Close Encounters of the Next Kind?

Twitter launched its Japanese version in 2008, and after its exponential growth in 2009, more than 5 million active users access to Twitter in Japan today. Twitter successfully convinced many active SNS users to convert to its mini-blogging service by capturing those who got tired of keeping long and detailed blogs on "mixi" (Japan's biggest SNS). Many SNS users first felt uncomfortable with the140 word limit but soon realized that they can actually squeeze a lot of information thanks to the unique structure of Japanese language and grammar.

Another reason why active users preffered Twitter was that there was virtually no spams on Twitter. This was true until last week. But last week, many people started tweeting simultaneously about the sketchy messages they received on Twitter concluding that it was the very first spam seen on Twitter.

Then only after 2 hours, they found out where the spam was coming from and were very surprised to know that it was an advertising campaign run by UCC Ueshima Coffee, a Japanese beverage major/coffee house chain with $3 billion sales.

What UCC did was, in attempt to invite Twitter users to their website to promote their "Your Coffee Story" campaign, sent messages to people whose recent postings included "coffee", "awards" or other related words. The advertisement sent included "Coffelover? Log onto this website NOW to win up to $30,000". Soon after, Ueshima' management appeared on media dishonorably to apologized for confusing its customers, and this was broadcast somewhat negatively on media.

This example suggests that, companies trying to expand its marketing campaign in this conservative Japanese market might want to be careful about using Twitter until it reaches the critical mass as it could have affected UCC's stock price. (This did not happen this time as UCC remains private). However, there is already a sign that the society is getting ready to the new media. Some actively support UCC's aggressive and innovative approach to its new marketing strategy by posting messages such as "ユーシーシー なう　(I'm at UCC)" on Twitter.