Blog post
Microsoft Advertising’s international expansion reaches Japan
Today, at Advertising Week Asia, we announced that Microsoft Advertising is now available for agencies and brands located in Japan for both search and native campaigns. This is a significant milestone and is in addition to 61 markets that we launched earlier this year—32 new markets in Latin America and Asia Pacific, as well as 29 new markets in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Our solutions allow marketers to reach a highly valuable global audience while protecting the critical factors of trust, data privacy, and brand safety. By the end of 2022, Microsoft Advertising customers will be able to advertise in more than 150 countries worldwide. Rob Wilk, Corporate Vice President at Microsoft Advertising, commented:
I am delighted to launch Microsoft Advertising in Japan, where Microsoft has strong rates of Edge browser usage, Microsoft Bing, and high Windows PC adoption. Japan has been a strategically important market, and we will be working directly with Japanese agencies and digital marketers, empowering them with high-quality advertising experiences to reach the growing audience across Microsoft properties.
In the past two years, Japanese consumers, like their global peers, have increasingly been using their personal computers (PCs) for personal tasks during work time.1 This new wave of consumers are called “Workday Consumers.” According to Forrester Consulting’s research commissioned by Microsoft, 42% of Japanese consumers spend at least one hour a day of their work time on personal tasks.1 Also in Japan, 45% have increased the amount of time spent on personal tasks during work hours, and within this segment, 84% recognize they will continue at this level or even increase it in the year ahead.1 Likewise, 61% are regularly researching or making purchases during work hours.1
The Forrester survey results also revealed key insights about the challenges and opportunities for marketers in Japan. Notably, 77% of media and marketing decision-makers in Japan rate “changes in consumer behavior” as the most important strategy needed for the coming year.1 However, those marketers lack confidence in their abilities to connect data sources to best understand the consumer decision journey, but nearly 50% recognize the need to focus on the new consumer reality of mixing work and personal tasks.1
The renaissance of the PC provides Microsoft with the unique opportunity to understand and reach consumers across its products and technologies without compromising trust, data privacy, or brand safety. Microsoft Advertising also brings an audience of over 1 billion people2 who have greater purchasing power,3 engage more with ads,3 and are more likely to make a purchase online.4
We’re thrilled to continue our expansion in Japan and look forward to working together with our agencies and brands to connect with this valuable audience!
To learn more, be sure to download the full Japanese research:
[1] A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Microsoft, November 2021 and March 2022.
[2] Microsoft internal data and comScore data, March 2021.
[3] comScore qSearch, Explicit Core Search (custom), December 2021. US, PC, O&O.
[4] GWI, US, Q2 2020-Q1 2021.
