Japanese firms move ahead of ad targeting restrictions

In anticipation of legislative and technological changes that will make targeted advertising online more difficult, some of Japan’s largest advertisers are moving away from targeting before they are forced to.

Why it matters

Targeting capabilities were the rocket-fuel behind the growth of media giants Google and Facebook, but with the third-party cookie set to be phased out and with governments and publics around the world becoming more activist about data privacy.

Now, according to Nikkei Asia, some of Japan’s industrial titans, like Panasonic and Sapporo breweries, are attempting side-stepping legal and PR burdens before they happen.

What’s happening

• Japan’s digital advertising market is big at around $20 billion (2.2 trillion yen), and around half of that is targeted according to users’ browsing habits.
• In April 2022, a new data protection law is set to come into force, which resembles efforts elsewhere like the GDPR in the European Union, and will force firms to seek users’ consent before sharing their data with third parties.
• It’s not simply an ethical realisation. Some companies are finding that contextual advertising – based on the topics in the content that a user is looking at – can be as and sometimes more effective than ads based on user data.

Sourced from Nikkei Asia