Via "The Bright Eleven" Campaign from Chevrolet Cruze
Snapshot of Youku Profile Page of 'The Bright Eleven' Campaign
The development of advertising industry in the United States is in a leading position around the world. Nowadays, with the increasing popularity of social media, meanwhile, a lot of advertisers are seeking for professional advices from advertising and communication agencies to design, implement and promote their campaigns through Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc.
So how is the development of advertising on social media in China? I am going to sort out some of my thoughts through the interview with Jeremy Guo, the Senior Art Director of SGM in McCann Erickson Shanghai office, who teamed up with another 10 coworkers and came up the idea of online themed series movie campaign "The Bright Eleven"for Chevrolet Cruze. This campaign is co-presented by China Film Group Corporation and Youku.com(a video social site similar with Youtube) and sponsored by Chevrolet Cruze.
Advertisers in China have realized the importance to make full use of the Internet to spread out their messages. According to the 2010 China's Internet Development and Usage Report from CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center), until June in 2010, there are already 210 million social network users, which increased by 19.6% compared with the data from the first six months in 2010. Also, 50.1% of them use the social network regularly. In other words, because of the change of target audience's usage of media, advertisers have to adjust ways to approach their audience more effectively.
Jeremy said, "Chevrolet always has a good relationship with Youku.com. Youku.com aims to create more good content(videos) on their site. Chevrolet Cruze, as a new launched brand targeting young adults, wants to create new buzz among target audience. China Film Group Corporation wants to promote their young directors. Also, nowadays, most young adults use Youku and other social media sites a lot. So we came up this idea to bring three parties together."
"The Bright Eleven" campaign combines 10 short movies and one regular movie with the same theme - young adults' stories of chasing their dreams. It also accords with Cruze's brand personality. All of these 10 movies were launched on Youku.com.
However, the use of social media is still in the very beginning stage in China. Currently, there are only around 50 companies having their own profile pages on Renren.com. Even though, there are not a lot of stuff on them. Besides some coupons and new products updated, advertisers are not really being listeners and engaging consumers. Being on social media is more like a trial project for most of them since they don't have a lot of experience in it.
Advertisers are cautious of every move. Jeremy said, "compared with the traditional media which still dominate the media industry in China, good content is very important since social media provides two-way communication. Bad content would bring about disaster."
Among the 10 movies, there's one called "Old Boys" which has resulted in huge buzz on every social media in China, including Renren.com. I watched this movie before this interview with Jeremy Guo. People talked about this movie with their friends; they recommended it to their friends and families; they shared and downloaded its music; they shared the interview of the actors and director on Renren.com. There is one thing that drives them to do this: good story, which resonated the deep thoughts and feelings for chasing dreams among a lot of young adults in China. From my perspective, good story is not enough for advertisers on social media. Telling a story based on brand's personality is the key.
Actually, Chevrolet Cruze's "The Bright Eleven" campaign has set up a good model to generate conversations among target audience. However, besides publicizing among traditional media, like news release, Chevrolet Cruze could also try to spread out this event via a lot of other social media channels. For example, utilizing the current General Motor's profile page Renren.com and share the link of "The Bright Eleven", which would show up on followers' news feeds. Create a blog tied with "The Bright Eleven" Youku channel, where consumers could follow the backstage stories or news about the directors, actors as well as some comments about chasing their own dreams.
From my standpoint, there's no way to rush in applying social media in advertising in China. There's a lot of potential opportunities which would only be effective until advertisers and consumers are all ready to be online. Good story is always the prerequisite for good strategy.
So how is the development of advertising on social media in China? I am going to sort out some of my thoughts through the interview with Jeremy Guo, the Senior Art Director of SGM in McCann Erickson Shanghai office, who teamed up with another 10 coworkers and came up the idea of online themed series movie campaign "The Bright Eleven"for Chevrolet Cruze. This campaign is co-presented by China Film Group Corporation and Youku.com(a video social site similar with Youtube) and sponsored by Chevrolet Cruze.
Advertisers in China have realized the importance to make full use of the Internet to spread out their messages. According to the 2010 China's Internet Development and Usage Report from CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center), until June in 2010, there are already 210 million social network users, which increased by 19.6% compared with the data from the first six months in 2010. Also, 50.1% of them use the social network regularly. In other words, because of the change of target audience's usage of media, advertisers have to adjust ways to approach their audience more effectively.
Jeremy said, "Chevrolet always has a good relationship with Youku.com. Youku.com aims to create more good content(videos) on their site. Chevrolet Cruze, as a new launched brand targeting young adults, wants to create new buzz among target audience. China Film Group Corporation wants to promote their young directors. Also, nowadays, most young adults use Youku and other social media sites a lot. So we came up this idea to bring three parties together."
"The Bright Eleven" campaign combines 10 short movies and one regular movie with the same theme - young adults' stories of chasing their dreams. It also accords with Cruze's brand personality. All of these 10 movies were launched on Youku.com.
However, the use of social media is still in the very beginning stage in China. Currently, there are only around 50 companies having their own profile pages on Renren.com. Even though, there are not a lot of stuff on them. Besides some coupons and new products updated, advertisers are not really being listeners and engaging consumers. Being on social media is more like a trial project for most of them since they don't have a lot of experience in it.
Advertisers are cautious of every move. Jeremy said, "compared with the traditional media which still dominate the media industry in China, good content is very important since social media provides two-way communication. Bad content would bring about disaster."
Among the 10 movies, there's one called "Old Boys" which has resulted in huge buzz on every social media in China, including Renren.com. I watched this movie before this interview with Jeremy Guo. People talked about this movie with their friends; they recommended it to their friends and families; they shared and downloaded its music; they shared the interview of the actors and director on Renren.com. There is one thing that drives them to do this: good story, which resonated the deep thoughts and feelings for chasing dreams among a lot of young adults in China. From my perspective, good story is not enough for advertisers on social media. Telling a story based on brand's personality is the key.
Actually, Chevrolet Cruze's "The Bright Eleven" campaign has set up a good model to generate conversations among target audience. However, besides publicizing among traditional media, like news release, Chevrolet Cruze could also try to spread out this event via a lot of other social media channels. For example, utilizing the current General Motor's profile page Renren.com and share the link of "The Bright Eleven", which would show up on followers' news feeds. Create a blog tied with "The Bright Eleven" Youku channel, where consumers could follow the backstage stories or news about the directors, actors as well as some comments about chasing their own dreams.
From my standpoint, there's no way to rush in applying social media in advertising in China. There's a lot of potential opportunities which would only be effective until advertisers and consumers are all ready to be online. Good story is always the prerequisite for good strategy.
