Press Release
Sumitomo Mitsui Card and Macromill form business alliance
- Aiming to encourage corporate strategic data utilization -
Tokyo, September 4, 2020 - Sumitomo Mitsui Card Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Yukihiko Onishi, President and Representative Director; hereinafter, “Sumitomo Mitsui Card”) and Macromill, Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Scott Ernst, Representative Executive Officer, Global CEO; hereinafter, “Macromill”) are pleased to announce that they have agreed to form a business alliance aimed at encouraging corporate strategic data utilization.
Sumitomo Mitsui Card began providing its “Custella”*1, a data analysis support service, in October 2019 to strategically use the vast amounts of cashless data (credit and debit card statistics) it holds as a leading cashless service provider in Japan. Sumitomo Mitsui Card is currently working to add more value to the Custella service, with a view to providing partner stores and businesses, local governments and other clients with analysis support and solutions tailored to their specific issues and needs.
Macromill has been developing and providing cutting-edge marketing research services and solutions to drive clients’ smarter decisions since its establishment in 2000. Macromill owns one of the largest and highest quality consumer research panels in Japan's market research industry, with around 1.3 million panels nationwide (equivalent to 1% of Japan's population) and has the ability to link diverse awareness and behavioral data from this panel with detailed attribution data for its clients. Most recently, Macromill has been adding value to the data held by clients through the synchronization and supplementation of the data obtained via Macromill's panel with diverse data held by clients. To evolve from an internet research company into a “Research” x “DATA” company in the future, Macromill has also been strengthening its capability in the data consulting domain and started to provide a data consulting service, “MAG”*2 in March 2020.
Against this background, Sumitomo Mitsui Card and Macromill aim to encourage corporate strategic data utilization through this business alliance as follows:
Firstly, at Sumitomo Mitsui Card's Custella data analysis support service, Macromill will fully utilize insights gained from the provision of its MAG service to design an improved data analysis process for the Custella service, delivering better consideration and suggestions. This enables more effective data management when analysts and data engineers conduct data analysis design, reporting, and data aggregation.
Secondly, Macromill regards this co-working project with Sumitomo Mitsui Card, with its No. 1 access to records of cashless payment and consumption data in Japan, as one of its leading pilot projects to evolve into a "Research" x "DATA" company and change the perception of clients. By having access to such vast volumes of data, Macromill will be able to improve its expertise, track record, and competitive advantage in a new field.
In addition, the two companies will then aim to significantly increase the added value of Sumitomo Mitsui Card’s Custella service by mutually utilizing the asset of each company and expanding the capability of Macromill’s MAG service in the data consulting domain.
Through these initiatives, Sumitomo Mitsui Card and Macromill aim to encourage corporate strategic data utilization.
Image of business alliance scheme
*1: About Custella
Custella is an analysis service which supports Sumitomo Mitsui Card's partner stores, businesses and other clients with their marketing activities through data visualization including the simple aggregation of Sumitomo Mitsui Card's cashless data from various perspectives. For example, customer attribution data (new, repeat, inbound, etc.) are converted into statistics from which individuals and partner stores cannot be identified. Also, data on actual purchases are aggregated according to customer behavior (weekday, holiday, time zone, area, etc.) and turned into statistics.
https://www.smbc-card.com/camp/custella/index.html (Japanese only)
*2: About MAG
MAG (Market data Analytics Guide) is a data-based consulting service provided by Macromill. This one-stop service helps businesses use data in various ways, offering support for the formulation of data strategies, data aggregation and selection, DMP construction, analytics using integrated data and data visualization using Business Intelligence tools, and the validation of advertising strategies.
https://www.mag-macromill.com/ (Japanese only)
About Sumitomo Mitsui Card Co., Ltd.
As the pioneer in the issuance of the VISA Card in Japan and a leader in the domestic credit card industry, Sumitomo Mitsui Card aims to provide cashless solutions from the perspectives of its clients (both users and business operators). For business operators, Sumitomo Mitsui Card announced “stera”, a next-generation payment platform, as a solution that eliminates the inconvenience of cashless payments for business operators in October 2019. From October the same year, it also began providing “Custella”, a data analysis support service for businesses which turns vast amounts of cashless data into statistics as a solution to the data utilization and marketing challenges businesses face. Meanwhile, in initiatives from a user perspective, as the rapid spread of cashless technologies gives rise to competition between diverse payment methods, Sumitomo Mitsui Card is providing users with new cashless payment experiences that are convenient, offer safety and peace of mind, and provide other user benefits.
For more details please visit https://www.smbc-card.com/company/news/index.jsp (Japanese only)
Company Overview of Sumitomo Mitsui Card Co., Ltd.
| Representative: | Yukihiko Onishi, President and Representative Director |
|---|---|
| Headquarter: | Tokyo Head Office: 1-2-20, Kaigan, Minato-ku, Tokyo Osaka Head Office: 4-5-15, Imabashi, Chuo-ku, Osaka |
| Established: | December 26, 1967 |
| Business Description: | Credit Card Services, Debit Card, Pre-paid Card and Other Payment Services, Loan Services, Guarantee Services, Gift Card Services and Other Services Incidental to the Foregoing |
| URL: | https://www.smbc-card.com/ (Japanese only) |
About Macromill, Inc.
Macromill is a rapidly growing global marketing research and digital marketing solutions provider. We bring together the collective power of our specialist companies to provide innovative data and insights that drive clients’ smarter decisions. Macromill’s industry-leading digital research solutions deliver rapid and cost-effective solutions to the challenges businesses face today. Headquartered in Tokyo with 50 offices across the Americas, EMEA an Asia-Pacific, Macromill serves more than 4,000 brands and agencies in more than 90 countries with over 2,400 experts worldwide.
Macromill Group companies include: Macromill, Inc., Dentsu Macromill Insight, Inc., H.M. Marketing Research, Inc., M-Cube, Inc., Macromill Carenet, Inc., Centan Inc., Macromill South East Asia, Inc., Macromill Embrain Co., Ltd., MetrixLab B.V., Oxyme B.V. and Precision Sample, LLC.
For more information, please visit our Macromill Group website https://group.macromill.com
Company Overview of Macromill, Inc.
| Business Name: | Macromill, Inc. |
|---|---|
| Representative: | Scott Ernst, Representative Executive Officer, Global CEO |
| Headquarter: | Minato-ku, Tokyo |
| Established: | January 31, 2000 |
| Main Business: | Marketing research and digital marketing solution |
| URL: | https://group.macromill.com/ |
Contact
| Macromill PR – | press@macromill.com |
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