Like it does for many, China holds a certain fascination for me. Much of that is because of the complex and nuanced culture, paired with the explosive upside brands can capture there if they take time to learn how to work within the country’s parameters. A country with a technocultural landscape as multifaceted and fast-changing as China’s cannot be summed up in one blog post, so I want to focus here on two ideas I think are particularly important for marketers to consider: shifting media consumption habits and the challenges of working with China’s media environment.
While it wasn’t executed on the mainland, my favorite example of breakthrough mobile engagement is the Chok! Chok! Chok! campaign Coca-Cola ran in Hong Kong in 2011. By understanding one of the major consumer behavioral changes in the market – much less time spent watching TV, much more time spent playing games and socializing on mobile devices – Coca-Cola was able to take Hong Kong by storm with unprecedented engagement numbers. Every night a Coca-Cola ad aired on TV, thousands of viewers in China were prompted to grab their phones, open an app and begin shaking them frantically (in local slang, this motion is known as “chok!”) in an attempt to “catch” the bottle caps falling on the screen and win instant prizes. After just one month, the seemingly crazy app, downloaded more than 380,000 times, had made TV advertising relevant again, and created a branded cultural phenomenon.
Of course, that’s an extreme example in a smaller Chinese market – what does it take to run a successful campaign in mainland China? It’s an important question, as with the largest population in the world and the fastest-growing major economy, China is set to become the world’s top market for smartphones and tablets this year, and therefore it’s (potentially) a mobile marketer’s gold mine. In fact, analysts predict that by 2015 the Chinese device market could grow to 600 million users, an incredible number that would make it the single largest country for mobile Internet access, surpassing the U.S. And last year, mobile devices alone generated about $1.8 billion in e-commerce sales, with about 46% of the nation’s device users reporting having made a purchase through their phone or tablet.
To tap into this scale, I think you need to start with the basics and learn what works in the market. China’s media landscape usually doesn’t fit neatly into global plans, so instead of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, leverage the media and platforms native to the country, which are locally popular and easily accessible. Starbucks is one example of a big U.S.-based company doing this right. Last fall, they partnered up with WeChat, the popular Chinese mobile messenger app boasting more than 100 million users. The partnership was to promote a new line of ‘Refresha’ fruit drinks while also upping the chain’s social presence in China. Using QR codes on in-store tent cards, posters and cup sleeves, customers could scan to add Starbucks as a friend, then send the company an emoticon to be rewarded with a customized song designed to lift their mood. By cleverly leveraging its mobile strategy with in-store efforts, Starbucks reported a 9% increase in WeChat followers, a rise in sales, and over 200,000 engagements with the app.
Companies like Nike and Puma are also following this trend, tapping collaborations with everything from location-based apps to messaging services in attempts to lead the way into what will undoubtedly become a crowded marketplace for consumer engagement. One of the earlier examples of mobile success in China, Puma launched a mobile site to feature the company’s participation around the 2008 Formula 1 race in Shanghai. Working with mobile agency PhoneValley (which has offices across Asia), the site lets users download a Puma branded racing game and submit their scores by text to earn points. Every week, top players were rewarded with prizes and mobile coupons to redeem in-store, aided by the game’s built-in store locator. The campaign netted Puma major results, with 150,000 game downloads, 70,000 coupons sent and 195,000 unique visitors to the site. This just goes to show that it’s really about finding ways to be creative and working with a partner or agency that already has feel for the media landscape is a must.
Right now, I think the biggest opportunity lays in creating campaigns that can integrate mobile with existing forms of media, and making sure the consumer experience works within China’s media environment, from the desktop to the smartphone. The rise of Smart TVs in China – accounting for 40% of all TV sales in the country last year – drives this point home, as more and more people are looking to connect and stream content seamlessly across their devices. In fact, Chinese companies like Changhong Electric are fast becoming leaders in the Smart TV field, recently announcing a partnership with San Francisco startup Flingo (a developer of Social TV apps) to better enable second screen engagement for Asian consumers.
Needless to say, China’s a fast-moving, nuanced market, but no opportunity is without its challenges. I’d love to hear from you in the comments or on Twitter @boughb on what you think it takes to win in mobile in China.
