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Report Period: July – December, 2007CIC Contact: [email protected]
IWOM watch Half Year Review - An Overview of Chinese IWOM trends from July-December, 2007
2IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec, 2007
Editorial Summary
Sam Flemming, CEO of CIC
I am proud to present some key highlights from our IWOM watch reports, issued during the second half of 2007. We organized the highlights according to several themes that emerged, including brands integration of net culture into their campaigns, brands tapping into the masses, consumers taking ownership of brands’ online image (with or without the brands’ help), and examples of brands not only listening to netizen suggestions, but reacting to these suggestions.
CIC is the first Internet Word of Mouth (IWOM) research and consulting firm in China. We have pioneered the industry in China, coining the term IWOM to describe the growing trend of consumers and corporate “netizens” engaging in conversations on the Internet. As an early witness to this trend, we are dedicated to listening and understanding the development of Chinese online culture. We have ongoing, long term relationships with the best and most progressive clients across a wide range of industries which gives us the experience and ability to make sense of IWOM and its impact on marketing communications.
You can get a sense of the development of IWOM over time by downloading previous IWOM watch 6 month review reports here. I hope you find the reports interesting and useful.
3IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec, 2007
Content
Riding the Wave: Integrating Net Culture into Campaign Strategy/Tactics
Engaging the Power of the Masses
Consumers Gaining Ownership of Brand Image Online
When Consumers Speak Online, Brands Should Listen
- Integrating net culture to connect to youth culture
- “Grab Floor” – naturally incentivizing community participation
- Group watch: Socializing with customers, net style
- Top portals integrate grassroot reporting into Olympics campaign strategy
- Creative Co-piloting between Brand and Consumer goes mainstream
- Companies let the audience choose or create content
- Online Consumers love to “Shai” (晒) brands in both negative and positive ways
- Creativity and spoofing can be integrated into consumer sharing on brands
- Brand fans can sometimes hurt brands’ reputation
- The voice of Netizens continues to cause public waves on issues surrounding brands
Riding the Wave: Integrating Net Culture into Campaign Strategy/Tactics
Some brands try to make a splash in netizen culture. The smarter ones look to ride the wave of netizen culture by integrating the latest trends into their campaigns. Net culture can be discovered by closely tracking and really seeking to understand the words, actions and creativity found within IWOM.
5IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec, 2007
Tuzki (兔斯基), a cartoon rabbit, has been popular online in China for the past two years. The cartoon character gained its popularity through its funny expressions and many netizens use these funny expressions in their instant messenger conversations or BBS posts to make the content more lively. In nutshell, Tuzki has become an icon of Chinese net culture.
Integrating net culture to connect with youth culture
On December 15th, 2007, Motorola launched its mobile phone Q8 in China and selected Tuzki as its “spokesperson,” in an effort to transform the “Blackberry Killer” smart phone into a gadget for the online tribe. Moto connects with youth culture via net culture– a smart move which helps the company’s product easily stand out against its competitors.
6IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec, 2007
“Grab Floor” – naturally incentivizing community participation
Netizen Case: “To wish Liu Xiang a good record” PV 110,777/ Replies 52,313 (link)
Net Culture: Grab the Floor
“Grab Floor” (占楼) is an essential aspect of community net culture in China. It refers to “occupying” a specific “floor” in a BBS conversation with a comment (i.e. to be the No.88 or No. 188 comment). The person who originates the thread usually provides a gift (e.g. virtual currency) as an incentive for participants who occupy a specific “floor” (i.e. whoever writes the 100th or 1000th comment will receive a gift) which can lead to substantial participation from other netizens.
TOSHIBA GRAB THE FLOOR” GIVEAWAYCampaign: Toshiba alarm clock give-away. Guess the price of this clock.Rule: People who guess the correct price of clock can receive a free clock and people who grab the 500th or a floor of a 500 multiple can also win one.Replies: 5,048 Page Views: 11,342
7IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec, 2007
Group watch: Socializing with customers, net style
Through a forum on DVD288, AVSTYLE, a sound system sales agency, organized a “group watch” where people who have bought the company’s products could watch the Transformers movie for free. 42 AVSTYLE customers joined in the “group watch”.
Sample Customer Feedback不错，好活动啊，再组织一次“哈里波特”吧 (link)Great, it is a good activity. What about organizing another “group watch” for Harry Potter?恭喜恭喜，盛况空前阿 (link) / Congratulations! It is an unprecedented activity.
“Group Watch” (团看) refers to online movie fan club members organizing offline events to meet and watch popular movies together.
Case Study AVSTYLE event photos posted within the community
Engaging the Power of the Masses
There are 210 million Chinese netizens, many of whom are active in reading and creating content on blogs and BBS. Why not involve them in creating, selecting and curating content for your site or brand?
9IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec, 2007
In celebration of the upcoming 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Netease has launched a campaign titled “Power to the People via Internet.” Netease plans to publish grassroots generated content and media as an important part of its Olympic communication and media strategy.
Sample Quote发动网民，发动网友，用手机来报道奥运会，比什么都
有意思 (link)It will be more interesting to engage netizens and encourage them to report on the Olympics by mobile phone.
Top portals integrate grassroot reporting into Olympics campaign strategy
Sohu spent millions to get the golden 7.5s ads on CCTV
TVC campaign launched to solicit ideas from netizens
Meanwhile, the official 2008 Olympics portal site, Sohu, has also decided to leverage the creativity of the masses on the internet to make its mark at the Olympics. Netizens can upload their ideas, including scripts and videos via Sohu blog. In addition to receiving a prize of 100,000 RMB, the final winner’s idea will be broadcasted nationwide on TV.
Top work will be used as the official TVC spot (See here for the submission list)
10IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec, 2007
Google cooperated with Tudou to hold its creative video challenge campaign which encouraged netizens to create promotional videos for the new website URL. Meanwhile, Intel also worked with Tudou to launch its video contest campaign, where winners had the opportunity to make their mark with a leading advertising company.
Creative Co-piloting between Brand and Consumer goes mainstream
Nick Haley,
China Version
Overseas Case
Leading brands are beginning to take the creative knowledge and skills of their “professional customers” seriously by moving beyond the simple soliciting of ideas from consumers to engaging the consumer through open source marketing and co-piloted brand-consumer projects.
an 18 year old student from England, made a fan video about the new iPod Touch. The spot soon received over 1 million page views with attention from Apple itself. Apple decided to reach out to Haley by having its advertising agency make a more polished version of his video and aired it as an official TVC for the product. This was a surprising move for Apple given its reputation for suing bloggers in the past.
11IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec, 2007
Companies let the audience choose or create content
The video sharing service Ku6 recently launched its "拍客 (Pai Ke – people who enjoy taking photos and videos) “bounty hunter” program. Netizens can suggest themes and Ku6 will choose the program topics from among these consumer generated suggestions. Netizens who upload photos/videos on the chosen topic are eligible to receive rewards.
The campaign not only raised interest among netizens, but also pushed the discussion on the site to a higher level as users actively discussed the tasks.
Netease launched a platform called Internet News Agency (网通社), where netizens can offer news and information and the best material will be chosen and ‘curated’ by professional editors.
Case 1: Netease “Internet News Agency Program” Reports the Hot Topics Netizens Care About
Case 2: Ku6 Takes Netizens’ Taste on Video Topics as Its First Priority
How do you make sure the content you generate is relevant to your audience?
One simple way is to let the audience decide what to generate.
Consumers Gaining Ownership of Brand Image Online
Some define brand equity as the sum total of all the experiences and impressions a consumer has of the brand. With IWOM, these experiences are becoming more and more controlled by consumers, not brands. What the most passionate fans/consumers do can really help or hurt the brands’ online equity and reputation.
13IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec, 2007
What they may “Shai Hei”:• Unqualified products and awful customer service• Feelings of being cheated by companies and
organizations• Immoral personal behavior• Negative social incidents• Others…
“黑/Hei” means gloomy, despicable
Online Consumers love to “Shai” (晒) brands in both negative and positive ways
Link LinkLink
The good news for brands is that many consumers online love to “shai” (晒/show) their favorite brands’ products by uploading photos as a way to share their passion for the product. This creates personalized, trustworthy and influential word of mouth.
The bad news for brands is that consumers may also “Shai Hei” (晒黑), or “show black” or relay bad experiences online. There are online groups of consumers who often “shai” or share negative remarks which creates harmful word of mouth. These consumers will share their unpleasant experience with certain products to prevent others from making the same mistake.
14IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec, 2007
Creativity and spoofing are integrated into consumer sharing on brandsSeveral months ago, a knife wielding mad man was captured by the police in Chengdu. After an anonymous person posted pictures of the event online, a host of pictures spoofing the event popped up. These photos, redesigned by netizens and largely associated with brand slogan or ads, spread like wild fire on the internet. Moreover, netizens expressed comments about the brand on the spoofing pictures. For example, on the China Mobile version of the image, China Mobile’s brand name became “China Immobile”.
The original photo Photoshop redesign by netizens
More brand associated pictures here and here
Spoofing also has a bright side as campaign input In the U.S., Pepsi and OfficeMax ( ElfYourself,) utilized spoofing by allowing consumers to upload headshot photos to post on dancing figures. Interesting and creative spoofing may be more than just a source of laughs but could be a smart way for campaigns to “ride the wave” of Chinese spoofing culture.
15IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec, 2007
Brand fans can sometimes hurt brands’ reputation
Sample Quote:
20多辆马六以时速30公里速度慢行，
将一辆悍马牢牢地卡在中间动弹不得
(Link)In an effort to slow the vehicle, 20 Mazda 6s driving at a speed of 20 km/hour surrounded a Hummer on a highway in Nanjing.
Hummer surrounded by Mazdas Mazda owners’ defiant
Sample Quote:
么得证据老子就算嫖了你老妈你也拿
偶么的办法。(Link) With no evidence, you can’t prove that I did it.
Apologize online
Sample Quote:
我仅代表本版做出最后的申明--- (Link) On behalf of M6 forum, I give this last statement ---
20 Nanjing Mazda owners from an auto forum surrounded a Hummer on a highway at 20 km/hour, causing the Hummer to move as slowly as a bicycle. After doing this, these owners of the Mazdas shared the video online. To play a joke on the netizens, they even used extremely crude, defiant language and posted their photos on a BBS. Their activity triggered strong condemnation for shaming not only their group, but also their family, their hometown, Mazda brand, and even Nanjing government. Finally, the administrator of Nanjing Mazda 6 community apologized online.
When Consumers Speak Online, Brands Should Listen
Every few months it seems, a brand will become the object of netizen anger within IWOM due to some TVC ideas or actions taken by the brand. Or sometimes, the anger comes about due to circumstances beyond the brand’s control. Either way, brands should continually be listening to IWOM to identify these types of issues. Once identified, brands can decide if and how to react.
17IWOM Watch Half Year Review, Jul – Dec, 2007
The voice of Netizens continues to cause public waves on issues surrounding brands
McDonalds cancelled Yang Chenling (Feb, 2007)
KFC’s Cyberspace Woes Continue 2006
Starbucks out of Forbidden City (July, 2007 )
No apology
OMO TVC Redo (Nov, 2007)
Say sorry
In one OMO TVC, a child spilled some dirty liquid on someone else’s clothes. The child’s response was simply: “OMO can clean that.” The TVC became the object of netizen anger because the boy did not offer an apology. Netizens were upset because they thought the spot would negatively influence children and lacked moral principles.
A few weeks later, OMO revised the TVC accordingly. Netizens who found the change appreciated the reaction.
Thank You
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