Recently, The Conversation Group’s Haydn Shaughnessy’s interviewed me via email for a project he was working on for a client. Originally, the interview was to be published on the client’s blog, but not sure that is going to happen now. Thought I would go ahead and publish it here, so….here it is. Long time readers will know I have shared similar thoughts before, e.g. here.

What’s your impression of the balance between traditional (TV, print) branding now in China compared to digital, in terms of the spend and influence?

In terms of spend, compared to the West, the gap in China between traditional and digital is even greater than in the West. General estimates put digital spend in 2008 at 7% of overall media spend. Part of the reason is that the 298 million people online only account for 23% of the Chinese population and may not offer the greatest reach to Tier 3 and beyond cities.

However, for those that are indeed online, it is a primary media. Numerous studies have suggested that Chinese netizens spend upwards of twice the amount of time online as they do watching TV. Compared to traditional media, digital is so much more varied, exciting and open. It serves the primary platform for consumers to find information, be entertained and socialize: 81.5% of netizens get their news online and the Premier Wen Jia Bao enages netizens in online chats (and also has a Facebook fan page); net stars are in movies based on net novels and World of Warcraft characters appear on Coke cans; QQ, China’s leading social internet platform, is bigger than than Facebook.

What is the balance between fixed line internet and mobile – is mobile a better vehicle for a brand connecting with people ?

China has the most mobile phones in the world now and has more people accessing internet via mobile phone than fixed line. However, with the computer essentially replacing the TV as a primary media device (young people will buy a computer for their new apartment before they would buy a TV), we see that the computer offers a better, more engaging platform (though we may be biased).

Could you venture a “regional” opinion i.e how China compares with other regional countries?

China more bloggers (162 million) (see full stats here) and more places online to be social than any other market in the world. China’s penetration rate is a relatively low 22.6%, but social participation rate is very high. Forrester’s China technographics study, for example, shows that Chinese “creators” account for 40% of netizen population compared to just 13% in the US.

In terms of the region, Japan and Korea are as exciting as China in terms of social media, with extremely high penetration rates as well as high participation rates.

Is the idea of community getting much traction there? Do Chinese people get involved in online communities beyond the BBS?

Overall, social networking sites like Xiaonei and Kaixin are growing rapidly as a place for netizens to play and share with their network. However, BBS is still very much the heart of social media in China and have been a “mainstream” Internet activity since the very beginning of the Internet here. They serve as the nation’s online “water cooler” with anonymous discussions that touch on most any topic beyond the racy and political ones. For example, just within the automobile category, every month we track over 6 million messages written by 300,000+ user names. Within these forums, there can be a very powerful sense of community, with forums regularly organizing offline meet ups (called fubai) and online activities such as “homework.” For a full overview of the social media landscape, see here and PPT deck here.

Are brands able to use the bulletin boards or is it very much consumer power?

While BBS are pretty much the domain of consumers, brands do try (sometimes successfully, sometimes not) to participate. Not surprisingly, brands and/or their agencies will try astroturfing, but it is largely ineffective, and overall not welcome within the communities. See here and here for discussions on this topic.

Smarter brands will listen to the talk online, know or understand the online culture, and then choose the most appropriate way to participate. For example, in the popular PCauto community, brands can officially answer questions posed by netizens in designated, branded “expert centers.” Most important to realize here is that the information provided is what is actually wanted and needed by netizens. It is real, two-way communication, NOT seeded marketing messages that only serve the interest of the brand.

Some brands have successfully built their own BBS communities after studying best practices from existing communities. For example, Lancôme’s “Rosebeauty” is now a top 10 women’s/fashion BBS.

Have you any examples of brands getting it wrong online or off – ie getting adverse reaction from bulletin boards.

Last year Lenovo got flack for what was an obviously fake viral campaign that raised the ire of netizens. The classic case study, however, is 2007’s Dell Hell (China version) where dissatisfied netizens attempted to launch a class action lawsuit. It should be noted that Dell in China, as it has in other markets, has since turned things around considerably in the “conversation marketing” department with its own Chinese blog, Chinese Twitter account and Jiwai.de account (a Twitter clone).

Are there any indigenous brands that are succeeding with digital?

Local sports apparel brands like Lining and Anta consistently make splashes with clever, buzz making efforts. Anta, for example, launched a line of shoes named after the net nickname of NBA player Louis Scola (see slide 6 here). Meizu, the company behind various so called “IPOD killers” also has a very active fan community, both in English and Chinese.

Any global brands?

Johnson Baby has done award winning work with its Mom Ambassadors campaign while Intel has developed interesting engagements with its “I-fans” (see here). Pepsi, with its Pepsi Creative Challenge open source marketing campaigns in the last 3 years as well as Coke, with its I-Coke platform, are also impressive.