Tokyo, November 16, 2018 --- D.A.Consortium Inc. (DAC) and Hakuhodo DY Media Partners Inc. are to begin developing a sector-specific marketing solution that functions end to end, from marketing strategy formulation to target audience activation. Category Works, as it is called, will be developed in cooperation with vertical media — online media platforms specializing in news on specific topics.

Sei-katsu-sha (Hakuhodo’s term for consumers with a heartbeat) s’ information habits have, with the spread of the smartphone, become more complex than ever. That makes it increasingly important for businesses to precisely assess their target audience’s needs and tailor their message to it. More and more sei-katsu-sha these days cull information from vertical media, or specialized news sources, when choosing among the many products and services available out there. A multitude of influential vertical media platforms have appeared covering a wide array of fields, each featuring reams of quality content and attracting a large audience of avid shoppers.

Category Works is a solution designed to better enable businesses to attract and acquire customers. By collating audience data held by vertical media with the Hakuhodo DY Group’s Sei-katsu-sha Data Management Platform (DMP)(*1), businesses will be able to assess potential customer needs through detailed audience analysis and precisely targeting their message. DAC and Hakuhodo DY Media Partners will, by pooling their strengths, deliver a solution that does it all: analyzing the market, and formulating a marketing strategy, by dissecting high-quality, specialized audience data generated by vertical media; development of custom content and creatives by a highly knowledgeable team of specialists; and on-target media planning and ad delivery.

■The three features of Category Works
(1) Market analysis and marketing strategy formulation
By dissecting high-quality, specialized audience data held by vertical media and collating it with the Sei-katsu-sha DMP, Category Works will enable more accurate, in-depth planning. That includes assessing market trends and identifying customer insights.

(2) Content production and creative development
The vertical media platform’s editorial team and Hakuhodo DY Media Partners’ marketing and creative staff will work together on producing custom content and creatives designed to change the target audience’s perceptions. They will identify potential customers and develop prospects.

(3) Media planning and ad delivery
Collating data on articles read by the target audience with the Sei-katsu-sha DMP will make it possible to better fine-tune media planning and ad delivery to the target audience, efficiently driving customers to their store or website.

DAC and Hakuhodo DY Media Partners will, in the course of developing Category Works, jointly recruit vertical media platforms, while seeking to add value to media content and audience data and better tailor marketing to specific sectors.

*１Sei-katsu-sha Data Management Platform (DMP) The Hakuhodo DY Group is developing its Sei-katsu-sha DMP as a platform for planning, executing, and managing all forms of marketing activity. Incorporating cutting-edge technology, it combines the sei-katsu-sha data that the Hakuhodo DY Group has itself amassed with other forms of data that have become available with advances in digital technology: real-time data on sei-katsu-sha's information behavior and shopping patterns, and data on their media and content consumption and preferences.。

■Working with vertical media
Hakuhodo DY Media Partners will work with vertical media platforms in a growing range of fields including cars, travel, gaming, and entertainment, adding value to content and audience data in each type of media platform.

■Relationship to Sei-katsu-sha Data Works^TM
Sei-katsu-sha Data Works^TM is the Hakuhodo DY Group’s suite of advanced marketing solutions. Leveraging one of Japan’s largest collections of data on sei-katsu-sha, it guarantees results throughout the marketing funnel, from customer creation and acquisition to customer retention, by combining our market design prowess, which enables us to generate new clientele and new demand, with our media design prowess, which enables us to deliver a message personalized to each recipient. Category Works, part of the Sei-katsu-sha Data Works^TM suite, will steadily expand service by partnering with vertical media platforms in a wide range of fields.

■Relationship to AudienceOne offered by DAC
This solution will make use of AudienceOne, the data management platform (DMP) offered by DAC, for gathering data and serving ads. AudienceOne is a truly massive database containing 480 million unique browser cookies, 90 million mobile advertising IDs, and more than one trillion data points.

For inquiries regarding this News Release
D.A.Consortium Inc.
Corporate Strategy Group Public Relations / E-mail: ir_inf@dac.co.jp
Hakuhodo DY Media Partners Inc.
Public Relations Division / E-mail: koho.mail@hakuhodo.co.jp