Wealth, WeChat and a plausible China “mobile strategy”.

Feb 5, 2013

Wearesocial recently created a massive deck on China social media stats. Now since I’ve apparently got some free time, let’s take a look at this monster and see if we can derive a few practical insights.

Rather than approaching this from a research perspective, lets look at it “strategically”, cause then that way we can sound more “pompous”. What’s strategy in a business sense? Well from my experience being a professional ~~bullshit artist~~ marketer, it simply means this: taking bits of data and stringing together a plausible story.

Hein Koegelenberg: Thank you very much for the info!
@mark_e_evans: great post. I think We Are Social's decks are intended to do what this post does: speak in broad strokes…

BBC interviews Rand on China Social Media.

Jul 13, 2012

I was recently interviewed by the BBC on the subject of China social media… which for some reason people seem to think I understand. Here’s the harsh truth: similar to Chinese business tax law, no one truly understands China social media… and by the time you just might do… they go ahead and change the rules on you.

But having said that, if you’ve time to burn – please give the podcast a listen. Titled: “It started with a Tweet”, part one is available here, and will be combined with part two next week and stored here after its broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 7/19 @ 8pm.

Hey baby, it’s been a while.

Jul 9, 2012

Good morning netizens.. to those of you who didn’t unsubscribe during the forever months I wasn’t writing, anyway. A quick shout: I’m gonna take another stab at this thing here they call “blogging”. It isn’t so hard at first mind you.. but then, the beginning of a marathon isn’t so hard either.

Marathon, as seen by falling man.

It feels weird, writing again after all this time, in truth. I’ve been busy getting busy that I thought to leave this behind, writing was just a way to get new business – a means to an end so to speak; and with the ends achieved, the means no longer necessary.

I began as a writer, built a business based on writing, and so a writer I shall stay, regardless if I’m writing insightful articles later published in the world’s most popular magazines, or if I’m writing a pile of drivel… which you’ll discover, in retrospect, a clear example of once you’ve finished reading this article.

Mike N.: Welcome back, Rand! Nice to see you again. As for the guessing thing, this is the part where I say…
- Rand: Cheers Mike - I'm glad to have finally won my battle vs. inertia - good to be back.
Nishtha: Rand, njoyed reading this! Nice one. Look fwd to more... Nishtha.
- Rand: Cheers Nishtha -
Mao Ruiqi: Welcome back. Holding great faith, relative to your eventual return, i maintained your slot; imagine--this morning--just how pleased i was…
- Rand: Cheers MRQ - hope to continue not disappointing :)
mike michelini: hey buddy, reading up on ya here in Chinaccelerator! hope to catch up again when i'm in shanghai - this…

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How to Choose Renren, Kaixin001, and/or Sina Weibo for your China Social Media Campaign.

May 23, 2011

A question I come across constantly: “which platform do I choose to run my social media campaign in China?”

It’s a good question without a simple answer.. so in the interest of filling the next few moments of your life with needful complications, lets delve a bit deeper into the logic of “the why” and “the how” of selecting a baseline HQ for your China social media expeditions.

Richard Kimber: Your article is well reasoned and as always empirically sound. One question I ask is whether you have discounted the…
- Rand: Hey Richard - you make a good point; your wife would be considered a KOL, ie: Key Opinion Leader. Part…
Pascal Weinfurtner: Great article Rand! And thanks for the great overview about companies engaging in Kaixin or RenRen. You really gave me…
- Rand: Happy to serve :)
The Beginner’s Guide to Chinese Social Media » PandaCulture: [...] struggle. If your company is looking to use RenRen or Kaixin001, I strongly suggest you first read LittleRedBook’s tutorial on…

..And we’re back.

Apr 20, 2011

Hey there, you may have noticed we’ve been away from littleredbook for the past few months.. this isn’t because we were suddenly unable or unwilling to type these little digital letters you’re currently reading.. no.

Rather it was because we were dealing with the energy demanding requirements of building a boutique agency poised to grow larger, and the clients, partnerships, buyout offers, and head scratching strategy that comes with securing and defending found territory.

Dan: Nice to have LRB back! Hope the forums liven up again soon too. Best, Dan
- Rand: Thx Dan, though we'll leave the forum's content to the complementary sites, and focus on something different instead.
Mao Ruiqi: Welcome back. Missed plagiarizing your stats, consequently my employee performance reviews has been headed south.
- Rand: lol - thx - still a bit slow on the updating, but should have something out soon. in the meantime…

Valentines Day Anniversary.

Feb 21, 2011

Shed a tear with me friends as the holiday season of Christmas, followed by New Years, followed by Chinese New Years and the accompanying general work malaise, a mixture of biting cold with the ever looming “block of time off” on the horizon, fades into the distance. Yes, it’s officially time to get back to work.

Lyman Lai: Hey, Rand. Adam here. Long time no see ;) Good to read this memorry ;) ~~ I am still on…
- Rand: hey adam; no worries, you'll be there soon enough -
Isabelle: Hello, My name is Isabelle. I am a french girl very interesting by china and chinese culture. I currently work…

The Darkness Driving China Social Media.

Jan 11, 2011

Ah yes, “Social Media”, I surf around the web reading about it, I create strategies for it, I see and hear about it all day. There are two things that will happen once you overdose on the social media services gold rush; one is you mindlessly follow everybody else’s tactics, leading to copy/paste social media marketing; the other, you dive deeper to figure out what “social media” really is beyond potentially cheap(er) advertising and its most visible keywords “tribes”, “communities”, “connection”, “engagement”.

David Wolf: Really superb article, Rand. Thank you.
- Rand: Thanks for the compliment David :)
Archie: Nice work Rand. You've gotta love those late night "creative bursts". Honest and forthright and occasionally scary :-)
- Rand: thx archie - ya late night is the best time to write; though the morning requires a thorough clean up.
Graham Norris: Looking forward to you spilling the rest of the beans. I wonder if the Mengniu-Yili fallout will actually put people…
- Rand: One would hope so, but probably not; what will stop agencies is the inevitable diminishing returns of this tactic; while…
Charlie Wang: Dude! Insightful as always! BTW, love the social media BS generator. I personally use this one for all my IT…
- Rand: Cheers Charlie :)
Offline Local Marketing: Does anyone know of any good training for offline local marketing

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Ain’t no party like a Communist Party cause a Communist party don’t stop.

Dec 22, 2010

Picked this up from Threadless; it’s been going around for awhile, but I don’t care, it’s still f’ing cool, ya?

Julien Viel: Happy holidays to both you and your team too!
- Rand: thx julien :)

Johnnie Walker + Han Han; “Sentiment Road” China Social Media Campaign.

Dec 15, 2010

China’s uber-famous blogger Han Han is going the way of Jay Chou; we see him sponsoring a wide assortment of products, though with a more introspective edge compared to singer Jay Chou’s wide spread magnetism.

Siddhartha Obama in Downtown Shanghai.

Dec 13, 2010

Picked this one up from Mark Englehart Evans blog, it’s a randomly cool billboard done by an environmental artist Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung; the subject? Siddhartha Obama, or to those of you not familiar with Eastern religion, it’s Obama depicted as Buddhism’s founder, and as the cure to the world’s environmental woes.

Mentos; A Twisted Chinese Viral Love Story.

Dec 13, 2010

This one’s pretty funny; it’s from Mentos, and takes a mischievous look on the average melodramatic “everyone dies in the end” Chinese love story. With my little experience marketing candy in China, it seems when aimed at a younger audience, it always comes with a twist, some societal expectation or old formula that’s suddenly broken.

Copycat China Ads; Dior and Johnnie Walker.

Dec 8, 2010

This is pretty interesting; picked up from LRB forums as well as dug up from pages across Youku, we see some “shanzai” or copycat advertising of Dior and Johnnie Walker by local Chinese brands.. both coincidentally featuring a continuous shot camera technique focused on the actor.

Li Ning; Beautifully Inspirational China Viral.

Dec 2, 2010

I’ve been seeing this trend recently, first introduced in Olympics advertising, then obvious in Vancl’s latest campaign, and now in Li Ning.. protagonists that focus not on conformity, but on discovery; a beautifully refreshing attitude of going against the grain of societal expectations, to instead slowly reveal the world like a precious gift opened with fear of ripped wrapping.

Vancl; Aiming for the Chinese Heart.

Nov 10, 2010

Based on my general experience of China advertising and social media, I’ve really come to admire Vancl’s advertising strategy.

The focus isn’t broad stroked Chinese cliche; or a usage of celebrities commonly seen promoting a myriad of products (like when you see famous Taiwan singer Jay Chou promote a fast food chain, a clothing line, a soft drink all in the same commercial break).

CIC; Shanghai Panel: From China Social Media to Social Business.

Nov 1, 2010

Hey all; our friend(s)/strategic partner, CIC will be holding a China social media panel at Fudan University on Nov. 15th. From as far as I can tell, CIC is the leader in China social media monitoring; I say this because for every client I land, CIC was usually there first; but don’t take my word for it, refer instead to the list of speakers as evidence.