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Waze Partners with Japanese Advertising Powerhouse, Hakuhodo DY Media Partners, to Launch Waze in Japan
Alliance will bring Waze to Japanese mainstream, opening new advertising channels to drivers in cars for brands
Feb 27, 2012

Palo Alto, Ca. & Tokyo) Feb 27, 2012 – Waze, the now 13 million-strong community of traffic resisters, is happy to announce its entry into the Japanese market; a feat made possible by a collaboration with Hakuhodo DY Media Partners, a subsidiary of Hakuhodo DY Holdings Inc, Japan’s second largest advertising agency. The partnership will bring Waze’s free navigation and traffic service, as well as its location-guided advertising platform, to Japan, opening a new in-car audience to Japanese brands.
The advantage of Waze’s location-guided advertising platform, yet to launch in the US, is in its ability to offer brands and their consumers a channel for advertising through curated driving experiences: road games, on-the-go coupons, and incentives that get drivers to merchants, vendors, and points of sale in real-time.
“Leveraging Waze’s 13 million drivers, I am honored to have the opportunity to bring its proven service to Japan,” said Akio Kobayashi, senior corporate officer & board member at Hakuhodo DY Media Partners. “We plan to bring Waze to mass market in Japan, providing effective marketing solutions to brands and media companies."
Location-Guided Advertising: A Case Study
On March 27th, 2010, Waze ran a one-day pilot of its location-guided advertising campaign across iOS & Android platforms to drive foot traffic into partner retail locations. Of unique users who saw the program, 6.34% actually reached the destination. Waze hopes to recreate similar experiences and results for Hakuhodo DY Media Partners’ clients in Japan, as well as officially launch its platform in the US in Q3 of 2012.
Waze is available for free in the iTunes Store & Android Market or at http://m.waze.com.
About Waze
Waze is a social traffic & navigation app based on the world`s largest community of drivers sharing real time road info and contributing to the "common good" out there on the road. By simply driving around with Waze open users passively contribute traffic and other road data. Users can take a more active role by sharing road reports on accidents, police traps, or any other hazards along the way, helping to give other users in the area a `heads-up` about what`s to come– and because it`s 100% user-generated, the more people who use Waze, the better (and more fun) it gets!
About Hakuhodo
Hakuhodo DY Media Partners is a fully owned subsidiary of Hakuhodo DY Holdings Inc., the holding company established from Hakuhodo, Daiko, and Yomiko’s business integration in 2003.

Media Contact
Michal Habdank-Kolaczkowski
Director of Communications
michal@waze.com
650.302.1209

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