Unilever’s shampoo and soap brand Lux (力士 – Lìshì) has rolled out another campaign featuring the famous actress Catherine Zeta-Jones. The ad above shows the Welsh star promoting the new Lux beauty range in China.
The new commercial is based around Lux’s Chinese slogan of 让您光彩照人每一天! (ràng nín guāngcǎizhàorén měi yītiān!) which roughly translates to ‘Allowing you to shine everyday!‘.
However, this is not the first time Catherine Zeta-Jones has featured in a Chinese commercial for Lux. Last year she featured in a short film entitled The Alchemist (shown below) and has since become the main brand ambassador for the Lux brand in China and Japan respectively.
Unilever will be hoping this new campaign will bolster Lux’s market position against Procter and Gamble’s product ranges such as Head & Shoulders, Rejoice and Pantene Pro-Vwhich together account for around 40% of shampoo sales in China.
September 25th marks the day the so-called ‘revolutionary’ iPhone 4 launches within Chinese shores.
You may be asking why is the launch being mentioned on a blog about advertising? Well, the answer is because the reaction of Chinese citizens to the product launch is a perfect example of how Chinese consumers are changing.
Despite being labelled a ‘developing country’ over 200,000 iPhone 4 devices were pre-ordered from Chinese telecommunications firm China Unicom and thousands were even prepared to queue outside for 2 days outside Apple’s Xidan Joy City store to get their hands on one.
This reaction highlights how disposable income among urban Chinese citizens has soared, and the fact that Apple have uncharacteristically decided to release the product so soon after its US launch demonstrates how the organisation has realised this and wants to make sure it profits as much as possible from the wealthy Chinese population.
Steve Job’s firm has even opened two more Apple Stores in the country (doubling the number in China previously to four) in order to meet the increasing demand from Chinese consumers. Although ironically the demand for the new iPhone 4 in China is far exceeding the supply.
With so much wealth flying around in the urban areas, it’s important to remember that there are still many, many Chinese citizens living in rural regions still struggling to get by each day. It would seem the gap between rich and poor is further increasing and one wonders what the Chinese Government can do help balance things out.
Nonetheless the success of Apple’s iPhone 4 launch will act as a bright beacon to Western firms looking to enter the Chinese market, and a battle between the rapidly growing domestic brands and their developed Western counterparts seems somewhat inevitable.
Yes, it’s yet another viral video! This time it comes from the computer hardware giant IBM. In 2005, IBM merged it’s PC division with the equally giant Chinese based computer manufacturerLenovo (联想 – lián xiǎng).
The Japanese style viral is promotes the IBM eX5 server, that launched in China 3rd of March 2010:
It’s not very exciting to look at, and it’s difficult to understand exactly what it does. This is where the viral video comes in. The video provides a metaphor of what the IBM eX5 can do for a business, that is support invisibly from behind scenes to effortlessly allow organisations to achieve their goals.
Li-Ning(李宁) is definitely doing its utmost to fulfill its new slogan ‘Make the Change‘.
For the first time in its history, Li-Ning has embraced video sharing platforms to promote its products. Since the re-brandLi-Ning has been completely rejuvenated, and the brand is undoubtedly one the hottest and most exciting brands in China right now.
Further to this, the Chinese sportswear giant has just released five well-produced and engaging virals (below) to promote its youth centric ‘After 90‘ (90后) range:
Luminous Badminton (夜光羽毛球 – Yèguāng yǔmáoqiú)
Magnetic Trainers (磁力球鞋 – Cílì qiúxié)
Power Trainers (充电跑鞋 – Chōngdiàn pǎoxié)
Laser Trainers (激光球鞋 –Jīguāng qiúxié)
Fan Trainers (风扇球鞋 – Fēngshàn qiúxié)
The virals present some really neat ideas and will no doubt be lapped up by Chinese Netizens.
We’ve all seen innovative outdoor and online ads but now i’d like to show you some exciting examples of magazine advertising that have recently featured across a number of Chinese publications.
Motorola ‘Backflip’ (后空翻) ME600 – Bookmark
The Backflip (后空翻) or in pinyin Hòu kōngfān is the nickname of the Motorola ME600 mobile phone – which is only available in China and has the differentiating feature is the screen’s ability to ‘backflip’ onto itself:
Motorola promoted the phone by providing magazine readers a free bookmark in the style of the ME600. The freebie has a magnetic finish and highlights the backflip ability of the phone.
An explanatory presentation is available here, unfortunately it is in Chinese but has plenty of pictures so you may get the jist of it.
座驾Car (Car Car) Magazine: At First Glance Advertising
Chinese motoring magazine 座驾Caror in English ‘Car Car’ adopted what the Chinese call 第一眼 (Dì yīyǎn) which translates to ‘at first glance’ advertising:
The genius of ‘at first glance’ advertising is that the magazine publisher places packaging around the magazine in such a way that it forces the reader to open the up the magazine at the advert. Thus almost guaranteeing exposure to the reader. A very nice idea.
Samsung: Camera Picture Book To promote their latest camera, Samsung decided to create a miniture picture book to be stuck on the front of magazines. It’s not the most innovative idea of the bunch but worth a look nonetheless:
Mengniu: Pull-tab front cover I’m a big fan of the pull-tab as it takes me back to my childhood days, and the intention ofMengniu (蒙牛) was to demonstrate innocence. So hats off to brand. It features on the front cover of the youth magazine, ‘Yoho‘ which has the tagline ‘Being young is an attitude’ – it’s actually really cool magazine.
Sony Ericsson: W595 Walkman – Butterfly Gatefold advertising Sony have delivered a unique type of tabbed advertising called the ‘Butterfly Gatefold’, it looks great:
Sony Ericsson: W20 Walkman – Hidden discovery magazine cover Hiding a treat for readers inside the magazine cover itself is something I have never seen before. A lovely idea that surely delighted the magazines readers!
Levi’s: Flip-out magazine cover Exactly what it says on the tin. The magazine this ad features is 1626 another very trendy Chinese magazine.
A wonderful selection of creative ideas i’m sure you will agree. Long live the magazine!
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.
I’d like to introduce you all toForever Bicycles (永久 – Yǒng jiǔ).
For those of you who have no idea who this organisation is I’ll give you a quick introduction. Forever Bicycles stretch back all the way to 1940 when the company was orignially founded as Shanghai Forever Co. Ltd.
50 years down the line the organisation was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and following the turn of the millenia the company turned it’s focus to creating eco-friendly products.
Forever Bicycles produces four million bikes per year and is the top domestic producer of bikes in China. This week the organisation announced that a new range of bikes will launch shortly under the brand Forever C(永久C).
One can draw comparisons of this new brand / range to Adidas’s – Adidas Orginalsbrand. It essentially takes old styled bikes and gives them a modern makeover. They are as the cool kids say – retro.
So why the name Forever C? Well the ‘C’ has six meanings:
China — 中国 (Zhōng guó)
Classic — 经典 (Jīng diǎn)
City — 都市 (Dū shì)
Colourful — 多彩 (Duō cǎi)
Cycle — 自行车 (Zì xíng chē)
Culture — 文化 (Wén huà)
With the above in mind, the new brand offers consumers bicycles that are light, eco-friendly, stylish, and modern. They are available from September, and the Forever C website launches August 20th 2010. As part of this announcement Forever C has already released some seriously cool print ads (below):
I don’t know about you but I’d love to get my hands on one…
Air China or as the Chinese say ‘中国 国际 航空 公司‘ (Zhōngguó guójì hángkōng gōngsī) literally translating to ‘China International Airlines Company‘ is the country’s second largest airline.
The state run organisation has just launched a new TV ad campaign to promote the message ‘无论你是谁，来者都是客‘ (Wúlùn nǐ shì shuí, lái zhě dōu shì kè) which in English roughly means ‘All customers are distinguished guests, no matter who you are‘.
The ad itself is actually quite amusing, it uses the journey of a teddy bear to demonstrate the wonderful service customers receive throughout their whole experience with the airline. The ad is also designed to demonstrate that Air China is a modern and international brand:
The new commercial will broadcast on International flights on-board televisions, airport check-ins, Air China ticket sale offices, and Phoenix Satellite TV in Europe and the USA.
Chinese netizen reactions from Youku (aka China’s answer to YouTube) show much appreciation for the ad’s cuteness but also the background music — I am sorry to say that I am not a fan of the latter.
Ok, before I go any further, you may be asking who and what is Li-Ning?
Li-Ning is one of China’s largest sportswear suppliers. The brand is extremely popular throughout China, and during its rise to fame the brand even had the likes of Adidas and Nike worried. Recently, the World Brand Laboratory published the “China’s 500 Most Valuable Brands” report, and attributed the Li Ning brand with a value of 12.734 billion RMB.
So if the brand is such a success, why are they making a change? Well the answer is because Li-Ning has found that 50% of its consumers are in the 30-40 year old age bracket. They have a small market share in the Under 25 age group and this has been highlighted as major issue by the organisation as they see the latter audience as the key to future success.
Below are changes made to the logo, the slogan, and the advertising campaigns with the hope of appealing to the younger audience:
The Logo
OLD logo design
NEW logo design
As you can see the logo has undergone quite a transformation considering how recognisable and loved the original logo was. The new logo is more 3-Dimensional and the Chinese characters have been replaced with the English brand name. However, the new logo is based on the Chinese character ‘人‘ (rén) meaning a person or people.
The Slogan
The former slogan for the brand was ‘Anything is possible’. The first obvious issue here is it’s high similarity to the Adidas slogan ‘Impossible is Nothing‘. It is important for Li-Ning to differentiate itself from this major rival as the brand looks to grow its international market share.
To that end the new slogan is entitled ‘Make The Change‘. This new line aims to demonstrate youth and self-confidence, it challenges the young consumer to dare to be different.
The Advertising Campaign This has been the most contraversial part of the Li-Ning rebrand. The new campaign quite literally dismisses those consumers born after 1990. This has caused much anguish amongst the aforementioned loyal Li-Ning consumers in their 30s and 40s.
The posters (above) reads ‘90后李宁‘ (90 Hòu Li Níng) meaning ‘After 90 Li-Ning’. However, there is a double meaning embedded within this phrase, as it also represents the date Li Ning was established – 1990.
This new direction is certainly a bold move by Li-Ning. They are agruably destroying an established and loved brand to target the future source of their profits both on a domestic and international scale. Only time will tell if the risk of the rebrand will reap great rewards.
An explanatory presentation is available 
Ads of China // 中国广告 