Hill & Knowlton Digital in China

Where do you go for the latest digital trends and happenings when it comes to cool campaigns and latest digital statistics especially in robust markets like Greater China?

Well, in H&K China, we have just the most efficient method alongside giant search engines – our very own Digital Library! Our team launched the Digital Library last Friday, which is available to all our colleagues across our China offices – Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.

Here’s a screencap of our Digital Library:

So what’s in the Digital Library? Firstly, our homepage gives readers an overview of digital news stories that one should take note especially if you’re dealing a lot with the local social media scene; such as Taobao’s own SNS platform, and China’s latest re-enactment of anti-gaming laws. We then have multiple sections dedicated to updates on the latest social media trends, search, mobile, social media marketing, and also a creative corner with interesting case studies.

Apart from Greater China (Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan), we also share items from across the APAC region, Europe, and the Americas – it’s always good to keep a steady flow of information that’s beyond our geography.

The above probably sounds like a one-way communication – and that’s why we have the following element where our colleagues can share interesting articles with one other: a function called “new article” where any registered H&K user can upload articles or case studies for their colleagues to discover and learn.

We look forward to keeping everyone up to date on the latest digital news occuring in Asia Pacific- and we encourage our colleagues across H&K to upload their own digital related articles from all over the world.  Stay tuned for more!

Much chatter have been floating around about how traditional mass media is slowly losing its appeal and this will persist as new media continues to reign supreme especially among the youth who, not surprisingly, are the movers and trendsetters of the online world.

Recently, a social network marketing talk titled “Beyond Facebook: Tapping into Online Social Communities & Networks as Powerful Business Tools in China”, was organized by The American Chamber of Commerce here in Beijing, China to address new buzz words like “social media” and “iWOM” (Internet world of mouth) and how it has changed the Internet landscape.

We got to know another leading Chinese social networking space – 360Quan. Almost everyone in the room got excited about it as the relatively young 6-year old company was a new discovery for many of us in the room.

360Quan – what so unique about it? Besides being China’s third largest social networking site, it has more than 22 million subscriber base is largely dominated by those born in the 90s. It also experienced phenomenal growth last year and has been having record breaking visits since its inception.

SNS (social networking sites) in China has a lot of players, each with its own uniqueness and purpose. 360Quan’s success in commanding a large chunk of the youth market is notable as these group of kids are the in fact China’s emerging online spenders and trendsetters.

Within 360Quan, we learnt that “Martian Language” or “huoxingwen” (火星文／火星语) is the “in” thing among its users. There is also an extremely popular activity which is similar to Hot or Not; where users vote for the coolest dude or dudette.

Dan Brody (Founder, CEO of 360Quan) goes on to explain in his talk that “Groups”, or better referred to as “Mobs” in the company enjoys a very popular following. As the term suggests, the “Mobs” functions as a popularity-based support, which can be between hundreds to thousands, that is widely used to make a bold statement or to act on a cause.

Since its inception in 2003, 360Quan has managed to continuously build its reputation by engaging China’s teenage Internet community with the most complete range of communication tools for users to express themselves and customize their social networking experience.

360Quan is by far one of the most significant case study that shows how the younger generation can drive a social networking platform. Their goal is simple and to drive an online space in this day and age – “create the best social network for ourselves, our friends, and the whole Chinese community”.

Rewind to January 2007 – can anyone (especially in our industry) forget reading about how this Internet uproar in China is giving Starbucks a major PR headache that made aspirin almost irrelevant? To refresh your memory a little, on January 12^th 2007, a blogger, also a famous TV personality from CCTV; wrote a blog post which can be loosely translated as “Starbucks, please get out of the Forbidden City”. Needless to say, it created a sensational news topic which was eventually published by the world’s leading news dailies and online news portals. This blogger also later wrote a book, titled “Life Begins at Thirty” – which brings us here.

Last month, Hill & Knowlton Beijing, together with our colleagues from other provinces across China, gathered together at The Grand Epoch City, which is around an hour’s drive North of Beijing. Apart from team building exercises, a sports-meet and a fantastic evening dinner get-together (themed “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow”), we also had the opportunity to meet a very talented individual.

As our Managing Director, John Holden introduced this individual before the outing via email:

During Saturday’s outing, we will have a special guest, Rui Chenggang (芮成钢), who is a famous CCTV presenter and also a friend. I first met Chenggang nearly seven years ago when he joined the first class of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations’ “Young Leaders Forum“. He was the youngest member of that program, and today is still very young – only 31. He is one of the most accomplished English language speakers of his generation, and adds to that an extremely wide range of knowledge of economics, public relations and current events. For many years he has been a member of the Young Global Leaders group of the World Economic Forum (Davos), and was the first person from China to be named a Yale World Fellow, a very elite group indeed.

Chenggang has interviewed presidents of countries and companies, and is himself quite a celebrity. I don’t recall which one, but a few years ago a famous Chinese magazine named him one of China’s “Most Eligible Bachelors.” (He is still single!) His blog on Sina.com is very well known, and he is credited with starting the discussion (a translated version can be found here) that led to Starbucks’ withdrawal from the Forbidden City.

It was indeed a memorable experience to be able to meet Rui Chenggang upclose and personal; especially for some of us laowais (foreigners) who previously heard about this person as an “Internet celebrity” through various forms of international media.

John hosted Rui Chenggang and together they jetted-off into a 30-minutes power discussion; addressing the issues below to a room packed with almost all our 170 eager colleagues:

• Current economic outlook, China and the world
• Interviewing experience: world-renowned figures, politicians and celebrities
• Cultural differences (general and journalism): China v. the world
• Differences in media approach: China v. the West
• Social media in China: before and after the Starbucks incident

To sum up, Rui Chenggang’s ability to churn out such in-depth discussion views and opinions within such a short time frame was truly admirable. When asked about journalism ethics, he gave a stern but matter-of-fact conclusion, “There is no truth in journalism, but merely facts and perceptions”.

In our next post, we’ll write and share about other Chinese “Internet celebrities”, and check-out what social mediums were involved along the process of creating topics which caught many of the local’s attention.

Note: Rui Chenggang’s book, “Life Begins at Thirty”, can be found via Amazon.cn. This book is currently available in its original (Chinese) language.

When we think of digital channels in China, this is what we see: 

Designed by our digital team in 2008, we combined few of the millions of digital channels in China with a creative touch to Beijing’s inter-connected subway system. 

A latest statistic published by TG Daily showed China’s blogging service, Qzone (who also owns the famous QQ online messenger service) has recently added more than 20 million websites alone, becoming the world’s largest blog site provider; easily surpassing long-standing number one provider Blogger (by Google) and Microsoft’s Windows Live Spaces.     

According to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), China recorded 298 million Internet users, up from 290 million users by late November 2008 and 210 million users in the year-ago period. This clearly indicates more and more Chinese consumers are migrating to the web, and we are doing whatever we can do keep up with the pace in here!   

In the coming posts, we will be sharing quick facts and thoughts on the Chinese digital landscape, discussing about social media platforms ranging from video sites, BBS (bulletin board system), blogs and other platforms; which we hope will help you better understand how the digital landscape works in China. Apart from that, we’ll also drop interesting happenings that are crawling around China’s webosphere, so do check back soon!