

Taking a long-term perspective to identify the conditions where each medium can perform effectively

──You might think that if TV is the core medium with high advertising effectiveness, we should just keep increasing TV commercials...

Eda: Television is indeed a medium capable of delivering overwhelming reach and store visit effects with speed, and it consistently achieves excellent results. However, planning that is biased towards television alone or digital alone is not the integrated planning we aim for.

There are target "groups" and "individuals" that can only be reached through digital. Furthermore, lifestyles and media environments are diversifying, with connected TV viewers increasing, for example. While our measurements show digital advertising slightly underperforming TV in terms of effectiveness and efficiency, that doesn't mean we'll stop challenging digital advertising.

Adopting a biased advertising approach carries the risk of becoming unable to adapt to changes in the media environment from a long-term perspective. That's precisely why, even for media and platforms that currently show relatively poor effectiveness and efficiency, we thoroughly analyze them to see if there's room for improvement and continue to explore possibilities.

Yoshioka: Continuing to explore platforms that appear inefficient is a very rare example. Most companies tend to focus on increasing the volume of efficient media to maximize immediate results.

What's impressive about Mr. Eda and his team is that even if they're struggling now, they're looking ahead to a future where these platforms could perform better. They're thinking about how to achieve the maximum results on those platforms.

Yamashita: I'm impressed by the long-term perspective. You're thinking about how to improve over years.

Eda: For example, even if we see no effect on a particular medium or platform, we don't consider that proof that the medium or platform itself is ineffective. We believe that changing the product or target audience on that medium or platform, or altering the exposure method or billing method, can sometimes lead to significant improvement. Thoroughly seeking the best approach with a medium- to long-term perspective is also a major element of the "Marugame Integrated Planning Method."

──I see. Hearing about this has given me insight into Marugame Seimen's integrated TV and digital marketing approach. It was a new discovery that using various services can maximize the effectiveness of TV commercials. I also learned about the importance of exploring the optimal ad placement pattern from a long-term perspective.