Let’s try something a bit different today; rather than talk about China social media or communications campaigns, let’s attempt to use the underlying principles learned from our experience with social media to “fix” some fundamental issues faced by Chinese businesses, with a specific [...]]]>

Let’s try something a bit different today; rather than talk about China social media or communications campaigns, let’s attempt to use the underlying principles learned from our experience with social media to “fix” some fundamental issues faced by Chinese businesses, with a specific targeted emphasis toward problems experienced on the entrepreneurial/start up levels.

To do this we’ll need to go beyond “social media” to “social business”, which according to my own semi-correct  definition is the alignment of social resources to accomplish multiple business objectives with a corresponding decrease in micromanagement.. ie: do one action, get ten results.

This may get intuitively technical, so bear with me as I establish the overall challenge and work my way toward a solution; your sustained concentration on my obtuse syntax will lead to a potentially rewarding climax.. tested and case studied near this article’s conclusion.

Let’s get started: so as we discuss social, lets analyze one of the most commonly overlooked problems in building businesses in China: human resources; ie: the very high demand for talent, and the inversely proportional supply.

This is counter-intuitive to most; popular thinking: “doesn’t China have [x] billion people?” which somehow implies within that conceptually huge number exists the managers, planners, strategists, and directors needed to properly run complex multi-tiered projects requiring knowledge either acquired through years of matured industry experience, MBA-level understanding of systems and processes, or visceral ”brave new world” thinking.

Those familiar running companies in China have perhaps intuited the foreshadowed ”bad news”.. for the rest: the above simply isn’t true - yes the workforce is huge, but also remember consulting-level, complex, service oriented business (ie: anything not related to manufacturing) existence as mainstream workforce options are probably little more than 10 years old..? Less?

Going my way?

So how does one solve this triple-sided human resource problem of initial supply, applicable skills, and long-term retention? Well so far I’ve learned it’s a mix of patience, with a little patience, and then add some more patience.. but this begs a better solution if only for preserving one’s sanity.

Winning the patience game will ironically require a lack of patience, thus inspiring a frustration-powered push toward adopting a new set of (made up) strategies. What I’ll talk about below won’t sound familiar, will be more intuitive than logical or practical.. most likely to set off a push notification in the heads of those seeking; a ringtone alert slithering through awareness some hour past midnight, a vibrating cellphone against your thigh, a digital itch you can’t quite scratch.. suddenly scratched. 

Challenging a challenging set of challenges.

Solving this issue from the surface won’t work.. so lets dig a few layers deeper.. here’s the primary challenge in the form of a question, posted by a Brand Development intern at Unilever China in Littleredbook’s linkedin group:

Being a marketeer with agility requires us to keep learning new things and forgetting conventional thinking, but sometime I just found it’s much more difficult to forget than learn…

Do you have any advise for “forget”? Or what can we do when our thinking is defined by the old convention and can’t easily break through to come up with new idea?

The above is an omnipresent issue in China, made larger due to rigid systems deeply ingrained into the culture; a focus on nuanced familial and government hierarchy, and an educational emphasis on memorization, contribute to people of limitless potential, limited however by a de-emphasis on possibilities potential, replaced instead with binary thinking sometimes paralyzed by challenges creative.

China’s quick boom has increased new workforce options of creative/consulting fields, yes, but the flip side has lead to high demand for great talent, high turnover rates for talent headhunted to new positions, and professional title hyperinflation as part and parcel for the job hop.

This chaotic forward movement produces confusion and unreliability as a by-product of double-digit progress, eventually leading to forced HR sourcing from other Asian countries for titles above “[x] manager”.

For the entrepreneur? The challenges are perhaps greater; we’ve got the above plus limited resources to hire, and limited time to spend training, ie: “should I spend time developing my marketing to get new clients, directly pitching and wine/dine current clients, micromanaging current projects or develop/train my staff to handle these projects independently?”

This often without support of an international branding gravity well makes each endeavor more intensive.. developing clients is harder as you play on skill vs. brand recognition; and finding, hiring and retaining also becomes more difficult without the social proof brand-relation brings.

What the solution must solve.

So as we do, let’s kill this problem as much we’re able; approaching from the entrepreneurial level, lets assume all China challenges must be solved; a quick list:

• Break at least 20 years of conventional thinking per individual.
• Consistently drive internal motivation to create new ideas per individual.
• Integrate process into daily activity when servicing client projects.
• Slow or stem turnover and attrition of successfully trained staff.
• Reduce director-level micromanagement vs. traditional methods by 95%.

Feel the sting? You are, or you will. These challenges are traditionally battled one-by-one; but as entrepreneurs managing growth, we’ll assume we’ve no time or resources for a process that historically doesn’t work.. or works so slow we have yet to see significant results.

Pulling a “Skywalker”.

Before we continue, a quick, semi-relevant tangent: you remember the first Star Wars movie? The Death Star battle at the end? Well these problems listed above are a bit like the Death Star, a big hulking mass of which you have no clue where to start your attack.

Big problems need nimble solutions.

Our solution needs to be like Luke Skywalker’s torpedo trench run – a single point of applied pressure that breaks apart the entire system.

Rather than attacking from multiple angles the outside, we attack a single point connecting all parts; a solution that addresses the source problem rather than the superficial symptoms.

Curiosity makes the cat, a cat.

So what’s our “torpedo” that breaks apart the problems above? As with all things correct, the answer is never complex – it’s simple, straightforward and ethereal.

As does, the solution came in parts, masked in the little things overlooked when not seeking. The first came while depressurizing my brain by watching cable TV.

A semi-epiphany pierced my mind and forced me to pull my finger out my nose: beyond a brand slogan “live curious” means much; as once the mind regains curiosity it grows, queries, and seeks truth.. not to answer questions on a test, or to look intelligent in the eyes of peers or clients.. curiosity seeks truth for the pleasure of seeking truth, the subtle joy of twisting problems, and the layering of deep levels of satisfaction from problem’s solutions.

The pressure of the peers.

So curiosity is great, but it isn’t enough, as it’s based on pleasure and not pain. Let’s then consider the second part of the mix: peer pressure, reminiscent of your pimpled high school “halcyon” days: a powerful omnipresent, somewhat subtle force, which in itself is pain only conformity subdues.

Don't lose face.

One great positive of Chinese culture is conformity pulls society up rather than down.. as the group to conform to is “upper middle class” (as defined by our communist benefactor’s approved propaganda), of which the vast majority of China is not.. though thanks to media censorship singularly aspires to be.

If social media has taught us anything, it’s that people are shaped by other people; influencers, key opinion leaders, comments, votes, “likes”; symbiotic in nature, dependent on the other as reflection to reflected. Think of the increased speed of connection via Internet also as an increase in the speed of normal human interaction, of which conformity plays a subtle, though dominating role; not the mountain, but rather the mountain’s shadow.

Gravitational influence.

The third element is attraction.. but what is it that attracts one thing to another? It usually isn’t a direct focused pull, but rather some general aura that gradually eats away at barriers and eventually captures consent; starting slow but exponentially multiplies vs. time; it’s a lot like gravity – greater attracts lesser, thereby making the greater exponentially greater, and harder for other lessers to pull away.

Whirlpools, tornadoes and gravity wells; the greater attract the lesser.

Big brands and internationally respected agencies have gravity in their branding; the simple benefit of associating one’s name with a big agency or brand is a facet; you’re likely to stay with that which others recognize and respect.

Got gravity?

You’ll find that the brand you work for becomes a part of how others unconsciously define you; the better the brand you’re associated with the more implied respect you gain; ie: the better the brand the stronger the gravity; these intangibles are difficult to leave behind, unless left for something greater.

But going beyond big names, other elements that may contribute to gravity (especially for the entrepreneur) are anti-corporate lifestyle, high-level flat hierarchies, innovation and defining new ground, traveling paths unexplored; either that, or less hours spent unpaid overtime, or processes that reduce unnecessary workload. So names are one, emotions and quality of life are another; the two may overlap, but rarely intertwine.

Three ingredients.

So the question begged: how do we use the idea of curiosity, coupled with pressure and gravity to break the thick glass walls between brain and mind and achieve the goals stated above?

What I do not have is a bullet-proof answer.. having said that, I do have a potential solution. The way we’re approaching it at Resonance is through a simplified employee-run training process, a bit similar to Barcamp where members become speakers.. though different.. let me explain:

The theory of “social media creative” is that if it’s structured right, it should run itself as it leverages social triggers (ie: the 3 forces listed above) in a holistic way where each feeds the other in some sort of sociologically-self-sustaining ecosystem. You can see this in a lot of crowd-sourced user generated content campaigns.

What is required from directors however is the “rules of engagement” more similar to natural laws (ie: gravity) than government directives (ie: state laws); the rules should naturally sustain the engagement and allow interaction to continue undisturbed by unnecessary distraction from core goals, ie: set the game up right and it should run on its own; the system should work naturally without conscious thought (Mac) vs. breakdown periodically thus leading to actions apart from your original intention (PC).

OK enough chit chat, lets see what this looks like. Keep in mind as you review, this method is specifically crafted for employees who’ve gone through China’s education systems, and demonstrate related dominating culture behavior and attitudes.. the guess is this may work in any situation requiring a focused effort in drawing out creativity, but then that’s a guess; buyers do be aware.

Typical scene from weekly trainings -

Rules of engagement, first iteration. 

• Every week one person is chosen (based on pre-approved schedule) to pick any online China social media campaign they find interesting, case study it, and present to the rest of the staff.
• Once presented, each member of the staff is called on to make some comment; these can range from casual to intense, but whatever it is, they must comment.
• Afterwards, each presentation is ranked on a number pre-determined factors by the staff. Results are presented the following week.

What does this accomplish?

A few steps further.

So that was the first iteration; the second is an improvement on the first with two specific goals: [1] Put more focus on curiosity and creativity, and [2] standardize presentations as much as possible for use in future marketing.

Now this is where it gets a bit more interesting. We’ve begun alternating cases with competitions which consist of grouped teams that create topics for viral spread across the web. Teams are judged by their peers on creativity, results, and applicability to client campaigns.

Viral Competition | China Social Media Case Study.

Results were quite interesting; we had one team pair a picture of a pretty girl with a Dior watch with the headline “My boyfriend makes RMB 30,000/month but still won’t buy me a Dior watch” which got the most page views online, but generally deemed unusable for brands (especially Dior) by the other teams.

Another team created a guide to dating for gamers that game too much to find girlfriends and launched a targeted campaign specifically toward that online demographic.

And the winning team created “the perfect man” and put his profile on Douban; during the course of the week this perfect man received contact from 50 women interested in meeting him for a variety of interests. This winning case was done in such a way that it could be intricately tied to some current campaigns.

Now keep in mind, all of the above was ideated by our teams; directors had nothing to do with it, we simply allowed our staff to follow their curiosity to wherever it may take them. There is something powerful here in these trainings, though not fully isolated and identifiable, it is certainly more apparent than it was before.

Re: standardization? You may have noticed that the first iteration of cases were a bit messy and unstructured. The second iteration features structured templates, starting with clear identification of objectives and target audience and ending with SWOT (strengths, weakness, opportunities, threats) analysis of each case presented.

These templates help to target discussions specifically at the SWOT analysis portion; allowing both speaker and audience to focus on the source meaning rather than the superficial message.

Social Business.

So how do we tie this back into social business? It’s really just connecting the inside, to the outside.. presented in flowchart form:

Flowcharts are a (business)man's best friend.

So beyond continuous training for current staff, developing a company culture of curiosity, opening minds, etc, we can also use materials produced for marketing purposes and as training documents to new staff just entering the company.

In fact, future LRB posts will likely be reviews of weekly trainings, as they help to highlight what brands are doing, keep me updated on what’s going on, allow us to appear to be semi-knowledgeable regarding China social media to our agency and client partners, are easy to write as they are already written (just sprinkle opinions and voilà) and will probably improve an already overflowing sales pipeline. Not so bad.. not so bad.

You know what social business is? It’s really killing several birds with one stone; except the stone is social triggers and influence points + available resources, and the birds are business objectives both inside and outside the company. Yeah. Something like that.

And there you have it. 

Perhaps the greatest fault of the above system is that it will not solve your problems immediately; admittedly this is a long term play to build not only the competence of staff and quality level of service offering, but also internal company culture, which affects company brand and gravity retention of talent.

A bit like watching the Death Star blow up in super slo-mo, though not immediate, it does work toward solving the issues stated at the beginning of this post; ie: breaking through the barriers of the mind to unearth the rich resources that lay within; using tools provided by sociological nature that when properly calibrated produce natural ecosystems that organically align and improve themselves.

Yes, I know this problem is not solved, and no, I wasn’t trying to trick you into thinking I had solved it (but I did sorta come close-ish.. right?).

The conclusion.. isn’t; there is more to learn and grow as we learn and grow.. but I do believe we’re on the right path, we’re going the right way, and might be seeing this in the right light.. and perhaps that’s enough.. for now. Whatever it is, to be perfectly honest, I’m just glad I finally finished this post, cause between you and me, writing this thing took forever. 

A question I come across constantly: “which platform do I choose to run my social media campaign in China?”

It’s a good question without a simple answer.. so in the interest of filling the next few moments of your life with needful complications, [...]]]>

A question I come across constantly: “which platform do I choose to run my social media campaign in China?”

It’s a good question without a simple answer.. so in the interest of filling the next few moments of your life with needful complications, lets delve a bit deeper into the logic of “the why” and “the how” of selecting a baseline HQ for your China social media expeditions.

Now I realize while I’ll discuss the “top” social networks of Sina Weibo, Renren and Kaixin001 that there are many other platforms to also consider in addition to these usual suspects.

China's top social networks (assuming statistics never lie).

Data from Techrice.

..And of course the above list leaves out BBS/forums (technically not SNS), which account for a majority of netizen digital destinations.

So keep in mind as I later ramble on as if I knew my ass from my elbow that a few things won’t be included.. but hopefully the article as a whole should provide example of the logic behind selecting the appropriate network or networks (depending on your budget or budgets).. OK? Awesome; onward with our oversimplifications!

Before we get lost in usage statistics, time on site, and overall traffic, let’s digress a bit back to Marketing 101 – back when we didn’t have such stats available, what was the primary question we would ask?

Now I don’t really remember much from college as I was either [a] skipping class or [b] don’t remember, so I’m just going to make up an answer.. something I remember doing a lot.. which actually helped develop my bullshitting marketing skills to the level they are today. Thanks college!

So before we get to this mysterious question we should ask, let’s drag our collective eyeballs through a few more paragraphs as I agonizingly take my time getting to an actionable point.. here’s a brain teaser to torture yourself with as I twiddle my fingers in glee:

Pretend you are Chinese and only speak Chinese. You go to a bar, there are two women you can drunkly hit on.. do you choose:

1. The Chinese girl who also only speaks Chinese.
2. The Western girl who only speaks Western.

Now since you’re drunk any would do (college answer), however the logical among us may choose the option most suited to our abilities, background.. and generally the one most likely to respond to whatever we may say to them. This crudely obtuse, somewhat politically incorrect, borderline misogynist ”brain teaser” thankfully allows us to segway to a useful point:

Environmental Conversations.

A little like environmental conservation but with a Machiavellian twist. The twist is that it is nothing like environmental conservation.

This picture's relevance to this article is directly proportional to the strength of your imagination.

Environmental conversations is really just another way to emphasize a focus on your target market; ie: traffic, time-on-site, etc is all good, but the only difference larger numbers will make if you only speak Chinese and they only speak Western is measuring the larger amount of people who will ignore you or tell you they already have a boyfriend (based on research conducted last weekend).

The point, pray tell? Simply this: It doesn’t matter which site has more people, how long they stay, how many pages they view.. what matters is which site has more people interested in what you have to say. After that, then all the other stuff matters.. but not before. So simple, yet so complex; a small switch seldom flipped.

Going in Reverse.

So for a few moments lets suspend our knowledge of usage statistics; page views, time on site, etc.. and instead focus on relevant target markets spread across these top China social networks. Worry not my marketing comrades-slash-compatriots, we’re still going to pay great attention to the traditional stats – but only in order of their relevant priority to campaign goals; let’s make these celebrity metrics get in line, just. like. everyone. else.

Additionally, let’s also keep our analysis focused on Renren and Kaixin001 for now, as these two sites are most similar. Then we’ll talk about Sina Weibo and how/why it’s gobbling up the prior two sites faster than you can properly pronounce its name (Weibo sounds closer to “way-bwa”.. not “wee-bow”).

Poor Man’s Guide to Market Research.

Now unfortunately China’s SNS sites either don’t give out stats, lie about their stats, or make their current stats so general they apply to almost anything.. which is sort of like me saying the same thing 3 times. times. times.

So if you’re a mass retail shoe brand vs. a niche feminine luxury brand, general stats (or no stats) don’t really help you decide which platform works best; ie: if you’re a luxury brand selling a high priced product then you’re better off only advertising to only those who can afford your product, vs. to the many that cannot.

“I know that half of my advertising dollars are wasted … I just don’t know which half.” -John Wanamaker

What we don’t want to see is “since this network has more people, lets be on that network”. Why? It’s the same reason mass shoe brands sell to masses, and niche luxury brands sell to niches. Targeting baby, targeting.

Presumptuous Conjecture.

So assuming all available information is at best “not-exact”, how do we target markets across China social media networks? Here’s an assumption that will save us a lot of time and/or budget: Brands spend a lot of money on branding, advertising, and social media. <– that’s either the most stupidly obvious, or dazzling brilliant thing you’ve read so far today. Which will it be? be? be?

Let’s assume this: in many cases top brands will have spent a good amount previously researching, thoroughly questioning and meticulously testing each China social media channel (theoretically).

Therefore, if we look at where the resulting brands are, and on which channels, that should give us an idea of their costly end conclusion and subsequent spend on the China social network they’ve chosen after, what we’d assume, a period of extensive, expensive research and trial/error learnings.

..And if that is the case a simple audit of which brands are on which networks should show us which networks are best for which brands. The reasoning is circular yes – a sort of chicken vs. egg dilemma, but it works if you’re coming in after the first few waves of brands (or first few waves of chickens), so instead of going in a circle, you’re going in a spiral, just continuing what others have already proven.. theoretically anyway.

So let’s take a quick look at the top brands on Kaixin001 and Renren.

Brands on Kaixin001 vs. Renren; prioritized by # of followers.

So lets set a few parameters before we pass casual judgment on these social networks.

• First, let’s say that brands are given greater weight by number of followers,
• Second, let’s agree that total number of followers for a brand’s industry determines the composition of the social network in question.

How should we use this data? A poor example: Kaixin001 has more female brands with more followers. These female brands are: Estee Lauder, Dove, Dr. Vichy, L’Oreal, Dior, etc. As these brands have the most followers, we can assume that these brand’s followers make up most of Kaixin001.

Therefore we can say that a majority of Kaixin001′s audience is white collar females, already past college (as these skincare and cosmetics brands tend to target young working women rather than college students), probably income of around 5k-10k (as they need to afford these “luxury” goods) and likely in first tier cities (SH, BJ, GZ) as this is where higher salaries are attainable.

On Renren, we see more young male brands with top follower counts, such as Adidas, Lining, Converse, Nike; conjecture suggests these brands skew toward college students who still have time in their day to play sports, vs the working white collar who’s time is eaten away earning money for themselves or their families.

Therefore, we can guess that on Renren there are more males (or males are more active), general income skews lower than Kaixin001 since these kids are in college, or they are using their parents money, and this potentially applies to a greater demographic of city tiers, spreading into the 2nd, 3rd, and maybe 4th.

Reverse Engineering Channel Profiles.

Now given time and motivation, we could map out several critical decisive conclusions:

• Which SNS has more brands targeting females? Males?
• What are the brand industries (cosmetics, auto, shoes, FMCG, etc) most prevalent on each SNS?
• Do brands on Kaixin target higher or lower income individuals? Renren?

The above are a few questions to roll ’round your brain, and if answered would firmly determine which way a given brand should go. So if it’s so easy, why don’t I just graph it out for you?.. what has sapped my motivation? It’s sort of the same thing that’s sapping Renren and Kaixin001′s traffic and overall membership engagement volume (oh ya.. whose your segway daddy?)

SNS Landlords, Walled Gardens and Sina Weibo.

The easiest way for brands to choose between Kaixin001/Renren and/or Weibo:

• Cost for brands to be on Renren: RMB 600k/year (USD 92k/year)
• Cost for brands to be on Kaixin001: Basic: RMB 100k/quarter (USD 15k/quarter); Superior: RMB 300k/quarter (USD 46k/quarter)
• Cost for brands to be on Sina Weibo: RMB zero/year (USD zero/year)

The above 3 bullets tend to help make decisions quickly. For Renren/Kaixin001, the primary positive of accessing targeted channels is counter-balanced by the heavy disadvantages of high costs just to open brand accounts, and the constant requirement of spending heavily on banner ads to funnel traffic to brand pages; over time this becomes a very expensive proposition as brands may or may not be constantly running promotional campaigns to justify ROI on spend, and generally optimization of this budget allocation requires significant and consistent activity, which is unsustainable for most brand managers.

Watch out for Weibo.

Enter the Weibo; now suddenly brands have another social network that attracts Chinese of all types, gets them to engaging more than they do on the expensive “traditional” China social network alternatives, and best of all it’s free, allowing greater flexibility, experimentation, and low cost trial/error campaigns.

Popularity: Weibo (yellow) vs. Kaixin001 (green)

Why does Weibo work better? My theory is that it reflects the essence of social media which is simply this: quickly, easily find relevant information according to your interests, according to your needs and your social circle with the absolute minimum number of mouse clicks between content.

Renren and Kaixin001 violate this fundamental rule by creating toll booths between members and information. On these SNS you will see information from those with most money.. not those most organically paired with your interests. And as we unfortunately know, the more a brand spends, the more commercial the message becomes (think TV commercials vs. amateur Youtube viral videos; cost of channels determines message commercial/entertainment ratio).

If these SNS continue to follow this “landlord of walled gardens” model they will eventually fail; while they’ve got a head start and have a good piece of the market, other trends suggest competing sites like Sina Weibo moving away from banner advertising and toward open API (similar to Facebook and Twitter) and gearing content and overall site structure to increase the flow of relevant content between member nodes.

On the other side? Well to put it as sophisticated as possible so as not to offend: Renren and Kaixin001 make this golden goose poop out too many golden eggs too early – and a lot of small golden eggs aren’t as valuable as one friggin huge egg down the line.

..And your point was..?

OK, so that metaphor kinda sucked; I’ll sum up by simply saying this: the primary difference between Facebook vs. Renren/Kaixin001 is Facebook is here to change the world by serving people (a statement that’s arguably correct), while Renren and Kaixin001 are here to turn a quick buck and capitalize on an opportunity.

My belief is Sina Weibo follows Facebook’s spirit, and that spirit, like the initial seed from which the mighty oak doth sprung will determine the long term future of each platform.. why? because this is social media, therefore individuals will eventually determine the future solely based on which network can best organically bend the future around those member individuals.

It won’t be determined by who best controls their channels via toll booth banner ads. Rather it will be those that allow their channels the freedom to grow as they wish, and then support that growth with relevant offers organically paired to what that individual wants.

Ya so both situations aren’t ideal as there’s still some commercial selling, but hey there’s an obvious better of the two options. No tooth fairy “perfect world” but still a world that puts individual first and consumer second is one worth pushing for (or writing about in any case).

Now what?

Now you decide, which way do you want to go? You can go the simpler, costlier way of Renren/Kaixin001, or you can go the economic, more engaging, conversational way of Weibo.. though with Weibo you’ll need to incorporate other channels such as Sina blog, Youku or Tudou as well to get that full “Facebook” effect.

You may try splitting your channels instead across other BBS, or perhaps you’re looking to connect with 3rd tier cities and thus need to try a different set of social networks.

Or perhaps you want to test something easy, or perhaps you want to test something hard. Or perhaps you want to intentionally make something seem very difficult so the person you’re trying to sell will contact you to do it for them. Or how about this.. why don’t you take it easy, send us a brief, and we’ll take care of it for you.. ya, I like that last one the best.. you?

[EDIT: 2011.06.07]: There’s a great discussion on Littleredbook’s linkedin group digging deeper into the contents of this article. Give it a read if you have time.

So we’ve been running a number of campaigns across Sina Weibo for a variety of clients; doing so requires us to be somewhat knowledgeable of how to strategize, plan, and optimize Weibo for brands.

Now while this sort of thing is regularly covered in [...]]]>

So we’ve been running a number of campaigns across Sina Weibo for a variety of clients; doing so requires us to be somewhat knowledgeable of how to strategize, plan, and optimize Weibo for brands.

Now while this sort of thing is regularly covered in our company blog, I figured I’d post it here partly for those of you unfamiliar with that resource, and partly to knock off the rust built round my fingers from months spent not blogging. That’s what I like to call a “win-win”.

So.. what’s a “Weibo”? In short, it’s China’s “Twitter”, though enhanced in many ways making it a better overall offering (details here) combining elements of Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and Groupon. Weibo is pretty hot right now, and it’s poised to create a unique network specifically attuned to Chinese online behavior. Whether that happens or not is up in the wind.. so before we speak of the future, lets discuss for a few moments the present.

Top brands on Sina Weibo by followers.. not so glamourous.

Now the above is kinda sorta interesting. When you look at the top brands sorted by number of followers, we get several telecom companies, banks, and UC browser which is a mobile browser specifically for “shanzai” (copy/fake) cell phones, which is apparently quite popular in China.

But this data doesn’t tell the full story.. however with a bit of coaxing, prodding and tweaking we can get it to entertain us with a story or two. Let’s do a few simple tweaks and see what we can see.

When we organize the data by active users (defined by: 1. at least 100 followers, and 2. posted something in the last 7 days), then we get a different picture.

This graph is more informative than it is obscene.

So instead of misc. banks and telecoms, now we’re seeing brands like GoTone (yes still telecom, but a younger “cooler” version), Nokia, Zara, Adidas, Starbucks, Harbour City etc. (disclaimer: Starbucks is a Resonance China client).

Sina Weibo uses statistics to give social media agency "the finger".

Tweaking the data a bit again, we see that Starbucks (76%), Adidas (65%), and Zara (62%) are leading with % active followers.. which when multiplied against their total followers gives us a sense of each account’s true reach.

This is interesting.. cause we’re not seeing any celebs or whatever.. what we’re seeing is big brands appealing to a broad consumer base. These brands have managed to collect a database of semi-influential Chinese netizens most active and participating online.

Now this can be for a number of reasons,

• 1. these brands are somehow able to collect netizens already active.. or..
• 2. they make those collected engage more.

Which is right? This reminds me of some theory I heard about Harvard – whether it created successful people, or was just really good at attracting people who were going to be successful anyway.. which when you think of it is similar to the nature vs. nurture issue.. things are never black and white; so while we’re a product of our genes and our environment, and Harvard grads are a product of what they had before and what they got during, China’s netizens following these brands likely were digitally engaged previously, but through the brand’s meticulously managed campaigns have had their digital experience enhanced and improved on situation previous.

Does that sound plausible?.. I’m going to assume.. you said.. “yes”.

Collision of Technology and Culture.

One question racing through the minds of those who can read the tiny little letters in the above pictures may be “what is Meitu Xiu Xiu, and why does it have the most active followers on Sina Weibo?”

Well this is also pretty interesting and speaks volumes toward China’s online culture. Meitu Xiu Xiu sort of translates to “make your pictures beautiful”. The site features a software that Chinese can use to quickly photoshop images.. this is most popularly used by young Chinese girls tweaking their pics to look pretty:

Value proposition 100% clear.

A software program specifically made to tweak pictures is the top actively followed account on China’s hottest social network.. what pray tell does this portend? Conjecture leads us to a few assumptions:

• 1. Chinese tend to spend more of their lives online than the West, to the point where software that helps them to express (or cover) their digital selves becomes the top actively followed account on China’s top microblog.. or..
• 2. Meitu Xiu Xiu has collected a database of followers most likely to create waves upon waves of user-generated content for any brand campaign looking to do so, or..
• 3. Universally perception is (or gradually becomes) reality.. and with digital, even more so. Anytime you dig, dig from several directions, cause one side is always different from the other. Or you can just use statistics cause they always tell the truth. Always.

Was it good for you too?

So that was a brief, not totally boring tour through the top echelons of Sina Weibo. Should you use Weibo? Perhaps. Should you use Weibo in your campaign? Probably. Do you like lukewarm answers to serious questions? Depends.

I find when you drill down far enough, you’ll always find “maybes”.. there really aren’t simple yeses and noes, though we all certainly wish there were. Fortunately, balancing this sobering fact is another universal truth: the answer is always out there.. you’re just gonna have to bleed a bit before you find it. Hmm.. no, that one was sobering too.

How about this: a few resources to begin the search for answers you didn’t know you wanted:

• Resonance Blog.
• Resonance China Social Media Group.
• Littleredbook China Advertising Group.

[Audible sigh of relief]

There, I blogged, pitched my company, and attempted to funnel you into one of three databases so I can spam you with corporate messaging in the future.

Mission accomplished

Hey there, you may have noticed we’ve been away from littleredbook for the past few months.. this isn’t because we were suddenly unable or unwilling to type these little digital letters you’re currently reading.. no.

Rather it was because we were dealing with [...]]]>

Hey there, you may have noticed we’ve been away from littleredbook for the past few months.. this isn’t because we were suddenly unable or unwilling to type these little digital letters you’re currently reading.. no.

Rather it was because we were dealing with the energy demanding requirements of building a boutique agency poised to grow larger, and the clients, partnerships, buyout offers, and head scratching strategy that comes with securing and defending found territory.

But for the most part that’s sorted, and we’re going forward with a pretty strong agency/offering, and trialing a number of key partnerships that may exponentially increase the margins of whatever it is we’re doing. Given the pitfalls so casually strewn across the China entrepreneur landscape, I’m pretty proud that we’ve managed to survive and thrive on the surface of this sun.

So over the last few months we’ve partnered with agencies large and small, local and international, and have grown our client list to a respectable size enough to support a talented team of forward thinkers. There are challenges ahead, yes.. but survival breeds success, and success breeds.. well something else that is better than success – I’ll let you know when I figure that one out.

So this is a quick note to let you know we’re back.. and we’ll be writing a bit more than zero posts per month. As there have been several complementary sites birthed in the last few months to our own (here, here, and here), we plan to do a little soul searching in the next few months/dozen posts while we meander across content to find something new and interesting both to you and ourselves.

This will likely involve a few epic speculations, or maybe some quick observation on whatever catches our attention. Perhaps what amuses us will amuse you? As always, time and Google analytics will tell.

Shed a tear with me friends as the holiday season of Christmas, followed by New Years, followed by Chinese New Years and the accompanying general work malaise, a mixture of biting cold with the ever looming “block of time off” on the horizon, fades into [...]]]>

Shed a tear with me friends as the holiday season of Christmas, followed by New Years, followed by Chinese New Years and the accompanying general work malaise, a mixture of biting cold with the ever looming “block of time off” on the horizon, fades into the distance. Yes, it’s officially time to get back to work.

But before that, some nostalgia; this last Valentines Day was my first year wedding anniversary, which is excellent on its own, but moreso when considering this exact time last year and the difficulties of building a small business in Shanghai, dealing with unethical partners, finding/renovating/decorating a new office to rid ourselves of said unethical partners, servicing ever larger clients, and in the midst of it all planning a wedding with expenses high, a future uncertain, and without the support of our fair weather friends.. a story mixed with equal parts enlightenment and stupidity.

So looking back, while it all seemed to grow slow, when taken all at once things moved extremely fast.. such is Shanghai, the forward stumbling chaos that makes lives out of mulch if you’ve the skill or the luck. So instead of brooding over the past, or getting back to work by writing another semi-useful article, I’m going to focus this post on remembering my recently passed first anniversary, seeing as this year, I have the time to enjoy and to further reminisce sans the dark bordered clouds from year previous.

So get ready for some pictures of Thailand, Koh Phangan Island, Haad Rin Beach (of Full Moon Party fame), where over three years I was engaged, married, and spent the first of many anniversaries. We’ve got something of a tradition forming, so here’s some pics of what it looks like, from the semi-intelligent eyes of a semi-lucky entrepreneur as he takes a few weeks off, and for a brief window in time forgets the world for the sand stuck between his toes.

So a quick tour; through the beaches, looking at stupid t-shirts, taking random pictures of the ocean, to jumping a rope made of fire, and critiquing Thailand’s unique advertising copy containing much used keywords “fuck” and its derivatives (fucking, fucked, fuck off, fuck all, fuck me, fuck you, etc), and the classic “me love you long time”. This will either be fun, or it will be stupid.. and if we’re lucky, it’ll be a little bit of both.

Stupid Tourist Stuff.

Getting to Haad Rin Beach requires some time; first routing from Shanghai to Bangkok, and then to Koh Samui, an airport blessed island; and from there taking a boat to Koh Phangan to Haad Rin pier, altogether it takes about 12+ hours depending on how you catch each leg.

So I was thinking to show you pictures like the one below:

A small slice of commercialized paradise.

But seeing as how I would find that contextually interesting and everyone else would find it categorically boring, I’m going to instead show you a bunch of funny tourist shirts I snapped a picture of before I was shamed away by dirty looks from the shirt vendor whose tired eyes slurred “one day I will kill all these damn tourists”.

In retrospect I wish I bought the above panda wielding two hand guns. Damn.

From Koh Samui to Koh Phangan

For those of you “out of the loop”, Koh Samui is the larger of three islands on the east side of Thailand, the next are Koh Phangan (partying), and Koh Tao (diving).

The below pics were taken during the 40 min ferry ride between Samui and Phangan. They were shot using Hipstamatic, which is what I use when I’m bored.. either riding a boat between two islands (rare) or waiting for my wife while she goes shopping (common).

It’s always nice to turn a short uneventful ride across two islands into something I can waste your time with. You can thank me later.

Playing with Fire.

So instead of looking at water, lets look at fire.. people breathing fire, jumping through fire, trying not to light their asses on fire, you know the drill. I can make a rather melodramatic connection between being an entrepreneur in a fast growing city to jumping through hoops of fire, but I won’t.. you know.. cause I’m above that sort of sophomoric metaphorical self-indulgent ok here are the pics.

Yes a few of the above pics didn’t have fire in them, but they looked cool so I snuck them in anyway cause that’s how I roll, yo.

Sign Language

The Haad Rin beach is full of “bucket” vendors, specializing in selling a child’s sand bucket full of alcohol, which paired with a few straws becomes a beach side frat boy’s best friend. Below is shot of the action in full swing at night, and below that is a few pics of the signage during the day while the vendors slept away.

Notice a theme? Me too; generally: get drunk, have fun, sign my sign. A timeless message really.

And there you have it.

So that was my first year anniversary on an island that has over time come to define my life.. not a personal pic collection mind you, but hopefully a semi-interesting one that pushed a smile out from your face. My guess is we’ll end up there again next year and the year after, celebrating with friends around the world we meet while enjoying an increasingly commercialized, though steadfastly young beach where people go to drop concerns, drink some substance (sometimes alcohol) and let the world go, sand sift, waves crash and forget for a while what it was that brought them there.

But alas, the time for forgetting is done, now is the time to remember; now is the time to wake up and kick this rabbit year in the ass. Let’s do this dear reader; make this year our year, so what we have to forget come next year will only be memories of success raped and pillaged in the year previous. Let’s make the memories forgotten better than the vacation celebration, and let’s make this life one worth living, or having led, one worth remembering as we stare into the blue-green horizon, music thumping through the air, warm wind blowing through our hair and across our sunburned bodies, wrapping us in an unending blanket of crisp, sea tanged sweetness.

Get back to work.. I’m ready.. let’s do this thing.

Resonance China is seeking new staffers; we’re up to 10 plus full-time people now, and are aiming to hit about 20 by mid/end 2011 year.

To those semi-entrepreneurial spirits, who want to burn a hole through this world with a team of [...]]]>

Resonance China is seeking new staffers; we’re up to 10 plus full-time people now, and are aiming to hit about 20 by mid/end 2011 year.

To those semi-entrepreneurial spirits, who want to burn a hole through this world with a team of like minded compatriots; once joining will work on interesting projects executed through partnerships with global 4A agencies and MNC international brand clients; so what you’ll see and what you’ll learn will be somewhere near the cutting (aka: bleeding) edge of China social media. You’ll see what it is.. and you’ll play a part in what it eventually becomes.

A selection of our key accounts and agency partners can be found on our company client page; new staffers will likely work with the ones listed, or with the ones we’re not able to list, all of equal caliber and “interestingness”.

Here’s a quick description of what were looking for; if you fit the bill click here to contact Resonance. Looking forward to working with you and taming this shapeshifting, circus-like jungle we call “China social media”.

Generally Speaking..

• You need to be able to speak and read Chinese as primary; English ability is secondary (though also required). For realsies.
• You need to have experience with social media and its general concepts.
• You need to be detailed as detailed with detail on detail. Candidates with PR or SEM/CRM backgrounds tend to fit this well.
• Beyond the above, the rest can be trained; as social media moves pretty fast, so we’re in a constant process of applying, learning, and training our staff. So be open minded, as your mind will be expanded.
• Intelligence helps, but its not as important as curiosity. You must be curious.

Account Director

Account directors are the central cog moving this machine; we’re looking for people who can manage China social media projects, including spearheading partner and client relationships, discussing digital strategy and social media planning, as well as run a team of account managers who’ll in turn manage the execution portions of the campaign via our creative and amplification teams.

Account Manager

Account managers will work with directors in handling client projects. Where directors tend to lean to the relationship and project strategy and planning side, managers are more on the tactical and execution sides, turning strategies into reality via our creative and amplification teams.

If you’ve interest, then drop us a line here, or email hr@resonancechina.com.

Ah yes, “Social Media”, I surf around the web reading about it, I create strategies for it, I see and hear about it all day. There are two things that will happen once you overdose on the social media services gold rush; one [...]]]>

Ah yes, “Social Media”, I surf around the web reading about it, I create strategies for it, I see and hear about it all day. There are two things that will happen once you overdose on the social media services gold rush; one is you mindlessly follow everybody else’s tactics, leading to copy/paste social media marketing; the other, you dive deeper to figure out what “social media” really is beyond potentially cheap(er) advertising and its most visible keywords “tribes”, “communities”, “connection”, “engagement”.

So which route will we take today? Let’s go for “figuring out what it really is”, as choosing to write the “mindlessly follow” route lacks the oozy melodrama of truth seeking via midnight blogging. So today lets take a text based tour of what I’ve seen in China social media; the ethical, the sort-of ethical, and the 1000% unethical, ie: the aptly termed: “Chinese digital mafia”.

I like the one on the left.. no your other left.

Lets do something different, let’s do away with the rose gilded “social media as savior” side and look at the dirt, the shit; and then trace our way back to the natural and organic, rather than this shapeshifting circus we currently analyze. This won’t be about how many people Kaixin001 has playing games, or what Chinese youth like to do on Renren; no. Rather, it is about how we, as social media marketers, manipulate (or “influence” as the jargon goes) digital audiences toward brand sponsored commercial goals.

This won’t be pretty, but it will be interesting; if we’re lucky, it’ll end with a potential solution solving the grayish, blackish dilemma of balancing trust vs page views; loyalty vs replies; love for the brand vs time spent on site.

Onward.

Social Media Landscaping.

Before we begin, some context. China social media is not like western social media; there isn’t one dominating website for specific interactions; ie: Facebook/Twitter/Youtube/Flickr, etc. Rather, China’s Great Fire Wall block these sites allowing China to develop it’s own homegrown variations.

And since China is jumping in after the first wave of social media, it had a chance to study (or copy) its western counterparts; and since everyone can see the same thing at the same time, we get a lot of duplication by strong, well invested players; their relatively equal, through suddenly shifting, strengths lead to serious fragmentation of audiences across the Chinese web.

This one is a little old; but still represents the landscape.

So instead of aggregated audiences in several clearly defined locations, we have fragmentation across hundreds of smaller channels. This makes social media planning in China more akin to offline newspaper and magazine planning; selection of specific channels for specific audiences, in specific demographics according to the brand’s target market; mothers, white collar workers, elite car owners, etc.

Okay? Okay.

BBS vs. SNS; Rice vs. Duck.

Rice vs. Duck is probably a new comparison, but lets bear with the idiosyncratic terminology for a few paragraphs to gain a potentially worthwhile insight. Stats show there are around 80 million people using China’s top social network Kaixin, and perhaps 100 million using competing site Renren.. however, there are likely overlapping accounts, and some inflation of the numbers, either through counting inactive members (like getting dead people to vote), or through simply lying.. which in China is a pretty solid plan B.

So lets pretend there are a total of (probably inaccurate, though irrelevant to primary argument) 200 million people scattered across China’s social networking sites, or SNS (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare.. or Kaixin001, Weibo, and Jiepang). With 420 million Chinese online, the probably accurate guess is that the remaining 220 million Chinese are floating across the BBS/Forums; a number that deserves attention.

Quick side note: BBS is a “bulletin board system”, this is what you see when you search the internet for specific subjects (like how to operate your camera, how to fix or tweak your computer software) and come across a website with a bunch of topics, which once clicked send you to the threaded conversation covering that topic. The West’s most popular BBS is 4chan; and its China content equivalent is Mop.

However, SNS and BBS are not mutually exclusive, people don’t just visit one site when they log on in China, so we can also assume those on SNS go to BBS, and therefore the Chinese netizens on BBS could very well hit the full internet population of 420 million.

And so we come back to Rice vs. Duck. All Chinese eat rice. All. But a smaller, wealthier segment eat Beijing Duck, though not everyday.. and thus like BBS (rice) vs. SNS (duck), most Chinese tend to visit BBS every day, while fewer visit SNS, and those SNSer’s are likely also on BBS.

Why? Digital relationships through through Facebook-ish social media channels are great, especially when it complements your current information channels. Communist China, however controls all traditional channels and filters information as it deems fit; the BBS internet, then, is the last place Chinese can go to get “the real scoop” and hear other real opinions on topics, unfiltered by the government for a short window of time.

Chinese rarely read government censored traditional print newspapers

Another critical variable is speed of acquisition of information. In Facebook (or China’s equivalents, Renren and Kaixin), you need to add friends before you can see relevant chatter, requiring time, energy, and lots of friends.. the preferred alternative is easy access via simple, instant search of topics of interest; that’s where BBS/forums comes into play.

In China topics covering politics, news, opinion, cars, fashion, celebrities, etc will be posted across BBS allowing netizens to locate conversations covering their interests; this is a natural consequence of government imposed limitations on traditional information channels; the collective traffic and viewer engagement on these channels far outweighs social networks, making BBS a very important ingredient in a China social media/digital campaign mix.

Freakonomics.

So lets get back to social media marketing; the first stop is economics of advertising, ie: how can we spend little, yet get the biggest possible impact? A reasonable goal.. with a critical problem: many marketers make the mistake of trying to translate traditional campaigns into social media campaigns. Why bad say you? Traditional campaigns feature one message repeated over and over (via TV, billboards, print ads, etc).. social media, however, requires conversations, or evolution of shared information to support naturally occurring relationships.. or “engagement” as our jargon goes.

Social Media Paradox: “can I reach more people with social media than I did with traditional advertising, while spending 10% of my previous budget?”

This deceptively simple thought becomes the root of all evil. Forced to achieve higher “viral” reach and viewership as traditional channels.. with a many times bland one way traditional communication.. on channels built for sharing experiences.. tends to lead to the dark side of mediocre campaigns and broken connections. The first stop on this wrong way is “message spamming”, the second stop is “social media seeding”.

These two aren’t necessarily 100% evil; but many times they lack something important that makes them whole, and with that piece missing, you look at them strange; like at a 3 legged dog or that scene in Forest Gump when Tom Hanks meets Gary Sinise sans legs.

There are two paths the China social media marketer can take from this point; they can take the path of darkness, which is attainment of marketing metrics that do not measure actual value using one-off messages crafted for other medium.. or they can face the Cloud of Razor-Sharp Question Marks that can only be banished through the painful employment of Original Thought and brother Focused Discipline (both of whom not so fun at parties).. hmm which to choose, which to choose..?

Ethics be damned, let’s go with darkness FTW! Oh yes, that’s what you were hoping for I can tell; for you and me.. we’re on the same page we are.

So let’s look at China social media using the two examples Dilbert offers above; 1. seeding positive reviews, and 2. defaming competitors. A few examples:

Cut and Paste Social Media at Work.

The above seemingly innocent BBS forum features an obvious mistake made by a respected local social media agency servicing huge multi-national brands. In it you’ll see three versions of the exact same headline; however one of the headlines has 9000+ views, while the others, just below it, and posted earlier, have only 30+ views.

This raises a red flag; as you’d think the same topic posted twice earlier would get somewhere near the same views as the recently posted popular title; something like 4000 vs 9000.. the current 30 vs 9000 though? Clear tampering; conjecture supported by the low page views of surrounding topics.

This isn’t just posting a few positive comments; but also seeding the initial conversation, going in there to fill it with positive comments, and then using a software program to artificially inflate the views; these simple steps quickly transport us from “grayish purgatory” to “dirty fucking bastards”.

China’s Digital Mafia.

Does it get worse than this? Hells ya playa! Reported by China Daily, Mengniu, a huge milk brand, allegedly hired a social media ePR company to defame it’s competitor Yili, saying Yili contained fish oil potentially leading to premature sexual development; which not only produces disturbing mental pictures for the visually creative, but also knee-jerk reactions from China’s worried mothers fearful of corners cut cutting their kids ala the San Lu Milk powder scandal which killed a few and hurt a lot more.

Yili (left) defamed by competitor Meng Niu (right) via social media agency.

From what we know of local ePR (aka China’s version of social media) companies negative campaigns against competitors happen quite often.. especially among FMCG companies where small changes in opinion can lead to huge impact on sales.

For those outside the industry, this is shocking, but for those of us in the know, there are strategies constructed specifically to battle potential strikes from competitors. The issue however is the inevitable never-ending spiral into darkness, with the beneficiary the social media agency doing the execution; like a divorce lawyer silently cheering continued bickering between wealthy couples, or a psychiatrist wishing her patient get well, but not well enough to disengage her services; conflict of interest built into system compensation.

Imagine: you see some bad press online; you hire a local ePR/social media agency to contact forum admins to delete the negative post. The agency now knows you are afraid of negative posts, so once deleted, several more “mysteriously” pop up elsewhere, which the social media agency removes for a price; after, several more pop up, and on and on, you get the picture; this road never ends.

The perpetrator could either be the agency or a competitor, but the key thing is once this road is taken, it’s very hard to track back to the light; end result: zero value built for you, your brand, your competitors brand, or customers in general.

Polluting the Source.

These shortsighted tactics create some serious long term problems. The obviously clear commercial intent leads to plummeting trust in polluted online communities; though this being a “censor first, ask questions later” government, trust is still better online than through traditional channels.

This problem seems semi-serious until you start seeing it show up in research reports.

The young generation can spot digital strangers.

BCG reports that while post 80′s generation Chinese (or Chinese born after 1980) think of the internet as a gateway to the world; while post 90′s generation is very suspicious of online word of mouth: “I cannot tell which information is correct on the Internet. There is too much false information”; being savvy to the heavy handed, easily discoverable execution done by the copy/paste social media agencies.

So that’s the situation we deal with as social media marketers in China. Clearly, the current course leads to devaluing the web, and disconnection with consumers; we will achieve the opposite of what we’ve set out to achieve; through lack of transparency and connection with our audience.. so how do we save ourselves.. from ourselves? Or put another way: how do we defend the organic against the commercial, when both are needed for the other to survive?

Questionable Answers.

A question requiring an answer, or several answers at the very least. The first step is to be cognizant a solution is required; and then coming around and employing Original Thought and brother Focused Discipline, and using these two assholes to get some semblance of “the right path”. It may be somewhere here:

• Crowdsourced and broadcast of user generated content.
• Building a persistent game layer through campaign engagements.
• Sustainable user-led communications via community assets.
• Measured tiered engagement leading to user loyalty.
• Redefining metrics to reflect added value.

Am I purposefully being cryptic and jargon-happy to protect my competitive advantage? Maybe. But knowing how competitive advantage deteriorates when you lace together keywords like “digital”, “technology”, and “social media” I figure I’ll spill the beans across this blog at some point in the near future; assuming I’ve had time to fully test slash optimize the theories.. or staying course with the metaphor: fully cook these beans.

But until then I remain curious, testing this, tweaking that.. as should you; for the truth is out there, the solution waits; it sits in some dark corner, unattended, buried in the matrix, waiting for those without fear to stumble across and reveal it. My guess? It’ll probably be pretty obvious; we’ll know when we find it as our collective consciousness goes “d’oh!”. But until then don’t distress; here’s a solution for the interim.

Picked this up from Threadless; it’s been going around for awhile, but I don’t care, it’s still f’ing cool, ya?

Here’s to wishing you all well as we close out 2010. If you’ve followed us through this year, you’ll notice we [...]]]>

Picked this up from Threadless; it’s been going around for awhile, but I don’t care, it’s still f’ing cool, ya?

Here’s to wishing you all well as we close out 2010. If you’ve followed us through this year, you’ll notice we experienced a few speed bumps along an otherwise unpaved road; as the New Year looms we’re seeing some light at the business end of this crooked tunnel; and can only hope that our readers see the same, or have been bathing in that light for a long time previous.

Go Karl Marx!

So happy holidays to you and yours; you readers, and your contributions, retweets, and linklove are what make this blog.. this blog; and come what may, better that way. Love, life, success on success wished toward, and wished forward; may your “this” be nothing compared to your “next”.

See you on the other side dear friends; see you in twenty eleven.

China’s uber-famous blogger Han Han is going the way of Jay Chou; we see him sponsoring a wide assortment of products, though with a more introspective edge compared to singer Jay [...]]]>

China’s uber-famous blogger Han Han is going the way of Jay Chou; we see him sponsoring a wide assortment of products, though with a more introspective edge compared to singer Jay Chou’s wide spread magnetism.

His latest project is “Sentiment Road“, a collaboration with Jia Zhangke and other six innovative movie directors; the aim: to create a documentary about China youth’s dreams to promote Johnnie Walker on the Mainland.

The campaign is launched through Sina’s social media channels; both the blog and Weibo (China’s Twitter). Other channels include Douban, a community of artists and intellectuals often tapped by brands exploring their “creative” sides. Targets include Chinese who can afford to buy whisky and who’d want to drink it; so we’re guessing white collar workers and general club goers of the karaoke-leaning variety.

China's latest sex symbol doesn't sing, dance or attempt to act; instead he writes blogs, races cars, and questions the communist government.

The choice by JW is unique; the focus is not so much on “get your dance on”; these celeb selections, known for their introspective creativity, and distinctive profundity seem to reflect an ever growing obvious trend in China social media advertising: focusing on self-expression and individual wants/needs rather than following the path charted by the well-meaning collective.

Let’s take a quick stroll through the campaign and see what we can see.

Homepage of Johnnie Walker's Sentiment Road in Sina Blog

Sina Blog and Sina Weibo have become the social media mecca for channeled user generated content; between the two services, Sina hosts the vast majority of bloggers and “Tweeters” in China; a targeted group looking to share and communicate, and when generalized can be seen as white collars, intellectuals, and mentally alert elite. By hosting the campaign on this platform JW taps a vibrant channel for a swift catapult into the collective consciousness.

The campaign kicks off with Han Han’s interpretation of “dreams”, which segways into full videos and articles by the famous blogger and interviews of China’s creative thinkers; this is supported by a poll which measures the pulse of conversation in the bottom right corner of the above screenshot.

Campaign page of Johnnie Walker in Sina Weibo

Above is Johnnie Walker’s Sina Weibo page, boasting nearly 10,000 followers. Predictably, Han Han is featured as star celebrity, accompanied by lists of articles & news of the selected creatives included in the coming documentary.

Johnnie Walker's Campaign page in Douban

Johnnie Walker also created a campaign page in Douban, aiming at the sites nationally known artistic, creative members.

Douban pages feature polls, photo albums, disscussions, and diaries about the dreams of the young generation. The pages are still building, and as of Dec 10th only have 141 followers (that’s a bit of a “d’oh” for Douban). This follows some past experience with Douban and spirits; there’s a fit, but its an awkward one. Lets keep tracking the campaign and see if success in Douban manifests.

Jai Zhangke(Middle) and the other innovative directors

Above is the famous Jia Zhangke and the other six up-and-coming directors: Wei Tie, Chen Tao, Song Fang, Chen Zhiheng, Wang Zizhao and Chen Cuimei, the producer of the documentary.

So thats a quick stroll through the campaign. It’s very well done and gives us a sense of a flexible quick dive into social media, using China’s top intelllectual celebrity to wedge open awareness, beating a path of connection to the brand.

Key strategic elements are also implemented; building long term assets on Weibo (via followers) via short term campaign site on Sina Blog is an excellent way of balancing bought and owned media for short and long term brand benefit.

But perhaps more important than planned awareness is the message; supporting the dreams of Chinese youth is a subtle, if important step; the subtext suggest brands build strong relationships with youth by supporting their dreams, or their individual wants and desires, vs supporting the easy answer “better money, better job, better life”.

While the “better” is the butter on this piece of bread, figures like rebel blogger Han Han and a cast of upcoming creatives instill the notion of aggressive protection of what makes Chinese youth.. Chinese.

And perhaps that’s the revolution or stickness of the campaign, the polite “no thank you m’am” vs. the traditional “yes mommy”, supporting Chinese as they find, discover, and eventually follow their dreams into uncharted, unmarked, territory of tangible emotions brought to life via intangible dreams.

Picked this one up from Mark Englehart Evans blog, it’s a randomly cool billboard done by an environmental artist Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung; the subject? Siddhartha Obama, or to those of you not familiar with Eastern religion, it’s [...]]]>

Picked this one up from Mark Englehart Evans blog, it’s a randomly cool billboard done by an environmental artist Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung; the subject? Siddhartha Obama, or to those of you not familiar with Eastern religion, it’s Obama depicted as Buddhism’s founder, and as the cure to the world’s environmental woes.

This was discovered in downtown Shanghai, the capitalist mecca of our communist benefactors. Say what you will about China, one thing you can’t say is its standing still. No, this city, and by extension country, is a rapidly expanding fireball chaotically bouncing forward, not necessarily in a straight line, but forward nonetheless.

Redefining "left field".

Thanks Mark Englehart Evans for the post, @ShanghaiTattoo for the snapshot, and Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung for the inspirational vision of the this environment’s potential great savior, Siddhartha Obama.