CUEBIC Inc. (hereinafter, CUEBIC), operating under the mission “Challenging insights, ensuring human progress,” drives business forward through human-centric marketing and design.
The company primarily engages in the digital media business, focusing on comparison websites.

CUEBIC was experiencing growth and looking to strengthen its recruitment efforts, but the company faced a challenge: how to effectively PR the appeal of its digital media business to potential hires.

So, they consulted Network Communications Corp. (hereinafter, NWC).
While systematically learning the ins and outs of public relations, they also worked on improving their PR methods and refining internal perceptions of PR.

We’ll look back at the journey from the start of the support to the present day through a roundtable discussion with Naoko Hirayama and Maiko Ogasawara, who are in charge of PR at CUEBIC, and Naoko Okada and Mayuko Takeda from NWC.

Starting PR from Scratch: A Journey of Trial and Error

ーー Before NWC provided support, what challenges did you face regarding public relations?
Hirayama: “At that time, our recent business performance was exceptionally strong, and we were in what we called our ‘third founding period,’ challenging ourselves with various new initiatives. As part of that, we planned to bolster our recruitment efforts. To do so, we needed to make our activities better known to potential candidates, which increased the importance of public relations and the internal communication required to drive it.”

Hirayama: “However, at the same time, we were keenly aware of the difficulty in approaching various media outlets within our specific business domain. That’s why we sought assistance from NWC, given their deep expertise in PR within the digital sphere.”

ーー Were you both starting from a point with virtually no prior experience in public relations?
Ogasawara: “Yes, I had no prior experience.”

Hirayama: “I had a little self-taught knowledge. However, regarding media relations—building trust with journalists and media contacts—which we requested NWC’s help with this time, I had almost no experience or know-how.”

ーー So, you weren’t systematically equipped with methods for efficiently advancing your PR activities, and at that time, you were essentially trying to find your way by trial and error.

Hirayama: “What’s more, I wasn’t even exclusively dedicated to PR.”

Ogasawara: “Currently, we’re responsible for both public relations and recruitment. Depending on the company’s phase, there might be a sudden need for investor relations, or the focus might shift to strengthening media relations. I believe what management expects from PR changes accordingly. Right now, our company is at a point where we need to grow our performance, and recruiting marketers is a key challenge.”

Ogasawara: “Because of this, our activities are currently more focused on recruitment PR. Continuously updating our PR activities in line with the company’s phase was also a challenge. That’s another area where we requested NWC’s support.”

NWC’s Passion and Flexibility Were Major Strengths

ーー Before engaging NWC, did you consider utilizing other PR or public relations support firms?
Ogasawara: “Yes, we compared several companies and weighed our options carefully.”

ーー Please tell us, compared to other companies, what made you decide to work with NWC?
Ogasawara: “The main reason was the reliability of Ms. Okada, our CEO. (laughs)”

Okada: (laughs)

Ogasawara: “When we had our first online meeting, I could feel Ms. Okada’s incredible passion, almost as if she was going to jump out of the screen, and her strong determination, saying, ‘I’ll join your team and work on PR with you!’ That was the deciding factor for us.”

Hirayama: “At that time, we were looking for a company that would deeply integrate with us, almost like a team member, and partner with us to solve problems, telling us, ‘This is how your company should do it.’ NWC’s flexibility and incredible passion in adapting to our needs were overwhelmingly superior.”

Okada: “It was about six months after you first reached out that we officially signed the contract, wasn’t it? My impression was that you took a good amount of time for consideration.”

Hirayama: “We spoke to at least six or seven companies.”

Okada: “So you chose us from among so many companies! At the time, I thought maybe we hadn’t been selected as a candidate, and I even talked with Takeda, saying, ‘I really wanted to work with CUEBIC.'”

Takeda: “That’s right.”

Ogasawara: “After speaking with various companies, I felt that each had its strengths and weaknesses. Especially when we talked about our digital media business, most companies would scratch their heads and say, ‘That’s difficult…’ After considering many options, we ultimately decided to work with NWC, largely because of Ms. Okada and their strong capabilities in PR for our specific business domain.”

Okada: “Especially large PR firms often struggle with B2B2C company PR and IT company public relations. On the other hand, these areas are our strong suit. After hearing from CUEBIC, I felt they were indeed struggling with how to proceed with a PR strategy, even though they deeply understood the appeal of digital media. It’s certainly rare to find a company that has managed a digital media business for nearly 20 years and generated over 10 billion yen in sales, so there are few reference cases for how to effectively carry out PR activities.”

Okada: “That’s precisely why I believed our support would resonate with them. And this is a personal sentiment, but Ms. Hirayama, Ms. Ogasawara, and indeed everyone at CUEBIC, are genuinely good people. So, I also thought, ‘I really want to help them and create opportunities for more people to learn about how great this company is.'”

Hirayama: “Ms. Okada always gets us fired up like this, and she praises our good points directly and genuinely, so just talking to her gives us a huge boost of energy (laughs). Her passion and drive were very appealing to us.”

Takeda: “It’s not just a small handful of people at that company who are great; I think the others are similar types, and it’s a team of like-minded individuals. CUEBIC truly has many appealing people you’d want to work with.”

NWC Also Supported CUEBIC’s Internal PR Awareness Improvement

Okada: “Ms. Hirayama and Ms. Ogasawara aren’t just good people; they’re also highly perceptive and always gave us precise questions. That’s why I felt reassured that even after our support ended and we moved on, they would consider ‘how to continue their current PR activities on their own.'”

Okada: “Furthermore, as part of media relations, I arranged for Ms. Hirayama and Ms. Ogasawara to meet many editors-in-chief from various media outlets. I was confident that once introduced, they would continue to build their own connections and effectively leverage those relationships directly with each editor-in-chief, without needing us as an intermediary. Of course, we introduce editors-in-chief to other clients as well, but with CUEBIC, I was particularly confident that ‘this meeting would absolutely be a plus,’ which allowed me to make those introductions with strong conviction.”

Hirayama: “Both Ms. Okada and Ms. Takeda immersed themselves deeply within our company, more like internal team members than external partners, and tackled challenges alongside us as one team. I feel that they provided exactly the support we had hoped for.”

Ogasawara: “Furthermore, Ms. Okada herself explained the importance of public relations to our management team during our executive meetings. Of course, we also convey the importance and necessity of PR to management, but words from an external professional carry greater persuasive power. When Ms. Okada conveyed that ‘PR requires 2-3 years of preparation and branding with a long-term perspective,’ it became an opportunity for our management to re-evaluate the importance of PR. We were very grateful for that.”

Takeda: “PR tends to be put on the back burner, doesn’t it? But if you push it aside and then suddenly spend money or allocate personnel when PR becomes necessary, it doesn’t mean you’ll see immediate results.”

Ogasawara: “Furthermore, our business falls within the digital marketing field. Because of this, while we have a strong corporate culture of evaluating and making decisions based on qualitative as well as quantitative perspectives for our business, we are naturally strict about putting numbers to how much budget is spent and what kind of results are achieved for our initiatives. Conveying the importance of public relations to such individuals was very challenging.”

Okada: “In a sense, they’re polar opposites, aren’t they? I think PR is often judged qualitatively.”

Ogasawara: “Even if we’re asked about how many page views we got or how many media outlets featured us, it’s not always straightforward to say that directly translates to PR effectiveness. Instead, Ms. Okada helped explain to our internal teams that ‘what truly matters in PR is which media outlet features us and at what timing.'”

Takeda: “It was precisely because of the magnetic influence of you two [referring to Hirayama and Ogasawara] that we were able to speak directly with management and other employees. As a result, there’s no doubt our support progressed very smoothly.”

Okada: “Even within the same company, there are few people who can actively approach management or other departments to request cooperation for PR. We offer as much support as possible, but we aren’t in a position to make the first contact with internal staff. So, depending on the client, it can sometimes take time to gain internal cooperation. However, you two proactively introduced us to internal staff, saying things like, ‘I’ll create an opportunity for a meeting with management,’ or ‘There’s a suitable person, so I’ll set up a meeting.’ This is something that’s truly difficult to do.”

ーー Listening to your conversation, it feels like the flexibility of both NWC and CUEBIC matched up really well.

Okada: “I agree. Also, it’s crucial for PR managers to bring business leads to media representatives, especially before an article is even drafted for publication. By meeting and building rapport with media people, business leads can grasp how media thinks and understand that ‘it’s difficult to create an article without this kind of information.’ I actively encouraged Mr. Hirayama and Mr. Ogasawara to engage in these kinds of activities.”

Connections with Media Journalists Expanded Through NWC-Organized Study Sessions

Ogasawara: “I recently had dinner with a journalist I met at a study session organized by NWC. They also invited venture capitalists and PR professionals from other companies to that gathering, and it really made me realize how connections grow like this.”

Okada: “You’re truly running PR on your own now! This is exactly the kind of PR we aim for!”

Ogasawara: “Previously, to build relationships, I’d exchange business cards at large seminars hosted by major companies, with 70 to 80 attendees. But those connections were fleeting, and we never had deep interactions. In contrast, NWC organized smaller study sessions, which allowed us to maintain close communication with participants afterward.”

Hirayama: “I think the media representatives who attended also came with a mindset of, ‘NWC hosted this, so let’s hear what CUEBIC has to say.’ That was definitely thanks to Ms. Okada’s backing (laughs).”

Okada: (laughs)

Ogasawara: “Exactly! Although the media representatives might not have been very interested at first, I think they probably thought, ‘After listening closely, CUEBIC seems to be doing some interesting things.’ Many connections made through NWC’s study sessions led to interview opportunities, resulting in very fruitful exchanges. If there’s another chance in the future, I’d definitely like to participate again!”

Okada: “The study sessions we host are well-received by clients other than CUEBIC as well.”

Hirayama: “I don’t think there’s any better learning experience than this!”

Ogasawara: “In most PR study sessions, the participants are almost exclusively PR professionals, so it’s hard to connect directly with media representatives, isn’t it? For us, we really wanted opportunities to connect with people from the media, so NWC’s study sessions were ideal.”

CUEBIC’s and NWC’s “People-First” Mindsets Align

Hirayama: “I also believe that the cultural fit between our company and NWC deepened our understanding, allowed us to provide what each other needed, and fostered a good relationship.”

Okada: “CUEBIC is a company that truly values people, isn’t it?”

Hirayama: “That’s right. Our core value is ‘People-First,’ and we really emphasize the attitude of thinking deeply about others, even more than they think about themselves. When we recruit, we also prioritize alignment with this core value. I think NWC is also a people-first company.”

Okada: “We openly declare that we hire based on personality (laughs).”

Hirayama: “(laughs) When partnering with someone, we prioritize whether they have a trustworthy and sincere attitude as a person, even more than the mutual interests involved. This isn’t limited to PR; it’s a company-wide policy.”

Okada: “For us, we want to support companies that we feel ‘deserve to be more widely known,’ and CUEBIC was precisely one such company. We truly hope you’ll continue to disseminate information. Speaking of which, there was an article about boomerang employees on Toyo Keizai Online, wasn’t there?”

Ogasawara: “That’s right! The interview was conducted in 2023 and the article was published in March of the following year.”

Takeda: “That was a project that had been in motion right from when we first started our support, wasn’t it?”

Hirayama: “That’s right. I had thought the project might have fallen through, but after several exchanges, it finally became an article.”

Okada: “Indeed, public relations inevitably takes a long time. That’s why you have to anticipate long-term schedules and initiatives.”

Ogasawara: “This incident really drove that point home for me again. Also, our employees are, for better or worse, incredibly humble… Even when they start something new, they tend to think, ‘This isn’t really something to put out in the media.’ That’s another area where NWC partnered with us and helped us change our perspective.”

Hirayama: “Instead of just suddenly going to interview them, we started doing ‘hearing lunches’ where we’d have lunch together and ask about their recent business activities and initiatives, which increased our contact frequency.”

Hirayama: Initially, every employee reacted with something like, “There’s nothing really worth sharing,” but after a few months of continuing this, more people started proactively asking, “Could this be news?”

Okada: “That’s ideal!”

Ogasawara: “Recently, it’s not just during our ‘hearing lunches’ anymore; discussions about whether ‘this should be put out as a press release’ are now coming directly from the business divisions themselves.”

Okada: “If people in the business divisions don’t ask, ‘Is this something for PR?’, then from a PR perspective outside of those divisions, we wouldn’t even know if there’s any material. I think CUEBIC successfully overcame this challenge, thanks to the ‘hearing lunches’.”

Ogasawara: “Furthermore, requests from management or business divisions to suddenly issue a press release have almost entirely ceased.”

Okada: “Yes, that was a challenge as well.”

Ogasawara: “Because our company typically operates digital media, many people internally had the same perception about press releases. They’d think, ‘If we prepare the article, it’ll just be a one-click upload, right?’ However, the process of getting an article published on another company’s media is completely different from publishing an article on our own self-operated media.”

Okada: “I think many people are unaware that there’s a process involved when a company’s PR team wants to issue a press release to external media. This includes meetings with the external media contacts, creating and sending the article, and then reviewing it. In reality, it takes time to get a press release out to external media, and urgent requests are often difficult to accommodate.”

Ogasawara: “While we still need to further disseminate that understanding internally, requests like ‘I want to issue a press release tomorrow’ have almost entirely disappeared. I believe this is also thanks to Ms. Okada and Ms. Takeda’s support.”

Building a System Where PR is Consulted First to Mitigate the Risk of Public Relations Crises

Okada: “Around the end of our contract, there was an incident within CUEBIC that, if mishandled, could have easily escalated into a major public relations crisis. What was great was that the people on the ground were able to keenly sense the risk of a PR firestorm and promptly consulted with the PR team. That process had been successfully established.”

Ogasawara: “Yes, that’s right. At that time, the people on the ground consulted us first and foremost.”

Okada: “When there’s a risk of a crisis emerging on the ground, it’s crucial for preventing a public relations firestorm that they consider ‘how should we communicate this externally?’ and consult PR rather than making decisions themselves. Every company needs a relationship between the field and PR where they can rely on PR not just for positive announcements but also when something negative might occur. The fact that CUEBIC established this system within six months is truly remarkable.”

Hirayama: “At that time, NWC also promptly helped us think through how to respond, which was incredibly helpful. The team on the ground would consult us with their concerns, and when we contacted NWC, we’d get an immediate response, allowing us to deal with the situation quickly.”

Takeda: “In emergencies, sometimes it’s faster to talk things through than to rely on emails. At that time, we were able to quickly set up a meeting and participate, which allowed us to devise countermeasures promptly. While it turned out there wasn’t much to worry about, we feel good about being able to establish this kind of system for managing risks.”

NWC Offers Flexible Support Tailored to Each Company’s Challenges

ーー What kind of companies do you think should consider using NWC?
Hirayama: “NWC is highly flexible and really works alongside companies to tackle their challenges. So, I think they’re a perfect fit for businesses looking to dive deep into what their true challenges are through discussion, and then find effective solutions together.”

Okada: “Every company has a different management style and PR structure, so we highly value the flexibility to adapt and support each company’s specific challenges as much as possible.”

ーー If a company with a different corporate culture than CUEBIC wanted to receive NWC’s support, how would you approach them?
Okada: “There are various patterns. For example, at one company, the CEO and the PR team had almost no communication. Our approach really resonated with a company like that because our style is to start by communicating directly with top management. When we supported that company, I contacted the CEO and proposed, ‘Would it be alright if we had a chat, including your PR person?’ From then on, we acted as an intermediary to facilitate monthly meetings between them.”

Takeda: “It’s like you effectively bridged the gap between management and PR.”

Okada: “Even if a PR person thinks, ‘The president isn’t really that concerned about PR,’ the president might actually understand PR in their own way, or have clear expectations for it. Conversely, it’s not uncommon for top management to struggle with conveying their thoughts to the PR lead. So, we start our support by bridging this gap. In CUEBIC’s case, the internal communication was already good, so things progressed smoothly.”

Hirayama: “Even so, from our perspective, we were so grateful for the many opportunities to talk—so many that we thought, ‘Can they really do this many meetings?’—and it made things feel very easy to move forward.”

Takeda: “I remember that soon after we started our support, when you were about to issue a press release about an M&A, you asked us, ‘Would it be alright if we set up a meeting with the person in charge?’ even before we had a chance to make that request.”

Okada: “Even when we maintain a flexible stance, if our client can’t respond flexibly, PR activities won’t move forward. As a result, management might become distrustful, asking, ‘Why is PR so slow? What is NWC even doing?’ This is something we want to avoid. In that regard, CUEBIC was incredibly flexible. That’s because Mr. Hirayama and Ms. Ogasawara had built excellent relationships with their internal colleagues, thoroughly understood the company’s internal affairs and business, and had a clear grasp of their own challenges and what needed to be done. I believe you two are perfectly suited for your roles as PR managers.”

ーー Is the flexible support that NWC provided to CUEBIC something that can also be offered to other companies?
Okada: “Absolutely! Our current clients all have completely different challenges and require entirely different support, so we tailor our plans to match their specific needs. That’s NWC’s strength.”

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(Interview by Sanpoteam Inc. / Photography & Editing by Asami Sakuraguchi / Text by Ginjiro Nakano)

Company Name: CUEBIC Inc.
Head Office: Shinjuku Front Tower 16F, 2-21-1 Kita-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
Established: October 24, 2006
Number of Employees: 308 (non-consolidated) / 484 (consolidated)
*As of August 31, 2023
*Includes student interns
Business Activities: Digital Media Business, Digital Customer Acquisition Support Business, Platform Business