News

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…

More comments

..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…

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 :)

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.

Prive; Free Flow Entry into China’s Hottest Club.

Oct 18, 2010

The Prive grand opening is happening this Friday Oct. 22nd; the event is being run by friends, and they asked me to help spread the word. It promises to be a great night; right on the bund, with a huge terrace overlooking Shanghai’s world-famous Pudong Skyline; and with it’s HK ancestry may likely cater to Shanghai’s Asian elite, vs. the Bund’s current target market.

Intel Creators Project; Big Bang in Beijing.

Sep 13, 2010

Hey all; Resonance China has recently been assisting Niurenku with the Intel Creators Project, sponsored by Vice Magazine; an incredible 7 city worldwide tour thats ending with a bang in Beijing this Saturday, Sept. 17-19.

Get customized, specific answers to your China marketing questions.

Aug 19, 2010

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, it comes at a cost to the community.

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

Aug 17, 2010

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.

DMG; A China Entrepreneur’s Entrepreneur.

Aug 9, 2010

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 all this, adding the struggle of finding the right market, building your operations, coupled with the “yeeha!” of hitting your stride.

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

Aug 6, 2010

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?

Matt Mayer: The other items add up to 99% without Yahoo!
- Rand: ya maybe yahoo should be the 1% thats left, rather than the 82% monster CNNIC shows :)
Florian Pihs: @Rand As surprised as you are about these numbers. These is newer CNNIC report out (July 2010 - Chinese only)…
- Rand: ya this seems to be a glitch; i wonder why they'd include it in this report, and further how they…
Taobao agent: good post.. make me laugh

Adidas; Sina Weibo “China Twitter” Campaign.

Aug 2, 2010

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 Adidas original bag.

This simple engagement has gained 7000+ follows for Adidas on Sina Weibo; the account was created on 2010.06.18. Not too bad for a few months.

World Wide News Flash: Adidas; Sina Weibo ?China Twitter? Campaign.... I found your entry interesting do I've added a Trackback to it on my…
Buying agent in China: weibo is new online market in china
Olivier@Chine: 7000+ follows it is well done for addidas. Is any other brands did better?
Chinese Marketing and Recruiting: Nice article. Weibo is definitely a useful tool. Also, everyone loves a chance for a "free lunch" - or a…

Pepsi; Getting Punished by China Social Media.

Aug 2, 2010

Picked this news tidbit up via R3; This is where a well intentioned, relatively traditional campaign can get punished by China netizens, who according to a recent Nielsen report, are most likely to speak negatively of Brands online.

Tencent; Hail to the King of China’s Copycats.

Jul 26, 2010

Picked this one up via Danwei and Thomas Morffew; it’s a cover story from China Computer World bashing Tencent, the very powerful internet company behind QQ and numerous others. As you can guess, it’s not very flattering.

Drop Shopping: Though our user base is much smaller, our virtual economy is of a similar size to TenCent. Drop Shopping

China “Great Firewall” vs. Japanese Porn Star.

May 11, 2010

Hey all, picked this up from Chinahush.com; it’s some parts funny, and other part inevitable. Famous Japanese AV star Sora Aoi is providing the motivation for men across mainland China to learn how to jump the Great Firewall, which, as it turns out is easy to do as long as you have the right motivation.

This of course begs the question; “how will China keep the Internet censored?”. Well dear friends my guess is that eventually they won’t. It’s too difficult – like trying to stop the wind from blowing, or stopping the ocean from… oceaning. Hmm.. well you get the idea; there will always be strands of wind or water that sneak through; and the more we try to restrict, the more we find such restrictions impossible.

Sora represents the inevitable; when our pimpled Chinese youth eventually tear themselves away from “date-night” with their laptops, they’ll begin realizing they can access information that otherwise would have passed over their Geisha-laced minds. It doesn’t take much to spread an idea as Twitter, Facebook, etc etc have proven beyond doubt.

oni: well, the latest news shows that Chinnese authority's gonna update the GFW this afternoon. more accurate censorship, bigger scale and…
Rand: I don't know what they plan to do, but I'll put my money on youthful ingenuity to find a way…
Mao Ruiqi: OMG, you may be on to something huge! The most widely known and accepted reason for the growth of the…
- Rand: Leave it to porn to lead the way. Censorship can't last - like you said, porn-cops will have problems; at…
physi: This is such a great resource that you are providing and you give it away for free. I enjoy seeing…

Rand @ the Effie Roundtable.

Apr 25, 2010

Hey all, recently I was given the honor of attending the Malaysian Effie Awards Roundtable Panel. I sat with fellow panelists from the top echelons of Ogilvy, as well as leaders of publishing houses and financial institutions discussing social media and branding in the modern age.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Effies; it’s one of the most prestigious advertising awards you can receive specifically judged based on the effectiveness of your campaign; its the sort of award your clients will especially love.

Now the first thought you may think is “so what were YOU doing there?” That’s a pretty good question, cause the assumption of me going there is that I’d have a few important things to say. Well I did say a few things, though the relative intelligence of those blurted thoughts may be in question. Curious? Well here’s a link to the Effie’s website where you may chance upon a podcast of me spilling my social media branding beans.

Judging the Effies.

Mar 26, 2010

Recently I was honored to be invited to judge the Effie Awards. “Effie” is short for effectiveness; thus the award is given to marketing campaigns that focus not on being pretty, funny, and/or cute; but rather what they did to the bottom line. Initial budgets and final results are the primary judging criteria; entrants ranged from global giants to smaller players that made a huge impact.

This begs the questions – what is it that drives effectiveness? Well friends; this is the secret magic question at the end of the rainbow; and it’s answer is pretty simple, but extremely difficult at the same time.

The key to effectiveness always relies on deep insight into our market, mixed with a “big” idea that leverages and communicates that insight appropriately. Media channels are of course important; but they are never the primary means to develop effectiveness. That means is you’ve got a flat message, all media channels can do is communicate the flatness of your message to as many people as your budget allows.

Mao Ruiqi: The expression, "catching lightening in a jar", comes to mind. Or, why the creators of the original "Where's the Beef"…
- Rand: Ya I agree; while there is a formula to create these great ideas, it's in no way a guarantee to…
cindy: very good

Building Resonance.

Mar 14, 2010

Just a few months ago, BA360 partnered with Mailman to build ZeroDegrees. As with China, things move fast; some things grow, some things die. Well friends, today I’m here not to report growth, but to report death; for the partnership between Mailman and BA360 is dead. But such is life in China, things move fast, they chaotically hurtle forward; those with loose grips slip; those with tight grips fight to hold on tighter.

As ZeroDegrees, a digital China social media agency, was created based on BA360′s learnings from littleredbook.cn and missniuniu.com; it stays in BA’s ownership; Mailman voluntarily forfeited all equity to ZeroDegrees and has agreed not to use any of BA’s promotional / presentation materials, makes no claim to the creation of the Missniuniu case study, and through implication takes no credit for the creation of the ZeroDegrees social media agency in the realms of strategy, planning, management and execution of China digital social media campaigns.

Thomas Morffew: Best of luck with the new venture.
Barry Ong: Happy for you Rand. Read your dispute with Mailman in Forbes.com and am glad that things goes well now. Good…
Rand: Thx guys; nothing left to do but move forward, and forward moving we certainly are.