Following the launch of Outbrain, a website content recommendation platform, in Japan last November, a panel discussion titled "Putting Content Marketing into Practice with Outbrain! Corporate Strategy" was held at Dentsu Hall on May 12th. Moderated by Yoshihiko Kyoi, Landing Director of Dentsu's Future Creation Group, the panel featured Hiroshi Shimase, President of Outbrain Japan; Kazutoshi Tanuma, Representative Director of "FASHION HEADLINE" and Head of Business Strategy for the Mitsukoshi Isetan E-Commerce Division; Midori Ando, a full-time lecturer at Tama University's School of Management and Information Sciences, a freelance writer who also works as a content creator for books and magazines and web media; and Akiko Gunji, Creative Director of Dentsu's iPR Division. The discussion was divided into two parts: Theme 1, "The Reality of Content Marketing," and Theme 2, "What Makes Content Reach Users?" In Theme 1, Tanuma first explained the origins of "FASHION HEADLINE" as an example of owned media. Meanwhile, Shimase of Outbrain Japan, which was founded in the United States in 2006 and opened its 15th global base in Japan last November, explained the features of its system, saying, "Outbrain is a unique recommendation engine that suggests the next article to users based on content. With 100,000 sites using the system, 553 million monthly unique users, and over 150 billion monthly recommendations, the wealth of data enhances the accuracy of information matching." Ando commented, "It can be a bit disappointing when the information you want is just an advertisement, but what's interesting is that this system curates information and optimizes it for you." Gunji commented, "Going forward, we need to think not only about what kind of content to create, but also about how to deliver that content."

The second theme featured an interview article by Ando on an owned media outlet in collaboration with ASICS, as well as an example from TABILABO, a travel information site for which Ando is also an ambassador. "In Japan, people quickly gave up on hard aspects such as small homes, so content focused on soft aspects like fashion, food, and work styles, in other words, lifestyle-themed content, has matured," Gunji analyzed. "Because users only see information they like, the information companies send out through owned media, which is article advertising from the user's perspective, is no longer 'easy to accept,' but rather 'if it's not, they won't get hooked.'" Tanuma commented, "Users will tire of sending out information that is purely advertising. Although I'm a department store retailer, I think it's necessary to edit information from a neutral, third-party perspective," and Shimase commented, "When new articles are constantly being released and archived, good content created in the past becomes obsolete. That's when recommendation systems come in handy."