Marketing will be back on track in 2024, not 2023 – Ashley Dudarenok

Ashley Dudarenok

Economic recovery in China has been modest since the country emerged from the Zero-Covid crisis, and marketing will only be on track in 2024, rather than 2023, says marketing expert Ashley Dudarenok at CNBC. 

CNBC:

 Businesses in China are spending cautiously on advertising this year as local consumption isn’t expected to bounce back for a while yet.

Marketing revenue rose in the first three months of 2023 for several Chinese internet giants — but not Alibaba, the largest of them all by dollar value. That’s on a year-on-year basis.

Heading into the 618 shopping festival this month, brands remain cautious.

“For 618, generally of course brands will be trying, but compared to before it’s a bit more tired,” said Ashley Dudarenok, founder of ChoZan, a China marketing consultancy.

“We know it takes exactly the same amount of money to bring the customer into your shop today versus 2021, but the customer is going to spend about 30% less in your shop,” she said…

In the first quarter, the median disposable income of urban residents in China was officially 12,175 Chinese yuan ($1,739), up 3.9% from a year ago. Education, health care and travel were the top three categories for planned spending, a central bank survey found.

“The general consensus in the industry is that 2024 is going to be the year of growth and rebound,” Dudarenok said. “2023, let’s just get out of the downturn, stay connected with the platforms, with the customer,” she said.

Dudarenok noted that ad agencies are also spending just to experiment with search engines. Baidu and Microsoft’s Bing have both been working with new generative artificial intelligence technology.

More at CNBC.

Ashley Dudarenok is a marketing expert at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

Are you looking for more marketing experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

Trust sells better than ads - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

Ads suck, says China veteran William Bao Bean. In  Asia companies first build up trust, and then might sell now and then. "We are in the post-advertising market," he tells at the Next16 in Hamburg.

William Bao Bean is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form.

Are you looking for more innovation experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list. 

Schon mal von #SocialCommerce gehört? @williambaobean von SOSV & Chinaccelerator erklärt das asiatische Trendthema. #NEXT16 pic.twitter.com/VuiI49nv6y

— nextMedia.Hamburg (@NextMediaHH) September 23, 2016

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Consistency: key for brands - Tom Doctoroff

Tom Doctoroff

 Getting your customers involved with a key idea and be consistent, that is the message China advertising guru Tom Doctoroff has for agencies, trying to survive between traditional and digital advertising models. The need for affinity with brands has not changed. 

Tom Doctoroff is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.    

Presentation: Tom Doctoroff from The Paley Center for Media on FORA.tv

China Weekly Hangout
The +China Weekly Hangout will have open office hours coming Thursday, where you can drop in to discuss any issue, but where we want to focus on technical problems you have or we have had with hangouts. The development of this Google tool is going pretty fast, offering every week more new bells and whistles, but also with regularly new challenges. You can join us on Thursday 28 November 10pm Beijing time, 3pm CET (Europe) or 9am EST (US/Canada). You can read our announcement here, or join the event by watching, commenting or actively joining at our event page. 

What do Chinese tourists want? - The +China Weekly Hangout asked Roy Graff of ChinaContact on June 20, who joined us to discuss the increasingly diversifying market of Chinese tourists. And yes, there is no longer one answer for basic questions. Moderation by +Fons Tuinstra of the China Speakers Bureau.

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Advertising moves from big broadcasters to online - Tom Doctoroff

Tom Doctoroff

China's state-TV, CCTV, saw for the first time its advertising revenue shrink, while online is growing double-digit. Advertising guru Tom Doctoroff explains to the WSJ youth is going digital, and advertisers prefer cheaper TV-stations in lower tier cities. CCTV and Shanghai TV are too expensive. 

Tom Doctoroff is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Creativity still key for marketeers - Tom Doctoroff

Tom Doctoroff

Chaos has erupted now digital platforms have taken over communication channels, confusing marketeers and consumers. But China advertising guru Tom Doctoroff asks us to take a breath and look how technology is empowering us. New ideas are emerging, and they still need creativity he writes in The Huffington Post.

Tom Doctoroff:

The average Joe does not want to be bombarded with a never-ending series of disjointed creative. The best brands simplify life, not complicate it. That's why all creative ideas -- I like to call them "engagement ideas" -- must also be expressions of the brand idea. They can be short-term, long-term, thematic or promotional, but they must be manifestations of the brand's soul. Each idea reinforces the long-term relationship between people and the brands they love, lest confusion reign. 

Today's business environment is ultra-competitive, hyper-accelerated. So creative has to be more than "interesting." It has to do more than break through clutter. Super Bowl Sunday notwithstanding, the days of sitting in front of the television waiting for cool TV ads to air are over. Yes, creative must be persuasive. And messages must be elegantly crafted. But communications success is now measured by depth of engagement. 

In a new era of technological liberation, creative should not only draw attention but also elicit active response. Great creative ideas - for example, Nike's "Fuel" band, Axe's wake-up alarm service, Uniqlo's world Uniclock, Burger King's "Whopper Freak Out," Kit Kat's "Lucky Charms" - are now "participation platforms." (Hopefully, they are also easy to enjoy and not over-engineered.) Great ideas are now "made," not broadcast. They can be "things" people want to spend time with. The more time people spend using, playing with and spreading an idea, the deeper their involvement with a brand. 

Importantly, engagement ideas must be carefully defined so they become "media-neutral," bigger than individual communications channels. As media options proliferate, ideas should remain consistent on everything from television, mobile phones, social media platforms, apps, video games, even in-store shelf talkers.

More in The Huffington Post.

Tom Doctoroff is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

+China Weekly Hangout 

The new ways of communicating have influenced many parts of life in China. For example its labor force. The China Weekly Hangout discussed on May 24 those changes with +Dee Lee (Inno), of the NGO Inno in Guangzhou, is running a workers' hotline, mainly funded by big brands who want to keep an eye on working conditions. Heleen Mees, NYU professor in New York, +Sam Xu and +Fons Tuinstra, of the China Speakers Bureau, ask him questions.

On Thursday 20 June we ask what Chinese tourists want. Chinese tourist spend more than those from other countries, but getting them to your country, and letting them spend is an art in itself. We are joined by Roy Graff of ChinaContact, and you can join us too. Here is our announcement, or you can register directly at our event page. 

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The mismatch between mobile platforms and ad agencies - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

Mobile might be the next big thing in China, both mobile platforms and ad agencies have still a hard time to find each other, tells William Bao Bean, Managing Director Singtel Innov8, in AdAge. AdAge:

"The vast majority of [ad] agencies out there don't know what they're doing on the mobile side in China, and the mobile platforms themselves are not being particularly helpful either," said William Bao Bean, managing director in China for Singtel Innov8, a venture capital fund set up by Singapore Telecommunications. "The issue is that they don't have a context to engage with mobile advertising, they don't have a platform to help manage it, and they don't have measurement."

More in AdAge

William Bao Bean is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch, or fill in our speakers' request form.

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'Wait and See' for advertising in 2012 - Tom Doctoroff

Tom Doctoroff

Tom Doctoroff of JWT in Shanghai discusses with colleagues his bullish predictions on advertising in China for 2012 at Thoughtful China. Doctoroff see 'nervousness' among his multinational clients, as media costs skyrocket, while budgest do not follow the 30 percent increases, and even digital sees higher costs.

Tom Doctoroff is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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The new global consumer: Chinese - Tricia Wang

Tricia Wang

Researcher Tricia Wang sends us through her websitea telling advertisement from Guangzhou depicting the new global consumer: a Chinese couple, served by a while male. "The entire global economy right now depends on the Chinese elite and middle-class to spend."

Oh how this Toyota Highlander advertisment is reflective of the new global order.  I saw this picture in Guangzhou's domestic terminal. A Chinese couple is getting out of their Japanese brand car into what appears to be a private yacht. A white male greets them, taking their travel items and appears to be eager  in their service. 

This advertisement reflects a new Chinese imaginary - one that is global, expansive, unlimited, and exploratory. It also tells us who has the power to live out this imaginary. 10 years ago or even 5 years ago, I don't think this advertisement would've existed. But now companies have turned to the Chinese consumer, encouraging them to participate in this lifestyle. The entire global economy right now depends on the Chinese elite and middle-class to spend. But how long can this go on for until we see the next crisis? For how long can each system create "value"?

More on Tricia Wang's website

Tricia Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch, or fill in our speakers' request form. 

Tricia Wang, exploring China's underbelly.

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Chinese website: crowded and kinetic - Bill Dodson

China veteran Bill Dodson describes in EON Business wire how different Chinese websites are from their Western counter parts. "Chinese websites reflect the condition and dynamics of Chinese society itself: crowded and kinetic"

Chinese netizens spend more of their time playing games, reading soft news, consuming streamed media such as (often pirated) films and socializing online, especially through the QQ instant messaging service, than Americans, according to Bill Dodson, author of the acclaimed book China Inside Out, which was published in February this year and includes a chapter about the internet in China.

"The presentation of information on Chinese websites is radically different from the more staid displays found on Western sites," said Dodson. "Chinese websites reflect the condition and dynamics of Chinese society itself: crowded and kinetic."...

The sheer size of the Chinese market heralds a bright future for Chinese online advertising firms, [Dodson says], with the specific nature of the country and its internet to some extent insulating companies such as Hylink from international competition.

"The wall China is building around its internet – linguistically, politically, technologically and commercially – will mean that the gulf in the advertising industry between China and the rest will remain wide and perhaps even widen," said Dodson.

Western firms will increasingly enlist Chinese agencies for access to Chinese consumers, he added

More in EON Business wire

Bill Dodson the author of the recently released book China Inside Out: 10 Irreversible Trends Reshaping China and its Relationship with the World. He  is also a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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Differences between Chinese and Western consumers - Tom Doctoroff

What are the fundamental differences between Chinese and Western consumers, wonders Shanghai-based advertising expert Tom Doctoroff in a wide-ranging interview with ChinaSmack.

There are two key differences. First, all benefits in China are externalized; Chinese egos are huge — I always say every Chinese has a dragon in his or her heart — and they demand societal acknowledge for their contributions to and success within society. They are not individualistic in a Jeffersonian sense as are Westerners, who respond, in many cases, to “internalized” benefits.

Luxury goods, for example, are a tool for career advancement in China. In the West, they are often appreciated for their own intrinsic quality. In shower gel, the leading Western brands have “sensual indulgence” as a core proposition. In the PRC, the key benefit is “an energizing shower experience that helps me start the day with a kick”. Sometimes, this difference can be quite subtle. Europeans go to spas to relax. Chinese go to recharge batteries.

Second, there is absolutely, positively no cynicism towards brands in China. As said above, they are vital tools of advancement. Furthermore, in a constricted mass media environment and a society with a narrow definition of success, brands are the most powerful badges of identity.

Brand communications is, by far, the freest form of expression and, for that reason, beloved. Of course, the Chinese are suspicious shoppers — they don’t take quality for granted to reassurance in terms of both quality and impact on image is critical — but there isn’t cynicism. We have not entered a post-modern communications era here, and I doubt we will, given fundamental role brands play in consumers’ identities.

More in ChinaSmack

Tom Doctoroff is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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Celebrity endorsements are not trusted in China - Jeremy Goldkorn

Jeremy Goldkorn by Fantake via Flickr

A Lady Diana lookalike in underwear used on Chinese advertisements shocked at least the British part of the world, but Danwei's Jeremy Goldkorn tells The Guardian that is it business as usual as far as it concerns China.
In The Guardian:

Jeremy Goldkorn, who runs the Beijing-based media website danwei.org(a partner of the Guardian) says using images of stars on products without their knowledge has been popular since 2003, when several real estate developers claimed Bill Clinton as a spokesman. The current US president has proved no less commercially-minded, apparently taking a break from governing to plug the "Blockberry Whirlwind" smartphone(not, of course, to be confused with the BlackBerry Storm).

The misuse of these celebrity endorsements is so widespread in China, few consumers take them serious anyway, says Goldkorn.

Luckily Chinese consumers don't take the ads at face value. "I don't think Chinese people really trust celebrity endorsements anyway – but they can make a product stand out from the crowd. That's why companies continue to do it," says Goldkorn.

And affronted western stars should spare a thought for their Chinese counterparts. When Muzimei shot to fame for her graphic sex blog, entrepreneurs were swift to use her name for products without her permission. The condoms and underwear might have been predictable. But few would relish lending their name to a rat poison.

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Jeremy Goldkorn is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need his insights at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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Fat China, blame on the advertisement industry - Paul French

Paul French

Obesity is rising in China and our speaker Paul French and co-author Matthew Crabbe wrote their new book Fat China: How Expanding Waistlines are Changing a Nation about the feature. In 1982 7 percent of the Chinese were overweight, in 2002 23 percent of urban China, 7 percent obese. In this article in AdAge they blame the advertisement industry.
From AdChina:

Today, 100 to 120 million Chinese are obese and about half of them are kids. The effects of this obesity crisis in China will be legion, including significantly increased levels of disease, including diabetes. China's healthcare system faces a time bomb of 100 million adults with diabetes within a couple of years. The additional costs will be massive.

Culture and wealth play a role in getting China fatter, but French also points his finger ad the advertising industry:

While we can't blame the advertising industry for urban China's appalling driving standards, the relationship between advertising and obesity is a long and documented one internationally, though to date, the discussion of the link between the advertising of fat-inducing foods and drinks and obesity has been muted in China.

This lack of discussion has not been due to any particular government clampdown or censorship, but rather to the rapid growth in advertising and fast-changing lifestyles that have meant that no time has yet been found for such discussions. Yet they will have to happen soon.

More challenging debate at AdAge.


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Paul French is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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Tudou turns to internet TV - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs Flickr

Tudou, one of China's largest video hosting companies, is making a surprise move by making the first -made-for-internet soap, explains Marc van der Chijs, co-founder of Tudou, to CNNgo. Not surprisingly, the production wants to reach the 250 younger Chinese at the internet with the theme of "love",
In CNNgo:

Van der Chijs explains that, “Although producing shows ourselves is more expensive than licensing shows we feel it is worth it. Not only does this offer us the opportunity to differentiate ourselves once again from the competition, but also we have more ways to recoup our costs. Instead of having pre-loaders and other advertising as main revenue drivers for our content, we are now able to also use product placement and script placement in the series."

He continues that “Being able to integrate brands into the story line is of course very attractive to brands focusing on a young, urban audience with a high disposable income (Tudou’s core audience).”

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Marc van der Chijs is a successful Dutch entrepreneur in China. He works also with the China Speakers Bureau. Are you interested in having him a a speaker? Do get in touch.

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First official day at Chinabiz Speakers

t Today was the first official day of Chinabiz Speakers, the project that might pop up here every now and then. What makes this project special for me is that it also offers an opportunity to test some of the new-media techniques I have been reading, learning and talking about in a very practical way.
The morning began by sending off press releases to media outlets and through mailing lists of different Foreign Correspondents Clubs. The classic press release is more or less passe, but I do think it is for a lot of purposes useful to write up in one page what you are up to and where people can call you. Otherwise, sending off press releases to the old media was only a way to pay tribute to my old occupation, since I do not expect too much off it for our project.
We are - in terms of news - squeezed between 12 million recalled toys and a collapsed bridge. You have to know your place. But where in the past you could only hope somebody would still notice you, today a project like ours can follow the long tail. We do not have to be Harry Potter's to get things done.
Using your networks and relationships is key in the new-media toolkit, building up conversation with your different constituencies. Fortunately, the speakers' business is very much a people's business, even better, people who are supposed to bring in huge networks themselves.
Plan one was to get a core group of now slightly over 30 speakers on a closed mailing list to start forming a group. Some of the speakers do not each other, but some don't.
Plan one also failed, at least today, since the Google mailing lists have a quota of 30 people and by putting 31 on my list, I triggered off the Google spam alarm. My list was not activated and I seem to on a waiting list while a real human being looks at it.
Plan two was the mobilization of my own network. I had prepared emails to my friends and contacts that could be interested in the project and started to blast them off. What I first noticed was how many people are still on holidays: many out-of-office messages came back. What was further striking is the huge number of people who changed email addresses in the past two years. Then the Google spam guards hit again: after 500 emails they thought I should take a brake and they blocked my account for 24 hours. Fortunately, there is still Outlook.
Then we started to reactivate Chinabiz with a piece on KFC by one of our speakers Warren Liu. With over 20,000 subscribers interested in business in China Chinabiz is a network of itself and we are going to ask our speakers, if they are not yet one of our columnist, to join that stable of writers every now and then.
My digitally advanced friends suggested I should also start a group on Facebook. I did so, but this might not yet be the tool for the biggest part of my constituency. But in terms of networks, you can never have enough of them. In less than 24 hours, I have now already 26 members there!
That is very short my virtual marketing strategy for ChinaBiz Speakers. I will report now and then about the results.

Update: Ah, forgot to tell you that ChinaBiz Speakers has of course its own weblog. It focuses more on operational issues but shows also how the network is slowly getting into place. I think.

The lagging online ad market, more

Kaiser at Ogilvy reports about a meeting he had with 50 Tsinghua EMBA-students, all senior executives of Chinese companies. He asked them about their explanation for the fact that consumers spend a huge percentage of their time online, while ad companies keep on pouring most of their marketing budgets into TV-stations.

The answers were intriguing, honest, and often very funny: One gentleman basically said that at least in China, people in a position to determine ad spend spend all their days actually running their businesses, and their evenings getting drunk at Karaoke parlors, and they can’t be bothered with learning about the Internet. Others said that marketing decision-makers extrapolate from their own Internet use, which is very purpose-driven: they hunt for specific bits of information and never bother to look at ads. Most boiled down to “it’s a generational thing,” and everyone was confident that the gap will close.

Upcoming: online ad revenue

I'm preparing a new media training I will be giving next week in Shanghai. The sluggish online ad market has been passing by at this weblog more than once. So, it is nice to report some positive trends that have been showing up at my radar screen during the preparation.
First, last year the online market was according to ACNielsen/Netratings between four and five billion Renminbi worth. They only started to measure online activities last year, explaining why the real interesting figures will only show up this year.
While the figure is still small compared to the always leading TV ads (25.6 billion Rmb over 2006) it had already passed the ad revenue stream going to the magazine market (3.1 billion Renminbi), according to again ACNielsen.
What is really interesting are their figures about the first quarter of 2007. The online ads are good for 1.4 billion Renminbi, an increase of 40 percent. Leading is Baidu, holding 21% of the market, followed by Sina (19%). Those figures are for sure encouraging.
What the online media need is more creativity to make it worthwhile for the advertisers. Like here what happened for a French internet provider. Really well done.

The lagging online ad market

Jan van de Bergh of Boonbloggle (was I-Merge) complaints again but rightfully about the lagging market for online advertisements. According to the latest figures the online ad market in the UK, with an annual expenditure of US$110 per year, is worldwide leader, while the US market is good for about US$70 per internet user. In China advertisement companies spend about US$4 per internet user.
From the positive side: this figure can only go up.

Lost: 13 billion US dollar in ad spending

Jan van de Bergh is on a slippery slope: he starts to compare figures in China. He compares the figures on ad spending in 2006 of two research firms, Nielsen and CTR and finds a substantial gab between the totals (US$ 49.5 billion and US$ 36.9 billion).
Why is that dangerous, you will ask? Because figures in China are not facts, they are tools to make companies spend more money in China. They are not a reflection of the reality, or better, they are reflecting that we can have different conflicting realities next to each other at the same time.
Of course, if you are living in China for a while, you know how to deal with those differences in articles, business plans or whatever. We are not looking for the truth anymore, just a reality that meets the demands of today.

Counting your visitors, part II

Figuring out how many visitors you site has is not only problematic for me. Jan van de Bergh of the online advertising company I-merge recalls an experience with a website that overestimated the number of visitors about ten times, at least that is his estimation.

Digital ad spending can only really start here in China when all online media who want to attract advertisers were audited by independent third-party firms. A recent survey in the US "asked online planners and buyers in North America about key issues in digital marketing. More reliable metrics came out as the top concern." Read the complete article here. Want More Ads? Get Better Metrics.

It is of course a tradition that started in the non-digital media, where print publications keep their real circulation also secret.
O yes, I lost the code of Google Analytics again when I changed the lay-out of this weblog. I decided to kick it off, since the huge differences in patterns with Awstats made me only confused. I will later look into Jan's link about Better Metrics.