:: how are companies and brands connecting with target audiences on Chinese social networking sites (SNS)? What has worked in China and what hasn’t?

Over the past few years, brand presence on Chinese SNS has largely been limited to passive (and really annoying) advertising and the occasional branded widget (see LG’s mobile phone widget on Sohu as an example, or read more about branded widgets in this 56minus1 post), but recently, several brands have pursued more creative and interactive ways to reach SNS users, upping the level of user participation and brand-consumer interactivity. These efforts range from curated BBS discussion forums to interactive contests within the confines of a particular SNS (such as a recent Chow Tai Fook-sponsored contest on QQ geared around a Valentine’s Day theme), to even more innovative offerings that connect virtual branded products with their real world counterparts.

Compared to other Internet markets, brand efforts on local Chinese SNS are still in an embryonic stage, however. A good number of Chinese SNS sites don’t have much of a brand presence or engagement in their games and widgets / applications at all, even when the user base seems primed for it. For example, one popular application on the generic, youth-oriented 360quan.com SNS has users playing the part of a McDonald’s cashier who has to serve an increasingly impatient crowd of customers, but it doesn’t appear to have any official McDonald’s involvement whatsoever (and it uses traditional characters, so it’s probably not even aimed at the mainland). A missed opportunity, perhaps? Other SNS may have been ahead of their time. HiPiHi, a Chinese virtual world similar to Second Life, features the heavily-promoted presence of IBM, which built a virtual conference center in the 3D environment. But perhaps because of technological limitations, interest surrounding brand involvement in virtual worlds seems to have ebbed, especially in China.

At any rate, Chinese SNS are ripe with opportunities for (reasonably) meaningful brand involvement. Below are five current examples of brands engaging and interacting with users on Chinese SNS:

magnum on Kaixin001.com ::
Magnum ice cream bars play a central role in a suite of games on the popular Kaixin001 social networking site. The “Special Treatment” (非常礼遇, shortened to the risque 非礼, which means to feel someone up) application involves codes printed on Magnum bars that can be exchanged for in-game credits (in the form of virtual ice-cream bars), which then enable users to take advantage of mini-apps like “going to work in a sedan chair,” “flying a fighter plane,” and “bathing in a hot spring.” Users take advantage of these mini-apps with their circle of friends on the website. What’s hosted on Kaixin001 is part of a larger campaign designed by Magnum in concert with the Poco.cn SNS. The contest for April has users accumulating virtual ice cream for a chance to win their own private Magnum party in Shanghai. New stages will be introduced in the coming months. See here for earlier 56minus1 post about MAGNUM.

iCoke on 51.com ::
CocaCola offers an application on 51.com that digitally inserts users into a boisterous Coke ad. Users choose a head shot, align it and tweak the coloring (screen shot), and then watch the resulting video (screen shot). The application is hosted through iCoke.cn, but it is fully integrated with 51.com’s user pages: users can choose a head-shot out of their 51.com photo album, and their activity is automatically recorded in their 51.com diary with the resulting video embedded into their user page. The game is part of Coke’s official BBS on 51.com (screen shot), which also features top-level forums related to advertising, music videos, polls, sports events, and various online activities. Users who invite their friends to join up (through April 19) have a chance to win real-world prizes like iPods, t-shirts, and notebook computers. The statistics about the group are kind of strange (like most metrics about the Chinese internet) as they claims over a million members but only 477,000 views, hmmm, but the top BBS posts have thousands of views and hundreds of replies.

Apple on Xiaonei.com ::
The Apple Store has a presence on Xiaonei in the form of a branded BBS forum and associated features. The BBS, called “Apple Institute” (苹果学院) (screen shot), has a few managed sub-boards in addition to a general discussion forum. There’s a section that provides info on Wifi hotspots in Beijing and Shanghai (two locations in Shanghai and three in Beijing so far, screen shot). Trendy young people using their iPods in real-world situations are displayed in the “iPod Spotter” section (screen shot). And the Diary section carries the latest Apple news. The page has seen more than 260,000 visits. Xiaonei users who apply to be friends of the Apple Institute (1782 so far) receive an Apple-themed virtual gift, such as an iMac icon. The Institute’s “members” are various Apple products, each of which has its own member page (the iPod Shuffle, for example, screen shot). Throughout 2008, the Apple Institute ran a promotion where virtual points accumulated by Xiaonei users could be exchanged for coupons good for products purchased at the Apple store, and a number of iPods were given out as prizes. Xiaonei also has an Apple Store user (Apple零售店), a “special friend” of the Apple Institute (screen shot), which mainly serves as a platform to allow users to post questions which are answered by other Apple enthusiasts.

Lenovo on Kaixin001.com ::
Kaixin001 offers a game in which users design their ideal virtual house. Lenovo launched a sponsored competition in March to judge the best-designed loft. The group currently has 14,465 “fans” (screen shot). Participants download the Loft template, design their loft, and then enter the result in one of three galleries (screen shot): Most stylish, most luxuriant, and most bewildering. All entries have to include the Lenovo A600 model all-in-one computer. The associated BBS elaborates on contest rules, and has lively discussion among members, who share designs and ideas or show off their entries. “Innovation” is emphasized as part of the design prompts, tying in to Lenovo’s brand message. In addition, contest entrants are competing to win Lenovo computers: the designer of the most popular loft will be awarded Lenovo’s new C305 model, while top finishers in the three categories get Lenovo-branded USB drives. Honorable mentions get a Kaixin001 virtual Beetle.

Adidas on Xiaonei.com ::
Sports brand Adidas has a heavy presence in the “Basketball Superstar” (篮球巨星) game on Xiaonei (screenshot). Players pit their fantasy team against missions, teamwork building exercises, and in PK (head to head) matches against teams run by other Xiaonei users. They use the virtual cash they win to get kitted out in Adidas clothing and shoes (screen shot). Game play is focused on setting up a team of “brothers” (friends from Xiaonei) and accumulating scores and other “brothers.” There are pages where you can train your brothers and, for a substantial amount of virtual cash, train existing basketball stars such as Chauncey Billups (比卢普斯) and Gilbert Arenas (阿里纳斯). PK matches are between players themselves in the game on the basis of their rankings, rather than according to actual real-world stats. The better your equipment, the more skilled your players become. You can also purchase virtual money by recharging your Xiaonei account by Paypal or credit card. The game’s BBS (screen shot) claims 123,990 group members, and many of the posts concern inviting “brothers” to join the game on their side.

// AjS

[Friday 5 is the product of my work at Edelman Digital (China). Link here for the full Friday 5 archive. If you'd like to be added to the bilingual (English & Chinese) Friday 5 email distribution list, please send me an email at: adam DOT schokora AT edelman DOT com.]

Tags: 360quan, 51.com, adidas, Apple, brands, china, chinese internet, coke, engagement, friday 5, interactive, kaixin001, lenovo, sns, social networking, xiaonei

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