Shanghai’s Guangyin Yoga Club (光胤瑜伽) became famous outside China this week. The marketing idea implemented to promote the club hit international websites and the story quickly spread across numerous sites.
The idea itself (from February 2010) placed one of the club’s yoga masters in a wooden box that was placed in various locations across Shanghai. The yoga master would then pop his hand out of the box with the club’s business card in his hand and this greatly surprised passers-by.
It was a simple, effective, original, and widely talked about execution that won the yoga club far more customers than it had expected, plus the total cost of doing it was £74.
A truly great piece of creativity, one only wishes that every marketing campaign was this cheap and easy to implement but still made the client extremely happy.
McDonald’s (麦当劳 – Màidāngláo) has just launched a new digital campaign in China.
The focus of this new campaign is the feeling of happiness, and it is aimed at urban Chinese white-collar workers. The campaign’s slogan is快乐就是0负担 (Kuàilè jiùshì 0 fùdān), which roughly translates to ‘Happiness is 0 burdens‘.
For those confused by the awkward translation, the slogan is suggesting that true happiness is when you let go of the burdens of everyday life.
The TVC (which also headlines the digital elements) for the campaign is directed by and features the Chinese actress and director Jane Wu (Chinese name: 徐静蕾 – Xú Jìnglěi).
For those of you living outside mainland China, Jane Wu is an extremely popular Chinese celebrity – so much so that her Sina based blog was once the most clicked blog on the internet.
Within the advert Chinese people give their thoughts on happiness are, and the question of ‘what is happiness?’ forms the basis of McDonald’s new Tudou page. Go check it out.
It’s been cars, cars, cars in recent posts and this is no exception. I now present MINI‘s latest advertising campaign in China that is based on the recent world record achievement of cramming 25 people in a MINI:
The campaign slogan is, ‘一个神话中的装人, 一装人中的神话’ (Yīgè shénhuà zhōng de zhuāng rén, Yī zhuāng rén zhōng de shénhuà) which is very roughly translates to ‘The myth of loading people, is loaded with myth‘and also makes a nice little Chinese tongue twister. MINI’s recent world car cramming record is currently being promoted on MINI’s Chinese homepage.
Car cramming itself is actually quite a serious competition. The new record was set by employees at the Beijing YanBao Auto on the 25th May 2010. They managed to fit a staggering 25 people into a MINI – (smashing the previous record of 24 set in 2009 by New Zealand based All-Star cheerleaders)!
Here are some photos from the 2010 world record win:
Audi (奥迪 – Ào dí) has joined its rivals Mercedes-Benz and BMW in producing a special edition vehicle for the Chinese market.
Previously we’ve seen how both the aforementionned rival manufacturers have created ‘long wheelbase versions’ of the E–Class and 5-Series respectively.
Now Audi has created a sedan version of its A3 specifically for the Chinese market, and here are the TV and print ads for its promotion.
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.
The videos above are Haagen-Dazs (or in Chinese 哈根达斯 – Hāgēn Dásī) 2010 ‘The Summer’ commercials. They are each around 4 minutes long and both feature stories about Chinese people’s favourite topic – love.
You may think it’s strange to have ice cream commercials in September, but as Chinese Haagen Daz fans will tell you 炙热的夏天会结束，但炙热的爱情却不会结束(zhìrè de xiàtiān huì jiéshù, dàn zhìrè de àiqíng què bù huì jiéshù) which roughly translates to:
‘The hot summer will end, but hot love will last forever‘.
Jealousy International has caused an uproar from the British public through its recent promotion of the lingerie range based around Princess Diana called ‘Diana’ (戴安娜 – Dài ān nuó).
The promotion was spotted last week by a British journalist in China’s Shenzhen airport. Since then photos of the ads have been posted in newspapers / websites around the world.
For those of you reading this blog in China, I will try to put the British upset into perspective. Princess Diana was a national heroine / treasure, she was adored by the British public when she was alive and even now 13 years after her tragic death.
Imagine if a British company started using Chairman Mao Zedong‘s image inappropriately – then that is how the majority of British people are feeling right now.
The Diana range was actually created in 1996, before her tragic death, but its the new advertising campaign that has caused all the controversy. The Chinese company had no intention of causing offence, they aimed to honor Princess Diana and wanted Chinese consumers to love and feel a British style.
In the last decade the Diana range has become extremely popular, and it is in fact one of the most influential lingerie brands in China.
It should be noted that the range was also inspired by Diana – the goddess of the moon. Unfortunately for Jealousy International the British public merely see the products as blatant exploitation.
The video above entitled ‘For Love’ (为爱 – Wèi ài) was released online this month by Crystal CG. It’s an animation that resembles the great battle between the fast food giants KFC and McDonald’s as they fight to dominate China.
The history of KFC and McDonald’s in China A logical place to start is the beginning. You may be surprised to know that it was KFCor as the Chinese call it Kěn Dé Jī (肯德基)who first entered China. Thursday 12th November, 1987 was the day when KFC opened its first restaurant in Beijing (shown in the image below).
McDonald’saka Mài dāng láo (麦当劳) on the other hand, did not enter the Chinese market until 1990. Thus KFC had a 3 year head start.
The reason why KFC entered China before McDonald’s was because each produced differing research results of Chinese consumers. McDonald’s research said that the Chinese were very stubborn and were unlikely to take to McDonald’s products.
KFC on the other hand found quite the contrary, their research said the Chinese will love the ‘xīfāng de kuàicān’ (西方的快餐) which translates in English to ‘Western fast food’!
What happened next?
Well, at first, the restaurants sat peacefully side-by-side with KFC selling chicken and McDonald’s selling hamburgers – that was that. However, things soon turned ugly.
McDonald’s was not satisfied with being second to KFC in China, so they started selling chicken wings too and so battle begun. In 1999, a full scale price war broke out between the two, but come 2004 despite McDonald’s attacks KFC‘s market share was 25% greater.
Why was KFC coming out on top? The answer is simple. KFC understood and catered to the Chinese people far better.
Of course chicken was already a popular part of many meals in China but KFC did more than offer a new take on how to cook chicken, they adapted their whole product range to meet Chinese needs but more importantly their local needs. That’s right, province to province, and this gave KFC the edge over its rival as McDonald’s stuck firmly with its Western style.
Cue the McDonald’s fight back
In 2003, the McDonald’s slogan became ‘I’m lovin’ it’ and the importance the restaurant chain placed on the Chinese market was demonstrated in the advert they created which featured American singer / actor Leehom Wang (Wáng Lìhóng – 王力宏):
As well as this Maccy D’s began to open 24 hour branches, KFC quickly adapted an began to offer match the offering. The battle between the two was becoming fiercer and fiercer. The next plan of attack came in the form of McDonald’s drive-thru restaurants and these gave the big M chain a slight but key advantage.
What does the future hold? KFC is still outdoing McDonald’s and the chain is further catering greatly to the local Chinese markets as their recent ‘rice bowl’ ( ad campaign shows. However, McDonald’s are not giving up and their plans for next few years will certainly keep Colonel Harland Sander’s chain on its toes.
In fact McDonald’s has just kicked off its 20th anniversary celebrations in China with a lovely social media campaign on Douban.com
It seems the battle for China has really only just begun…
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:
Ads of China // 中国广告 