In the last IWOM watch issue, we discussed how the Chinese net world, with a thriving “spoofing” culture, is primed for an “ElfYourself” type campaign.

In this issue, we see with the Zhui Ke (追客)” culture that there are passionate netizens who are always seeking to be the first to solve mysteries, identify problems, or simply find the latest “cool” thing. Such a culture would seem to provide the right foundation for “immersive gaming,” or "alternative reality gaming," a type of promotion that can be used to launch new products, movies, and music which is gaining steam in the west. Wired Magazine defines such games as “narratives,” which “unfold in fragments, in all sorts of media, from Web sites to phone calls to live events, and the audience pieces together the story from shards of information.” Nine Inch Nails, a popular rock band, recently used this to great success as profiled in this same Wired article.

Before “copying and pasting” marketing concepts from the west, it is important to understand if they are really a good fit for China. Tracking IWOM is one good way to do this.

Sample Quote

上网第一件事，迫不及待地进入小说原创网站，看看“追”的连载小说有没有更新；有时候晚上睡不着，总觉得少做了一件事，原来是忘记下载最新一集美剧（美国连续剧）了。这就是典型的网络“追客”生活，他们上网的主要目的就是“追”。 (Link)
The first thing when they [Chasing Ke fans] when they get on the internet is to check the update of “chased” novel via exploring the novel sites. Sometimes they can’t sleep and feel they haven’t done something like forgetting to download a latest American TV series. This is the typical life of Chasing Ke, their main purpose is to ‘chase’.

Summary

Zhui Ke (追客 or Chasing Fan) is a new member of the Ke family, together with previously introduced Shai Ke and Shi Ke. They are a group of netizens who enjoy chasing hot online information such as online novel, online TV series, or other new thing because of interests or curiosity.

CIC View

The Zhui Ke like the thrill of achievement of getting something difficult to find and doing it before others. Such Chasing Mode (passion and desire) can be leveraged by brands by coming up with some potential chasing elements. This “chase element” is the core concept of “immersive games” which have been used to launch TV shows, movies and products in recent years, and suggests China’s market is ripe for such activities.

Below is a screen shot of the index for the full IWOM watch report

(click image to enlarge)

Other CIC IWOM Watch related posts that may be of interest:

-CIC Watch Half-Year Review released (download the full report)
-CIC watch: "You" - Time's Person of the Year - also lives in China (download the full report)

My colleague Daisy is on sabbatical now, getting an MSc in social psychology from the London School of Economics. She attends this prestigious university on full scholarship.

Although Daisy is officially on sabbatical, she actually still works closely with us via the power of SKYPE (we had a record 5.5 hour conference call last month), msn, email and of course BBS and blog. Even more, while studying and learning, she continuously seeks out opportunities to apply what she is learning to CIC’s development and improvement.

After taking courses on organizational development, change management and others, Daisy crafted the tenets of what we are calling the CIC philosophy inspired by her daily learnings in CIC. It reflects both who we are and who we continually strive to become.

* Our values are represented by F4: Faithful, Friendly, Flexible and Fun.

* “Professionalism” is not in how we dress, but in our Attitude and Action.

* Our TEAM is characterized by outstanding Talent, intense Efficiency, polite Assertiveness, and an open Mindset; we all own a brave heart to achieve breakthrough ideas.

* Our JOB is characterized by Jumping Out of the Box, working hard as well as working smart and creatively.

* Our vision is can best be remembered using the letter B: There is no "Best," but rather "Better and Better"; we will make CIC "Better from the Bottom-up."

* CIC is always Learning, together with our team, our clients, and all other stake-holders, because we realize the world on the Internet is ever evolving.

* We are guided by the statements “We understand that anything is possible, but nothing is easy. One ending is another beginning, no mater if a success or failure.”

Daisy elaborate further on here ideas and inspiration in a Chinese post here.

I mentioned recently that CIC joined the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. Since joining, I am happy to note that my IWOM Trends for 2008 article was featured on the WOMMA Word blog. This puts us in the company of some great thought leaders in IWOM in the west. Very flattering. If you haven't read it it before, the WOMMA Word blog is a great read, filled with ideas and case studies from the "front line" in the US. Not all cases fit China, but there are definitely some good takeaways.

Also, our notebook IWOM white paper is now featured in the WOMMA members' library here.

Last week, CIC launched a notebook IWOM white paper. I wanted to share some more of my thoughts about some of the implications.

COMPANIES FINDING AN ONLINE VOICE

Recently in CIC we have been talking a lot about companies "finding their voice" on line. This has shown up in my recent writing. For example, in the white paper, we put the challenge in this way:

CIC’s study found 1,204,117 messages written by 160,926 unique posters talking ABOUT brands; however, the brands themselves are not part of this massive and passionate discussion.

In my recent article for iMediaConnection Asia, I continue the thought:

"Joining the conversation" does not mean pure promotional blogs or BBS, which are set up for a quick campaign with frivolous posts or unsubstantial content that are later abandoned. Instead, these are rather long-lasting platforms that will succeed because they are the voice of the brand. This is a "non-corporate" voice that reflects the brand and resonates with the consumer conversations at the same time.

Our white paper brings out a nice example of a company finding its voice online via its blog.

Dell was previously the object of Internet Word of Mouth (IWOM) centered ire via "Dell Hell" in the US and "Processor Gate" in China. Now, its blogging efforts in China closely follow those in the US which are receiving praises.

DELL'S COLORFUL INSPIRON CREATES BUZZ

Digging deeper into the white paper, we can see clearly what they are doing. In August of 2007, Dell launched the Inspiron Dell 1420 with the unique colorful backs. You can see in the screen shot below that there was a spike in buzz around the launch.

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Also, from a key word frequency analysis, you can see that terms related to color were prominent compared to "regular" color Dell notebooks. Clearly, color created buzz.


(click image to enlarge)

DEMAND EXCEEDS SUPPLY, DELL SPEAKS VIA ITS BLOG

Unfortunately, Dell could not keep up with demand and had to delay shipment. Smartly, Dell very quickly responded on their Direct2Dell Chinese blog. You can get a sense of how they did this and the reaction from the screen shot below.

(click image to enlarge)

Certainly, the blog did not resolve all of the anger and frustration from netizens, but having a voice certainly appeased some of them:

“Finally, an official response to explain the out of stock issue, I feel a bit more comfortable.”

With its blog, Dell offered a "non corporate" sounding "corporate," or official voice to communicate with netizens. Prior to having a blog, they had no way to "join the conversations" happening online. Dell couldn't release a press release in such a case, because that would only draw more attention by raising the profile of the issue with the media, who is not the ultimate "target audience" anyway. In the end, powerful communication via a blog or other IWOM platform can address unchecked, brewing issues before they become full fledged problems such as Processor Gate.

Dell blogging in China puts a nice Chinese bookend to the “Dell Hell” phenomena that started in the US in 2005 and spread to China in 2006.

"LISTEN, KNOW, PARTICIPATE" CHINA STYLE

Dell demonstrates that in the Web 2.0 world, having an authentic voice is more important than crafting and disseminating a message. Other brands which have blogs in the US like Lenovo and HP, might do well to follow suit and extend their efforts to China.

Of course, a blog is not the only platform to “express” a voice within IWOM. Just as companies in the US are experimenting with Facebook, companies in China are experimenting. In fact, it is this “participation” element which led us to revise our definition to include companies as “netizens.”

Text and multimedia content related to companies, products or services shared by netizens, including brands and consumers, via online community platforms such as BBS (online message boards), blogs and video sites.

As examples, Meizu has a BBS, KFC is partnering with Baidu Zhidao, Pepsi worked closely with 51.com and Zhanzuo in recent campaigns. Even in the white paper, we see that Toshiba reaches out to notebook communities through “grab the floor” activities. In the end, consumers will continue to talk online and brands should be in position to listen, know and participate in netizens’ world no matter the platform.

Related Posts:
Internet Word of Mouth Trends in 2008
IWOM Defined
IWOM Watch Nov 1-15: Netizen campaigns use "Grab the floor" on BBS to get attention
IWOM Watch Aug 16-31: KFC on Baidu Zhidao