New Zealand Company joins forces with Japan's largest Internet marketing agency

Canterbury based company, Shuttlerock, has taken another major international step forward by partnering with Opt, Japan's largest Internet marketing agency, to launch a subsidiary in Japan, with plans to inject $NZD 700,000 into the Kiwi business.

“It’s incredibly exciting for us,” Chief Executive Jonny Hendriksen said. “Opt is the largest digital agency in Japan. They have over thirteen hundred staff and around twelve hundred clients so partnering with them is a huge opportunity and shows that they have a very strong belief in Shuttlerock as an online visual marketing tool.”

Shuttlerock offers a software platform which is embedded onto a company website. It identifies and collects relevant content from all key social channels and also uses contests and instant rewards to encourage customers to upload photos and videos directly. Customers are incentivised to share the content driving additional website traffic.

It has begun marketing the business globally and has clients in the United States, Australia and the UK, but Hendriksen says the deal with Opt in Japan is very significant and is a ‘huge endorsement’ for the business.

Shuttlerock was launched in 2012 and has a growing range of clients in New Zealand and overseas that includes Fly Buys, the All Blacks, and the Lonestar restaurant chain, Jucy Car Rentals, Carls Jnr and Wendy’s.

The Japanese deal with Opt would also cover South Korea and Malaysia as Opt has offices in those countries, and although based out of Opt offices it will also mean extra jobs in New Zealand as the Japanese operation will be supported from Canterbury.

Hendriksen said Opt’s $NZD 700,000 injection of funds will be used to fund operations in the new subsidiary in Japan.

“Shuttlerock helps businesses manage their interactions through social media services such as Facebook, Instagram, You Tube and Twitter. It is a next-generation product that lets clients create a social hub on a company website.”

“There is just so much going on in social media now that having a tool that can harness all of a company’s online activity, pulling it all into one website, is very valuable.”

Shuttlerock's first Japanese client is the popular all girl band, Perfume. They have over 265,000 fans on Facebook, and their last 14 singles have hit the top three in the local charts.

Perfume are using the Shuttlerock platform to promote and engage fans for video the band has just released for their new song called 'Hold Your Hand'. Fans were asked to take a photo of their hands with a message and upload using Shuttlerock (See the video here).

Hendriksen said this promotion had generated 3,396 photos, with a significant amount of voting and sharing. “It's a clear demonstration of the potential of fan content in the Japanese market.”