Tokyo Venture Aims to be CGM Marketing Powerhouse

Four of Tokyo’s dominant advertising and online media companies have launched a joint venture, called CGM Marketing, to build marketing tools and programs around community-driven content.

Digital Garage will contribute its CGM-related technologies and experience. Ad and marketing ops will come courtesy of Dentsu and ASATSU-DK, the #1 and #3 ad agencies in Japan, respectively. And cyber communications will contribute its knowledge of online media representation.

CGM Marketing will work with numerous Web site operators, most of them within Japan, to develop strategies for integrating their communications efforts with user-generated content.

In addition to the Japanese market, the company will develop programs for China and the U.S.

Sitting on the board of the new company will be Internet pioneer Joi Ito, who posted extensively to his blog about the new venture. Ito indicated the company would help client organizations know “when, how and where to say the right thing so that they contributed to the conversation and were welcome in it.”

“Clearly, the first step is to figure out things like ads that are smart about blogs, tags, time, context,” he wrote. “It is also about treating the blogger and the advertiser equally where the ads reflected the desire of the person having the conversation as well as the desires of companies to participate in them.”

A storied dot-com personality, Ito is currently VP of international and mobility for Technorati, chairman of Six Apart Japan and CEO of venture capital firm Neoteny. His investments have included stakes in Technorati, SocialText and flickr, among others.

CGM Marketing was not immediately available for comment.