Got this one from the guys over at DMG; it’s a Volkswagen ad, executed beautifully; the story removes the pretentiousness of glamour, replacing it with a mischievous twist. This humanizes the brand, rather than the stale “buy this car, become famous” we have “you don’t need glamour, glamour comes standard.”

While we’ll see ads like TBWA’s Adidas Olympics campaign (awesome ads that drive into the core of the Chinese psyche); DMG’s campaigns, the ones I’ve seen so far, seem to succinctly package the candy of Hollywood specifically for Chinese consumption; easy to watch, easy to understand; beautiful people, a smile, a quickened pulse.

And while some of us out there like to drink tea, some of us enjoy imported coffee; universally my guess is all of us, no matter our preferences, will always enjoy a quick taste of sweet Hollywood candy. I’m leaving that last statement open to interpretation.

Glamour with a playlist; you know cause the background looks like its a visual from itunes. get it? haha? ahhahaa? haaa...

Enough with these sophomoric ramblings. Here’s the ad, and some pics of the campaign; along with shots from the launch event. Enjoy.

Related articles from around the web.

• Volkswagen’s Fast Lane campaign… (stustake.com)
• Volkswagen puts a suspicious mind at ease (adweek.blogs.com)
• Spy Shots: Volkswagen Up! caught in Death Valley (autoblog.com)
• Electronica-Inspired Autos – The Volkswagen Moog is a Daft Punk-Approved Concept Car (GALLERY) (trendhunter.com)
• Volkswagen unveils Race Touareg 3 for 2011 Dakar Rally duty (autoblog.com)
• Spy Shots: Volkswagen Up! caught in Death Valley (green.autoblog.com)
• Car-Centric Wedding Traditions – Volkswagen ‘Something Blue’ Commercial Twists Old Bridal Adages (GALLERY) (trendhunter.com)
• Rumormill: Volkswagen Touareg R Hybrid under consideration (autoblog.com)
• 2012 Volkswagen Touareg R? (inautonews.com)
• Volkswagen: Innovations for Everyone (adpunch.org)

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1. Volkswagen; Zodiac Beetle posters give imagination a good workout. Here’s something interesting from the LRB forums: Volkswagen hired renown creative designer Li Ming Ming (李明明) to design posters for the Beetle. Based on the 12 animals from the Chinese Zodiac, Li created an engaging series of ads – though...
2. Associating “Volkswagen” with “Pee”. Ah yes; the holy grail of advertising is to somehow link your brand to urine. Wait; that doesn’t sound right… I’m not sure what the thinking behind this one was; I guess they were able to check the “catch attention”...
3. Brilliance Auto; A Focus on Fantasy and Escape; Typical Chinese Advertising. Brilliance’s “Dragon” ad reflects a lot of domestic advertising; fantastic graphics of mythical creatures taken from fiction books, games, or movies with some product integration. The main “creature” used in these ads tends to be derivative, though apparently the reference...

Picked this up via Han Jun Wei and Buzzandthecity; it’s a funny look at Chinese women’s dating options in China. Beyond the beauty of the photos, there’s also some sharp commentary on Chinese culture as well.

I’m wondering what a reversed “dilemma of Chinese men” collection would look like. My guess is that the model depicted in these photos wouldn’t be the norm; but hey, would that stop you from taking a peek? Neither I.

Decisions, Decisions.

"The Player"

"The Matchmakers"

"Nouveau Riche"

"2nd Generation Rich"

"The Blue Collar"

"The Professor"

"The Freak"

"The Perv"

"The Queen"

"The Guy with OCD"

"The Teenager"

"The Classy Guy" (The Vendor)

"The Independent"

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1. HSBC; Warm & Cuddly Financial Services. I picked this up from LRB’s forums; this is a sweet TVC; sentimental imagery that pulls at the heart strings. It’s interesting how it plays out; following the life of a middle aged man as he progresses through the different...
2. Ask Rand; “Is a bilingual website necessary?” Here’s another question I received via LRB’s contact form. If you’re interested in asking me a question; go ahead and shoot it over; I’ll post it up on LRB and we can discuss online to your benefit, and the benefit of other...
3. DHL; Awesome China Magazine Advertising. Here’s a cool magazine ad from DHL; simple, clean, and effective. The main communication here is you can “instantly” send a package from China to Japan. Unfortunately the imagery that represents China is pretty similar to the imagery that symbolizes...

I played around with an “Ask Rand” feature a little while back, and while I was getting a lot of Qs previous, once I started to post these Qs online for people to respond, the  flow of Qs became less. This is a positive/negative; I don’t have to spend so much time answering questions… however, it comes at a cost to the community.

As a fix, I’ve started spending more time in my two linkedin groups: China Advertising Group (616 members), and China Social Media Group (199 members); it’s here that I answer Qs, but even better, our other group members are actively answering questions as well.

This is great as the well-informed, high level marketing directors, and CEOs in our community come together to discuss and debate topics covering branding, advertising, marketing in China.

A few examples:

• Role types of foreigners in Chinese ads.
• What kind of internal orgnization structure can support online conversations with customers on BBS and Forums?
• Does social media in China really work?

Therefore, instead of “Asking Rand” you can ask the community in one of these groups. I will always reply (as implicitly stated responsibility of group moderator), but you’ll also get replies from many others in the group, most are from CEO or director level positions with titles relevant to China advertising and social media.

Yes, I am trying to build these groups (is it that obvious?); this one is a win-win for everyone involved. If you’ve got time, give it a spin for advertising/branding, or for social media.

Related posts:

1. Aggregated RSS feeds for the China Marketer. Hey all, I’ve relaunched LRB’s Media Aggregator; it’s newly designed, and filled with relevant info covering China social media, digital, advertising, business, culture and insights; it’s a good place to begin researching and understanding China’s unique landscape one blog at a time....
2. Part 5: Chinese Social Media’s 80/20 Rule For the half of you SM nerds who showed up, I am grateful as you are participating in the keep Erwin employed fund.  Please review Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 as we will have a final...
3. China Advertising Jobs and Bookstore on LRB. Hey everyone – we just created a few new sections on LRB; one is a job forum area which we’ll fill with new China advertising jobs as we find them; we’re also teaming up with several headhunters that’ll drop their...

As many of you already know, tragedy struck China in the form of a mudslide that killed 1,254 people in Gansu Province. This event was nationally mourned; China’s television for that day played no entertainment; rather it looped footage of the tragedy and the government’s response.

This mourning also spread to the web; to align with the policy of no entertainment shown on TV; there was also no entertainment (or much less) on China’s web. Coupled with major sites going shades of gray; the nations mood; both online and off, was a somber one. To find out more; check out this excellent photo series from the Boston Globe (courtesy @niubi)

Taobao, China's top eCommerce portal.

Yahoo China.

163, a huge China portal.

Baidu; China's leading search engine.

Douban, a popular forum for intellectuals.

Google HK's site.

Kaixin; China's top SNS.

Sina, another top China portal.

Related articles from around the web.

• China Calls National Day of Mourning for Mudslide Victims (socyberty.com)
• Day Of Mourning In China For Mudslide Victims (news.sky.com)
• Nation mourns mudslide dead (independent.co.uk)
• Day of mourning for China landslide dead (bbc.co.uk)
• Mudslide Points to Costs of Deforestation (online.wsj.com)
• China observes day of mourning for mudslide victims (newsinfo.inquirer.net)
• China to mourn mudslide victims (bbc.co.uk)
• Storms to Hit China’s Northeast as Nation Mourns Mudslide Toll (businessweek.com)
• China Mourns Mudslide Deaths as Storms Forecast in Southwest (businessweek.com)
• China pays silent tribute to mudslide victims (cnn.com)

Related posts:

1. Phillips; “Better Technology, Better Life”. Picked this one up via Adquan; it’s a Phillips campaign recently launched by DDB Shanghai, in conjunction with Shanghai Expo and the theme “Better City, Better Life”. The primary focus is viewing Phillips’ “better life” value-add through the eyes of...
2. Shanghai World Expo 2010, will they really come? 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...
3. China Advertising Jobs and Bookstore on LRB. Hey everyone – we just created a few new sections on LRB; one is a job forum area which we’ll fill with new China advertising jobs as we find them; we’re also teaming up with several headhunters that’ll drop their...

Picked this one up via LRB forums and Shanghaiist. It’s a recent campaign by Dior that visually treads the lines into racism against the Chinese. Interesting brand positioning “yes”; ability to catch attention and stir conversations “yes”; creates loyalty and brand affinity “no”; and therein lies the rub; one little “no” can ruin any good campaign.

Now is Dior racist? Methinks not; however, experience teaches that heroes are those who create the insights, the big idea, and the customer engagement; however, when it comes to execution, that’s where heroes go to die. I agree with Elaine at Shanghaiist; execution is the problem (ie: the “dreamer” should be Chinese, not Caucasian; that would solve all “racist” issues), and that the brand made a foreseeable misstep.

According to Dior, many young Chinese girls dream of being a tall, mature, evening gowned'd caucasian woman.

"semi" racist.

...25% racist?

Not sure what to make of the woman's face in this one... 25% vampire?

These don't look too bad from far away.

See now this one works; instead of racist, it just looks like she's a snob that looks down on the working class. Much better.

High fashion, or suggested Western superiority? You be the judge.

Related posts:

1. China Consumer Profile; “Young Digital Fashionistas” “Young Digital Fashionista” is a young Chinese girl with college education. She has an average yearly income of RMB 63,420 (USD 9,342), which is considered to be a high income in China; this allows her to “spoil” herself. She is...
2. Jinkela; Purposefully idiotic China ad creates massive viral success. I found this on LRB’s forum; it’s an ad for Jinkela, some sort of fertilizer. What’s crazy is the clownish way they went to advertise it; and the surprising reaction from millions of Chinese viewers. Here’s an interesting question; let’s say you are...
3. Wildaid; Shooting Glass with Money. 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...

For those of you following this blog, you’ll know that I’ve run a China ad agency for a number of years.

This innocent statement has volatility written all over it; the first being China; a chaotic beast rocketing forward; then ad agencies where business turns sweet or goes sour between morning and evening; and being an entrepreneur in the midst of all this, adding the struggle of finding the right market, building your operations, coupled with the “yeeha!” of hitting your stride.

Yes friends, it’s a punch-drunk, slap-happy process, with enough ups and downs for several lifetimes. So what’s the upside?

Well I like to think the upside as being similar to Dan Mintz over at DMG; a China entrepreneur who first set foot in the Middle Kingdom in 1989 with *zero* China knowledge or Chinese speaking ability, who then went on to grow a 400 person agency with offices flung across China, covering all aspects of advertising for the largest multinational brands, and who created a movie studio producing China’s top box office movies.

Crazy right? Right. Let’s dive in a bit deeper and see what Dan and DMG have been doing over the past few years; it’s all “big” stuff, and pushes the boundaries of advertising and branded content in China.

But first, a personal tangent. I’ve actually met Dan before, prior to our causal interview, when I was working in Hollywood, and then later when I first came to Shanghai; this was back in 2004, and Dan had already become famous as a movie director and China advertising maverick.

Flashing forward, Dan was telling me about a recent campaign with Volkswagen GTI wherein he fully integrated, television, offline events, digital and print within one overarching campaign designed to launch the new VW GTI in China.

The influence of Dan’s Hollywood background is pretty clear throughout this case; everything is on a “big” scale, and spectacle is key.

Now some may ask; where is the China insight? How does this reflect China values? Where’s the “Chinese-ness”? This is a good question; as this campaign looks international but is targeted to a Chinese audience (there is a Chinese version I didn’t post cause most of you are laowai).

For contrast, refer to this article on Buick; wherein the Brand plays on Chinese men’s need to act responsibly for their families, and cars being a symbol of taking that next step as a provider/cog in the machine that is Confucian values.

It’s true family values are very important in China; but as China’s collective mind matures, we discover the population has disposable income as well as disposable values, enough to appreciate “sexy”, “cool”, “sporty” and “racing away from helicopters with briefcases and jumping across cargo platforms”.

Don't forget your helicopter.

The GTI in these ads target a new audience whom have heard the old “call-to-responsibility” message prevalent in most China car advertising; and similar to teens in the US or in Japan, they’re probably tired of hearing the implied social pressure. GTI’s current theme is more akin to a fun summer movie or a staple Hong Kong flick, with a blast of action, sex-appeal, and suspense… a treat you don’t have to think, worry, or feel pressured about… something you merely sit back, experience, and enjoy.

So why not also create a top independent movie studio?

Why not indeed. Back when I first met Dan he had just directed “American Crime” for western audiences. Now, he’s just produced China’s top box 2009 office hits, Go LaLa Go, and The Founding of a Republic, and he’s planning a remake of “What Women Want” with famous actors Andy Lau and Gong Li; to take place at his office at DMG.

Two famous actors filming in your office? The most exciting thing at my office is when the delivery guy from Taobao arrives with some trinket someone purchased online.

Founding of the Republic movie poster

And herein lies some smart thinking. Marrying an ad agency to a movie studio allows integration of brands across the entire gamut; from offline print, events, digital, TV, to the silver screen.

So what’s that mean? Well simply put, brands can integrate into blockbuster movies, then, integrate outwards via print advertisements; then onwards to digital webisodes that extend the (branded) content, and to social sites where interaction and engagement direct with audiences take place; and then onwards to offline events where fans can interact face to face and meet in the “real world”; it’s a perfect vehicle to ride for brands, an integrated slide that takes your message from the center to the fringe, and then back again.

"Go Lala Go!" Movie Poster

To date, there is no ad agency in China (or in the world?) that can produce full feature box office movies… it’s difficult to top this USP.

Clearly, this sort of thing isn’t for the faint-of-heart; or the faint-of-budget. But when the vision gets big enough, and the brand ambitious enough, then magic can and sometimes does happen.

Is it that obvious?

As you can probably tell, I’m very impressed with Dan Mintz; you really don’t see many entrepreneurs bootstrap a 400 person agency and concurrently create a top independent film studio in a foreign Communist country. Beyond that Dan clearly understands China, as he’s been running communications across the Middle Kingdom for  20 years; after so much time its more difficult to get it wrong than to get it right.

The future for DMG seems bright from my view beneath the clouds. They’re moving strongly into branded content across offline channels, and are making significant steps into digital as well. It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon (or a brain scientist) to predict a positive future, especially with the unique offering of integration across all medium including the silver screen.

Dan’s success is nothing short of spectacular; but when commenting on his method, a deceptive simplicity emerges. DMG’s assets are its advertising agency and movie studio, sure; but it’s pride is a deep and rich understanding of the Chinese customer; and bridging the gap between fans and brands… by any channel necessary.

Related articles from around the web.

• Learning From China’s Online Advertisers (blogs.forbes.com)
• You: The Rise of China’s Own Spielberg (newsweek.com)
• Chinese Firm Meets Global Branding [Voices] (voices.allthingsd.com)

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1. Prying Open Chinese Wallets. I was sent an article today from the author of buzzandthecity; it was a link to a FT article titled “China Goes Shopping” wherein Chinese are described as “penny pinching, ruthless, suspicious shoppers”. One key excerpt from the article caught...
2. Tencent; Hail to the King of China’s Copycats. Picked this one up via Danwei and Thomas Morffew; it’s a cover story from China Computer World bashing Tencent, the very powerful internet company behind QQ and numerous others. As you can guess, it’s not very flattering. Danwei goes on...
3. China Consumer Profile; “Young Digital Fashionistas” “Young Digital Fashionista” is a young Chinese girl with college education. She has an average yearly income of RMB 63,420 (USD 9,342), which is considered to be a high income in China; this allows her to “spoil” herself. She is...

So here I am sifting through data on this hot summer Shanghai afternoon; Internet usage up in China? Check. Penetration rates rising across country? Check. Most used search engine is Yahoo? Chec… uaaagh?

Direct from CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center) “Statistical Survey Report on Internet Development in China (Jan 2010)” I read the line on pg.79: “Table 7.27 revealed the most common used search engine is Yahoo (82%), followed by Google (61%)”. They didn’t even mention Baidu in this sentance.

Without further ado, clipped and uploaded from the source; “Table 7.27″, along with accomplice ”Chart 7.23″:

The next page in this report shows number of pigs flying has increased in southern China

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1. Chinese Netizens Rage at Google’s “Purposefully Anti-China” Search Results. Hey All, as you’ve no doubt heard, Google is refusing to comply with China’s censorship policies. This has become a pretty heated political issue; today, Veronica has compiled commentary from Chinese netizens responding to perceived attacks from Google at China. Enjoy -Rand....
2. Bigger Budget, Better Life This is a follow-up article to Shanghai World Expo 2010, Will They Really Come? Imagine everybody in Shanghai; all 20 million of them. Do you have a picture? Multiply that by 3…and a half. That’s the number of visitors China...
3. Adidas; Sina Weibo “China Twitter” Campaign. This is a quick snapshot of a campaign we came across on Sina Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. It’s an Adidas campaign with a simple engagement, prompting users to add Adidas Originals as a friend, and then RT a specific tweet and...

Hey all, I’ve relaunched LRB’s Media Aggregator; it’s newly designed, and filled with relevant info covering China social media, digital, advertising, business, culture and insights; it’s a good place to begin researching and understanding China’s unique landscape one blog at a time.

I’m sure I missed a few things here and there so please feel free to send me suggestions on new additions. I’ll keep updating the aggregator when I run across interesting sources; so keep it on your radar to get the latest buzz on and about China. Click here to give it a spin.

LRB Aggregator 2.0

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1. Get customized, specific answers to your China marketing questions. I played around with an “Ask Rand” feature a little while back, and while I was getting a lot of Qs previous, once I started to post these Qs online for people to respond, the  flow of Qs became less....
2. China Advertising Jobs and Bookstore on LRB. Hey everyone – we just created a few new sections on LRB; one is a job forum area which we’ll fill with new China advertising jobs as we find them; we’re also teaming up with several headhunters that’ll drop their...
3. Part 5: Chinese Social Media’s 80/20 Rule For the half of you SM nerds who showed up, I am grateful as you are participating in the keep Erwin employed fund.  Please review Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 as we will have a final...

Picked this one up via LRB Forums; In an interesting twist, a commercial banned by China Central Television (CCTV) once posted online received 2M views in only 8 days.

There’s a bit of celebrity power behind this one though; the ad features Yan Liu, a famous, beautiful TV anchor for Hunan TV getting her faced sucked by a sweaty fat man… and within that sentence you can intuitively grasp why it was banned without having to watch the ad yourself.

Besides graphically showing a man suck a woman’s face for 10 seconds of a 48 second spot; the brand stumbles in communication; women are likely to think “hmm that was funny/gross, so should I buy that brand, or the traditional L’Oreal brand that shows beautiful women getting handsome men?”… this is a bit similar to Jinkela, an idiot viral mentioned a bit back. Ya the traditional version is boring and predictable, true; but viewers walk away with a certain impression, an emotion carried with them to their next encounter with the brand.

For DCE, you’ll get a laugh, a finger pointed at the screen, and a shared video among friends; but come POS which way will the winds of sales blow, toward glamour, or toward gross?

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1. Jinkela; Purposefully idiotic China ad creates massive viral success. I found this on LRB’s forum; it’s an ad for Jinkela, some sort of fertilizer. What’s crazy is the clownish way they went to advertise it; and the surprising reaction from millions of Chinese viewers. Here’s an interesting question; let’s say you are...
2. Dongfeng Peugeot’s Viral, Agenda Revealed Stumbling through this social media jungle, you’ve learned what you need to learn, and have known what you should (or shouldn’t) know. So now you are probably standing at the same point as I am – feeling proud that no...
3. Anatomy of a Chinese Viral Campaign. Today let’s dive a bit deeper into the mechanics of manufacturing consent through China social media. We’ll take a quick tour through general strategy, creative elements required, media selection process, and end results. The 138 yuan Hamburger. Yes, friends, we will be...

Advertising is maturing; I’ve mentioned before someplace in this blog that the future isn’t the traditional campaign, but rather a series of conversations that take place with users. In its more obvious form this expands toward branded content, where the ratio between entertainment /advertising is about 80 /20. I’ll cover this in-depth in a future post, but now I want to talk about something way simpler.

It’s the PS (aka: photoshop) viral; something that Vancl has done extremely well during Summer 2010, a campaign mentioned in a previous post. The underlying premise is that the original idea is parodied ad infinitum by average netizens. Key ingredients of this is an easy to copy format, and a simple to parody premise.

The original ad featuring popular blogger Han Han (Pic taken in Subway)

Another pic taken in the subway from the original campaign.

Getting a campaign like this rolling takes a bit of planning. The first is creating something simple and easy to parody, the second is having your agency create the first wave of parodies and seeding them across the web; afterwards, depending on the simplicity of the creative, netizens will begin mimicking and uploading their own versions, and voila, you’ve got yourself a PS viral campaign.

Vancl's Sina Weibo Page.

Check out a few mutations of the original campaign below.

Related posts:

1. Rejected China TV Ad Receives 2M Views Online. Picked this one up via LRB Forums; In an interesting twist, a commercial banned by China Central Television (CCTV) once posted online received 2M views in only 8 days. There’s a bit of celebrity power behind this one though; the...
2. BMW’s flirt with the masses – Qzone ‘1′ series launch When I first looked at reviewing this campaign I thought why would BMW be pushing their product through QQ? I mean sure, the numbers are just astronomical but how many QQ users can really afford to buy a BMW? I’m...
3. Jinkela; Purposefully idiotic China ad creates massive viral success. I found this on LRB’s forum; it’s an ad for Jinkela, some sort of fertilizer. What’s crazy is the clownish way they went to advertise it; and the surprising reaction from millions of Chinese viewers. Here’s an interesting question; let’s say you are...