Posts tagged as:

Advertising

Confessions of a China Entrepreneur.

03.08.2010 Insights
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Today I’m going to give you a quick overview of my short experience as a China entrepreneur for reasons you’ll soon discover. So lets start with the end, and then we’ll work our way to the beginning.
Recently, I was honored to be invited and take part in UC Berkeley’s Asia Business Conference; I was a [...]

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Wildaid; Shooting Glass with Money.

01.18.2010 Outdoor
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This recent campaign by Wildaid is pretty interesting; I’d venture to say most wildlife protection advertising is great; as their primary focus is to shock the crap out of you to get you to change your point of view. In this particular campaign seen in China’s subways; Wildaid shoots endangered animal posters with money, through [...]

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Guinness; Tapping the androgynous market?

12.22.2009 Guinness
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When I think of the brand Guinness, I think of dark, heavy frothy beer; perfect for a late night drink, perhaps in a semi-modern, upscale bar; usually during a causal business meeting; “business drunk” (which I’m told is similar to “rich drunk” but have yet to verify personally). Now I know that I’m not like you, [...]

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Jinkela; Purposefully idiotic China ad creates massive viral success.

12.18.2009 JinKeLa
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I found this on LRB’s forum; it’s an ad for Jinkela, some sort of fertilizer. What’s crazy is the clownish way they went to advertise it; and the surprising reaction from millions of Chinese viewers.
Here’s an interesting question; let’s say you are an unrecognized brand, and you want to go “viral” to spread the word as quickly as [...]

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Associating “Volkswagen” with “Pee”.

12.14.2009 Print
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Ah yes; the holy grail of advertising is to somehow link your brand to urine. Wait; that doesn’t sound right…
I’m not sure what the thinking behind this one was; I guess they were able to check the “catch attention” box; but whether they got the “memorable brand message” is something else altogether; cause in this [...]

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One billion invisible Chinese.

12.11.2009 Insights
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This one isn’t about advertising; rather its a forwarded email I got from Andrew (my biz partner), which he got from his sister in Australia (now you know my content sources). In it is a Chinese man named Liu Bo Lin that literally paints himself into the background. It’s pretty cool in a weird sort [...]

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Breaking Down Viral Advertising.

11.27.2009 Insights
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Hey all; I’m still in process of rebuilding ZeroDegree’s site; here’s something I wrote yesterday for ZD; it’s a general theory of viral advertising.
Key points are breaking it down to a level wherein we can predict results. This is always limited to content; but having said that there are other ways to build some [...]

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LRB; One year old and hot as hell.

11.16.2009 News
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Hello all; I’m proud to report today that LRB is one year old.
It’s been an interesting year, beginning with the thought “why don’t I try to build a blog”, followed by “is anyone actually reading this blog”, then “you know what I don’t think anyone is reading this, so I’m just going to shoot my [...]

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Skittles; Celebrating Youthful Irreverence.

10.19.2009 Skittles
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I picked this one up from LRB forums; this campaign is very cute, and celebrates a pretty common theme in China youth advertising: irreverence for social norms, mischievousness, and an emphasis on fantasy and imagination.
One thing to note though is that in most Chinese youth advertising there is still a a social conformist aspect to [...]

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Audi; Copycat Campaign, Awful Tagline.

09.21.2009 Audi
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Audi’s recent campaign is interesting, albeit a semi-copycat of an earlier 2008 VW campaign; it features a mud splattered into traditional Chinese painting on their off-road Q7. So ya ok; we can check the appropriate boxes:
1. There is a car in the ad? Check. 2. There is something off-roadish about the ad? Check. 3. There is something [...]

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Big Ideas vs. Small Ideas; Forest vs. Trees.

09.15.2009 Insights
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I recently spotted a great article on Razorfish’s blog titled: “Does SIM mean big ideas matter less?”.  I thought this was interesting until I realized the underlying duality of the question was inappropriate. Dualism, or “black vs. white” is never really the way to go; its always a compromise is it not? We may maintain [...]

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Advertisers becoming more agressive, so what is the ideal relationship?

09.11.2009 Insights

It’s incredible the lengths advertisers are now going to capture the consumers attention. The digital space is becoming increasingly more aggressive and less tactful. Marketers are now oozing desperation; and with major portals crowded it’s a challenge for the ‘traditional thinkers’ to capture the consumers attention.
The result ‘KIDNAP’ the screen. It makes [...]

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Prying Open Chinese Wallets.

09.08.2009 Insights
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I was sent an article today from the author of buzzandthecity; it was a link to a FT article titled “China Goes Shopping” wherein Chinese are described as “penny pinching, ruthless, suspicious shoppers”.
One key excerpt from the article caught my eye:
“Even when they can easily afford it, buying a PC typically involves six visits to [...]

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China Mobile; Using love to cellphones.

09.01.2009 China Mobile
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This is a collection of China Mobile’s newly launched TVCs posted in LRB’s forum. China Mobile’s trick is to stress love among people, basically between parents and children; husband and wife, and to boast cellphone’s power of getting in touch with whoever you are emotionally connected.
The TVCs are made genuine, touching; however, the audience is [...]

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Biotherm; Ubrupt Social Media Campaign.

08.19.2009 Biotherm
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China social media campaigns come in two flavors; the rare flavor of a sustainable campaign that pulls rewards over the course of years; and the more common flavor of one-off promotions.
Obviously the sustainable version is better; one off promotions, in addition to failing to leverage short run large initial costs for long run low maintenance, [...]

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TianTian; Fart jokes + Air Freshner; classic Chinese humor?

08.17.2009 Print
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Here’s a pretty gross ad. At first I thought it was kinda funny (which it still is), but then I thought, “Well shouldn’t it also take all surround odors out of the air, rather than contain the one shooting at your face?”. But then this is sort of like dissecting a “knock knock” joke, ie: [...]

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China Advertising Jobs and Bookstore on LRB.

08.13.2009 News
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Hey everyone – we just created a few new sections on LRB; one is a job forum area which we’ll fill with new China advertising jobs as we find them; we’re also teaming up with several headhunters that’ll drop their ads in from time to time – so check it out.
Also, we’ve created a bookstore [...]

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360quan; Social network for teenagers proves China’s youth are insane.

07.10.2009 360QUAN
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Chinese youth are insane. Well ok, maybe not insane, but certainly not sane either. Lets call them “unsane”. Why, pray tell, do I make such nasty accusations? Well the short answer is I’m judgmental and have a selective ignorance (that I choose to ignore). The long answer?
The long answer is that it there may be sanity [...]

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China Consumer Profile; “Young Digital Fashionistas”

12.18.2008 China Consumer Profile
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“Young Digital Fashionista” is a young Chinese girl with college education. She has an average yearly income of RMB 63,420 (USD 9,342), which is considered to be a high income in China; this allows her to “spoil” herself. She is IT savvy and fashionable. In her spare time, she frequently goes to the spa, gym, [...]

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