China Economic Review (CER) has invited me to speak at a conference this Thursday, July 31st titled "Branding in China: Creating passionate brands for 1 billion people." The event will be hosted at the JW Marriott Hotel Shanghai at Tomorrow Square. I will be giving a talk on (surprise) "Internet Word of Mouth and Branding in China" as well as joining a panel discussion on "E-branding challenges in China." Tencent, Kel Hook from Wieden+Kennedy, and Ogilvy One will also be speaking at the event.

If any reader is interested, I can get you a 10% discount off the regular rate so you can get in for 1800RMB. Send me an email at info at cicdata dot com if you would like more info.

For more on the event, see here.

I was recently interviewed by Christine Lu for The China Business Show. Christine Lu is Chairman of The China Business Network, an open platform for organizations and individuals to share their profiles, locate partners and customers, contribute to conversations, and reach a targeted community of international business professionals active in China. Christine is also Executive Producer and Host of The China Business Show and has interviewed a wide range of professionals such as Kaiser Kuo, Group Director of Digital Strategy for Ogilvy China, David Wolf, President and CEO of Wolf Group Asia, Guy Kawasaki, Managing Director, Garage Technology Ventures & Co-Founder, Alltop.com, and many more.

In this discussion, I give a basic introduction to the background of CIC and also discuss some industry highlights including ways IWOM can positively influence brand's reputation even during crisis situations. I also discuss my thoughts on microblogging in China and why I do not think it is as popular in China as in the US. I refer to our white papers and our recently released IWOM Watch 1st Half Year Review 2008, all of which can be found here.

You can listen to the full podcast here.

CIC's IWOM Watch is our bi-weekly net culture and "marketing 2.0" trend watch which provides a qualitative overview of the latest trends from the web that would be of interest to marketers. Every half year, we offer a free review report which outlines the highlights from the previous 12 bi-weekly reports.

I am proud to present some key highlights from our IWOM watch reports from the first half of 2008. We organized the highlights according to several themes that emerged.

First we see “The Power of Connection.” The first several months, especially with issues around the Olympic torch and the Sichuan earthquake, demonstrated the impact of an increasingly networked society.

Next, in “Icons of Net Culture,” we see that in addition to a unique language, netizens have their own symbols and artifacts such as 囧 (Jiong) that can impact fashion and art.

Finally, net culture and platforms continue to provide creative venues and outlets for brands to connect with consumers, including offline meetups.

The full report is available for download on our website here or on slideshare below.

You can get a sense of the development of IWOM over time by downloading previous IWOM watch 6 month review reports here.

ITV Asia is an Internet television network which invites "thought leaders" from different industries to have chats with other thought leaders. I am flattered that they have chosen me to host a show on China's digital marketing market. You can find the show here. Below are my interviews with Jan Van den Bergh, Chairman, i-merge China and Yann Lombard-Platet, Managing Director, Nurun China.

Jan and I discussed the "recommendation phenomena" on Chinese BBS as well as his perspective on the Chinese digital market compared to his experience in the European market which dates to the mid 90's.

click here to see my interview with Jan Van den Bergh.

Yann and I discuss his perspective on IWOM marketing. Yann started China Interactive (now Nurun China) in 1998 and was one of the first firms to be building corporate websites in China. Yann has seen it all.

click here to see my interview with Yann Lombard-Platet.

In the next month or so, look for my discussion with T.R. Harrington, Co-Founder and CEO, Darwin Marketing (one of the first to be doing search marketing in China) and Adam Schokora, head of social media, digital, and interactive strategy for Edelman Digital China.

If any of this interests you, you may also want to check out JWT Tom Doctoroff's channel on advertising here. You can find his discussion with me from last year here.

Since 2007, CIC has been releasing IWOM white papers with a focus in a particular industry, which offer both brands and consumers insight into the online buzz surrounding each specific industry. CIC has previously released white papers on the sports, notebook computers, auto, mobile phone and healthcare sectors. Up until now, the reports have only been available in English. However, due to popular demand, our white papers on sports, notebook computers and automobiles are now available in Chinese.

To download the full reports in Chinese, please visit our website here or find our complete CIC IWOM white paper series on Slideshare here.

Here's my latest article for iMedia Connection Asia on "6 reasons brands in China should listen to IWOM".

I wrote this to offer the necessary counterbalance to those who focus on the seeding and censorship that exist within Chinese IWOM. If you only focus on these issues, then you will miss out on authentic, vibrant online consumer cultures and communities represented in massive numbers and making impact way beyond what any brand or agency could artificially create.

I recently presented on this topic in Amsterdam. You can see a video of part of the presentation here.

China's media network makes internet word of mouth essential to any marketing communications strategy.

Recent internet-driven crises have once again put internet word of mouth (IWOM) into the spotlight. Just a few weeks ago, for example, Dior pulled advertisements featuring Sharon Stone from mainland China after the actress made comments that raised the ire of netizens.

While such events demonstrate the importance of listening to IWOM for reputation management, I would suggest that this is just one of many reasons to listen. IWOM should not just be viewed as a threat, but also an opportunity for better marketing and insight.

Below are six reasons (beyond monitoring for crisis) why brands in China should listen to IWOM

Netizens expressing opinion (by the millions)
China is unique in the world in that it has very mainstream, active online consumer community ecosystem. The very popular Bulletin Board System (BBS) is organised around industry verticals including automobile, mobile phone, notebook computers, cosmetics and many others. These communities can serve as sort of virtual focus group with participants in the millions expressing in very detailed, unsolicited, naturally occurring opinions every month.

Brands can read through key communities to take the pulse themselves, or they can use services which can systematically do this using text mining and analytical tools. Either way, brands can get plenty of powerful feedback on user experience that can lead to better communication.

Netizens providing customer service online
More than just a place for random conversations, BBS forums are organized communities with a culture and leaders who have defined roles. As we wrote about here, one of the key roles in product oriented communities is that of the "answer person." For example, in one Motorola E2 music phone community tracked by CIC, we used our technology to determine that one "answer person" wrote over 1,000 messages in one month mentioning the E2. The vast majority of these messages were answers for "newbie" questions. Such active communities with "crowd-sourced" customer service remove a potential purchase barrier for those considering buying the phone. It also provides a window for brands to see the types of problems that plague netizens, and new ways to fine-tune their online customer service.

This community power is the core of the trend of services in the West, such as GetSatisfaction, that build crowd-sourcing communities for brands.

Netizens expecting brands to be online
Considering that 91 per cent of netizens cite the internet as the preferred medium to stay informed about a brand post-purchase (see here), it is not surprising that brands are beefing up online support. As I predicted earlier this year, some community platforms are enabling brands to offer support via IWOM. PCAuto for example, enables auto brands to set up expert communities where official brand representatives answer netizen's car questions; the answers are then rated by netizens based on their usefulness. With IWOM, customer service becomes marketing.

Netizens inspiring marketing ideas
As I wrote last year, IWOM serves as a window to net culture which can inspire marketing by tapping into youth trends. For example, when Moto launched its Q phone at the end of last year, instead of looking to traditional spokespersons like Jay Zhou, or even net star spokespersons like the Backdorm Boys, Moto chose net cartoon star Tuzki.

Tuzki is a Hello-Kittyish rabbit icon that became popular as an avatar in IM programs like MSN. Since Moto was pushing using the MS Mobile OS, QWERTY keyboard phone as unique selling point, Tuzki was a natural fit and spread quickly throughout the internet. For example, when we put "MOTO+??? (Tuzki) " into a Baidu search, it yielded over 50,100 results. This is a good example of how a brand was not only able to integrate its product into internet culture, but was also able to successfully PARTICIPATE in online culture.

Netizens inspiring products
Vertical oriented online communities are filled with the most passionate, most informed and most opinionated netizens which come together to discuss products. These prosumers of course have ideas about how to improve products, which is why some brands systematically track and analyze IWOM for R&D and product development.

Recently, we found an example of Toyota Camry owners who were unhappy with the design of the standard issue key and separate key chain with remote control alarm and lock buttons. Instead of just complaining, they organized online to redesign the key and buttons all in one unit. Brands can mine for such inspiration, or they can identify the key communities and opinion leaders and formally activate them.

Netizens influencing purchase decisions
An iResearch study shows that more than 80 per cent of netizens use BBS to search for information on the product they plan to buy, and 62 per cent of users ask other BBS users for opinions before making purchases.

Traditional advertising is essential to develop awareness, but does little to really inform and influence purchase decisions. These consumer recommendations (and complaints) are published for millions of netizens to see, are archived by search engines, and are therefore an increasingly important "media" for brands to track and understand.

In short, brands can view IWOM platforms like BBS in three ways.

First, they are consumers talking about brands, products and services which can serve as a source of consumer insight.

Second, since this "talk" is published, it is a media which should be further understood in the way it influences consumers.

Finally, they are communities which, as we see with the PCAuto Expert Communities and Moto Tuzki examples, offer an opportunity for brands to participate as a form of communications.

Brands may be drawn to IWOM initially by one particular angle regarding IWOM (i.e., crisis), but clearly IWOM can be a key element of a broader marketing communications strategy.

I have been in Shanghai for over 12 years now. In addition to the proliferation of tall buildings, subway lines, highways and overall incredible improvements in infrastructure, there has come a proliferation of media, especially in places where, to be frank, I would rather not see media. As the marketing 2.0 pundits would put it, there ARE lots of 'interruptions' in the daily life of Shanghai citizens. Below are just a few I have collected in recent months. Some come from my own camera; others come from pic searches on google.

The urinal advertising is common (though certainly not unique to China). One of the original examples of "captive" advertising.

Get in a taxi in Shanghai, and you will most likely be greeted with a video touch screen. No way to turn them off, and although there is a mute button, it rarely works. Worse than the Focus Media screens in elevators and office buildings, you have to watch these for the length of a taxi ride which for me is usually 15-20 mins.

Go to Shanghai's Gubei Carrefour. Put your hand down on the escalator hand rail, there's advertising. This pic is not actually from there, but you get the picture.

It is said that the average American consumer is exposed to 3000 marketing messages a day (I have yet to find a reference for this stat, but everyone quotes it). Walk down Huai Hai road or through Xu Jia Hui district in Shanghai, and get exposed to that many in about 20 seconds. This pic is from Hong Kong Plaza computer market on Huai Hai road. Do you see the HP ad? If so, does it make any impact on you? Are you going to even remember it?

Grab your bags in Beijing and you gotta see ads. Fortunately, it seems this has been removed, at least as of my last trip.

This is the latest new type of media I have seen. At a restaurant, if you want to call the waitress, instead of yelling "xiao jie," just push the button on the left to automatically call her. Such an apparatus does, actually, make the restaurant more quiet with fewer voices yelling "小姐!" for the waitress so this media wins the award as actually providing some value. However, this "value" does not outweigh the "pollution" of a 51job advert as I enjoy my curry rice.

See that beautiful skyline of Pudong across the Huangpu river? Now see that ugly boat with the big screen? I really hate this one. (Pic taken from "that's China" blog)

This "light box" wins my personal award for the most hated media because it is inside my apartment compound. The ugly poster ads in my elevator are bad...but this really irks me. At every exit of the compound I am greeted by Marie France slimming salon centers model. Since I own my apartment, shouldn't I get paid for having to view it? Our management office is definitely getting paid, why shouldn't I? I definitely had voice in this decision. When I complained, the management office said that other residents like it because it has a "mosquito light" at the bottom. Feel free to join me on my boycott of Marie France.

The truth is, for the most part, these media are effective in creating greater awareness for the advertisers that use them (except perhaps HP on Huai Hai Road). In some cases, this may be all the advertisers want or need. Ultimately, however, I think advertisers would do well to shift some of the energy being used to find new media outlets to grab attention to creating better products and experiences which make their customers talk about them and recommend them. As the world becomes "noisier and noisier," awareness is necessary, but not sufficient information for making a purchase decision.

A few weeks ago, I flew to Amsterdam to talk about IWOM for a China new media event hosted for Dutch entrepreneurs and professionals involved in new media, the Internet and traditional media. About 150+ people came. Amsterdam is a great city and I definitely want to make it back there.

Above is a video of a part of my presentation covering 6 or so case studies demonstrating why brands should be listening to IWOM (beyond just reputation management). Some of these include crowd sourcing customer service, crowd sourcing product design, campaign inspiration and many more.

I am getting to this a bit late, but I do find it worth noting that Hu Jin Tao takes the pulse of netizen thoughts and opinions on a regular basis; in fact, checking BBS comments are one of the first things he does when he gets online. Here are some of the highlights:

“Through the web I also want to know what netizens are thinking about and what their opinions are. I hope to get some suggestions and advice proposed by our netizens to the government and the Party.”

“The web is an important channel for us to understand the concerns of the public and assemble the wisdom of the public.”

“We pay great attention to suggestions and advice from our netizens.”

If the president of China recognizes the importance of listening to IWOM, perhaps brands should as well.

See full transcript of the chat here

Danwei Link here

Link to Chinese media coverage