Posts tagged as:

Shanghai

Blackmailing your family… Confucian style.

03.02.2010 China Modern Culture
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There is a reason that every girl wish to have a big brother – even they could be too protective sometimes, it’s still an enjoyable relation.
On the contrary, having a younger brother wouldn’t be such a lovely journey in China. Especially when you think of how old generation/rural residents favor sons much more than daughters. [...]

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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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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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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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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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New Balance creates a great community site, so why is it empty?

09.16.2009 New Balance
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I’ve seen brands launch campaigns on popular SNS, or create their own SNS then use other popular SNS to promote them, but I haven’t seen a brand build its own SNS site but chose not to promote it, and this brand is New Balance. To me, this is almost like buying an expensive beach house [...]

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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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Metersbonwe meaningless ‘magic cube’ game.

09.08.2009 Metersbonwe
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The more I read about popular yet meaningless brand experiences created online I am beginning to feel it’s all just a strategy to seize young peoples down time or ‘time killing’ as we might call it. The majority of these campaigns actually miss the opportunity to create something relevant, engaging and potentially ever lasting [...]

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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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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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Apple Xiaonei Campaign; 90% brand, 10% strategy.

08.05.2009 Apple
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Apple’s Xiaonei campaign actually started around last May; according to the record in the group, the peak time is May08 to Nov.08. The group has a very interesting name – Apple College, means Apple want to “teach” their product knowledge to Chinese students on Xiaonei.
Personally speaking, Apple College is the best designed Xiaonei group [...]

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Shanghai World Expo 2010, will they really come?

08.03.2009 Insights
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So the big question I’m getting asked more and more now is ‘Will the Chinese go to the Shanghai World Expo 2010?’ but the real question is ‘Do the real Chinese actually care about it? Fortunately the powers to be do – they have a lot on the line from an international standpoint. [...]

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Did actress Zhang Ziyi insult China? Chinese netizens respond to her nude photo shoot in movie “The Horsemen”.

04.26.2009 China Modern Culture
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Recently, Zhang Ziyi becomes a hot topic on China internet again. This time, it is about her “China insulting” in newest Hollywood movie “The Horsemen”. Below is the news report and related comment from Chinese netizens.
News from 163.com (source: Chongqing Times)
Lately, the international blockbuster movie “The Horsemen” is showing in Taiwan, Hollywood Chinese movie star [...]

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Construction cranes in the bamboo forest; Balancing nature and urbanization in China PSA Advertising.

04.13.2009 China EPF
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Great PSA ad campaign focuses on China’s preference  for urbanization over environment. This style of Chinese landscape painting is very traditional, and can be seen pretty much anywhere in China.
By mixing elements of urbanization (ie: construction towers, etc) the message twists from the “seen that painting before” to “whoa, wait a sec”; the implication of [...]

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My logo is bigger than your logo! The culture of Chinese consumerism.

03.10.2009 Insights
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One billion material girls… for the single man, both a blessing and a curse.
China consumes 25% of the world’s luxury goods; this surpasses every country, even the US. When considering its per capita income of USD 2000 (I’m rounding up here), and the fact that luxury goods are no cheaper in China then elsewhere (not [...]

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