From the category archives:

i. China Advertising

Volkswagen; Glamour with a Twist.

08.27.2010 Events
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Got this one from the guys over at DMG; it’s a Volkswagen ad, executed beautifully; the story removes the pretentiousness of glamour, replacing it with a mischievous twist. This humanizes the brand, rather than the stale “buy this car, become famous” we have “you don’t need glamour, glamour comes standard.” While we’ll see ads like TBWA’s Adidas Olympics [...]

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The sexual dilemma of the Chinese woman.

08.20.2010 Print
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Picked this up via Han Jun Wei and Buzzandthecity; it’s a funny look at Chinese women’s dating options in China. Beyond the beauty of the photos, there’s also some sharp commentary on Chinese culture as well. I’m wondering what a reversed “dilemma of Chinese men” collection would look like. My guess is that the model [...]

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Get customized, specific answers to your China marketing questions.

08.19.2010 News
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I played around with an “Ask Rand” feature a little while back, and while I was getting a lot of Qs previous, once I started to post these Qs online for people to respond, the  flow of Qs became less. This is a positive/negative; I don’t have to spend so much time answering questions… however, [...]

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China’s Internet, Shades of Gray; Mourning Mudslide Victims.

08.17.2010 News
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As many of you already know, tragedy struck China in the form of a mudslide that killed 1,254 people in Gansu Province. This event was nationally mourned; China’s television for that day played no entertainment; rather it looped footage of the tragedy and the government’s response. This mourning also spread to the web; to align with the policy of [...]

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Dior; “Racist” China Advertising Campaign.

08.16.2010 Dior
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Picked this one up via LRB forums and Shanghaiist. It’s a recent campaign by Dior that visually treads the lines into racism against the Chinese. Interesting brand positioning “yes”; ability to catch attention and stir conversations “yes”; creates loyalty and brand affinity “no”; and therein lies the rub; one little “no” can ruin any good [...]

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DMG; A China Entrepreneur’s Entrepreneur.

08.09.2010 Case Studies
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For those of you following this blog, you’ll know that I’ve run a China ad agency for a number of years. This innocent statement has volatility written all over it; the first being China; a chaotic beast rocketing forward; then ad agencies where business turns sweet or goes sour between morning and evening; and being an entrepreneur in the midst of [...]

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CNNIC: Yahoo Most Used Search Engine in China, ahead of Google and Baidu.

08.06.2010 News
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So here I am sifting through data on this hot summer Shanghai afternoon; Internet usage up in China? Check. Penetration rates rising across country? Check. Most used search engine is Yahoo? Chec… uaaagh? Direct from CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center) “Statistical Survey Report on Internet Development in China (Jan 2010)” I read the line [...]

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Aggregated RSS feeds for the China Marketer.

08.06.2010 News
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Hey all, I’ve relaunched LRB’s Media Aggregator; it’s newly designed, and filled with relevant info covering China social media, digital, advertising, business, culture and insights; it’s a good place to begin researching and understanding China’s unique landscape one blog at a time. I’m sure I missed a few things here and there so please feel free to [...]

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Rejected China TV Ad Receives 2M Views Online.

08.03.2010 CCTV
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Picked this one up via LRB Forums; In an interesting twist, a commercial banned by China Central Television (CCTV) once posted online received 2M views in only 8 days. There’s a bit of celebrity power behind this one though; the ad features Yan Liu, a famous, beautiful TV anchor for Hunan TV getting her faced [...]

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Vancl; Expertly Planning a China Viral Buzz Campaign.

08.02.2010 Social Media
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Advertising is maturing; I’ve mentioned before someplace in this blog that the future isn’t the traditional campaign, but rather a series of conversations that take place with users. In its more obvious form this expands toward branded content, where the ratio between entertainment /advertising is about 80 /20. I’ll cover this in-depth in a future post, [...]

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Adidas; Sina Weibo “China Twitter” Campaign.

08.02.2010 Adidas
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This is a quick snapshot of a campaign we came across on Sina Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. It’s an Adidas campaign with a simple engagement, prompting users to add Adidas Originals as a friend, and then RT a specific tweet and comment which shoe color the user is wearing today for the chance to win an [...]

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