The table below cites
new advertising campaigns of U.S. companies and new products entering
the China market. We will also cite noteworthy advertisements from long
established companies. All locations are in Beijing unless noted otherwise.
The dates are only approximate and may have started much earlier than
the listed date.
| 05/06/2008 |
Olympic Sponsors |
Beijing Olympic Tickets |
The last round of Olympic ticket sales sold out today - in only two days. These were the sponsors listed on the actual domestic tickets (this is not the complete list of sponsors): CocaCola, AtosOrigin, GE, Johnson&Johnson, Kodak, lenovo, Manulife, McDonalds, OMEGA, Panasonic, Samsung, VISA. Officials are aggressively enforcing Olympic IPR infringements of any non-sponsors. |
| 12/19/2007 |
Frito-Lay |
Store Shelf |
Doritos, that staple of the American home packed lunch is now in China. Though potato chips are very popular, corn chips are a new snack item for China. The Chinese do like corn flavor (there is even corn flavored ice cream) not that any corn flavor comes through all that nacho flavor. Maybe would have been better to introduce regular Fritos first. The bags are sized to match the size of potato chips bags; 95g. Seen in Carefour, not yet in common supermarket. |
| 10/26/2007 |
Cats, 42nd st, Alvin A iley |
Subway,streetlevel billboards |
More and more musicals coming to China. One of the earlier shows must have finally turned a profit and now China is a definite stop on the Theater/Dance world tour circuit. Alvin Ailey, a true pioneer, first came in 1986 returned in 2006 and now looks like they will be a yearly visitor. |
| 09/17/2007 |
KFC,McDonalds |
Television |
The two top fastfood chains in China have both have started offering breakfast meals. Which brings up an interesting question. After all these years of no special breakfast meal, why now? Perhaps the disappearance of a competitor- the small independent kitchens - means they can now get more business. Perhaps rising incomes now allow people to pay more for a meal that used to cost less than $1. Perhaps people are now too hurried to make breakfast at home.
Finally, it is very coincidental that they both start offering breakfast this summer. Perhaps some corporate plans were leaked and forced the hand of the other side to also offer breakfast.
|
| 09/16/2007 |
Amazon |
Television |
The TV show Dialogue had on Jeff Bezos for an hour-long Q&A session with other Chinese Web CEO’s. Amazon has just started operations in China after acquiring the site joyo.com for a reported $75 million in August. Amazon probably needed to wait so long because books and other media are considered a sensitive area by the powers that be. Can Amazon succeed where other web giants have failed? This very question was asked in the Q&A to which Jeff replied (paraphrase) the mistake other companies made was to have the China staff try to please the home office as opposed to the customer. Hhmm, probably more complex than that. We’ll certainly be watching how Amazon does. |
| 09/15/2007 |
Hooters |
Store Front |
In China Hooters has abandoned its signature theme in all ways. Name-wise, instead of trying to find a dual meaning word, it went with the Chinese word for Owl. Waitresses also are chosen more for personality than uhm … that other trait. What we have left is “American restaurant with cheery girls wearing hot pants”. All-in-all probably wise choices given the cultural environment. Though the food is not a draw in America, it is less important here (e.g. most Chinese would prefer Pizza Hut over a slew of gourmet pizza brands). |
| 09/09/2007 |
Mastercard, RR Donnelley, Hennessy V.S.O.P, Sports Illustrated, Dior,TCL,Gi |
Beijing Pop Festival |
This years Beijing Pop Festival had a lot of the same sponsors as last year but this year’s headliner bands where exponentially better: Public Enemy and Nine Inch Nails. Kappa and local radio station CRI were the main sponsor of a newly added second stage. This year’s expanded festival also included booths for all the main sponsors. SI had its swimsuit issue in tow. Myspace is looking to edge out MSN’s early lead on the blogging front. |
| 08/31/2007 |
Heineken, Carlsberg |
Store Shelf |
These two companies have introduced the six-pack to China. Before this point in time you could only buy beer cans as single cans or cases. Environmentalists will be happy they are using paper carriers instead of the plastic rings. Expect soda to follow. |
| 08/19/2007 |
Crocs, Volkswagen, Nike, Coke, Mikasa |
sporting event |
All were at the week-long FIVB Beach Volleyball Women’s Challenger tournament. Crocs and Volkswagen had special tents outside the event as well. Besides volleyball, China is hosting all kinds of sporting events leading up to the Olympics. Any sporting goods companies not now in China are missing out. Many Chinese had never seen beach volleyball before but now know the ball to use is … Mikasa. |
| 08/16/2007 |
Rollerblade/Micro |
Shopping center display |
Huge display and demonstrations outside shopping center. Rollerblading is mostly seen as children’s activity in China but as the children grow older they may stick with it and turn it into a mainstream sport. Now if there were only some good places to rollerblade; most parks and plazas forbid it leaving the main roads the only option. There is always a bike lane but it is often crowded and chaotic. |
| 08/12/2007 |
Nokia |
Neon sign removed |
It took some time but the big neon sign at the Nokia office in SanLiTun Beijing has been removed. This was part of a big city wide cleansing of signs and billboards in preparation for the Olympics. Are neon signs an eyesore? Some people actually like neon signs. It’d be hard to image Tokyo or HongKong without them. |
| 08/08/2007 |
Coke |
Street level billboard |
Exactly one year till the Olympics and Coke, an official sponsor, unveils their Olympic themed ads. Non-sponsor companies who hoped to get extra exposure during the Olympics will have been disappointed with the recent sign cleansings. |
| 08/01/2007 |
Mamma Mia! |
Office TV ad network, Bus side |
The musical has come to China for a shot at the Chinese market. Good move to target office workers with the TV ads as they are the only ones likely to afford the high ticket prices and understand some of the English; subtitles may work for movies but are less-than-ideal for live theatre. |
| 06/30/2007 |
many |
more billboards removed |
The sign cleansing expands, street level signs have been thinned out; the only signs left standing appear to be at bus stops. Ads inside buses near the ceiling have been removed. Large ads on the fences around constructions sites have been removed. For anyone not familiar with China; where ever you go in a Chinese city you can always see at least one construction site. Some of those ads were 4 floors high. The estimate is now that 66% of Beijing’s available ad space has disappeared in less than a month. |
| 06/30/2007 |
Jack Daniels |
Subway |
Jack Daniels – is advertising Old No 7 Whiskey. But it is a case of Jacky come lately as Johnnie came early to this game. Johnnie Walker and Chivas Regal have already established solid brands. Jack Daniels also has a difficult marketing decision; remain true to their US cowboy image or shift to the formula proven by the current leaders of targeting the yuppies. |
| 06/06/2007 |
ING, JVC |
Large Billboards Removed! |
More companies who lost big neon signs in the sign cleansing. The removal criteria appear to be any building mounted sign visible from the 3rd or 4th ring road unless the sign belongs to an actual tenant. So Nokia retained their sign on their SanLiTun office building. Large standalone column mounted ads also appear to have been spared. Another interesting aspect has come to light; I asked several taxi drivers and people on the street if they knew why the signs were removed. Nobody had even noticed that about 33% of Beijing’s advertising space disappeared in a matter of weeks. Must be a psychological thing that something new to an environment is noticed but when removed is not noticed. |
| 05/30/2007 |
Nestle,Hitachi,Amway,... |
Large Billboards Removed! |
These are only a few of the hundreds of companies who are having large building mounted ads removed as preparation for next years Olympics.
Some of the ads affected are expensive neon signs that have been in place for decades. If you are a large company who pays a monthly fee to rent a building sign in Beijing, better make sure it is still there before making your next payment!
|
| 05/05/2007 |
Greenpeace, Gibson, Lee |
Music Festival Sponsor |
These were the most visible sponsors of this year's MIDI Music Festival, a four-day outdoor Rock (and other genres) music festival which seems to grow bigger every year. This is the first appearance in China we’ve seen for Greenpeace who had a tent and their logo paired prominently with the MIDI logo itself. Gibson was the next most visible, sponsoring one of the three stages. Lee’s tent where people could make custom T-shirts proved very popular. Less visible foreign sponsors were Roland and Tom Lee Music.
|
| 05/01/2007 |
Unilever |
everywhere |
Unilever is doing a big campaign for Clear, a shampoo brand it maintains in Indonesia and Vietnam as well. The shampoo market is already saturated so a number of the ads are targeting an overlooked customer; men. |
| 04/17/2007 |
ConAgra |
Store Display |
ConAgra food’s Act II and Orville Redenbacher's microwave popcorn is now available in China. Mr. Redenbacher faces a few obstacles however. Microwaves are just catching on in China and only upper-middle-class families have them. Traditional Chinese wok cooking has no need for a microwave and there are not many products sold specifically for it. As more products become available it should increase the demand for microwaves. Another obstacle is price; street vendors sell fresh popcorn very cheap and popping it yourself is another option for price conscious buyers. Unlike the West, the Chinese prefer their popcorn sweet instead of salted. |
