As Japan's creator economy continues to rise, various global and regional brands rely on influencer marketing agencies in the region to find relevant creators and manage them.
The country is already crowded with influencers, with popular ones charging hefty fees to promote a product or service. At the same time, a majority of macro and micro-influencers register with influencer marketing agencies in Japan to grab the collaboration opportunity with brands.
Since the influencer space is ballooning, many brands have started experimenting with virtual influencers - fictional computer-generated people. Similar to real influencers, these CGI figures endorse a product. Brands like Lenovo, Dior, Prada, and Alexander McQueen have already hopped on this trend to hire virtual creators for their campaigns in Japan.
Even as the market is expanding and is likely to reach USD 500 million in 2023, the country lacks a legally binding power to regulate the market, making it more crucial for brands to partner with influencer marketing agencies in Japan.
The agencies have years of experience developing authentic content, building new strategies, and delivering successful results.
To do so, some agencies use influencer outreach tools such as affable.ai to streamline campaigns. The platform's features like content discovery, influencer lookalike, sentiment analysis, and content tracker allow companies to find, manage, and measure campaigns in real-time.
Let's look at some of the top agencies in Japan!
Founded in 2017, Tokyo Creative is a well-known influencer marketing agency in Japan offering services to brands and the local government. They have close connections with 30 popular YouTube influencers with over 17 million subscribers and 1 billion views combined.
The creators, including Abroad From Japan, Kin Dao, Joe Allam, and Kazuma, help the agency's clients promote their products, services, and events to a global audience. Their in-house media production team churns out high-quality region-specific content for interested audiences. The agency also hires freelancers to create professional content.
Clients: Dentsu, Vector, Kyodo PR, JTB, Jetro, Thecoo, Yout, Kobe UNESCO City Of Design, OSAKA
Other Services: Translations, web development, market research, offline events, project management
Are you struggling to find influencers who work with your niche audience? Try affable.ai.
Whether it's food, travel or gaming, Kaikoku connects you with the right influencer in almost every industry. Since its inception in 2017, the agency has built exclusive relationships with creators, including social media influencers, Youtubers, models, and Live Streamers.
The agency is one of Japan's leading influencer marketing agencies, helping local and international brands target the Japanese audience. Their expert team focuses on visual storytelling through high-quality photography, filming, and editing to capture and engage your target audience.
Clients: Stern, RTL, Discovery, Amiami, Eat&, SoftBank, Lamborghini, Nissan, Cerevo
Other Services: Branding, social media management, video production, artist management, Japan market support
Located in Tokyo, Hashi Media aims to maximise your reach and boost performance through high-quality videos highlighting your product details. The agency handles social media campaigns for Japan-based brands in the food, tech, gaming, and real estate sectors.
Established in 2019, the agency also provides influencer marketing as part of social media strategies. Under this, it takes care of strategy building, communicating with influencers, campaign implementation, logistics, and performance analysis on its client's behalf.
Clients: Village House, Subway, AMD x MSI, Park Hotel
Other Services: Media buying, pay per click (PPC), public relations (PR), search engine optimisation (SEO), localisation
Rising Sun Commerce, a leading YouTube influencer marketing agency in Japan, connects eCommerce brands with talented YouTube influencers to create video social proof. Set up in 2014, this UK-based agency helps brands sell products on Amazon Japan.
The agency divides its services into product reviews and sponsored ads. Under the product reviews, they hire influencers to try products and create video content for the client's Amazon store page and other social media platforms.
In sponsored ads campaigns, the influencers create either long-form ads describing the product in detail or short-form ads, adding 2-3 lines about the product in between their routine videos.
Clients: Mifold, OYO Personal Gym, Key Smart, Stackers London, The Gerber Store
Other Services: Customer support, translation, optimisation, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, Amazon account set up, launch, and management
Breaker uses cross-border marketing techniques to allow global companies to market products and services to Japanese customers. Under this, the agency provides four services – digital media strategy, content planning, influencer marketing, and event branding and planning.
Founded in 2006, this influencer marketing agency claims to have a large network of international creators, including micro-influencers who have expertise in a specific niche and know how to engage the customers. The agency's production team supports its creators in creating quality content through video development and editing.
Clients: NA
Other Services: Inbound marketing, artist management, film and TV programme production, video analysis
Claiming to be the no.1 influencer marketing agency in Japan, Ykone caters to international brands in the luxury, beauty, fashion, travel, and lifestyle sectors. The agency boasts a network of 9M+ influencers from all over the world.
The agency is experienced in running compelling campaigns using a proprietary tool called Campayn. The tool helps the agency discover, manage, and analyse performance in real-time. Based on the insights collected from the tool, the agency creates brand-specific content for clients.
Besides Japan, the agency operates from Milan, Berlin, Paris, Mumbai, Dubai, and more offices.
Clients: Gucci, Cartier, Dior, Kenzo, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Lancome, Kiko, Vichy, Estee Lauder, Sephora
Other Services: NA
Founded in 2001, Allison + Partners is an award-winning agency specialising in communications and marketing in the consumer product, health, technology, and corporate sectors.
Through their two-decades-long experience in communication, the agency has gained in-depth knowledge of the influencer marketing ecosystem to identify the best influence channels, both online and offline.
They use an in-house influence impact scoring system and their team expertise to match brands with suitable creators. Additionally, the agency provides ambassador programmes, pulse campaigns, layered campaigns, strategy development, contract negotiations, creative direction, assets management, paid advertising, and measurement metrics.
Clients: Toyota, ARC, UTC, Gotham Organization, Dignity Health, Public Interest Registry
Other Services: Public relations, brand development, lead generation, Allison advisory, global reputation risk, storytelling, media department, integrated marketing, public affairs
Brands and agencies often face challenges in analysing campaign performance and determining the ROI. The lack of precise data makes it challenging for them to calculate the success, which is why some companies have started relying on influencer marketing platforms like affable.ai. With the platform, you can get valuable data and insights regarding audience behaviour, competitor campaigns, and creator performance.
Get a free trial with affable.ai and see how the platform works!
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