Chinese Firewall

Our Chinese team often sit in front of a web browser reading an all too familiar sentence: “The connection has timed out”, or similarly, “The connection was reset”. Is this the Ghost In The Machine? A galloping Trojan Horse? No, it’s the ever-expanding Chinese Firewall!

In the run-up to China’s illustrious 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic, Chris Yew, complete with virtual ladder, scales the Great Fire Wall of China in an attempt to get on top of government web-blocking and its implications for digital marketing.

Read the full post here. Below is the list of content:

- Hitting The Wall: Firewall Workings
- Feeling The Burn: Netizens’ Feelings
- National Events & Censorship
- Firewall Focus: Google & Baidu
- Firewall Focus: Facebook And Renren
- China Differences Beyond Firewall
- Comply Or Die

You can follow ongoing thoughts from our team in China at Digitrends.

Chinese (Fire)Wall

Art made on an iPhone

The ultimate potential of the revolutionary iPhone was not realised when admirers first lauded its aesthetic appeal. Nor was it appreciated when they praised the power of the hardware that was housed within this sleek exterior. Only now, when looking at the ever-expanding choice of iPhone apps available, enabling the smart phone to become a device that rotates around the user, taking on the function of what the user desires, as a truly customisable phone that can become anything you want it to be, can we appreciate its true capability.

iPhone

The most successful apps are those that use the phones inbuilt software and hardware features effectively i.e. Accelerometer, GPS, Compass, Camera, Touch-screen etc. However, the most successful branded applications are those that seek out the part of the brand that provides an engaging mobile user experience. Carling’s iPint entertained pub-goers with a simple yet fun visualisation that could be pulled out at your local for some banter, whilst Oakley uses the GPS function to create an app that surfers could use as a utility for checking wave height and location, adding to the brand’s product truths of functionality and reliability relevant to the sport.

With the total number of “Active Apps” shooting past the 85,000 mark(and counting) there are a fair share of brands that have dipped into the world of Apps, some offering engaging mini-brand experiences, others offering not so engaging branded experiences. In order to take a snapshot of the state of the branded iPhone app segment, a modestly-sized document with some examples of the latest brands trying their luck at mobile is available here, including our ten pence on just what we think of their efforts.

For a more detailed list, including more on this and other information, head over to Johnny Makkar’s blog at Attention Digital and take a look at his extensive spreadsheet. If you know of any applications he may be missing then help the gentlemen out with some good old-fashioned crowd sourcing.

Social Media

Having been in the process of writing a conclusive (And slightly overdue) piece to summarise the social media film review, I stumbled upon an article written by Andrew Hampp of AdAge that evaluates the phenomenon in a respectable fashion. The article takes a mature and well balanced stance on exploring the relationships and variables involved. Hampp also uses the studies that were featured earlier on The Hive Blog social media film review, adding to the relevance of the inclusion of this piece, so without further adieu, view the article after the break. All credit is due to the author and publisher.

Forget Ebert: How Twitter Makes or Breaks Movie Marketing Today

by Andrew Hampp
Published: October 05, 2009
Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Submit to Digg Add to Google Share on StumbleUpon Submit to LinkedIn Add to Newsvine Bookmark on Del.icio.us Submit to Reddit

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Can the so-called Twitter effect boost a movie’s box-office performance faster than any traditional form of word-of-mouth? Not yet, say many top movie marketers and researchers, but the social networking platform’s impact on a studio’s media mix and campaign management has already taken shape.

Witness Sony Pictures, one of the first studios to create branded Twitter pages for its films, which saw releases such as “District 9,” “Julie & Julia” and “The Ugly Truth” open strong and maintain momentum by keeping the branded conversation around each film active and updating the films’ followers on the microblogging site with exclusive content in the following weeks. The results? Grosses of $113 million, $90 million and $88 million, respectively, and counting.

But the idea behind a Twitter effect gained traction this summer after the Hollywood press and the blogosphere blamed Twitterers for shortening the box-office life of films such as Universal’s “Bruno,” which opened to a strong $30 million but quickly sputtered to a $12 million second weekend based on poor word-of-mouth and a high volume of negative tweets. Could moviegoers with nothing but a cellphone and a Twitter account really be undermining the millions of dollars poured into a movie’s marketing?

Market research firm 360i recently tested the Twitter effect by comparing Twitter traffic for “Bruno” during its first weekend at the box office with three other summer films, and found “Bruno” to have the highest percentage of drop-off in second-day box-office grosses (-39%) and negative tweets (21%).

But making a direct correlation between the two is far from scientific and hardly one-size-fits-all for all films, said Sarah Hofstetter, 360i’s senior VP-emerging media and client strategy. “A movie like ‘Bruno’ is exceptionally polarizing — either everyone wants to see Sacha Baron Cohen naked or they don’t,” she said. “You have to differentiate in the content and context of a film — if you give too much credence to Twitter marketing and you say, ‘Our efforts contributed to a 10% lift in ticket sales,’ no one’s going to agree on what caused that.”

Little impact
And Twitter, as well as other social media, has yet to directly affect the methodology behind the metrics supplied by box-office forecasters to the studios to gauge all-important first-weekend ticket sales weeks in advance. One major movie forecaster said active Twitter and Facebook users have yet to be included in the sample size because it “needs to be reflective of how the studios spend their money. To chase Twitter or social networks would be a disservice to that population.”

In fact, Twitter has helped forecasters such as Marketcast and Nielsen NRG steadfastly hold on to their role in manufacturing hype around those all-important first three days. In the case of “Bruno,” analysts correctly predicted the $30 million opening weekend, but stayed away from managing post-debut expectations. “Our job stops after opening day. The rest is up to the universe,” said one forecaster.

Nor has Twitter had a measurable impact on studios’ marketing budgets, even as they add dedicated staffers to manage and measure social-networking activity around their slates. “While Twitter is important as social media, it is a very small sliver of our marketing campaign,” said a Sony executive. “I think it is more effective as a gauge of how effectively your materials are working and it allows marketers to take a real-time pulse on consumer attitudes towards your brand or property.”

Instead, Twitter has become the campaign-management tool of choice, one that studios and other marketers can harness faster and to a greater extent as more case studies crop up on a weekly basis. “The name of the game for the studios is to take full advantage of all early signals,” said Pete Blackshaw, exec VP-Nielsen Online’s digital strategic services. “The downside for them is a movie can be damaged really quickly — the flow of information on these platforms, and degree to which influencers are tapping into those signals is quite profound.”

But one former marketer at a major studio suggested that Sony has harnessed Twitter more effectively for a $30 million movie such as “District 9″ than other surprise blockbusters such as Warner Bros.’ “The Hangover” or Disney’s “The Proposal.”

“Sony did a very good job at continuing engagement with consumers. The film got such positive buzz from consumers that they started talking about it through [Sony's] real-time stream,” the executive said. “I don’t think those other studios knew what they had on their hands at the time.”

Sony’s fall-movie forecast
If early numbers are any indication, Sony Pictures’ fall forecast is less “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” and more “Sunny With a Chance of Blockbusters.”

EARLY HIT: ‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs’
EARLY HIT: ‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs’
The studio is taking big bets on summer-level success with a slate that got off to a strong start with the 3-D animated “Meatballs” ($60 million grossed in its first two weekends) and is off to more ambitious heights with the Roland Emmerich apocalypse flick “2012″ and the highly anticipated Michael Jackson concert film “This Is It,” each slated for the coming months. Even last weekend’s “Zombieland” was expected to top the box office with a $25 million haul, which, leading up to the Oct. 28 release of “This Is It” could give Sony a No. 1 film for at least four of the season’s first seven weeks.

“They’re positioned really perfectly,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office at Hollywood.com. “The other studios have some good stuff going on, but it’s not like in past years where we had a ‘Lord of the Rings’ movie or a ‘Harry Potter’ to dominate the season.”

“It’s really anyone’s game, and the momentum they’re going to glean from ‘This Is It’ is really going to help them,” added a former marketing chief for a rival studio.

The concert film has already sold out more than 200 showings based on advanced ticket sales on Fandango.com, breaking the site’s records for highest-ever Sunday sales. Although scheduled for a limited two-week release, the film could be extended much in the way Disney’s “Hannah Montana” concert film was in 2008 should ticket sales soar. “If the demand’s there they’ll keep it out there,” said the former marketing chief.

“2012″ is also poised to be a summer-sized blockbuster when it opens Nov. 13, preceded by what was believed to be the largest-ever simultaneous media roadblock on Oct. 1, with two minutes of new footage from the film airing on 92 TV networks, reaching 90% of TV households and an estimated 110 million viewers.

“If you look a couple years back to ‘I Am Legend,’ there will always be a place for a movie like that in the fall,” Mr. Dergarabedian said.

And while boutique arm Sony Pictures Classics rolls out Oscar bait in November and December (“An Education,” Pedro Almodovar’s “Broken Embraces”), the main branch seems to have gotten its Academy-courting out of the way in the summer with Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia” and the critically praised “District 9.” Instead, it’s prepping popcorn fare such as the action flick “Armored” and the romantic comedy “Did You Hear About the Morgans?” for the final weeks of the year. “It’s not about chasing Oscar, it’s about chasing the audience,” said Mr. Dergarabedian.

adage.com/madisonandvine/article?article_id=139444

Here is the keynote presentation from Scott Monty (Head of Social Media @Ford) at the 2009 OMMA Global conference in New York on September 21. It tells the story of Ford’s social media experience and highlights the key elements that make them one of the top companies using social media.

Ford’s Social Media Strategy is simple “To Humanize the company by connecting consumers with Ford employees and with each other when possible, providing value in the process” and when executed with creativity and passion like most of their campaigns so far, can deliver incredible results”. Via DigitalBuzzblog

It is interesting that there is very little in there about ROI or direct sales in this presentation but given that Ford continue to invest heavily in the space you can only assume that they feel the activity is having an influence in perception and ultimately sales. I think that this is the problem with looking for the holy grail of measurement in the social media space – you can only really measure it’s success over time if looking at the wider context of the marketing and trying to attribute it ultimately to sales – something that was so well covered by Oliver Blanchard’s basics of social media ROI.

The “Connect” tool, which can be seen as the first genuine attempt to allow access to Facebook user data outside of Facebook itself, is not new, having been used by developers since its introduction in the first quarter of 2008.

Although the intuitive application may not be in showroom condition, like most new technologies it does take a while for developers to become accustomed to the possibilities available, and so the practicality element tends to suffer with novelty fuelling much of the interest and following.

So, having been around the block, with both developer and user familiarising themselves with the new application, we are finally starting to see some interesting and practical uses being developed, with both parties (and client, of course) gaining substantial value from it.

That the use of FBC is free, the monetary value for FB themselves comes through charging for social ads that are targeted at consumers through relevant key words, given. Revenue is generated by allowing the use of the platform and the placement of social ads on Facebook profiles being purchased by those wishing to follow up the campaign using the FBC API.

Below are a few examples of recent campaigns that have integrated the Facebook Connect set of API’s in order to engage, offer a tailor-made experience for the user and provide a rich database of user information.

Facebook connect will be familiar to most, certainly within the media industry (should hope so), however it would be logical to quickly highlight the four main features of API’s before critiquing recent campaigns. For those that may need reminding or clarification on the tech, courtesy of crunchbase.com:

“Trusted Authentication – Anywhere during the user’s experience that the developer would like to add social context, the user will be able to authenticate and connect their account in a trusted environment. The user will have total control of the permissions granted. This is a proprietary authentication mechanism, but is more streamlined than the existing method and will not require a redirect back to Facebook.

Real Identity – Users can bring their real identity information with them wherever they go on the open Web, including: basic profile information, profile picture, name, friends, photos, events, groups, and more.

Friends Access – Users will be able to take their friends with them wherever they go on the open Web. Developers will be able to add rich social context to their websites, and will be able to show which of their Facebook friends already have accounts on their sites.

Dynamic Privacy – As a user moves around the open Web, their privacy settings will follow, ensuring that users’ information and privacy rules are always up-to-date.”

Prototype Experience

The gaming experience, and the overall goal for games developers, is to increase the level of immersion that players experience when using their products. Using the Facebook connect API in order to place the user within the trailer is a natural transition for the Facebook connect application given that the user is willing to suspend his/her imagination and they have some grasp on current technology. Prototypes latest trailer is proving to be the torchbearer not only for budding games marketers but also for those wishing to use the FBC API in general.

The trailer itself is accessed through a microsite with a variety of content (filling up space) surrounding the FBC API login bar. Once logged in the trailer focuses on the plot, giving you a background to the story and the protagonist, with the viewer of the video taking centre stage. Frequent flashes of images and information pulled from the user’s FB page are seamlessly integrated into the storyline, offering a unique and genuinely engaging experience as well as simplifying the plot.

Museum of Modern Art (MoMa)

Definitely one of the main benefits of using the FBC API is its unrivalled convenience. Simply imputing your FB credentials allows the user to bypass all the mundane forms that require filling in order to get a unique experience and what better way to use this than planning a day trip? The Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) uses the FBC tool to “tailor your MoMa experience based on your profile and personality.” So, if you have keywords that may suggest that you are interested in Lichtenstein prints and cinema, it will suggest you come in when the relevant exhibitions are running. Genius.

Movies by Flixster

A more recent development from FB around their Connect product is its integration within the iPhone platform, offering iTunes application developers the chance to use the API on both the iTouch and iPhone.

Simply by going to My Movies -> Settings and connecting your Facebook account, you’ll immediately tap into your communal Movies and Facebook network. Given the popularity and reach of Flixster, a simple two-click process can instantly add all your friends, and their respective movie watching behaviours, to your mobile experience.

If you wish to find out more about other campaigns using the FBC API or have any examples of the application yourself that you wish to share, then please send them to Luke.Farrell@Profero.com along with your comments. Mucho gracias.

So how different is Social Media in China? Out team in China have put together a nice piece together (based on research, case studies and in-house insights from the Middle Kingdom’s social hotpot) to consider how it is different, identifying several key elements which underline and explain why media agencies/buyers and clients should consider China an extremely unique climate for social media marketing. As well as describing the background facts and figures surrounding each featured element unique to China, we also provide possible implications into how they may better instruct future social media campaigns here… (if you want to read more of the thoughts from the China team you can do so here)

Contents
-A Huge Social Media Community
-The Netizen
-Social Anonymity & Avatars
-Archaic Social Media Prevails: BBS
-Government Control
-Entertainment Focused
-References

A Huge Social Media Community

Background

BBS (Bulletin Board System) was launched in 1994, marking the beginning of the Chinese Internet Community. Today the Chinese internet population is the largest in the world with over 298 million users (Source, iResearch). Astonishingly this may only reflect an internet penetration within the country of 15-22% (Source, CNNIC). Figures suggest next year may see a massive increase yet again in internet population to over 389 million users (Source, BDA).

Within the 298 million estimated internet users currently in China, last year saw 202.4 million engage in some aspect of social media (Source, Ogilvyone). Within this population 111.8 million have managed a social network profile. This compares to the US and UK where the figures are much lower, at 57.8 and 12.1 million respectively managing a social network profile (Source: Wave 4 UM).

It is also important to note that this audience is actively involved in modern internet behaviour, such as viewing video content: China has the largest internet audience in the world, with 180 million regular viewers of online video content (Source: CASBAA). The frequency of video viewing is also incredible with 33% reporting they watch video clips ‘pretty much every time’ they go online (Source: CASBAA/China Youth Daily).

Unique implication for Chinese social media
Although the internet and social media are still in their infancy in terms of growth within China, they already have huge presence on a global scale. The potential for social media growth in China is unseen in our digital age, and consequently I expect we will see many social media milestones and developments occur independently within the Chinese social media landscape. This is because China is a social media world unto itself and the size of its culture and community mean that it acts as its own trend-setter, being less world-weary to Western developments. For this reason it is unlikely to fully adopt Western attempts at translating across SNS (Social Network Service) models from the UK and US.

China is already catering to niche social media behaviour and activities, unique to its netizens, within its domestic SNS. If Western social media is going to captivate Chinese netizens, it will do so, not by pushing and translating across Western social media learnings and motifs, but by building social media around the traits of the current Chinese digital age.

The Netizen

Background
The majority of netizens in China are made up of young people. Students account for 33% of the online internet population with over 60% of the current internet population being educated to high school or college levels (Source CNNIC). With almost 70% of internet users in China under 30 years old, the majority students (source, Trendspotter), this makes for a stark contrast to the UK, where the average netizen is 38 years old (Source, Nielsen online analysis).

Chinese netizens spend on average more than four hours a day on the internet- far higher than the time they spend watching TV; this is not the case in Western countries where TV still predominates over internet in terms of media consumption habits (source, DCCI).

The average Chinese netizen has more digital self-expression compared to US Netizens, as shown in research by IAC and JWT (2007). Their research showed Chinese netizens are much more expressive within internet communities, as 72% answered positively to the statement “I have expressed personal opinions and/or written about myself online”. Only 56% of Americans answered positively. While many Americans may feel at ease expressing and showing their opinions in everyday life, with some disregard for how their opinions are received, most of today’s Chinese youth has lived within sheltered households and consequently the sharing of opinions are more regularly and subtly conveyed via the internet, with acceptance in a group being the ultimate goal.

This ‘self-expression’ aspect is certainly expressed within Chinese blogs. 90% of the Chinese internet population actively read internet blogs, and a huge 81% are now actively writing blogs (Source, Wave 4 UM). This compares to the US (66% read blogs,33% write) and the UK (58% read blogs, 25% write blogs). As a result it is not surprising to see that Ad Age showed further support of Chinese netizens’ tenacious blogging habits, with statistics showing over 60 million blog, more than double the number of bloggers in the US.

There is even more contrast in considering how social media influences Chinese netizens compared to American Netizens: research by Netpop, showed 58% of Chinese netizens responded positively to the statement ‘User Generated content influences my purchase decisions’. Only 19% of US respondents answered positively. This is a dramatic difference in the importance of internet user’s opinions on Chinese netizens compared to Westerners.

All the facts point to a difference in Chinese mavens compared to Western mavens: The Chinese value the independence and freedom of communication and expression offered by the internet to a greater degree than Western mavens- as a result, the internet community is embraced as a larger part of their lifestyle. A survey, again by IAC and JWT, validates the theory, showing while 42% of Americans agree that they live some of their life online, 86% of Chinese youth do. Asked whether they have a “parallel” online life, only 13% of Americans said yes, compared to 61% of Chinese. The internet online community is embraced on a deeper level for Chinese maven’s identity and lifestyle.

Unique implication for Chinese social media
Chinese netizens are completely different to Westerners, specifically UK and US netizens. Chinese netizens are, on average, much younger, and usually in college or education. Chinese netizens see the internet as the key output for self expression in their life and this is supported by their tremendous blogging behaviour and reported susceptibility to the influence of others’ opinions online. Indeed, many more Chinese netizens see the internet as part of their life compared to Westerners in the US.

Because the Chinese netizen is so different, it is impossible to take a social media campaign from the West and simply plug it into China. To make it more effective it should tap into the qualities that make Chinese netizens the perfect advocates of social media. For instance, social media campaigns should focus on the youthful age of the internet’s core audience; It should also play on the individual’s susceptibility to shared opinions and values, by making the campaign as interactive as possible around the brand/product. The campaign should aim to make the Chinese netizen feel liberated by offering them opportunities to express themselves within the campaign: this could be done via profiles, avatars, BBS and blogging elements within the campaign. As well as making an impact, the social media campaign also has to measure the impact using the unique qualities that indicate success, based on the extremely impressionable Chinese internet audience.

Social Anonymity & Avatars

Background
Research shows Chinese netizens feel more free to express their feelings online compared to Americans (Source IAC and JWT, 2007). 73% of Chinese netizens agreed with the statement, ‘ Online, I feel free to say and do things I wouldn’t do or say offline’; this compared to only 32% of US netizens, suggesting the internet more significantly holds the value of freedom of speech for the Chinese online community compared to the West. This is likely due to political constraints within everyday life created by the government.

BBS boards (explained in more detail in next heading) are a staple part of Chinese netizens’ online community diet. A primary feature of BBS boards are their ability to make netizens anonymous and invisible compared to the ‘real world’ where everything is closely monitored, with identity at the forefront of each person’s societal role. By being anonymous, a person in China can express any opinion or idea they want with less fear for public or political scrutiny. Ad Age report one avid Chinese internet fan saying, “Online, I can be gay. I can be king of darkness. I can be whoever I want to be. No one can judge me.”

The idea of being free to express oneself anonymously is surely of large appeal within Chinese social media; however the recreation and reinvention of oneself is also particularly important in China: this is in the same vein as other Asian countries such as Japan, where social media has been largely motivated by escapism from reality’s constraints.

The desire for reinvention becomes heavily realized within the invention and championing of online avatars in China. Because on line they can respond more to their inner cravings, many Chinese netizens create online versions of themselves that represent their ‘self-territory’ outside of their work/school/parent’s constraints. This occurs in such a limited way to the digital world, that the rewards and reputation for this expression occur only within the online world also. For this reason avatars are an important part of many Chinese netizens’ online identity- regardless of whether their identity is real to life, or not.

Most Chinese SNS sites, such as QQ or Kaixin001 (and even those created by Brands, such as McDonalds or Levis: Levis World ) are aware of their netizens’ need for self-expression and cater via heavily customizable avatars. The level of virtual expression via avatars has now reached the extent that one can create accessories for their virtual self and even physically purchase virtual goods such as clothes, hairstyles, makeup. QQ’s annual revenue performance last year was greatly boosted by these features.

Unique implication for Chinese social media
Social media in China is considered a place for netizens to speak their minds and generally feel free. This is very different compared to the West, where liberation on the internet does not appear distinct compared to everyday interaction. Ofcourse, the big difference in China comes from political constraints created by the government.

As Chinese netizens are looking for ways to express and describe their freedom on the internet, social media campaigns should cater for this by placing opinions and ideas at the heart of their message. Whether this means having netizens as ‘Brand Ambassadors’ or whether you employ a reward scheme that favors expression and creativity, or broadcasts a netizen’s idea to the community- it has to promote freedom.

The easiest way for Western Brands to tap into China’s desire for free expression, when creating social media campaigns, would be to offer BBS boards or customizable avatar profiles. It should be noted that it is not good enough just to offer the user the ability to create an avatar on joining the campaign community, and then have no development or activities based around that creation. Instead games, contests and community interaction should be promoted around the avatars, with rewards allowing further expression and customization of one’s profile/avatar. It is important that the individuals achievements, profile and activities are available to the whole community, the more public, the more suited to Chinese netizens’ lust for expression.

Archaic Social Media Prevails- BBS

Background
BBS was the first online communication tool on the internet, and due to Chinese netizens’ fast adoption of the internet and its community functions, BBS became popular in the nineties and remains the centre of the Chinese internet community today.

Currently 98 million Chinese netizens participate in publicly sharing topics, perspectives and passion via BBS. Within the 98 million over 98% have contributed content to a BBS (Readwriteweb, Jan 2008). User’s interaction with BBS is also fairly intense for a social medium, with 96% of users spending atleast 1 hour a day on BBS (Readwriteweb, Jan 2008). The BBS’ role in China is extremely unique, serving as a modern ‘water cooler’ for the Chinese people, usurping the original places for Chinese chatter, within hutongs and bars. BBSs are now a staple inclusion in almost every commercial portal, SNS and gaming website in China.

Anyone who has used BBS will know that the core value of BBS lies within content, not individuals (although the social element obviously plays a role). This is typical of Chinese society, where sharing and affirming opinions and information acts as a cornerstone of their collectivist culture. The opposite could be said to be true of Western social media, where SNS sites like Facebook and Twitter celebrate the individual. There is also a level of exclusivity within the latter sites, where one chooses and picks who they consort with; BBS on the other hand creates open, public conversations that are usually free to all netizens. The desire for free conversations open to everyone are a clear side-effect of China’s heavily government-controlled culture.

Due to the strong value of sharing and actively participating within BBS culture, the BBS posts have often been the birthplace of many famous online Chinese social memes. For example, the story of Jia Junpeng (see references) was a viral meme spread in August,09, beginning from just one BBS post. The relevance and ‘insider’ nature of the BBS platform, means one post with a single line of characters can contain a rich amount of social information and application to the community. As a result, viral memes often spread from single posts, fueled by the quest to extend and add value (often comedic) to the subject at heart.

The key value Chinese netizens find in BBS stems from its ability to allow the open sharing of opinion. A survey by CIC in 2008, showed that this was the clear motivation on BBS, as over 72% of respondents chose this motivation. Opinion sharing in Chinese culture is important, but heavily monitored in everyday life. Therefore BBS social communities offer the opportunity to express their values and feelings in a safer environment.

Unique implication for Chinese social media
On a basic level, if you want to get your audience talking about your brand or campaign in China, you should have a BBS board somewhere in your campaign. This is an extremely far removed notion when considering the creation of social media campaigns in the West, and therefore this is a classic example of why Chinese social media is extremely unique.

With 98 million netizens using BBS boards everyday and 96% of these contributing for at least 1 hour, this may be one of the best platforms for gathering/creating buzz or feedback about your campaign or product in China. It could also be said that BBS boards are the perfect place to hear what people really think about your brand/product in China, due to the ‘water cooler’ nature of BBS in China’s closely controlled society.

It should also be noted that the BBS is the ideal place to start a Viral Marketing campaign in China. As BBS boards are mainly text driven and publicly open, the audience is massive and the cost is low. The BBS audience in China are the best advocators of social memes and will ensure the growth of an ingenious viral marketing idea.

Government Control

Background
There has never been any doubt surrounding the government’s ability to censor and control the internet. With regular blocking of Google, continued blocking of Western SNS sites such as Facebook, Twitter and even Chinese SNS websites such as Fanfou.com.cn, the government have control of social media.

This control has become even more obvious in recent months, with the government developing internet legislation research departments, potentially enforcing website blocking via the Greendam Mandate, and even introducing new SNS regulation law. The latter point I will elaborate, as it involves the creation of a law allowing for the greater potential of Government buy-in within China’s SNS (this is in stark contrast to the West where government buy-in to SNS would meet with social uproar):

Simply put, SNS sites can apply for licensing by the government, which allows some government control in Chinese SNS operations, but also has benefits for the SNS with government investment, backing and promotion; however, the new law introduced by the government means those who do not seek licensing, wanting to remain independent, could face compulsory licensing by the government. If the SNS did not want to become licensed it could equally be culled by the government. Therefore the government have technically restricted independence from SNS sites. Even if the government did not enforce the licensing mandate on an SNS site, the regulation also allows for the government buy-in, meaning the government could slowly invest in sites such as Renren.com and therefore increase control on services and output in this way.

Perhaps the biggest implication of these regulations, is the potential for all SNS sites to be government controlled. The government can easily cull or alienate any SNS which does not follow the trend of becoming licensed by the government, or simply push it out of the market with investment and backing of their government controlled SNS.

Unique implication for Chinese social media
Creating social media campaigns in China may be more tricky due to government red-tape and less freedom to express the brand/product via means you may have used in the West. For this reason, it is important to adopt your campaign to fit closely with the terms and conditions of the SNS.

With social media undergoing large changes in legislation and constantly changing blocks on various SNS, it could be considered risky to invest a large amount of capital on certain SNS that are not favored by the government or are not licensed. For example, it would obviously be a large waste of time to invest in Twitter, Fanfou.com.cn or Facebook.com in China as the sites are currently blocked. Although many users are using CGI proxies to get around the Chinese firewall, the government are constantly cracking down, and, consequently, many large social media owners in the West bare little significance in China.

Entertainment Focused

Background

Many Chinese users rely on online social networking sites as a primary source of cheap and easily accessible entertainment at any time. Consequently, online social networks serve on a secondary level for practical communication, with killing time via amusement and games -often shared via instant messaging with others- acting as the primary role for social networking.

The recent Chinese sensation ‘Parking Wars’ is a perfect example of how netizens use SNS primarily for entertainment. The game was most popular amongst White Collar Workers, a group you would expect in the West to use SNS primarily for communication.

In the game users earn virtual cash for parking on their friend’s lots and for ticketing friends when they park ‘illegally’. With this virtual money, users can then purchase more expensive cars. Every day millions of white-collar workers are updating their ‘parking status’ on their Xiaonai or 51.com accounts. This is a clear example of the importance of shared entertainment on SNS sites as the primary means for interaction. It is also important to note, whilst many will play SNS games in the West, it is never the primary means for using an SNS site like Facebook, and the games are often played in a less socially interactive way (although the West is starting to change with SNS games such as Bejeweled).

To fully understand the importance of gaming entertainment in Chinese online behaviour, beyond social media, it is important to consider online gaming as a whole. The Chinese are prolific in participation within online gaming worlds; Internet cafes continue to thrive in China for this simple reason, and the Chinese government have identified Internet Addiction as a disease in China due to many young people failing to pry themselves away from games such as World of Warcraft (one of the most popular online games). A startling fact is that over 50% of all global World of Warcraft players are young Chinese men (Source, AdAge).

Gaming is a core activity in Chinese online behaviour, arguably acting as a primal discharge for many young males in China. Whether it is aggression, boredom or convenience, entertainment via SNS games and other SNS activities has grown from a generation of general internet behaviour where ‘fun’ is the primary drive for surfing.

Beyond gaming, Chinese netizens demonstrate the use of social media for entertainment purposes when considering Chinese video sharing communities: Almost 90% of all Chinese netizens said they actively watched video clips online compared to just 79% and 83% respectively in the UK and US (Wave 4, UM). Chinese netizens are clearly adopting online video more in their internet behaviour.

Applying this directly to social media is possible with further statistics from UM’s Wave 4 study: it shows that whilst 58% of Chinese respondents had actively uploaded videos to a video sharing website, only 27% and 29% had in the UK and US respectively. This is a clear indication of social media sites, such as video sharing communities and SNS, acting primarily as interactive entertainment portals for Chinese netizens.

Unique implication for Chinese social media

Compared to the West, social media in China should focus more on fun and entertainment, and less on communication and information. The Chinese netizen is usually an experienced entertainment-seeker who uses social media to play games and watch video clips, communicating passively via the medium of entertainment. For this reason social media sites should put their entertainment value at the foreground of any advertising promotion in China, as well as the microsite homepage; this will make it easy for netizens to digest, communicate and share the entertainment benefits of the social media site on messaging tools like QQ and MSN.

The young Chinese internet audience largely see gaming at the heart of their internet activity; therefore games should be one of the core features within any Chinese social media campaign. The games should be varied and develop a difficulty curve so the netizen remains engaged on the social media site. The game should offer rewards and bonuses which are publicized within the community and therefore reward the netizen’s ego.

Ofcourse, any social media Campaign will need to get some message, product or information across to the netizen, and for this reason it is important to build this information into the game. The game can easily be themed around the product/brand, or provide information at logical junctures in the game.

In keeping with the heavy online entertainment consumption of Chinese netizens, online videos could also serve as a major element in the social media site. Because Chinese netizens are such avid watchers of clips, these can be the perfect platform for providing information in an entertaining way, and also encourage expression in Chinese netizens: For example, an easy way to continue the lifecycle of video clips and reward expression/ promote freedom of Chinese netizens’ online behaviour is to host user submitted videos and clips. This can really create the feeling of engagement between Chinese netizens and the brand, and will put less pressure on client generated clips.

References

General
http://www.slideshare.net/Olivier.mermet/universal-mc-cann-wave4
http://www.asiadigitalmarketingyearbook.com/
http://www.cicdata.com/
http://www.cnnic.net.cn/en/index/
http://english.iresearch.com.cn/
http://morethanadvertising.com/2009/01/12/social-media-in-china/
http://www.slideshare.net/tibbettliu/social-media-emergence-in-china-153116

The Netizen
http://adage.com/globalnews/article?article_id=138927
http://iac.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=1455
http://www.seeisee.com/
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/despite_banning_twitter_92_china_uses_social_media.php

Archaic Social Media Prevails: BBS
http://www.chinasmack.com/stories/jia-junpeng-your-mom-wants-you-to-go-home-to-eat/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jia_Junpeng
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-china-internet-fad5-2009sep05,0,2198509.story

Government Control
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/45a440ae-8d8c-11de-93df-00144feabdc0.html
http://www.chinatechnews.com/2009/08/12/10330-china-opens-internet-legal-management-center
http://www.digitaleastasia.com/2009/08/15/the-dam-has-burst-china-rescinds-its-internet-filtering-mandate/

Entertainment Focused Not Communication Focused
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2009-07/25/content_8473014.htm
http://cnreviews.com/business/research-insights/top-4-reasons-why-chinese-social-networking-different_20090810.html

If anyone remembers, earlier in the year, the UK’s Advertising Body (IPA) organised a conference around Social Media which caused a lot of negative reaction as people felt it totally missed the point. Fortunately the IPA realised the error of their ways and reached out to the Social Media Thinkers to get involved and do a follow up. One of them happens to be Mark Earls (the Herdmeister – if you have not read his book The Herd then do so) and here his first draft of the piece which aims to spell out how much social media is changing the overall landscape.

There is a lot of good stuff in there including some of the more important emergent stuff that connective technology seems to generate in human populations:
1. Connectedness encourages us to be less independent minded and to follow our peers instead
2. Connectedness diminishes deference
3. Connectedness changes power relationships between those in power and the rest of us.
4. Connectedness can lead to volatility and sudden shifts in market popularity and opinion
5. Connectedness enables self-organisation, collaboration and co-creativity.

The overall conclusion is that “Social Media” is not just another set of Media channels. Which is why we have to change: why we have to listen/understand the rules of this new playground – in particular, to accept it’s owned by the community and not us – rather than stumbling into the furniture. Anyway the full paper can be downloaded here. I recommend you read it.

As part of the social media film review we have been looking at new benchmarks for successful marketing campaigns by films exploiting the social media space to engage and disseminate information to potential cinema-goers. Dark Knight threw down the gauntlet to potential adopters of viral marketing strategies and the success of the multi-pronged Cloverfield campaign saw a creative and intelligent teaser campaign that involved moviegoers beyond the conversations at the water cooler. However, neither of these used the social phenomenon Twitter as effectively as Quentin Taratino’s Inglourious Basterds.

Recently we have seen correlations drawn between Twitter activity and box office performances. “Twitter sinks Bruno” articles, for example. However, according to Steven Zeitchik at Risky Biz Blog, Inglorious Basterds is the first film that can directly thank Twitter for its opening weekend box office success. A bold statement, indeed, given the proven audience-pulling power of both Pitt and Tarantino.

So, how can we/anyone make the claim that IB has, in fact, tamed the mob that runs the Twitter trending topics thus benefiting hugely from the “Twitter factor”?

The first step of any successful social media campaign is to recognise the medium that suits the project/message, and Twitter definitely facilitates the Tarantino fan. It’s a cult film director, slightly niche yet mainstream and with more one-liners per minute then most. It’s the perfect habitat for Tarantino fans to mingle and create conversations around the latest offering. This, in part, might explain the substantial 7,000+ following already acquired. (The Twitter population demographic breakdown indicates that circa 75% of users are over 25 and male and IB Distributor The Weinstein Company’s exit polling indicated that 58 percent of the audience was male and 72 percent was aged 25 and older.)

So far this summer the “Twitter factor” has been blamed for the poor takings of Sacha Baron Cohen’s Bruno on its second day at the US box office, plummeting almost 40% after the first day, and the unexpected success of low-budget sci-fi tale District 9. And the effect seems to have influenced the success of IB. When analysing the timing of its popularity in relation to the tweets about the movie, like Bruno, the effect can be seen after the first showing so that fans can make their mind up, spread opinion and thus influence those waiting for peer reviews before seeing it themselves.

To support this analytics provider, Crimson Hexagon, has commented that “78% of those who commented on Inglourious Basterds on Twitter gave positive responses, and that may have helped encourage people to see it.”

Prior to its release the film had provoked division among critics but Friday and Saturday tweeting swung it in a decidedly favorable direction. And it picked up momentum as the weekend went on, with Saturday Twitterers enthusiastically tweeting and re-tweeting their approval.

it is interesting, too, to compare positive and anticipatory tweets, given that conventional review sites such as Rotten Tomatoes had rated the film as low as 40%.

Positive tweets – Loved It, Pitt was Great, Have to See It, and Vintage Tarantino – make up 78% of all Twitter coverage, whereas combined negative tweets – Not Tarantino’s Best, Unimpressed – make up only 8%.

With that kind of data, it’s hard not to believe that the overwhelmingly positive response from the Twittersphere convinced at least some moviegoers to check out the movie.

As with Cloverfield and The Dark Knight, below are some statistics on the social media campaign, highlighting the importance of this digital element in marketing one of the most popular social past-times.

Trailer Diggs – 1234
Bebo members – 65
Facebook fans – 60,547
IMDb reviews – 42,837
YouTube views – 2,236,026
Box Office weekend total – $38,054,676
Twitter followers – 7,355

Sources

www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/aug/25/inglourious-basterds-twitter-box-office

www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=2611

digg.com/search?s=inglourious+basterds+trailer

mashable.com/2009/08/24/twitter-inglourious-basterds/

www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=7601813869

es-la.facebook.com/inglouriousbasterdsinternational?ref=share&_fb_noscript=1

twitter.com/therealbasterds

www.slashfilm.com/2009/05/20/early-twitter-buzz-inglourious-basterds/

www.riskybusinessblog.com/2009/08/inglourious-basterds-twitter.html

mashable.com/2009/07/13/bruno-twitter-reactions/

The $50 million dollar question, what do all these random websites have in common?

•    The homepage of a Japanese soft drink company
•    YouTube videos of a destroyed oil rig
•    MySpace profiles of half a dozen young New Yorkers
•    A Los Angeles bakery
•    A tribute site dedicated to a teenage murder victim

They’re all elements of a complex viral marketing campaign for the budget monster movie that generated $50 million on its US release, Cloverfield, the second installment of this month’s Profero movie marketing analysis. The campaign shot the movie into the marketing stratosphere and, like The Dark Knight, continued to raise the benchmark in audience manipulation and engagement. Read on for a summary of the campaign and its route to success at the box office.

Faced with the perilous task of attracting fans to the somewhat fading, predictable movie genre of monster-terrorizes-city films, the campaign had to engage and manipulate the audience into a state of mystery, something this genre has been unable to do given the linear plot lines adopted and churned out by the Hollywood conveyor belt over the years. The answer? Queue the complicated, infuriating, confusing and utterly involving alternate reality game strategy made famous in 2001 by the film AI.

The Cloverfield campaign began in the form of a traditional, mainstream teaser campaign at the start of the Transformers cinema feature, however Paramount took a huge gamble on human nature and the effectiveness of the Unnamed Trailer. The unnamed trailer took the teaser campaign and audience by storm, provoking shocked audiences to go home and begin their interaction with the brand, of which they knew nothing of, apart from the release date 1-18-08. Upon searching the only bit of information released in the trailer, willing audiences were given their first clue and reference point, the www.1-18-08.com website. This had sparked a mass of blogging activity with users scouring the Internet in search for information, sharing multiple conspiracy theories on the mystifying trailer along the way.

The website for the unnamed film required participants to revisit the site repeatedly, spoon feeding them information now and then, just enough to keep them intrigued yet still in the dark, a sure case of treating them mean to keep them keen. After a while, activity on the website subsided until 2 months prior to release, and an additional trailer. Upon the release of the second trailer, the film title had been released and so had the official movie website. This was the beginning of the mass-market campaign.

The mass-market and the online viral campaigns took different routes with the former releasing several online and TV spots, whilst the viral campaign began on alternate websites, notably Myspace.com and Slusho.com.

The viral created an emotional tie with the audience through the creation of an alternate reality game focusing on an array of the films characters, communicating on MySpace and the Slusho website. The campaign not only proved innovative in generating awareness and an emotional response through the release of the website but also maintained audiences interaction by releasing a Cloverfield widget on the main website that could be grabbed and placed on a site of your choice, including social networking sites. The widget awarded users with a highly anticipated video of the opening five minutes and incentivized the spreading of word-of-mouth, giving widget grabbers something tangible for their participation in spreading the reach of the clip.

The success of the campaign, like The Dark Knight, also relied heavily upon social media, specifically YouTube and MySpace. The depth, complexity and choice of SM platforms involved audiences that were caught totally unaware. They were sucked in, fed information and sent out on a wild goose chase for information which served a purpose of only answering one thing, “What happens on 1-18-08?” This proved to be a cunning marketing move that ensured fans were in an uncontrollable frenzy and craving for information before they could begin the thought process of dissecting a stereotypical monster flick storyline. Sure it was a gamble, but human nature is predictable to an extent. We all touched the hot iron as kids and this marketing campaign was no different, daring the audience to ignore their curiosity and reside in the torturous realm of “What if?”

Here are some statistics on the campaign and the it’s box office success:

Opening weekend (Fri-Sun): $50 million
MySpace fans: 4,087
Facebook fans: 97,687
YouTube video videos: 10,000,000+
Yahoo links: 695
IMDb votes/reviews: 119,672

Some useful links.

www.moviemarketingmadness.com/blog/2008/01/17/movie-marketing-madness-cloverfield/

blogs.digitalmediaonlineinc.com/TechUniverse/entry/63

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloverfield#Marketing

www.nj.com/entertainment/tv/index.ssf/2008/01/innovative_marketing_could_tur.html

Each month The Hive Blog will choose a new theme to analyse and this month we will look at recent film campaigns, dissecting both the impact and role of social media within movie marketing. The case studies will provide examples of innovative movie marketing campaigns, the role of social media and how they impact on the initial release.

Without doubt social media has become an increasingly relevant component of film release strategies as marketing campaigns becoming more and more innovative. Prior to release social media provides a vital information source for audiences, often weeks, or even months, before they buy a ticket.

The Dark Knight

It seems fitting to kick off this month’s film theme with Warner Bros’ The Dark Knight, a film that delivered many “firsts” along the way to box office success.

Here’s a short video summarizing the main points of the viral marketing campaign:

Warner Bros created an alternate reality game that had audiences of over 10 million following a trail led by the main antagonist of the film, the Joker. The campaign was executed using both on- and off-line strategies that weaved in and out of the ATL campaign, ensuring the audience was both engaged and interacting with the brand.

The campaign included temporary websites and micro sites that encouraged followers to participate in off-line activities, such as dressing up as the Joker and taking part in various Jokeresque publicity stunts. The microsite itself, a purely social media micro site and as such the first of its kind, was to be the hub of the activity and functioned as an aggregator for fans to download and explore the film using the sites generous array of connectivity, spanning across 26 of the most popular social networking properties. Users could download a “peelback” for their Bebo page, a new skin for their MySpace profile, a widget for their iGoogle start page, a customized profile pic for their Facebook page. The list is endless.

At the peak of the campaign online buzz reached a staggering 1.5% of total Internet traffic worldwide, before the film had even been released. Social media provided the campaign with the perfect platform for users to seek out information, share this with friends, join in the fun and upload their thoughts on the many sites made available on the microsite linked to the film.

For films that are comic/cartoon adaptations, social media sites also prove to be breeding grounds for nostalgia and a space for enthusiasts to share their favourite moments from the original series.

The success of the viral element of the campaign also hinged on the important role social media had been given. The Easter egg-style hunt for information and the clues given were released through various official websites, however, social networking websites functioned as the space for users to get updates on the latest developments and as a reference point to discuss, trade and experience the campaign together, creating a more social experience. Cinema-going is, broadly, a social pastime so it is almost inevitable that social media will increase the engagement level between the viewer/user and the film, involving the viewer before they even step into the theatre and continuing the experience long after they leave.

Offering fans and those intrigued by the film this vast amount of content created unparalleled conversation around The Dark Knight’s release, with a record number of users posting videos, blog posts, forum posts and other user generated content. The stats below show both online and box-office activity surrounding the launch and represent a record for advanced bookings and opening weekend takings.

Reach
•    50m+ Google searches of the Dark Knight prior to release.
•    55,000 videos tagged the film on Youtube.com
•    By July 2008 The Dark Knight website reached 1.5 per cent of entire users of the Internet.
•    The main site had 5,270 sites linking to it one month prior to the release.
•    Some 171,858 users on www.IMDb.com also gave The Dark Knight a maximum 10 out of 10 score, underscoring its likeability.

Relevance
•    The relevance became clear from the essential role of the various movie
related websites set up to target dedicated fans to help promoting the film
during its release.

Engagement
•    Blogsphere.com shows 106,299 blog posts on the launch day of the film alone.
•    On July 18, Blogpulse recorded a peak of 1.307% of all blog posts on the web.
•    Some of the YouTube videos have received more than 4 million views each and
generated hundreds of thousands of comments. The official trailer only
generated 105,244 views.
•    Apart from all the content on YouTube, more than 200 videos were also sent to
ibelieveinharveydent.com alone.
•    More than 4 million sites refer to The Dark Knight and these range from film
critics to social networks and from political debates to news forums, message
boards and comic sites.
•    Within the initial 3 days of release the movie grossed just over $400 million
dollars.

www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/marketing-the-dark-knight-a-viral-revolution.php

creativity-online.com/?action=news:article&newsId=130602

www.moviemarketingmadness.com/blog/2008/07/17/movie-marketing-madness-the-dark-knight/

www.goviral.com/articles/GOV-WARC-DarkKnight-161008.pdf