Posts tagged as:

Asia

“Does Zhang Ziyi Represent Chinese Women?”

01.28.2010 China Modern Culture
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Hey All, the below is from Veronica who is writing about Zhang ZiYi, a famous Chinese movie star and whether she represents Chinese women. It’s an interesting culture article and a good way to get quick insight into the heart of the Chinese woman. Enjoy; -Rand
As the proudest international star from China, the spotlight brings Ziyi [...]

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Ask Rand; “Is a bilingual website necessary?”

01.21.2010 Ask Rand
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Here’s another question I received via LRB’s contact form. If you’re interested in asking me a question; go ahead and shoot it over; I’ll post it up on LRB and we can discuss online to your benefit, and the benefit of other readers. Feel free to ask me anything; I’m pretty open with my advice; and while [...]

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Ask Rand; “How to match UK agencies to China marketing directors?”

01.18.2010 Ask Rand
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I get a lot of inquires through LRB, many of which ask for quick bits of advice. I’ll normally answer these things one-to-one, but since there’s some overlap there, I figured I’d start posting some of my answers.
Why? Well this gives you a glimpse into China and marketing strategic thinking; and plus, perhaps some of [...]

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Selling China to the Chinese.

01.12.2010 JiaDing
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Or rather, selling Shanghai to the Shanghainese. I picked this one up from LRB forums; JiaDing district in Shanghai is known as rural, “end of the line” district… generally speaking its the kind of place you don’t want to live or really even want to visit. With Shanghai’s breakneck development pace, even the fringes are getting a [...]

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Domesticated Ancient Chinese Warriors.

12.16.2009 Print
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I picked this one up from LRB forums. It’s  campaign for YangHe, a famous alcoholic spirit in China.
What’s interesting? Looking online many non-Chinese think this campaign is great; but to a local Chinese it looks totally ridiculous. The campaign depicts several ancient heroes including Zhang Fei, a warrior general of the Three Kingdoms period (around 200 A.D.) in [...]

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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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Fear & Loathing in Chinese Advertising.

10.21.2009 BWCDF
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Here’s a cute campaign, excellent art direction and visuals tie together a memorable piece, sort of like a knife wrapped in hello kitty pajamas. Pretty universal in message: parents be paranoid; the message is communicated through a typical landscape of childhood dreams, which upon closer inspection reveal dangers such as eating pins, stepping on mines, [...]

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Isabelle; 12 Zodiac TVC Love Stories.

10.16.2009 Isabelle
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This is a beautiful series of different proposals made to 12 constellations crowned with the slogan “let’s get married”. The short clips are produced by Taiwanese, and so do we find the typical pure love story style as in many Taiwan TV series in these ads. Horoscope is very popular among young people these days [...]

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LRB Co-Hosts Likemind Event (Friday 10.16).

10.15.2009 Events
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Hey all, I’ll be co-hosting Likemind this Friday with ZD/Mailman partner Andrew Collins, and the guys over at CIC. I missed the last event (they start at 8:30am which is pretty freaking early… for me anyway); but did manage to attend the first which was great. If you’re truly looking to network face-to-face with a [...]

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CCTV; Stunning TVC perfectly balances Chinese Art Aesthetics and Nationalist Spirit.

10.13.2009 CCTV
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I picked this one up from LRB forums; this is truly a stunning commercial; with a distinct nationalist tone, similar to the Adidas Olympic ads from last year, this commercial uses Chinese water painting aesthetics to weave inspiring visuals.
It’s difficult not to feel a sense of pride when watching these commercials; they’re perfectly tuned to [...]

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HSBC; Warm & Cuddly Financial Services.

09.28.2009 HSBC
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I picked this up from LRB’s forums; this is a sweet TVC; sentimental imagery that pulls at the heart strings.
It’s interesting how it plays out; following the life of a middle aged man as he progresses through the different stages in his life is an HSBC rep, a young woman who resembles Zhang Zi Yi [...]

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Ipart.cn; Undisturbed Digital Domestic Bliss.

09.24.2009 China SNS Snapshot
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Whilst it’s difficult to find a branded social community having little or no predators, ipart.com definitely leads the way. It could be one of the few communities that hosts a disturbance-free online atmosphere, and given the site basically operates a virtual ‘apartment’ where complete strangers (mostly boys and girls) live under the one roof [...]

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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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DHL; Awesome China Magazine Advertising.

09.21.2009 DHL
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Here’s a cool magazine ad from DHL; simple, clean, and effective. The main communication here is you can “instantly” send a package from China to Japan. Unfortunately the imagery that represents China is pretty similar to the imagery that symbolizes Japan, so at first look, it seems like the two recipients could be down the [...]

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Where are the opportunities in China’s E-commerce landscape?

09.13.2009 Insights

How many of you shop on Taobao? If you’re Chinese I apologize for asking such a stupid question. How about this one: How many of you could name the top 5 E-Commerce sites in China? Now think. You have time so don’t hurry.
If you cannot name more than three you [...]

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Kingston; Targeting China’s IT Stoners.

09.13.2009 Kingston
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Here’s a good example of a “Lost in Translation” ad; likely either done by a local agency, or the brand’s localized marketing staff.The original message is: “Set your enthusiasm on fire”; followed by an English sentence that says “WE  are HIGH”… now there’s a line that has some stopping power.
Now I know this [...]

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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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Mengniu; Celebrating adolescent superficiality.

09.02.2009 Mengniu
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I picked up this from LRB’s forum. These ads for Mengniu (a major China dairy giant) launched in early 2009; the product is fruit yogurt drinks that combine fruits, vegetables, milk and nutrition targeted to Chinese teenagers.
This is a great example of empathizing how Chinese kids really feel, and their uncontrollable desire for simple indulgence. [...]

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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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Microblogs & Nuclear Explosions; Censorship is harder than you’d think.

08.27.2009 China Modern Culture
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If you’ve been following our blog, you might read my previous post on one of the China top micro blogging sites, fanfou.com, suddenly became inaccessible at the beginning of July.
Fanfou is still inaccessible out of no reason, and the situation seems to become worse and worse. Two more popular Chinese micro blogging sites – [...]

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Quiksilver; Getting Chinese to Surf.

08.27.2009 PostKard
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Hey all, here’s a campaign done by our partner Mailman, through their PostKard division for Quiksilver. If you’re not familiar with PostKard its… well – postcards; distributed to thousands of locations (usually popular western restaurants, bars, and clubs – sometimes hotels) in Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou.
These campaigns are great, simple ways to contact the youth [...]

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Adidas; Beautiful ads that say nothing.

08.19.2009 Adidas
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I picked this up from LRB’s forums; this campaign features very beautiful imagery – and a message that’s a bit off from what you’d expect – “everyone has their own reason for running”. What the ad doesn’t really communicate is what the reasons are – rather there are just nice shots of people running.
You really [...]

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