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By Jessy Chen
alumni voice • linking in
Did you catch a glimpse of TCL mobile phones
in Iron Man 3, or the popular Chinese food
brand Zhouheiya during its brief appearance in
Transformers 4? If you did, then you’re already
familiar with the work of Jianru Helian (CEIBS AMP 6 & LCP
2012) who’s playing a key role in introducing Chinese brands
to global consumers. Through Reach Glory Media Group,
the company she founded five years ago, Helian is driving
the globalisation of Chinese brands through entertainment
marketing – getting them screen time in major Hollywood
films and television shows so they’re seen by audiences around
the world, as well as in China.
With her short-cropped hair and trendy wardrobe, Helian
is the epitome of today’s business woman. She comes across as
extremely competent, candid, and fashionable. Her surname,
rarely seen in China, is said to be typical of descendants of the
brands ride Hollywood blockbusters to global fame
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By Jessy Chen
Huns and she seems to have inherited
the i r candour. Throug hout our
conversation she was unfaltering as she
shared her love for the entertainment
industry, her determination to make
a name for Chinese brands, and her
belief that there’s a bright future ahead
for entertainment marketing and her
company Reach Glory Media. Read on
for more:-
Why dId you decIde to start your oWN
busINess?
I’d been working in the advertising
and media industry since graduating
from university, and after more than
a decade, I had developed a thorough
understanding of customers’ needs,
market trends, brand marketing,
communications and innovation.
Having spent a few years at Warner
Brothers, where he was in charge of
the global market, my business partner
Ji Erwei was very familiar with the
Hollywood entertainment industry
and producing. We often discussed the
question of how to combine the needs
of Chinese brands with good movies,
and I suggested we work together to
create a framework for bringing both
sides together. We set up Reach Glory
Media Group at the end of 2010. I’m
the Chairwoman, responsible for brand
communication; he’s Executive Director
in charge of entertainment content.
Was It dIffIcuLt to get tractIoN IN the
marKet? What Is your company’s main focus?
The company grew quickly. We’re
headquartered in Beijing, and have
offices in Los Angeles, Seoul and
Shanghai. We help Chinese brands go
global through entertainment marketing
and have been involved in almost all
the biggest Hollywood blockbusters,
including those released in mainland
China. Reach Glory has put together
collaborations for many Chinese brands.
The fast food chain Zhouheiya was seen
in Transformers 4; TCL’s consumer
electronics products were embedded
in Iron Man 2 and 3; the apparel brand
Semir collaborated with Iron Man 2,
and the Internet apparel brand Vancl
has a deal with the American television
series The Big Bang Theory which is
popular around the world, just to give a
few examples of our work.
We are positioning Reach Glory
as an entertainment company with
brand communication as our core
business. We are trying our best to live
up to our slogan, “Know more about
movie producers than Chinese brands;
Know more about Chinese brands than
movie producers”. We want to help
finicky Hollywood directors see Chinese
brands and their products as being
easy to incorporate into their films in
an organic way; it’s about finding the
right balance between business and art.
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alumni voice • linking in
facing some difficulties in my career
at that time. The AMP Programme
inspired me to set up my own company.
Before CEIBS, I was involved in various
activities – advertising, public relations,
event management. “Business model”
was a foreign concept to me. I used to
compare what I did to “scrambling eggs”.
The many classmates I got to know at
CEIBS had a great impact on me. I came
to realise that I should stop “scrambling
eggs”, and instead begin to “keep a hen
to produce eggs”. I started to think
about business models, and learned
that the essence of a business model is
sustainability. Professor Katherine Xin
inspired me a lot, and taught me a useful
lesson: “Never be full-function, instead
focus on what you are best at; other
people’s skills can complement you in
the areas where you are not as good”.
By August 2008, when I completed my
studies at CEIBS, I had a clear picture of
what I should do. This was the greatest
learning from my CEIBS experience.
After graduating from CEIBS, I
began to work on movies, and stopped
everything I had been doing before.
I had not yet set up a company, but
began invest ing in movies as an
individual investor. Since I was really
eager to produce content and always
had a dream about being in the film
business, I later decided to work
with my friend Ji Erwei who had just
returned to China from Hollywood.
Together we invested in two movies;
he was the producer and I was the
presenter. This experience laid a solid
foundation for the movie product
placement work I am doing now.
The second turning point occurred
when Reach Glory was acquired by
Gangtai Holding. Reach Glory became
a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gangtai.
Having access to more investment
capital has helped our development
as it allows us to leverage our unique
advantages in brand placement and
joint promotion.
We don’t just broker deals, we also help
both the movie producers and Chinese
brands expand their reach into new
markets, achieving a “win-win” result
for all involved. Reach Glory’s business
can be broken down into four segments:
branded content, making brands
entertaining, producing entertainment,
and creating platforms for products.
you come across as a very coNfIdeNt
business woman who’s very sure of What
she WaNts aNd Where she’s going. were you
aLWays so cLear about What dIrectIoN your career shouLd taKe?
There have been two turning points
in my career so far. The first was in 2007
when I enrolled in the CEIBS AMP
Programme. I was feeling a bit lost and
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Who has beeN your most INfLueNtIaL roLe
modeL?
My uncle has always encouraged
me to do what I enjoy, and encouraged
my entrepreneurship, which has
helped me a lot. My parents died
when I was still a child, my uncle
is the one who raised me. He’s an
innovative person and doesn’t follow
a traditional path. His optimism and
entrepreneurial spirit have had a great
influence on me since my childhood.
He started his own business many
years ago, while most people were still
working for established companies.
M y u n c l e h e l p e d d e v e l o p t h e
optimistic and enterprising sides of
my personality. He often says, “You
don’t have to accomplish something
big, just remember to be happy and
hardworking, so you won’t have any
regrets in your life.”
When I was still thinking about
whether or not to stay in a big company
to gain more experience, remembering
my uncle’s words encouraged me to
start my own business. He said, “In
our family, no one is more suitable for
entrepreneurship than you. You have the
right personality.” He’s always supported
my choices. I later came to better
understand my uncle’s meaning. First of
all, women entrepreneurs actually have
more fall-back options and rarely start
a business just for the money. Therefore
they must intertwine their ideals and
preferences with the business. Apart
from that, when you do what you like,
it won’t be so tiring, and you will have a
better chance to succeed.
IN 2015, gaNgtaI hoLdINg acquIred reach gLory
for rmb440 million. Why do you thINK
such a Large LIsted compaNy WaNted you? What do you thINK the future WILL brINg for
your compaNy?
After the global financial crisis in
2008, there were many changes in the
advertising and marketing industry.
Clients became very cautious and
thought about their marketing expenses
more carefully. They wanted their
money to go further, and to achieve
much better results, or maybe they were
very targeted in their spending. An
increasing number of brands began to
promote their products via movies or
other content, hoping to create more
impact with less money. Entertainment
marketing and content marketing are
the future trends, and will be important
tools for companies to promote their
brands. For brands, the value of this
marketing strategy lies in the high rate
of return on investment; for producers,
it lowers their investment risk.
C o m p a r e d w i t h t r a d i t i o n a l
marketing, entertainment marketing
puts more emphasis on customers’ active
participation as well as an emotional
connection between customers and
companies. Entertainment marketing,
with brands at the core, relies on data.
Consumers are attracted by things such
as embedded advertisements, ads played
during the previews in the cinema,
and merchandising. These things
spark emotional resonance among
consumers and enhance a brand’s value.
All successful entertainment marketing
follows a similar path: authorised joint
promotion, applying movie elements
to products, promotions, ground
operations, media pitches and new
media marketing. When executed
simultaneously these things combine to
create a multi-platform “perfect storm”
of audience awareness during a movie’s
promotion and release period.
Gangtai has provided us with strong
support for content, and I think with the
acquisition we did not sell the company
in a traditional sense; the deal has given
us a capital platform. We need a large
amount of easily accessible capital for
movie and content production, and we
think we have a sound strategy for Reach
Glory’s sustainable development. I have
full confidence in my team: almost half
of them have overseas experience. Our
excellent team is unmatched by almost
everyone else in the market. They are
why we have been so successful so far.
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