Public Relations Committee Seminar] Online Lecture by Mayumi Morinaga, Senior Researcher, Media Environment Research Institute, Hakuhodo DY Media Partners Inc.

Hello! I am Ryota Nakano, a second-year student in the Faculty of Business Administration and a member of the Public Relations Committee.
The Public Relations Committee of the Faculty of Business Administration invited Ms. Mayumi Morinaga, Senior Researcher, Media Environment Research Institute, Hakuhodo DY Media Partners, to give a lecture titled "The New Generation, Timeline Sei-katsu-sha".
We, the "Generation Z", use social networking services on a daily basis without thinking about it. Among them, Mr. Morinaga has been studying people who obtain most of their decision-making information from SNS and talk applications, which he calls "Timeline Sei-katsu-sha.
In this lecture, he talked about "young people seeking time performance" and "why the gap in the perception of SNS between generations has not been bridged", which are interesting topics for all ages. Here are some of the contents of his lecture, with a focus on Timeline Sei-katsu-sha.

1. Young people seeking "typa

Recently, the term "typa (time performance)" is muttered among timeline sei-katsu-sha, especially among young people. The meaning behind this word is that they do not want to spend time failing.
It is believed that young people only watch YouTube, social networking sites, etc., and do not watch corporate commercial videos or TV programs because they are too long, but this is actually not true. It is not as simple as saying that if the videos they watch are short, they will be viewed, but it can be interpreted as "Timeline consumers do not dislike long content, but they dislike redundant content.
In addition, there are so many contents in the world that we cannot see them all, and new contents are being produced at a breakneck pace even as we speak. Therefore, as mentioned earlier, consumers who value time and money want to consume only interesting and useful content, not waste their time on content that is not interesting or useful. Against this background, "summary videos/articles" that digest content tend to gain popularity.
In other words, "summary videos/articles" are not just a convenient summary of the content or a peek at the content for easy content consumption for young people seeking a typa, but have become an important material for determining the value of content and deciding whether to consume it. Therefore, if convinced that the digest is meaningful content, timeline consumers will ingest (watch, etc.) it as many times as possible at a constant rate, regardless of the type or genre of that content.

2. Differences in attitudes toward SNS use that have emerged

Until now, in the advertising and marketing industry, SNS has been treated as one of many options, on a par with other information channels (media) such as TV, radio, newspapers, websites, and news sites. In addition, while TV and radio were considered media that people were exposed to on a "casual, everyday basis," SNS and other Internet media were considered media that people "actively and deliberately" went out of their way to be exposed to.
Today, however, SNS has become the home position or starting point of information behavior, and "timeline consumers" who are constantly connected to SNS are emerging, with SNS as daily media and TV and radio as active media, a reversal phenomenon.
The slightly older generation (40-50 year olds) tends to perceive the digital native generation as "a group of users who actively use the Internet," but this is not in line with the reality. For the digital native generation, for whom the Internet is a matter of course, it can be seen that their involvement with the Internet is often rather passive.

3. Information behavior patterns required by companies

Until now, the advertising and marketing industry has been a one-way street, with mass media such as TV and magazines as the senders and us as the receivers of the information. However, with the rise of the timeline, consumers have come to select the source of the information they see and edit their own timelines. It is as if sei-katsu-sha themselves have opened an audience as the kings of the world. It can be said that the media and advertisers have shifted to the position of "being allowed to enter (the audience). As a result, the media and advertisers have shifted from being the ones who drop information on consumers to being the ones who have to allow consumers to be present so that information about their products and services can be displayed in the "audience hall (timeline)". The traditional advertising style of "spatial domination" by advertisers and media, in which the advertiser is the king, may be compared to a "door-to-door sales with permission" style in which consumers are the kings and advertisers and media are allowed to enter the audience viewing area of consumers. It could be said that the king has moved to the timeline sei-katsu-sha.
As the influence of the timeline has grown stronger, the characteristics required of advertisements are also changing dramatically. Even if a company's appearance is well-maintained, its brand image and reputation may be inverted when its actual products and service levels are posted on the timeline by other people. Therefore, what is important in the future advertising style is considered to be sincere communication.
It is important for companies to have the courage to "entrust" their information to others, to allow Timeline users to share information about their products and services, and to encourage active sharing of information by Timeline users. It is also imperative to increase the "portability" of information dissemination so that it can be easily shared and posted on the timeline. In order to maintain the "Always On" connection between the company and its users, it is also important to maintain "continuous hospitality. It is necessary to constantly check and confirm the attitude of information transmission that is acceptable to users, and to devise ways to prevent users from saying, "I don't need it anymore.

These are the contents of Mr. Morinaga's lecture. In this age of information saturation, the digital native generation has become a timeline consumer who unconsciously selects and chooses content. However, we found that there is a large gap in perception between generations regarding this reality, and this is the main cause of discrepancies in communication and conversation between the generations. Many of the digital native generation may have been surprised by the fact that there is such a difference in perception of social networking services, which we use without thinking about it. I also felt that the key to success in corporate advertising and PR activities is not one-way communication, but co-creation with users.
Although we were not able to introduce them this time, they also talked about many other interesting topics, such as the differences in the nature of advertising in Japan and abroad, why different SNS accounts are used in different ways, and the differences in SNS usage rates among different generations. As a member of the digital native generation living in the timeline, I was surprised by the behavioral patterns pointed out to me that I myself had not noticed, and at the same time, I was convinced that "Indeed! I was surprised and also felt a sense of conviction.
Thank you very much, Mr. Morinaga, for taking time out of your busy schedule to give us this lecture.
If you are interested, please refer to the article of Mr. Morinaga's lecture "MORE MEDIA 2040: Media as a Space to Experience and Spend Time" held in the summer of 2022.
https://seikatsusha-ddm.com/article/13080/
(Responsibility: Ryota Nakano, 2nd year, Faculty of Business Administration)