CONNECTIONS: Japanese teens turn to Hallmark mobile offer

TOKYO: Crown Greeting's Hallmark has launched a campaign to drive users to its mobile service, Hallmark Hiya, available on Japan's i-mode.

by | 04/19/2002

The campaign, which aims to attract users to the i-mode site, features messages and greetings users can send with the service.

It uses a cartoon rabbit and features three different scenarios - love, apology and loneliness.

Dare Koslow, Crown Greeting's marketing director, said: "There is not an established card market (in Japan) and so we used pictures as well as words to help people express their feeling."

Kowlow said competing services only provided pictures and did not express tenderness, which is what Hallmark has always been about.

"We essentially took a 360 degree solution from Ogilvy, which involved print, mass media, television and mobile, which is a very well-established medium in Japan. The campaign was tied to the i-mode site through posters."

Koslow said more than 100,000 greeting have been sent via Hallmark Hiya since its launch. He added that sending emails was the most popular function on i-mode, and the "sending of cards annually per capita in Japan was one versus about 28 in the US".