NEWSFLASH: Chinese advertisers turn to western celebrities

Japan, Korea and other countries in Asia have been using foreign celebrities to promote their products for a number of years. Yet, a recent press release from the Associated Press stated that foreign celebrity endorsement will now become an integral part of Chinese brand strategies as they try to establish themselves in their domestic and international markets.

This turn of strategy is likely to have come about as Chinese consumers now find themselves bombarded with, much like their Western counterparts, advertising everyday. It is quite incredible considering that 20 years ago the Chinese advertising industry barely existed.

The country is developing rapidly in certain regions and this has been reflected in the nation’s advertising spend on TV, radio, newspapers and magazines which grew 14 percent last year to 597 billion RMB (around £5.4billion) – a truly colossal sum.

On my first visit to China I spent much of my time in Anhui Province (central China) and it was not until after a few months later that I visited Shanghai. I found the difference between Chinese people outside Shanghai and those living within the city was quite striking. The citizens of Shanghai are like ‘Westerners’; the way they walk, the clothes they wear, the food they eat, and the technology they use is so different to the majority of Chinese people living elsewhere.

A recent survey of 15,000 Chinese consumers by McKinsey & Co. found that Chinese consumers are now “extremely brand conscious.” They demand the same things that any other consumer living in a developed country would.

These demands have arisen quickly, but advertising in China is still catching up – many people forget that China is still a developing country. In the US and UK brands have to be extremely innovative now to break through the advertising smog, but in China advertising is still relatively new and celebrity (particularly foreign) endorsement strategies currently have much greater effectiveness than they would in the western hemisphere.

To that end here are some examples of celebrity endorsements in China to date:

David Beckham – Motorola Razr V8 (2007)

Kevin Garnett – Anta Sports

Orlando Bloom – Me & City (2010)

Wentworth Miller – Me & City (2009)

Lionel Messi – Cherry Automobiles (2010)

Thierry Henry and Kaka – Pepsi (2009)

Cristiano Ronaldo – Clear Shampoo (2009)

7-Up: Chinese viral by ‘Hugo’

This is the latest spoof advertisement from the notorious ‘Hugo‘ (胡戈):

It’s a rather amusing take of 7-Up’s Chinese current promotion where Hugo demonstrates the downside of findng a winning 7-Up bottlecap. The video is already very popular in China.

Within 24 hours of being uploaded to Hugo’s official Youku page it had already been viewed over 150,000 times and has even been awarded honours for its immediate popularity.

Who is Hugo?
Hugo is known as 网络恶搞第一人 (Wǎngluò ègǎo dì yīrén) aka the first man to spoof the network.

He is from Wuhan (Hubei Province) and has previously produced a number of other spoof videos that can be viewed on Hugo’s Sina page. If you like his videos Hugo would like to let you know that he is available for work.

I will be following his latest spoof over the next few weeks to see how it progresses.

COFCO: Lohas ad starring Lin Chi-Ling

For some reason this ad makes me smile…

The commercial promotes COFCO’s (The largest food manufacturer, processor and trader in China) drink brand ‘Lohas‘.

The girl in the advertisement is the famous Taiwanese model and actress Lin Chi-Ling (林志玲). It’s not the most inspiring or original ad that I’ve seen of late, but it certainly cheered me up after a long day at work.

Credit to: JWT (Beijing Branch)

BMW: BMW 5 Series Li

Yes, it’s yet another car commercial. I apologise for a lack of diversity in recent posts, hopefully I will get my hands on some advertising from other sectors soon.

Nevertheless, BMW have just released a new advertisement promoting a special version of the BMW 5 Series Li for specifically for the Chinese Market. The main difference between this 5 series and those you will find in Europe and the USA is that it has an extra long wheelbase.

The ‘Li’ was launched on August 5th 2010 and prices range from 489,600RMB to 791,600RMB (£45,500 – £73,700). The tagline for the new model is 路有多远，只有心知道 (Lù yǒu duō yuǎn, zhǐyǒu xīn zhīdào) which in essence translates to ‘How long the road, only the heart knows‘. Here’s the ad:

Three print ads (as shown) below promoting the new model were also produced as part of ‘The Joy of BMW‘ campaign.

Credit to: Leo Burnett (China)

Sprite: Cool for Summer

Recent blogposts have been relatively lengthy of late. So here’s a quick post for you.

The advertisement below is one of three created for Sprite’s 透心凉一夏 (Tòu xīn liáng yī xià) or in English ‘Cool for Summer‘ campaign:

Sprite has created a branded site on renren.com. Renren.com is essentially China’s answer to Facebook known in English as ‘The Everyone Network‘). As part of the Cool for Summer promotion tickets to see popstar JJ Lin in concert are up for grabs, and in order to enter the contest Sprite drinkers must participate in various activities on the renren site such as video sharing.

It’s another great example of big brands trying to create online communities in the Chinese market.

Clear Shampoo: Unilever create ‘Unbeatable’ drama

Following the success of China’s very own version of Ugly Betty entitled “Ugly Wudi” (丑女无敌) which was created for the Dove brand and is pictured below. Unilever has devised yet another TV drama series to promote ‘Clear‘, the anti-dandruff shampoo brand.

The series is titled 无懈可击(Wú xiè kě jī) aka ‘Unbeatable‘, which is a play on words of Clear‘s tagline 无屑可击 (Wú xiè kě jī) which means ‘No flakes can strike‘. Notice the second character varies between the two but the pronunciation is identical.

The Unbeatable series will have 36 episodes which all include the underlying message that using Clear shampoo prevents dandruff. If you’re thinking this type of thing would never work, let me tell you, Dove’s demand in China increased by 21% and it’s brand awareness tripled thanks to the Ugly Wudi show.

Unbeatable follows the trials and tribulations of a group of young people (played by famous Chinese actors / actresses) and how with their “unbeatable” spirit, overcome challenges in career, relationships and life. The heroine is a fresh graduate who landed a job in an international public relations agency,whose key client is, would you believe, – Clear shampoo.

The whole story was developed around Clear’s four-phase brand communication strategy:

1. Dump — 甩了欺骗者 (Shuǎi le qīpiàn zhě)
2. Trust — 信任拍档  (Xìnrèn pāidàng)
3. Self-breakthrough — 突破自我 (Túpò zìwǒ)
4. Unbeatable — 无懈可击 (Wú xiè kě jī)

However, what is even more intriguing is the social media strategy which is being implemented to create buzz around the series. Firstly, they have created a branded mini-site within the TV section of Sohu.com (A Chinese website which provides news, media, information and entertainment) which can be viewed by clicking here.

Unilever has also produced a video of the series theme tune which can be downloaded and an online game is also soon to be released around the series, both of these additions, of course, include the Clear shampoo brand.

It often surprises me that these type of campaigns are so successful in China, but would never really work in the UK. The British audience have a distinct distaste for blatant promotions within or around their favourite TV shows. In the UK, brand’s have to be more subtle in their approach.

In fact, a great example of this oddly enough comes from Unilever. The firm recently created a branded mini-series around Mad Men, which aired during the show in the States, but it was met with abhorrence from the majority of the American audience. Although, some viewers have said that when fast-forwarding through the commercials they stopped at the one in question thinking that it was part of the actual show. So maybe it has worked, have a look below, what’s your opinion?

Pepsi: The Journey to Refresh

Pepsi have recently launched a new TV campaign in China entitled, The Journey to Refresh.

The concept of the ad is loosely based on the novel Journey to the West (西游记 – Xī Yóu Jì) by ‘Wu Cheng’en’. It is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.

For those unfamiliar with the book, it tells the story of a monk and his magical companions. Together they leave China to take a long and dangerous journey for India in order to collect the holy Buddhist scriptures. The tale was written roughly 500 years ago and you will struggle to find a Chinese citizen who has not heard of this famous title.

The advert itself features a band of young musicians driving through the desert in order to find the mysterious Cup of Victory. However, they soon find that this Cup is guarded by the ‘Spider Spirit’ and a fight quickly ensues. The ‘Master’ of the band quickly realises that the Queen is merely thirsty, so he passes her the Pepsi drink. Having tasted the drink, she in turn gives them the Cup of Victory with everyone now feeling refreshed and happy.

The making of the ad is shown below: