Posts Tagged ‘chinese creative community’

amy van’s zodiac illustrations ::

Friday, November 20th, 2009

:: see below for a series of very cool back and white zodiac illustrations we stumbled upon by Beijing-based Neocha-user Amy Van. Look closely, each illustration tells a unique story.

For more from Amy Van on NeochaEDGE, link here.  // AjS

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This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

water-color work by b ovensfan ::

Saturday, September 26th, 2009

:: for more from B Ovensfan on NeochaEDGE, link here. // AjS

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This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

magazine nudity, by ka xiaoxi ::

Friday, September 25th, 2009

:: for more from Ka Xiaoxi on NeochaEDGE, link here.  // AjS

ka-xiao-xi-neochaedge-2

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

shanghai’s popil & dezio paint-up beijing’s 798 ::

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

:: my favorite Shanghai-based graffiti artists Dezio and Popil recently returned from Beijing, but not before they left their mark on 798, the capital’s preeminent art district. If you spot graffiti or urban art anywhere in China, please share it with me at , I’d like to document it. For more from Dezio or Popil on NeochaEDGE, link here or here, respectively. // AjS

dezio-popil-beijings-798

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

a horse in a tub smoking a cigarette ::

Monday, September 21st, 2009

:: for more from Bananasail on NeochaEDGE, link here.  // AjS

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This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

graffiti | huating rd. pieces ::

Sunday, September 20th, 2009

:: I recently came across some wet paint in Shanghai on Huating Rd. If you know whose work this is, please let me know in the comments section below. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more pieces going up in that area – it’s home to a fair amount of low-profile wall space. For more graffiti in China on NeochaEDGE, link here. // AjS

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This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

city skyline illustration from raindrops ::

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

:: for more from Raindrops on NeochaEDGE, link here.  // AjS

raindrops

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

a fun track from sulumi ::

Monday, September 14th, 2009

:: for more from Sulumi on NeochaEDGE, link here. /// AjS

sulumi

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

something from QQ Zhao ::

Sunday, September 13th, 2009

:: for more from QQ Zhao on NeochaEDGE, link here.  // AjS

qq-zhao

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

a photo from rraay ::

Saturday, September 12th, 2009

:: for more from Rraay on NeochaEDGE link here. // AjS

photo by Rraay

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

an illustration from jamhippy ::

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

:: for more from Jamhippy on NeochaEDGE, link here.  // AjS

jamhippy

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

converse lovenoise documentary ::

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

converse-lovenoise:: over the past year or so, Converse (China) has made a big push in China to align itself with local indie / creative culture, particularly the music scene. Last August, as part of its LoveNoise (爱噪音) tour, Converse sponsored two well-known Chinese indie rock bands ( and Queen Sea Big Shark) for a 6000 km, one-bus road trip that included concerts in five second-tier Chinese cities: Xi’an, Wuhan, Changsha, Hangzhou, and Nanjing (plus a free grand finale show at Mao Live House in Beijing).

Bravo to W+K Shanghai and Split Works for engineering and executing the effort. It’s proven itself to be the most successful example to-date of a big brand engaging the Chinese indie music community – the verdict is still out on Pepsi’s Battle of the Bands / Voice of the Next Generation campaign.

See below for a full-length documentary capturing the Converse LoveNoise tour. The film was directed by the Beijing filmmaker Liu Feng and features interviews with the bands and their fans, as well as appearances and performance footage of Echo Rush, Hualun, 48V, Self Party, and , among other Chinese indie bands. Enjoy.

For more NeochaEDGE posts on Converse, link here.  // AjS

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

a track from leto ::

Monday, September 7th, 2009

:: for more from Leto on NeochaEDGE, link here.  // AjS

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This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

an illustration from garfield ::

Sunday, September 6th, 2009

:: for more from Garfield on NeochaEDGE, link here.  // AjS

garfield-ioftd

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

things well done | converse’s “it’s your turn” campaign ::

Saturday, September 5th, 2009

converse logo“It’s Your Turn” (到你了) is what Converse (China) has aptly titled its latest campaign featuring “flagship” spokespeople, Queen Sea Big Shark – one of China’s better-known indie bands. The campaign crowd-sources not only lyrics for the band’s new song Let’s Play, but also extras for cameo appearances in the song’s music video.

Once again Converse, bravo, well done.

Our friends at W+K Shanghai also deserve a chest bump for their work on this campaign – they are Converse’s agency of record in China.

What do I like about the “It’s Your Turn” campaign? Find out just below this mad hot Queen Sea Big Shark band photo.

queen-sea-big-shark-band-photo

First, it’s leveraging web basics (social media, user-generated content, etc.) to co-create with, among other target-audiences, the Chinese creative community. I love the web and I love the Chinese creative community, using the former to get through to the latter makes me happy and is just plain smart, kudos!

converse-its-your-turn-campaign-1Second, it’s providing a Chinese indie band yet another platform of exposure, promotion, and “packaging;” and it’s doing it in a non-intrusive, non-corporate way. Converse is just playing a facilitator role to make it all happen – none of the hype is focused on the brand, it’s all about the band. This campaign is not only good for Queen Sea Big Shark’s prospects, but also for the healthy development indie music scene and creative community as a whole.

Third, whether Converse wants to admit it or not, it’s not just for the indie crowd in China, or anywhere really. It’s a massive brand with the majority of it’s consumers falling into the “mainstream” crowd. The efforts Converse is making to align itself with Chinese indie culture and the Chinese creative community does well to establish / accentuate the brand’s personality and distinguish it among competitors in the China market, but more importantly (to us anyway), it helps educate “the mainstream” (i.e. the 90%) about the indie / creative scene (i.e. the 10%). This is something the former desires and the latter of course welcomes, and in the end, the brand wins too. This kind of education / awareness raising is a great service that (in some ways, only) big commercial brands and mainstream media can provide both demographics. Involving a mass audience in an indie band’s creative process is a nice way to achieve this.

Fourth, related to the third reason, the offline auditions for music video cameos are being held in Nanjing, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Shenyang, Wuhan, and Xian – all second tier cities (except Guangzhou). This is a smart move for Converse on many levels, but what I most like about it is that the brand is bringing indie / creative culture to new demographics, not just the tried and true 1st-tier markets of Beijing and Shanghai.

converse-its-your-turn-campaign-2Fifth, there is half compelling prize. It’s depressing how many of these user-generated content / co-creation efforts by big brands (most of which probably have significantly larger marketing budgets than Converse) are incentivized with lame awards. “It’s Your Turn” winners get an all-expense-paid 5-day trip for two to Beijing to attend Modern Sky’s MIDI Music Festival in October. Winners are also given a RMB 2000 shopping spree at a Converse store. Both of these things are in addition to the obvious – winners either having lyrics they wrote used in a Queen Sea Big Shark song (Let’s Play) or appearing in the band’s Let’s Play music video, both of which will be high-profile, nationally promoted pieces of content. (Hell, I’m thinking about participating.)

Last, the campaign simply works. It’s achieving exactly what Converse wants it to – pushing the brand’s image / traits / attributes further in the direction it wants to go.

I only have two small critiques:

First, I think the campaign could be amplified better. It has been live for two weeks and besides some banner ads on Douban.com and the official Converse China website, I haven’t really heard much else about it. (Hopefully this post helps get the word out further.) Connecting with influential bloggers / online communities and courting brand fans to spread the word would help give an already great idea more legs within the indie community, but more importantly, among mainstream audiences. And of course, tapping more mainstream channels (online and off) would help increase the reach of the campaign across multiple demographics / localities.

Second, although I think this “one-off” campaign is a great thing all around (as was the LoveNoise campaign), I would like to see Converse communicate more openly about long-term commitments and plans for the brand’s involvement in the Chinese indie music scene. This is something that Pepsi has done quite well (albeit only in words and on paper at this point) with its Battle of the Bands / Voice of the Next Generation campaign and QMusic label.

I’m all for leading through action, which Converse has done admirably, but research we’ve done at NeochaEDGE has found that brands have much to gain from publicly stating their long-term commitments or plans to engage with the Chinese creative community and local indie culture.

To learn more about the “It’s Your Turn” campaign’s lyric-writing contest, link here; for more on the campaign’s “be an extra in the Let’s Play music video” contest, link here. See below for two videos introducing both elements of the campaign. For more NeochaEDGE posts on Converse, link here. For more from W+K on NeochaEDGE, link here.  // AjS

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.