• by September 19, 2000

The world is catching up with the U.S. A Japanse media marketing company, Will Communications, is on a mission to create the first comprehensive B2B online advertising marketplace in Japan.

The portal, dubbed the Media Zone, provides a media inventory search database system for media buyers and planners, who can search and purchase both local and international media inventory. According to a company press release, a process that used to take days, now takes only minutes. "It can be seen as an evolutionary revolution of the conservative Japanese advertising market," the release states.

The www.mediazone.co.jp provides buying and selling media opportunities through Regular Inventory Zone and Special Inventory Zone.

The Regular Inventory Zone displays basic media information such as Circulation, Readership Profile, Advertising Data (conditions & regulations, payment details), Publishing and Closing Dates, Advertising Rates, Ad Formats, Special Features (Special Supplement Schedule), Mechanical Requirements, while the Special Inventory Zone allows media to announce their special packages, supplements or campaign programs.

The Media Zone, company officials say, will provide a global media marketplace with an e-commerce environment. It has the capability to aggregate, display and transact advertising inventory across all media types including Print, TV, Radio, Out of Home, Transit, Sponsor Events and Online Media.

Although there are quite a few individual online media exchange companies in Japan that service the online advertising community, none currently exist for the offline media market. Media Zone claims to be the first one to provide complete offline media exchange services in Japan, including ad serving, billing and collecting.

The company hopes to attract more than 850 major agencies (including in-house ad departments) and more than 20,000 individual clients to Media Zone's buying tools. By 2002, MEDIA ZONE expects its annual sales to reach US$60 million for local and overseas market. By 2003, total annual sales forecasts will increase to US$100 million.

Interestingly enough, the company's model is very similar to a US firm - AdOutlet.com, a New York-based provider of ad management tools for media buyers and planners, which recently launched a new version of its inventory search service that aids buying and selling of media. The service was first launched in June of 1999, and saw a large increase in functionality this past summer, officials say.

Much like the Media Zone, AdOutlet officials claim their new ADS (Advanced Distribution System) basically enables the media buyer to do in minutes what would normally take days or even weeks.

Both AdOutlet and Media Zone basically allow target-specific searches in real time. Both services are free to sellers of advertising and for buyers to access, and a transaction fee is imposed only when one is made.

Neither AdOutlet nor Media Zone have been able to