Hosted "Offsite Meeting Spring 2024-2" for Knowledge Sharing Among Community Managers

Background of the event

Hello. My name is Miura, and I am in charge of public relations.
We recently held a two-day "Off-Site Meeting 2024 Spring" online. The purpose of this meeting is to exchange information and share knowledge on community management and user communication policies among companies, and we regularly invite people who are in charge of community management.
On the second day of the meeting, four people from four companies attended.

List of participating companies KAGOME CO., LTD /TOEI ANIMATION CO., LTD./ Japan Airlines Co., Ltd./ Maruha Nichiro Corporation*Alphabetical order, titles omitted in the following text.

On the first day, the moderator will be our advisor, Mr. Shinya Mizuno. He was previously involved in digital marketing at KAGOME CO., LTD., and in the advertising department, he managed the community site "&KAGOME" as a "Nakanohito" (a person in the middle), and is a leading expert in corporate community management. he is a leading figure in the management of corporate communities.

Shinya Mizuno Senior analyst, ITR CORPORATION. / Representative, Mikke Tech .LLC At KAGOME CO., LTD., he worked in the information systems division and the advertising division. He has been promoting digital marketing utilizing the website Social media as well as building information systems such as supply chain management. In the advertising division, he operates the community website "&KAGOME" as a "Nakahito" (a person in the middle). Currently, he is engaged in IT market research at IT-R Corporation, writes about customer engagement with a focus on corporate communities, and provides consulting services to companies. and "With Corona Era, the Frontline of Community Co-Creation, a Step Ahead. He is the author of "The Latest Digital Marketing Guide for Future Business" (MDN Corporation).

The second day of the event will also have two discussion topics, Community Engagement and "Issues of community management in your company". The main themes were the same as on the first day, but each company has different policies and concerns. Although the main themes were the same as on the first day, different companies have different policies and concerns, and discussions took place from different angles. Here are some of the topics discussed.

*See also "Off-Site Meeting 2024 Spring-1" held on Day 1.

Theme1.-Community Utilization

We ask each company representative what activities they are currently doing on their community site and how they are using it. In response, other company representatives expressed their impressions, opinions, and questions, leading to a discussion.

Mr. Mizuno: I would like to start by asking about the main initiatives of the JAL community website "JAL's travel community 'trico'" (trico).

JAL representative: Since trico turned 5 years old this year, we held an in-person event in March to celebrate our 5th birthday. The purpose of this event was to show our appreciation. As a milestone event, in order to invite as many people as possible who wanted to celebrate, we decided to hold the event in two parts, with 90 people in the first half and 90 in the second half. After all, face-to-face conversations allowed us to "communicate things that could not be said well only online," among other comments. I was reminded once again of the importance of mixing events well, and I would like to continue to do so in the future. We would like to continue to do so in the future.
trico 5th Anniversary Event

Kagome representative: I thought it was wonderful that the event was focused purely on expressing gratitude and having fun. In our case, the number of people attending the real event is not that large, but we intertwine it with our regular marketing efforts in a way that provides a deep experience with a clear message and purpose.

Japan Airlines representative: The purpose of this event was to show our appreciation, so we had a quiz game for the participants to enjoy in a team competition, and flight attendants and pilots were also divided into tables with the members to have fun and talk with them.

Mr. Mizuno: Next, could you tell us about the recent activities of the Kagome community site "&KAGOME"?

Kagome representative: Our policy has been not to force our members to join, but now we are trying to make "&KAGOME" known to those who have a light interest in Kagome,Social mediaWe are strengthening our collaboration We are posting examples of active communication within the community on Instagram and LINE.
And we are also We are also strengthening real events We are also strengthening real events. For example, we invited community members to the fields of contract farmers who produce the ingredients for our carrot juice, and had them harvest carrots with Kagome employees and experience how delicious they are by eating freshly harvested carrots on the spot. They also toured the factory and tasted the vegetable juice that is the raw material for "Vegetable Seikatsu," which even the employees do not get a chance to drink.
We believe that connecting customers with contract farmers and customers with employees is an important role, so we ask as many employees as possible to participate in the tour and tell customers about their respective jobs within the company.
Carrot Tour Report

Mr. Mizuno: Sounds interesting. How is the event related to the product?

Japan Airlines representative: I would also like to ask you about the significance of choosing carrots.

Kagome representative: Kagome has an image of tomatoes, and within "&KAGOME", contents and events for the tomato season were concentrated in summer, and communication for other seasons tended to be vacant. Therefore, this winter, we held Kagome's first carrot harvesting event.
Freshly harvested carrots, which are not on the market, are as sweet as persimmons and have no smell. We hope to increase the number of carrot fans by letting them know how delicious they are and how they are processed by Kagome's technology. Ultimately, we hope that people will become fans of carrot juice. We are aiming to make people become fans of carrot juice.

Mr. Mizuno: Maruha Nichiro's community site "Oishiine! (Oishiine! (Oishiine!)," the Maruha Nichiro community site.

Maruha Nichiro representative: For fiscal 2011, we focused our planning on mackerel cans, which our members had a strong attachment to in the general election of products. I also feel that we were taught what to focus on by our customers. Although employees have often appeared on the site in the past, we had little experience in fully involving them in the planning process together, and we had a hard time coordinating within the company.
What was implemented? The "Best mackerel recipe" co-creation project with members The project was to co-create a recipe using canned mackerel with our members. We solicited recipes using canned mackerel from members, called on employees in various departments related to canned mackerel, and actually cooked, tasted, and selected the recipes. Afterwards, Yoko Ikeda, "Saba-jenne," the public relations manager of the All Japan Saba Federation, was invited as a judge, and a final vote was held including members of the association.
A recipe book for canned mackerel was also produced, and an offline unveiling event was held. This recipe book is also used in sales activities and exhibitions, This is an example of how co-creation with members produced positive results. The best example of co-creation with the members was the "Canned Foods" event.
The best "Canned Mackerel" recipe co-created with members

Japan Airlines representative: We have a service called "Sora Kara Delivery Service," which allows us to transport locally picked vegetables and fruits by air, and we want people to know the appeal of this service. We want people to experience the deliciousness of the morning harvest compared to those picked in the morning and those transported by mail over several days, etc. We really wanted to emphasize the connection with the land, so we wanted to include a harvesting experience, but it is difficult to do so under the current circumstances. However, listening to Kagome and Maruha Nichiro, I was encouraged to learn about their ideas and the possibility of realizing them.
I thought that if we could connect with the land through food, it could be one way that they might visit the production area many times.

Mr. Mizuno: Last but not least, please tell us about the efforts of the Toei Animation community site "Digimon Partners".

A representative of Toei AnimationThe "Partners Project," a co-creation project with members, has co-created Digimon goods in the past, but now it is being expanded to the "Partners Project" in the future.A project called "Let's make a Digimon line stamp" is underway.It is. What kind of digimon do you want to stamp? What kind of dialogue do you want the digimon to say? These are all decided in the site.
We have also held fan meetings both in real life and online.
We have many overseas fans participating in "Digimon Partners," but the events are inevitably held in Japan,Activating overseas fans is a future challenge.It is.
ALTHOUGH WE ARE ALSO PURSUING PRODUCT SALES, WE ARE ALSO THINKING ABOUT HOW WE CAN EXPAND THE DIGIMON IP (INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY) AS A COMPANY FROM A LONG-TERM PERSPECTIVE.
Digimon Adventure is also celebrating its 25th anniversary this year,I think there will be two generations of fans, parents and children, and I hope the old-timers will get excited too.I believe that this is a good idea.
LET'S MAKE LINE STAMPS TOGETHER!

Kagome's representative: You are right that we want to pass it on to the next two or three generations of parents and children. From the standpoint of our company's management, we feel strongly about this. For example, when I ask about the product in a depth interview, a highly enthusiastic fan says, "This ketchup has always been in my refrigerator since I was a child. After all, it is a taste that I have been familiar with since I was a child, so I often feel in the community that it is happy and important that when I become the generation of parents who buy the product, I will still use it at home and the next generation of children will be familiar with it as a taste of home.
I hope to continue to work with the planning department in structuring the ambassador program.

Maruha Nichiro representative: Yes, that's true. For food manufacturers, we tend to put people who post delicious-looking recipes or who are good cooks in the foreground. But when we ask people to share their memories, we get things like "with my parents and children" or "I ate this when I was single. That made me think that it is important to have a few different playing fields.

Toei Animation representative: The first work, the original "Digimon Adventure," is the most well-known, but there are also quite a few fans of later works in the series. I have the impression that the community site is not biased toward any particular work, but fans of each work are sending their messages.

Japan Airlines representative: After hearing this story, I thought it would be a good opportunity for fans in the community to talk about it, and exposure to it could lead to an interest in a commercial product that they had little interest in.

Mr. Mizuno: When we operate a community site, we notice that many members are not registering as members because they like only a single product, but have a common attachment to multiple products and like the company as a whole. So it is understandable that interaction with employees and among members can lead to increased satisfaction.

Theme2.-The problems of managing your own in-house community

Mr. Mizuno: The next theme is "concerns about community management. One of the concerns we received in advance in the survey was "how to increase awareness within the company". What do you think about this concern?

Kagome's representative: There are still some people in our company who do not know how to make the most of the community website. Therefore, we decided to not only collect members' voices in the co-creation project or report on what we have created together, but also to send out a monthly internal document summarizing the results and findings from a marketing perspective. By doing this, we hope that employees in other departments will gain insights that they can use in their own work. I would love to hear how you all are devising this.

Maruha Nichiro representative: The Public Relations Division writes an article on the activities of young employees in each issue of the company newsletter on the intranet. In conjunction with that section, we also asked them to feature the activities of young employees in the community website projects and events. I think we were able to raise awareness within the company because the in-house magazine attracts a lot of attention from employees. I think the only way to be useful to the division in this way is to involve the people around us and build up trust step by step.

Mr. Mizuno: I believe there was a project in &KAGOME where employees were growing tomato seedlings.

Kagome: "&KAGOME" has a popular content called " Tomakomi, " in which members grow their own tomato seedlings and post photos of the process. This year, we started an experiment to have general employees create an account and participate in the project. We hope that employees who have never been involved with "&KAGOME" before will be encouraged by the "likes" and comments from members, and that it will give them a chance to experience firsthand the enthusiasm of the members.

Toei Animation representative: Our community site is relatively easy to understand within the company. While immediate sales are important, many of our employees want to actually hear the voices of our members. Therefore, we encourage our staff to participate in events so that they can experience the "firsthand" feeling that can only be felt at real events. I believe that this gives them a sense of the importance of having opportunities to interact with our members.

JAL representative: I don't think it will work if we spread the word broadly and shallowly, as it is difficult for people to see it as their own business. I feel that the shortcut to success is to have the planning department feel that it will be beneficial to them through some kind of event or co-creation project. From the planning side, I believe that employees who experience the opportunity to hear the real voices of members who know them well, free of charge, will not forget the community.

AT THIS POINT, THE KAGOME REPRESENTATIVE ASKED THE JAL REPRESENTATIVE HOW THE COMMUNITY SITE IS LINKED AND SEGREGATED FROM THE OTHER SOCIAL MEDIASITES.

JAL representative: We make a clear distinction between the community and other media. We do not use the same material for multiple media, but rather use different videos, photos, and messages for each media, even with the same content, keeping in mind the main audience of that media.
X can be linked, so it has a certain affinity for sales promotions and other posts that are aimed at real profit. We segregate them that way, but I don't think there is one right answer.

Kagome: I see that you have separate submissions for each medium. That was very helpful.

Toei Animation: We have been making announcements on multiple media in addition to the community site, but after listening to you, I felt that it would be easier for fans to use the product site and the community site to make announcements separately.

Mr. Mizuno: I think sharing results from a marketing perspective is also persuasive from an internal perspective. And the discussion on the use of Social media is practical. It was a meaningful time again to share a lot of knowledge. Thank you very much.

Participant's voice

Finally, here are some comments from those who participated in this off-site meeting.

It was good to hear from people in charge of industries we don't usually have a chance to talk to."

I felt once again that it is important to select media to collaborate with internal owned media, taking into consideration their affinity and the degree of fan base. Also, as for events, while it is important to use them for marketing purposes, I would like to plan events in the future with the primary purpose of expressing 'gratitude.

I was able to learn about other companies' perspectives on questions I have been wanting to ask if I had the chance for some time. Thank you very much for your valuable time today."

We don't have a lot of experience in implementing community policies within our company, so we are still trying to figure out how to manage our community.

Organizer's Postscript - Reflections on Offsite Meeting Spring 2024-2

The two-day off-site meeting ended quickly.
There were many areas that we could share with each other because we are both involved in the management of corporate communities, and there were many insights from different perspectives on the problems we were facing.
There was so much information exchanged and knowledge shared that it is impossible to fully introduce in this report. We hope that you will take the hints you gained from this off-site meeting and apply them to your own community management.

We will continue to hold meetings like this one, as well as various other projects and information dissemination.
If you have any topics you would like to discuss with other companies, please feel free to contact us.
Thank you for reading to the end.

■Related Information List of Participating Company Projects
&KAGOME ( KAGOME CO.,LTD.)
Digimon Partners ( TOEI ANIMATION CO., LTD.)
JAL's travel community trico ( Japan Airlines Co., Ltd.)
Oishiine! (Oishiine!) ( Maruha Nichiro Corporation)