Esquire Magazine China: Lights up with E-Ink

Audi has teamed up with the Chinese version of the syle publication Esquire Magazine (时尚先生- Shíshàng xiānshēng) to create a front cover with an LED display.

The front cover has been created with E-Ink (Electronic Ink) and the lights can remain flashing for up to 6 months. It’s a great fit with the Audi brand as the signature design piece of most of its vehicles are the LED-esque headlights.

Chinese netizens are very excited about this piece of creativity and Esquire’s Chinese website calls it “a world first”. However, Western readers will have seen this two years ago when Esquire used a similar display on their 75th Anniversary edition in the US version of the magazine, as shown in the video below.

Regardless of this, the impressive front cover is a really nice collaboration between the two brands and hopefully China will see more of this type of creativity in the near future.

Lux: Catherine-Zeta Jones endorsement

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-V which together account for around 40% of shampoo sales in China.

Credit to: JWT (Shanghai Branch)

NEWSFLASH: iPhone 4 launches 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.

Yakult: ‘Drink Yakult Every Day’

The message of the above commercial is 天天喝养乐多 (or in pinyin ‘Tiāntiān hē yǎng lè duō’) which in English translates to ‘Drink Yakult Every Day‘.

For those of you who don’t know, Yakult is a probiotic drink and just to educate you ‘probiotic‘ refers to ‘live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host’. hmm.

Yakult is actually originally from Japan and the Japanese call it ヤクルト pronounced in English as ‘Yakuruto’. The Chinese on the other hand call the drink, ‘Yì duō‘ (益多).

Anyway back to the marketing campaign. As well as the TV advert, Yakult has been promoting its product across China in a variety of ways. Including subway advertising to print ads which are shown below:

The Yakult brand is further becoming an extremely popular amongst urban Chinese citizens. Before I finish I thought it would make an interesting comparison to see the Chinese commercial against the current UK / USA TV ads:

UK

USA

Despite their current differences it wasn’t too long ago when the British Yakult ads were along the lines of China’s current commercials.

Credit to: M&C Saatchi (Shanghai Branch)

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)

Air China: Be Our Guest

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.

Credit to: Ogilvy & Mather (Beijing Branch)

World Wildlife Fund (WWF) China: Set harm, Get harm

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in China have created some really nice print creative as part of their ‘Set harm, get harm’ campaign.

Three very powerful images featuring tattoos of endangered animals with a severe wound mark running through each one. Very imaginative.

Credit to: Dentsu China

SAIC Roewe: Roewe 350

Have you ever wondered what happened to the mighty and British Rover car brand?

Well here’s a quick history lesson for you. Instead of going all the way back to Rover’s origins in 1878, we will begin in 2005 – the year when MG Rover was declared insolvent. After which in 2006, the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), who actually held the intellectual property for the Rover 75 car design and was in the bidding for MG Rover brand, announced their own version of the Rover 75, which they called the ‘750‘.

In the summer of 2006, SAIC then announced their intent to buy the Rover brand name from BMW, who still owned the rights to the Rover marque. However, BMW refused their request, due to an agreement with Ford which gave the latter firm control of the brand. Unable to use the Rover name, SAIC created their own brand with a similar name and badge (pictured above), known as Roewe (荣威) or in pinyin ‘Róng wēi’ pronounced Rone-way in English.

Roewe launched in 2007. Many westerners assuming that it was just another Chinese copycat brand, when in fact it was entirely legitimate.

Now in 2010, Roewe are producing cars left,right and centre. Most recently the organisation has produced the Roewe 350 (shown above) and below are three advertisements to promote their latest model. Two of the adverts are in English too so no need for the usual translation / lengthy explanations…phew.

So sit back and enjoy.

Credit to: THINK Advertising Agency (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.

NEWSFLASH: 50 Chinese celebrities to feature in TV ad promoting China

This week it was announced that China’s State Council Information Office have hired Lowe & Partners advertising agency – Shanghai Branch – to produce a 30 second advert that will boost the nation’s image abroard.

The ad (in production below) will feature 50 famous Chinese citizens from all walks of life. This includes:

• Yáo Míng (姚明) — the tallest basketball player in the NBA, playing for the Houston Rockets and stands at 7ft 6in tall.
• Láng Lǎng (郎朗) — a fabulous pianist of Hong Kong citizenship but was recently named an official worldwide ambassador for the Shanghai Expo.
• Yáng Lìwěi (杨利伟) — the first man to be sent into space as part of a Chinese mission.
• Guō Jīngjīng (郭晶晶) — an athlete who has the world record for winning the most Olympic gold medals in diving.
• and finally Dīng Lěi (丁磊) — CEO of NetEase (a chinese internet company) and one of the wealthiest men in China. A surprising choice as he quite clearly represents the success of capitalism.

China’s leaders will also make a brief appearance. As well as the ad, a 15-minute film to be shown at a number of international events, is also in production.

Why are they making this ad now?
According to a BBC survey, that was carried out in 28 foreign countries including the UK, many foreigners or Lǎowài (as the Chinese love to say) have negative views of China – the majority stem from Beijing’s handling of Tibet. To that end Chinese leaders want to show the world that China is now developing into a “prosperous, democratic and progressive nation”.

The ad will first broadcast on October 1st, 2010 – 国庆节 (guóqìng jié) which in English is the National Day of the People’s Republic of China.

Further developments about the campaign and the ad itself will be posted on this blog as soon as the information becomes available.