Bullying China 玩中国

I think it's interesting that Google made their announcement that they would potentially be leaving China on their blog post. Since then, there has been a lot of speculation as to the many reasons why Google may be quitting (as opposed to their official reason). I just think that it's interesting that it was first posted on their corporate blog post. It says a lot about PR and how brands should be or are communicating to consumers or the publics today. Gone are the traditional days of brand driven communications. I'm sure people have been saying this for a long time now, but even in a place like China, where the Internet is relatively new, the way people hear about and interact with your brand is changing significantly. For myself, who wants to use the best products to meet my personal needs, most of my recent purchases have been through influencers. Mavens, if you will, of the various categories of goods that I buy... or through friends that share the same hobbies and interests as I do. The only question is, that despite the vast population online in China, how many of them have true purchasing power. Is this just a futile exercise on branding, or are these web experiences changing people's opinion's on purchasing products. Not to mention, how much of online conversation is controlled by Big Brother?

On a related incident, Google wasn't the only one to take a stand on Big Brother. This article was pretty interesting and summed up for me the attitudes that I believe foreign companies will increasingly take in their stance against the government here. A take it or leave it attitude. Unfortunately, I can't think of a product or brand that can win yet. If Google took their stance 5 years from now, as users in China continue to become disillusioned by the likes of Baidu and other greedy search engines, if Google acted a little later, I think more people would have been pissed off and really put big brother to the test.

Happy New Year World 新年快乐

Dear World,

Happy New Year. It's 2010 and I am 32 years old. I'm old, I used to think mid twenties were old, but I'm now over 30 and wow... is that old?

I never would have imagined growing up that my life would turn out in this way. Not that I'm complaining, but as you are growing up, you always envision your friends then, to be your friends forever, your family to always be where you are and to be working at what you thought then was your dream job... or at least the sort of profession you always thought you would be in. For some people that may be the case, but as I enter 2010, I find myself on the other side of the world, meeting new people almost every day and working in an industry I never would have imagined being in.

The best laid plans can often be led astray I suppose, and that is why it is important to stay positive, to stay alert for opportunities and to stay flexible with what life sends your way. I can see how people, as they approach their mid thirties, reflect on what they once thought life should be like and realize that they are not where they wanted to be, or that they are a bit behind on where they thought they should be. Life is not predictable but as the daily grind continues, life's many challenges, like sandpaper, slowly shape and refine you into the person you were meant to be. That person may stem from the dreams you once had while growing up and the choices you make, but that person, no matter what you end up doing with your life was meant to grow, experience and be happy. Happy new year world.

Merry Christmas 圣诞快乐

So here I am, making another attempt to resurrect my blog. This is effectively a result of free time during Christmas and me being able to buy a VPN in China that allows me to access my blog sites!

So hopefully our paths will cross again soon...
希望我们能未来有机会见面。。。

Transformers 2 Is Coming! 变形金刚2 来啦！

I think movie trailers are a great way to build buzz around a movie. I recently watched a bunch of Transformers 2 trailers with the most recent one being here and now am super amped for this movie's release! I'm sorry this post is so long, but I did have 2 opinions about the movie from a China perspective ...


1/ Appealing to the Chinese
A lot of the big American films are usually set in the cities of the US, but since living in China, I've noticed the increasing influence of China in mega movies. Although not entirely filmed in China, it's great to see scenes from places like Shanghai, Hong Kong and Beijing. I admit these cities do not represent China as a whole, but it does say something about the importance of China and the marketing of a movie for the writers to include something "Chinese relevant" into the script. I can think of a few of recent note, scenes from The Dark Night was shot in Hong Kong, Mission Impossible 3 in Shanghai, Mummy 3 was set in China, and from what I'm reading, Shanghai also has a scene in Transformers 2! The image above was a screen capture I took from the movie's trailer. You can see the highway sign is your traditional Chinese highway sign design. Too bad the cars are driving on the wront side of the street (China is similar to US and Canada in that you drive on the right side of the road). The above image is a small snippet and I did some additional investigating. There are hints of a Shanghai scene in Wikipedia's T2 page!

2/ GM Needs to Better Leverage Off of This in China!
I was really disappointed in how GM leveraged off of their collaboration with the first Transformers movie in China. With all the news of China's car market growing, I think that generating hype around this partnership would do more to help sell cars in China for GM. Growing up in Canada, we had a GM once. It was riddled with so many problems that we never owned one again. But I digress. I believe that GM should integrate for the following reasons:
- The rich are younger here: everything you read about the wealthy in China points to similar conclusions that the Chinese wealthy are on average 10 - 20 years younger than their counterparts around the world. The consumer will identify with the product!
- The middle class is growing: GM will never be able to compete with Ferrari or even Mercedes, Jaguar and BMW. But they don't need to, because the majority of Chinese will buy the next tier of cars anyway, and most GM cars fit into that category (if not upper middle class since it is imported). The positioning is great!
- Parents succomb to whining kids very easily: Chinese children are the princes and princesses of their families. I have watched parents and grandparents take the abuse of young children all the time here. I have witnessed parents sending thousands of dollars abroad to make sure their kids have everything they wanted. My momma used to whoop my ass when I got out of line, but a child's influence on the parent's purchasing cannot be more pronounced than it is in China. And kids LOVE Transformers! I read an article last year about a kid who rode his bike onto a highway amongst speeding cars here in China. When the police caught him and asked him why, his answer was that he saw Optimus Prime and wanted to catch up with him!
- Everyone in China will watch this movie: Okay, not all 1.2 billion people, but anyone who is the GM target market will watch this movie. They will watch it, tell their friends about it, buy the pirated DVD to own it, buy the toys, buy the video games, blog about it and dream about it. A perfect platform to advertise to their consumer, why aren't they integrating the advertising?
- Young adults here know the brand! Unlike GM brands, many here know about Transformers. They grew up watching the cartoons as a kid. If you drive around in China, you will see cars with Autobot and Decepticon insignias. Leverage off of that brand affinity!

If someone from GM marketing is reading this, listen to me when I say that all you need to do is integrate it into your advertising here. Do something like put it on a big outdoor billboard. Make sure that the models in the same colours are against the window in the showroom. Throw a viral video of the cars rolling around in China online. I see 2 scenarios. 1) Kids will see it. Their parents will be forced to go to the dealership and their kids will cry and scream until their parents buy a car. Or 2) The young 20-30 something adult will see it. And then will get it because he/she thinks its damn cool. If at the very least, you can be sure that it will do much to add to the brand awareness in China.

Even though I've never thought of buying a GM, that Bumblebee Mustang would be so dope to roll around in...

Building the online ME

I going to make a conscious effort to resurrect my blog. After reading a recent article on building your online brand and improving your online brand I've decided I need to resuscitate what once was littered with footprints and eyeballs. It's especially annoying since I made a bet on Xanga back in 2001 when I thought I could pay $100 for lifetime membership. It seems that it would have worked, if Big Brother didn't begin banning a bunch of websites from China. With Xanga on the black list, my habitual blogging waned. But after reading those two articles, I'm invigorated once more, a second wind as you will. As to what I will post about? Why, my ramblings and senseless musings of course. Ho, ho, ho...

Gong Li's Bitties

I saw an ad on the bottom of my MSN messenger.  That space really works to get my attention... very smart.  It was annoying at first since it took up 5% of my precious desktop space but I've gotten some interesting information off of that thing.  Like how Snoop got arrested again.  Screening for the next Rocky film was disappointing for Stallone.  The cool thing I saw last week was for the next Zhang Yimou movie, Curse of the Golden Flower.  The cinematography, pictures and website give the movie a really cool feel that I just can't put my finger on.  It just looks like a really dope movie. 

In China, they have started advertising the movie.  I went to the theatres the other day and posters promoting the movie were up.  I also noticed that the movie is coming out in China a full week before it is released in the US.  Needless to say, the Chinese piraters will surely get a MPG copy of that online.  Anyways, I'm straying from the topic of today's post, which was so strategically placed as the title.  In all ads that I've seen, trailers of the movie, even the first page of the website, one glaring thing (actually 2) stares me right in the face and I can only assume naively that it was done on purpose.

Gong Li is such a hottie.  I don't get excited over things that easily (ok, maybe I do), but I can't wait until the movie comes out.  Yes, that excites me.  I also bought a Tumi suitcase today.  That was pretty cool too.

Man my English really bites.  Okay bye.

5 Years Tomorrow

I was working on a couple documents in the office, and just noticed while typing dates that tomorrow is September 11. It's a date that I know of, but because I was in China when it happened, not something I am overly sensitive to. Being in China, you're a bit sheltered from the bombardment of media from the US / North America. I read Google News often, but that's limited to the morning or night of any particular day. I don't see (or understand) the headlines when I walk past the newsstand, I don't notice the news on the TVs as I walk past the stores, and it is/was not in daily conversation when at the dinner table. I can only imagine how difficult it must have been to be constantly bombarded with this information at the time while in the US. A silent moment for all that were affected.

On a happier note, Jay-Z is confirmed to perform here. I've copied the article in case the link breaks:

http://shdx.piao.com.cn/en_piao/zhongjiye.asp?952

Jay-Z Shanghai Vocal Concert
Time: 2006/10/23
Venue: Hongkou Soccer Stadium
Price: 100/300/400/500/600/800
More Info

Jay-Z was born Shawn Corey Carter, on December 4, 1969 and was raised in the Marcy Projects of Brooklyn, New York. During his school days, he befriended a young Christopher Wallace, who grew up to be known as the Notorious B.I.G.

Jay-Z has been the most consistent rap artist of the past five years, with platinum release after platinum release. As a hustler in his rough neighborhood, Jay-Z used his money to finance a career in music and released independent records in the late '80s. His parents were avid record collectors and Jay-Z would sit down at the dining room table as a child writing rhymes while his mother cleaned the house with the music blaring. The more time he spent on the block though, the less time he had for transcribing lyrics. As a result, Jay-Z developed a genius skill that few others could emulate, even now.

Note:Jay-Z's girlfriend Beyonce Knowles will present as an honoured guest in the show.

Remarks: Tickets are booking now!

Do people in China even know what hustler means? I wonder what went through the heads of the 50 - 60 year old cadre of censors when they reviewed Jay-Z's lyrics. Fei chang hao!