Micro Strategies Bring An End To 360 Campaign Planning

Here's the article I wrote for Adage China on June 3, 2009.

If you've ever worked in non-traditional advertising for a big agency in China, you can probably relate to this scene: You're in a conference room 24 hours before a client presentation with department heads from every discipline, each of whom has prepared creative strategies based upon a "big idea" for a mobile phone client, centered around a television ad based upon a big celebrity endorsement. When your turn to present to the room arrives, the exec creative director looks shocked and asks, "Where's the Big Idea in this retail work?"

Here comes the hard part, trying to explain that Chinese consumers don't take in media at a store the way they do on television. Shoppers are looking to buy and are therefore making more tactical product decisions.

The differences don't stop there. Chinese shoppers in lower-tier cities are more price-driven, while their upper-tier counterparts in sophisticated markets like Shanghai are looking for unique features, requiring different executions. In this environment, you argue, brand imagery filled with celebrities doesn't fit their mindset and is therefore not effective. Nearly every time such a debate comes up, the winner is the same--Jay Chou or another cool local pop star or actor in China, whose image is firmly (and expensively) planted in the center of the agency's 360 degree campaign circle. The retail slice of the pie sits in the lower left hand corner next to the public relations section, supporting his mugshot to be spread within thousands of retail outlets throughout the country.

This battle was lost for two fundamental reasons. First, the agency's blind belief that 360 degree advertising actually works in all situations and for all channels. Anyone who questions this belief will be quickly reminded of award-winning global campaigns such as Unilever's "Campaign For Real Beauty" for Dove, a prime example of a "big idea" successfully surrounding the consumer at every touch point. The second reason is execution issues. The right way of doing things is often lost to laziness. It's simply much easier to use the same message and image over and over in different channels then to target your campaigns based upon consumer interaction. And since the advertiser spent a fortune to get Jay's endorsement, it should be maximized whenever possible.

There is merit in those reasons--but times are changing as marketers start to shed the traditional 360 approach as a campaign planning concept, especially in China, where consumers are already actively involved in the process for some major brands through online communication channels. Also, word of mouth is spreading more rapidly than ever before in the mainland.

Shoppers can now converge on a store, armed with better information and stronger opinions faster than the marketers can influence them. To survive, advertisers and their agencies must get into the conversation quickly.

The best term for this I've seen so far was coined by the American new media blogger, David Armano, who used the term micro strategies to describe the evolution of the industry. According to Mr. Armano, campaigns based upon micro strategies are created through rapid planning iterations and quick launches, measurable insights and results, with further adjustments before being re-launched again. The process is constantly in motion, and several campaigns can be launched simultaneously depending upon the communication target and channel.

Because the process doesn't rely on big-production media budgets to survive, campaigns developed through micro strategies can be quickly discarded if they aren't effective. In China, the process is now possible because we have better consumer data than ever before. Tracking consumer behavior from the channels that influence them all the way to the shopping floor is now much easier.

A good example is "3 Steps Before Bed," an online campaign for Johnson's Baby brand in China. Johnson & Johnson's used peer influence to persuade mothers the program was the right approach for their baby. It engaged six "mom ambassadors" to blog about the special bathe-and-massage routine and act as forum administrators on the Johnson's Baby
Chinese web site.

New mothers were encouraged to register their details for product information and special promotions. The additions to J&J's Chinese database were double the expected target. Ideas will still continue to be the cornerstone of an agency's business, but the way agencies develop and execute these ideas needs to change, especially in a complex market like China.

The 360 campaign wheels surrounding big ideas served the multi-disciplinary agency well in the past, but now it's time to put them aside.

Most Popular China Social Networking Sites

I pulled this off of Litttle Red Book, an advertising industry blog that frankly I had never heard about until recently. There's certainly a lot more than these, but this is a good list of the big ones.

Retail / Shopping:

www.taobao.com

www.dangdang.com

www.joyo.com (combined with Amazon.cn)

www.alibaba.com

www.eachnet.com

www.paipai.com

www.bitauto.com

www.huanke.com

Social / Cultural:

www.tianya.com

www.19lou.com

www.xiaonei.com

www.kaixin.com

www.kaixin001.com

www.hudong.com

www.douban.com

www.xici.net

Social / Entertainment:

www.mop.com

www.shanghaining.com

Products / Reviews:

www.dianping.com

www.koubei.com

www.sh.58.com

Wedding:

www.chinajiehun.com

www.liba.com

www.99wed.com

Microblogs / Blogs:

www.fanfou.com

www.blog.sina.com.cn

www.blog.sohu.com

www.blogbus.com

Searching Engines / Forums:

www.sougou.com

www.baidu.com

www.google.com.cn

www.gougou.com

www.soso.com

Video Sharing:

www.youku.com

www.tudou.com

www.ku6.com

Mobile Micropayments Coming To Shanghai In 2 Months!

According to China Retail News, micropayments from mobile phones will be available in Shanghai in 2 months. All you need to do move your phone near a scanner and it automatically reduces the cost of your Big Mac from your SIM account. To recharge, SMS your bank and you're back in business!

Imagine the possibilities: you walk by a Starbucks and you're asked to opt in to a bluetooth coupon that draws you into the store. You pull out your phone, make the order, use the coupon, scan the phone and you're in business. Can Starbucks collect your mobile phone number in the process? It could potentially be a fantastic database entry tool as well.

What A Waste Of Money

Talk about a waste of money for advertising: I saw this ad on the metro this morning for Midea, a hot water machine that delivers instant boiled water. OK, it's a stupid ad execution but hey, no website, no retailer or even a toll free number listed anywhere. They pretty much decided to leave the consumer hanging here. Where would you buy this thing?

What makes it more tragic is the window screen includes a picture of Gong Li, their product spokesperson, which I'm sure was at least RMB 1M for her time.

When will local companies learn that it takes more common sense than just blind star power to sell a product nowadays?

How Chinese Share Online

I spotted this great article from Adam Schhokora's 56minus1.com blog about how the number of ways Chinese share information online. It's a must read. Besides the Digg voting clones such as Leitie and Zkaoo, there are ranking RSS-oriented systems such as Zhuxia and Xianguo.

Besides sharing on social networking sites such as Xiaonei, I quite like how QQ has cleverly incorporated bookmarking into its massive IM database via Shuqian (书签）.

With so many possibilities, the online organization business is seemingly disorganized..a bit of an oxymoron.

团购恶梦 Group Purchase Is a Dealer Nightmare

Sam Flemming from CiC wrote an interesting piece on the rise in Group Purchase or better known as "Tuangou (团购)" in this month's Ad Age China.

While it's true that Group Purchase is becoming more popular for car buyers, it has also become a bit of a nightmare for the dealers. Several dealers have told me that, while they welcome tuangou, they also point out that consumers are still quite new to the whole process and expect huge discounts, despite the fact that cars are sold in China on very thin margins.

In addition, consumers might come and buy 20 of the same car en masse, but they often want different features and completely different engine sizes, making it virtually impossible for the dealer to provide discounts.

Sam is correct. Car companies need to pay greater attention to tuangou. The first step is education on what a Group Purchase really means. Avoiding explaining the rules will only create additional misunderstandings.

2009 Shanghai Autoshow: Could We Have Done Better?

As I have always said, China's autoshows make all other expos in the country seem like an American weekend flea market. High tech booths, elaborate sound systems, interactive shows and of course, beautiful models that tend to overwhelm rather than complement.

Wunderman's task at the shows was lead generation, and Shanghai always proves to be more challenging than other markets. Unlike Guangzhou or Beijing, Shanghainese are not just more reluctant to fill out questionnaires, they have trouble estimating when they will actually purchase a car. This becomes a challenge for us because we segment customers based upon their in-market date. In the end, a record turnout plus favorable purchase conditions helped us bring out the masses.

We saw a lot of fancy data entry systems at the show including PDAs and bluetooth devices. Saab used a big inverted touchscreen that allowed customers to write in their details. In the end, I'm still a believer in paper questionnaires because they're fast which means you get more data than the high tech versions. A lot of people argue that the PDAs can deliver data in "real time", but what's the point? Why do you need 3 month hot leads in real time anyway? And with the low price of data entry, paper surveys are still the most cost efficient option.

I was not out buy a car but can imagine how challenging this must have been. Despite a few wild concept cars from the locals and the dreamcars in the financial stratosphere, the sheer size of show is really overwhelming. A recent study ranked buying a car the most challenging purchase in China, followed by a mobile phone. With so many brands and look alikes, it's really tough to choose.

What works best to attract prospects and build your brand? Interactive programs, fancy model shows, or simple, clean open spaces allowing people to interact more with your products? Of course the answer is a combination of these things. And is there a better way to get consumer in-market information, which is vital to the success of the show? We did well, but I'm confident that we can come up with more innovative ways to improve the process.