LOokOut China!! Outdoor Media in China

Another Take on the so-called “Ban on Luxury advertising in China”

Tim — Wed, 18 May 2011 23:27:00 +0800

Indeed, where else to discuss about this matter if not on Lookout China.

Apologies to be silent in the last few months on the blog. As you can imagine, outdoor business in China is still booming (+13% growth expected in 2011 overall ) and thus work is quite hectic and the pressure high in this very high competitive environment especially when we have to beat the growth ;.)

I have heard a hundred different versions of what the Beijing government notification on “Luxury advertising new regulations” meant and as the buzz is now over, I still hear many brands, clients, agencies are still very confused about what it really means for their own brand.

Well, let me summarize the situation in one sentence: Nothing has been banned in China, especially not luxury advertising; the notifications are merely just reasonable adjustments to the Advertising Law that let unscrupulous advertisers lie to the audiences via unreasonable terms and false statements.

Now people are gonna say, I am a communist and support the Chinese propaganda by saying that… ahah.

No, but let’s be honest to ourselves before jumping all around and claim the Chinese government is “cracking down on signs of hedonism” ( sounds like a scary movie for outdoor ads owners) and ask yourselves this:

- What about your local advertising laws in your respective country? Can you deliver false messages on advertising without being sued by consumer association?

- Can you claim this brand is “The World # 1 brand” loud and clear? Based on what criterias???

- Can you put half-naked models wearings furs and jewellery out there in front of your children schools??( well, am sure, not everywhere)

The above are just examples but I think you get my point. So no, luxury advertising is not banned at all in China, outdoor advertising needs luxury sector in China and vice-versa. Don’t Freak out!! Especially if you are a well established brand.

Below see the Armani Campaign in Beijing Airport running as I write this article.

I read some articles stating luxury brands going online because of outdoor luxury advertising ban... honestly made me laugh... Brands going online are linked to the purchase patterns of Chinese consumers and really have nothing to do with outdoor ban...

Anyway, read some many untrue comments and analysis on the phenomenon, felt I had to clarify this a bit. Those rules are set to avoid abuse, to avoid real estate companies to bullshit on their giant construction wraps where they tease people with untrue and coercive statements.

So far, no media owners I know have been hit in any way so my original thoughts seems verified that the only outdoor signage that have been taken out are real estate building wraps and billboards.

We can surely expect that the Advertising Law on visuals and content in China and its various sectors ( TV, radio, outdoor, print…) will see many more adjustments in the coming years which are to my eye ( for now) only the normal process for the China government to fine tune rules in an industry that did not exist in China 30 years ago. So I hope medias and so-known China specialists can think twice before commenting and scaring everyone for no reason.

Share your thoughts ;.) !!! and share this to brands so hopefully people don't think too much about this anymore.

Lookout China in Egypt _ How I discovered Cairo Airport

Tim — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 16:55:00 +0800

I had planned a trip to Egypt for this 2011 Chinese New Year ( CNY) as many Chinese citizens did as well. My flight to Cairo was on the 28th of January so you can imagine how worry we were before going there. We did hesitate to go and eventually after many hours of reflection we decided to go as we really wanted to leave Beijing for CNY.( That was a bad call...) So here we were in Cairo on the morning of the 29th and realizing that while we were in the plane The Tahrir place was starting its revolution.

So it was 2 days later that I was alerady back in Cairo Airport on our way to Istanbul where we decided to spend our holidays instead ( that was a good call...) . Turkey was really nice and I did have the time to take more pictures of Istanbul airport that I will share with you in the coming days but to be honest in the chaos happening in Egypt I kind of forgot to focus on taking advertising pictures. Took a couple though as below.

Mobile+Nile = Mobinil for those who did not get it? Not sure if Many Egyptians wear the hat like in the advertisement, I haven't seen one in 3 days in Egypt... but well I had to stay in the hotel.

CIB: Best Bank in Egypt. What can you say to that?? Is that even legal to claim that. would not be in many countries for sure.

The classic Visa GO that you can see everywhere and BNP with its Mastercard program next to it. Classic!!

I'll have to go back to Egypt again to be able to take pictures of the country; even I do enjoy airport advertising, I hope I can visit the country next time!!!...

Merry Christmas to ALL!!!!

Tim — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 16:32:00 +0800

Even I have not been able to write my weekly articles the last 2 months, I could not miss the chance to wish you all a Merry Christmas and take this opportunity to share one of the Branded Christmas in Beijing this year which is within the airport sponsored by Erdos :.)

As the budget season for all brands is coming to an end, beginning of next year shall be a bit more quiet and give me more time to continue share with you the latest trends of the outdoor media market in China which is better than EVER.

Merry Christmas!!!

Beijing China Open 2010_ all the big Brands are there!!! but where did the public go??

Tim — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 19:12:00 +0800

Sorry, not too much time these days to write on the blog; as you know NOW is the time when all budgets for 2011 are being decided so work is reaaaaallllyyy busy. Good luck for all the ones in the same situation or if you are preparing your budget for 2011: DO NOT Forget to include airport advertising in your budget !!! ;.)

I went to the Beijing China open last weekend in Beijing during the major pollution fog but well even I could not see very clearly at the other side of the court through the fog; I could still see that the court was half-full or half-empty depding on your mood.

LOOK AT THAT!!!!

Then many questions came to me and my friends there?

- Are the sponsor putting all that money in sponsoring and exhibition stand only for the TV coverage? or do they also have a big hope to touch the people onsite?

- Since every year the situation is the same, and that every year, the same sponsors sign again; what is their advantage? ( except Lacoste who did not renew its partnership and now it's KAPPA)

Well; i got some ideas but still I have a hard to figure how come the courts were so empty when the courts for Shanghai masters are now full.

But well, I had a great time; could see the full marketing power of Mercedes-Benz with about 10 cars on site at different areas( I don't think I can spend a week in Beijing without seeing one of their exhibition stand!! I am not even talking about the outdoor posters all over town).

Could see some nice Corona ( only 15RMB onsite+ a gift wouwou) and Rolex lounges!

Lenovo, Citic Bank with a nice ATM.

and many more but just wanted to share some extracts with you all!

I'll definitly go again next year though, the games were pretty good.

Interview of Justin Teo - A China media market visionnaire - Owner of Kroznot Advertising

Tim — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 11:56:00 +0800

Lookout China: Hi Justin? Can you tell us how you got the idea to create your own media solutions integrated media solutions company in China?

Justin: it was always my dream to pursue a career in China, and starting an integrated media solutions company is a natural choice as I have been in media/advertising line for the past 11 years. Putting together a team to offer integrated marketing solutions is one of the best option to utilize my oversea knowledge accumulated over 4 cities (Singapore, Taipei, Hong Kong, Beijing) to offer an unique exchange and match making of oversea resources and china platform.

Lookout China: Why choose shopping malls as your medium of preference?

Justin: Shopping mall belongs to an unique platform know as Point-Of-Sales (POS) environment, where Brands-Shoppers-Transaction converge to create the desire results we normally know as “sales”. This is one of the best environment to create impulse brand purchase and heighten brand reminder as shoppers are in a conscious state of information seeking and with an intention to purchase.

Mall environment encourages intimate interaction between brands and shoppers with various hall events and store activities, thus pulling shoppers closer to becoming a brand loyalist through real life experiences. Within this dynamic environment where shopper browse at will and without pressure, there are numerous commercial and marketing opportunities to harness the impact of reaching out to shoppers with different brand preference. Kroznot is the mall specialist and is thus best positioned to help brands to maximize this untapped platform by conceptualizing and implementing desired integrated marketing activities.

Lookout China: Are you planning to expand your network to 2nd and 3rd tiers cities? and Why?

Justin: As our unique integrated solutions is not totally depending on creating a network, we are already looking for opportunities to expand into 2nd and 3rd tier cities. Discussions are underway but we are still assessing the various opportunities before we move full steam ahead.

Lookout China: What are your current projects you would like to share with us today?

Justin: Among our current long term mall partners which include Beijing Oriental Plaza and China World Mall, we are also looking to work with at least another 3 partners where Kroznot provides related services to facilitate their internal marketing efforts. We are also looking into bringing in new touchscreen technology and display innovations to increase the excitement within the mall environment while at the same time helping malls to better understand their shoppers better through data analysis.

Lookout China: Thanks a lot Justin; we will follow Kroznot development in the coming years and do not hesitate to share with Lookout China your latest innovations in the China Market.

If you want to kow more about Kroznot, do not hesitate to contact Justin at Justin@kroznot.com or reach him via its mobile at 13811072699 or via LinkedIn.

Thei website is under construction, can't wait to see the new outdoor solutions offer on the market asap.

Pictures of Kroznot media in Beijing Oriental Plaza.

Beijing Airport advertising- Barbie and China Construction Bank launch credit cards

Tim — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 13:42:00 +0800

Barbie and CCB joint credit card

Funny thing! On my way to Shanghai to actually meet the Mattel Marketing manager China; I came across this ad the same morning. Barbie and CCB launched their first joint credit cards and launched a strong outdoor cammpaign within several airports: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou at least according to my sources. You can also certainly find this campaign on many other formats and of course within the CCB outlets.

Barbie in China

Barbie has been in China for a very long time but it's only last year that Mattel started to launch its dedicated stores with the flagship Barbie store on Huaihailu. This 6 floor- building includes all the Barbies you can think about, with also a Barbie design workshop, a Barbie Cafe etc... you can find out more about it on their Barbie Shanghai website.

Barbie has many licensees all across China but they also develop little by little their own marketing strategy and this partnership with CCB is one of the first strong marketing push of Barbie in China. Whether it is CCB or Barbie who need more the other one, this is quite a mistery to me; I am not familiar with what kind of deal has been made between the two.

Anyway; hope you enjoy the Barbie AD ;) !!!

China Mid-Autumn festival: France Moon Cakes... They DID IT AGAIN!!

Tim — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 01:35:00 +0800

The picture is not that clear; took it with my mobile in a taxi.

China mid-Autumn Festival is approaching fast and we all have to get ready to buy some mooncakes... offer it away.. get some some mooncakes... and giving it away... Because let's be honest !!! So many people don't even like mooncakes but it's tradition .

So everyone is offering mooncakes to everyone hoping they won't receive too much because they won't be able to finish it by themselves.

And to be frank; it's not the above outdoor advert that will change my mind.. what are they putting in those so-called "France Moon Cake" so they have that color???

They probably did some barter deal ( mooncakes against medias) to get so many locations through the city; you can find them in many subway stations ( that shall be with TOP Metro) and also on many single-deck bus ( I need to ask a friend again about that media owner name, i always forget) all around Beijing town.

As of the marketing move to choose France as a Sales vector; they actually had the same product 3 years ago in 2007 for the first time and they stopped that product 2 years ago during the time Chinese medias were everything but nice to France after Sarkozy threatened China not to attend the Olympic opening ceremony ( + torch relay + Dailai Lama etc...) _ but it seems France is popular again and I even got the confirmation that France is the most visited Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo so here they go again.

Let's hope it stays that way...

Let me know if any of you has a chance to taste those " France Moon Cakes"

China: El Dorado of Automotive industry... also for the outdoor media operators

Tim — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 01:30:00 +0800

All the Car brands want their share of the Giant China car market and they are all thinking of new ways to attract new costumers. In addition to classic TV ads, print or outdoor billboards, the new trend is to Exhibition stand like the one above in some key spots of Beijing cities.

The above exhibition stand was done in Beijing Airport T3 for Benz.

This location is a pure exhibition stand but most of the brands are also choosing downtown spots to showcase their new models and even perfom sales on site.

Here you can see Porsche who had this exhibition area for 3 days between Shinkong Place and Huamao building.

Below you can see BMW who booked the whole parking lot of 3.3 building in Sanlitun to showcase 8 or 9 car models with onsite sales assistant in case you are interested to purchase one.

This kind of new street marketing is getting very popular; on my side, i am wondering if it is actually legal to pitch costumers to sell cars outside of the official Point of Sales (POS). But well, with all the money involved, i guess they are covered... in one way or another...

China Census 2010: Build a harmonious society

Tim — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 01:13:00 +0800

China will start its 6th mational census on the 1st of November 2010. From what I understandd, the census will be based on face to face interviews for the Chinese population and also some volunteer declaration especially in the biggest cities and for the foreigners.

It will survey population, age, nationality, levels of education, profession and population migration.

All the foreigners that have been resident in China over 6 months shall register; I ll share with you more information about this once i actually know how.

How I found out about this is by a clear and efficient outdoor campaign that has florished all over town in Beijing that I believe have spread nationally.

The Chinese and English version on the visuals are slightly different bu basically it comes to the same thing: "A Successfull Census will make your city a world CITY" (that 's what you can see in Beijing) or that " Census benefits All" and that "Census will help create Harmony"

To read some interesting thoughts about China 2010 census and of previous results, ou can find more information here

Lufthansa Airlines A380 arrives in Beijing... and you can become the pilot!!!

Tim — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 14:44:00 +0800

To celebrate and promote the arrival of the A380 in Beijing Capital International Airport, Lufthansa Airlines is going on a road show with its promotion team to let the Beijinger have a flair of the A380 cockpit.

The 1st Lufthansa A380 flight between Frankffurt and Beijing is planned to be launched on the 1st of September according to latest news.

Along with some catwalk from some of the Lufthansa stewardesses; you will be able to experience a flight simulation of the A380 and get a certificate afterwards.

The Exhibition is currently on the parking lot of 3.3 in Sanlitun Bar street until Sunday and will move to another place in town ; also planned to go to Tianjin afterwards; it seems the road show shall end around the 10th of September. Part of the exhibition animations; it seems you can also win some round-trips tickets between Beijing and Frankfurt on the A380.

Personnally, I'd really like to see the interior of the A380 and have maybe the chance one day to travel business in those airplanes; the business class really look amazing from the various airlines websites who provide the flight from Beijing ( so far, only Emirates started regular A 380 flights this summer between Dubai and Beijing).

China set to overtake Japan as the World second largest Ad market by 2015

Tim — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 10:26:00 +0800

China 2nd AD Market in 2015

According to the latest media outllook from PWC which reflects the development of the Ad industry within Asia from 2010 to 2014, China is to overtake Japan by 2015.

I like this ad which educates the country side to drink more milk: Remember every day to drink more milk", taken in Yunnan in 2006 during one of my backpacking trip.

While Asia average growth per year during that period is expecting to reach 6,4%; China will grow by 12% per year and Japan only by 2,8%. This is good news for the Ad industry actors in China.

China Ad market growth forecast

Still according to the study, the main drivers for China will be:

- Online: 25,1% growth per year

- TV: 14,6%

- Outdoor: + 15% (compared to -1,5% in Japan) WOUWOUWOU!!!!!!

- Magazine: 12,6%

- Newspaper: 4,6%

Asia outdoor media forecast

Other dynamic market for Ad spend is of course India. In terms of outdoor in the Asia region, we can see that 3 other countries show above double-digit growth: India with 11,5% growth per year, Malaysia with 14,5% and Indonesia with 11,5%.

China Yili Milk brand, sponsor of the World Expo 2010 advertises in Beijing subway station with TOPAd Metro advertising (JV between Beijing Metro and JCDecaux China).

The study included the following countries: China, Hong-Kong, Japan, South Korea, India, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia.

If you want to know more about the study which reflects on various sectors as well, you can go on the Pwc website to purchase the study.

Also find more information about H1 results for outdoor leader JCDecaux who is keeping up its development pace and does plan to stay ahead of Clear Channel in 2010 in terms of revenues.

Also read more about China ad spend by category in here for 2009 and 2010.

ouhhhh... China getting stronger on the ad market....

Beijing Sanlitun North Village- New heart of luxury brands in Beijing

Tim — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:45:00 +0800

Beijing or Shanghai? Where is the luxury demand of China?

Following a study done by MSN China; Liu Shu, chief editor and executive producer of MSN China Portal, said 38 percent of Beijingers are regular customers of luxury products, higher than 37.3 percent in Shanghai and 33 percent in Guangzhou.

Agnes B outdoor AD- teaser for the shop within the center

She revealed that almost 63 percent of Beijing white-collar workers buy luxury cosmetics, 48 percent purchase luxury bags, 45 percent wear luxury watches, and 40 percent have premium-brand clothing. This may sound surprising as internationally most of the medias, newspapers and TV always focus on Shanghai as the heart of luxury in China.

Indeed after personnally sharing this information with some of my luxury clients; they all confirmed that the real heart of consumption for luxury brand in Mainland is not only Beijing but North China. Except some niche products (like Rolls Royce in Ningbo), most brands have the best sales in cities like Dalian, Beijing and Tianjin. So it's not a surprise that we can see new luxury shops opening in Beijing every month and one of the big luxury aera ready to open fully end of this year is located (again...) in Sanlitun North Village( Swire properties).

Of course Shanghai is still where the trends migh raise, where the marketing campaigns are decided and will remain a great place for Fashionistas but the middle class hungry for luxury products seem more dynamix in North China indeed.

Sanlitun North Village will soon heat up

We can already see that some shops are already open like Rolex and waiting for clients there( for now, it's really empty). but we can expect the area to heat up when the large shops will open.

1st Beijing flagship store of Balmain and Versace are looking huge. I wanted to share this article with you also to show you the amazing job done by Comme Des Garcons and especially by Armani with those giant building wraps that are quite impressive and at a level of production which is quite neat.

The Armani wrapping has been here for many months now and still looking great!!! Definitly the most prominent brand in the whole area for this future luxury center; let's go back there in a few months to see how the shops are doing as many worry how all those shops all around town can survive with this fierce competition.

Also this great picture that the connaisseurs will appreciate. Why bother make a long translation of the Chinese when only two words are so clear... "NO BALLS, they said"

Also learn more about Sanlitun on my previous article World Cup series: world cup fever with adidas in Sanlitun

Or check Sanlitun official website

Your comments, opinions or corrections to the above article are of course all welcomed.

For a Civilized Chaoyang _ Beijing Chaoyang district outdoor campaign

Tim — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 17:23:00 +0800

It's everywhere_ Right out of a Japanese cute manga we can see this little girl who seems like she wants to educate us on how to build a Civilized and harmonious society in Beijing :.)

how sweet...

Between modernism and propaganda, this campaign is all around Chaoyang district in Beijing, one of the most dynamic district of the Mega city.

What i found ironic is to see one of its most gigantic version right in front of the Burnt down CCTV tower II (Mandarin hotel as well). We all remember that the tower burnt due an administrator ( now jailed with a bunch of other people related to the fireworks) of the building who wanted to celebrate Chinese New Year on the rooftop of the building with hundreds of thousands RMB of fireworks which created the fire.

Maybe this "Civilized campaign" will prevent people from doing stupid stuff like that, who knows !?!?

To know more about the fire, read the news on Reuters or the funny photoshops on Chinasmack done by netizens.

Also find more Beijing streets campaigns here

Beijing Outdoor_ World Cup Fever_ Adidas in Sanlitun Village

Tim — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 18:27:00 +0800

Following our brief article on Puma, here we go with Adidas where we can really feel the budget power that Adidas is putting with this world Cup.

Not only because of the nice cover of Adidas flasgship store with the national players of various team; like Messi below:

But because of the amazing installation they made in the heart of Sanlitun village for the whole period of the World Cup.

Renting the space of Sanlitun village for a month must have cost them Millions; unless they got a special partnership with the Village that we don't know about. This is literally one of the most expensive outdoor spot in town.

Sanlitun Village has slowly become a hotpost just before the Beijing Olympics when the shops and few restaurants started to open. And even today, shops and restaurants are still opening every month. Plus Sanlitun North Village is scheduled to be fully opened by the end of this year.

We also have assisted to the opening of Sanlitun Soho about 2 weeks ago whcih will become heaven for some top companies to have their HQ or offices located right next to the hotspot: SanLitun Village.

As a Marketer, if you can think as a better hotspot than Sanlitun in town, I am all ears.

Adidas did great use of the setup; they also rented the screen to put their ads and managed to organize with Sanlitun village to have games broadcasted on the Giant LED screens so you have literally hundreds of people sitting there all day watching games and facing the Adidas installation.

Beijing outdoor_ World Cup fever_ Puma in Sanlitun Village

Tim — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 12:26:00 +0800

In the famous Sanlitun Village where all sports brands have their shops, we can find various brands message to support the 2010 South Africa World Cup. The first outdoor format I want to introduce you is Puma.

Puma which is famous to support African teams and football within Africa is not putting forward any team sponsoring in front of his store but has created a visual to support Africa as a whole and the football as a way of love: " Love equals Football" ... Anyway, great colorful visual printed on a large sticker to fit the store front side. about 4 meters wide and 5 meters high.

You can find more information about their marketing activities on their great website Pumafootball.com where you can also follow all the Puma teams of the World Cup: Ghana, Cameroon, Italy, Algeria, Ivory Coast etc... with their well animated blog.

I will continue to give you a taste of the marketing and outdoor activities you can see in Beijing around town for the coverage of this World Cup that Chinese are following with great passion even if their team does not participate.

As a French, I do follow the World Cup of course, but the show our team is putting on right now makes me feel quite ashamed so I keep a low profile ;.)

Viva Futbal'

If you want to know more about outdoor advertising in China, click here

Beijing Taxi advertising _ who is the most famous foreign woman in Beijing?

Tim — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 14:43:00 +0800

IT'S HERRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

But what's her name?? Who haven't seen that advertising in Beijing? Still the same visual for the last 5 years, this is definitly the most popular ad from Touch Media in Beijing taxis.

You can find it on the magazine holder and within the magazines once in a while. So I believe this ad does not need a thorough explanation... but I am still going to give you one. :.)

A Straight-forward Wake-up Call AD

This Hong-Kong based company is pretty straight forward in its advertising campaign : they chose an outdoor format that can be seen by everyone from kids to elderly people and their message is very clear: " Make your boobs bigger".On the Ad next to the clivage, you can also read the slogan: " Stop being Flat"... pretty appealing for the Chinese women.

I have difficulty to believe that the censorship approved this ad to be outdoor but well... you never know.

You can find all the contact and adresses of the institutes to proceed to the operation and you can even read: " BUY ONE, GET ONE FREE" ahah.... I am not kidding.

Well, in a country where sex is taboo and you can't see anything sexy on TV, quite striking to see that ad all over the place.

Personal advice: if next time you go in a taxi with your wife and that you are facing this ad, try not to spend too much time looking at the clivage of the model, your wife might take it personnally and you are good for a storm at home ahah.

At the opposite, if you want to convince your wife to get bigger ones, you can actually go in the taxi and use this ad to start talk about the subject... :.)

This AD really do the job I think.

The Air Bridge Outdoor Media solutions speeding up in China

Tim — Mon, 31 May 2010 15:42:00 +0800

What is an Air Bridge media package?

For those who are not familiar with OOH media or Airport media, one of the TOP media within an airport is the Air Bridge Media. The Air bridge is the structure that connects directly the plane door to the terminal so most of the passengers have to go through an air brdige within an airport except in case of remote boarding or arrival where you might walk or take a bus to get to the terminal entrance.

Beijing Airport Terminal 2

The Air bridge Media format Air bridges offer the best visibility for an advertiser within an airport for many reasons:

- Main entry point into the place or on arrival

- inescapable view of the air bridges when you are waiting on the boarding hall or when you arrive , they are the first things you are checking out on your arrival( even without knowing, you do)

- The largest formats of most airports: Indeed it's likely that the poster that covers an air bridge is the largest format of advertisement within an airport That is why this media is without doubt the most expensive media for brands.

The brand normally need to book that kind of media for at least 2, 3 or even 5 years; the production cost is also very high so only major brands of mutlinationals or domestic giant group can afford it.

Air bridges in China

Now let's have a look at the Chinese situation for air bridges.

From my own experience, I can say that air bridge medias is still quite new in China and has not yet reached all airports. or in some airports, you can only see some small stickers on the air bridges instead of large air bridges wraps or posters.

Everybody know that worldwide, brands like HSBC or GE normally like air bridges. Also in China, we can now see appear the local giants taking part of the air bridge battle in China: we have ICBC in Shanghai Hongqiao T2, the new terminal, GuangDong development bank in Beijing Airport Terminal 2 for the outside of the air bridge and Ping An Insurance group for the inside.

I also remember seeing Bank of Communications in Tianjin Airport and I guess many more across the country but my feeling is that there is still a huge potential on that media in the coming decades with new airports being built and the existing airports that do not yet take full advantage of those potential media treasures.

I would be glad to know what you see around the world for air bridges advertisers, please share here with us.

To know more about Airport media in China, also read about the new Shanghai Airport.

Nepal Series (3/3)- A country hungry for marketing innovation

Tim — Wed, 26 May 2010 11:15:00 +0800

While I was in Nepal, since the country was on strike we had a lot of spare time to discover the country and its culture by discussing with the people in the local people in the streets or in our hotels who like us were quite powerless about the event so I took some time to discuss with them about advertising.

I won't go into too much details but a few things can be remembered:

- Nepal media industry ( TV, radio etc...) is really free of speech as Nepal is a democracy and they really defend those rights.

- For the advertising industry, it means they are really free to broadcast whatever message they want or really be innovative on the creative but by looking around or looking at TV, you can really see an obvious lack of creativity here

- For the outdoor business, of course there is still plenty of room to improve the formats, implement real lightboxes but people also hope that the creativity will follow.

The only advertising that I noticed during our 10 days trip was the NCell ad which is quite a classic in terms of creativity and that has been done countless times in other countries( see below the painter effect).

I hope next time I go there, we can see some new stuff.

Bybe Bye Nepal

read the first article about nepal

My Interview on China Business on outdoor advertising in China

Tim — Sat, 22 May 2010 20:30:00 +0800

Wanted to share with you a brief interview I gave for our friends of China Business Connect, specialist of e-learning in China.

You can find my interview on http://china-business-connect.com/interview-outdoor-advertising.htm

It actually gave me an idea and in the coming weeks, I will interview some of the persons I know in the outdoor advertising in China to share with you their insights.

China Outdoor 2010 growth forecast- Q1 results higher than expected + 22% Ad spending, +27% for outdoor

Tim — Mon, 17 May 2010 15:16:00 +0800

I wanted to share with you the last information published by CTR regarding the ad spending in Q1 2010 for China.

The Ad spending for Q1 2010 has reached 130,2Bn RMB, a 22 % increased compared to Q1 2009. What is very striking is that Q1 2009 only saw a 2% increase compared to Q1 2008 so we can really say the Ad spending growth is back on track FULL SPEED.

As you can see below, all medias revenues are increasing big times. This is not due only to an increase of inventory but mainly because media operators did increase their rate cards quite a lot from 2009 and the Q1 2010 sales have been surprisingly good.

With such an increase for Q1, the forecast for 2010 might be reviewed. Even if the CTR people do not want to bet on a higher increase that they published a few months back : they forecast a 10% ad spend growth in 2010 compared to 2009. 2009 vs 2008 growth was 13,5%.

From what I feel as an insider, I can tell you that this year for the outdoor is a lot more exciting than last year, budgets increased, new advertisers are coming in and we face even a shortage on medias on some periods and formats so when we had only a 9% increase for the outdoor in 2009, I strongly believe we will see a much higher result in 2010.

For Q2 and Q3, we can expect the World Expo media push to have a very strong effect on ad spening as well and year-end is also a preferred time for advertisers to reach out for costumers before Christmas and CNY Celebrations; still a clear blue sky in front of us so far this year.

The OOH LCD and bus TV might have a strong role in this year's results as the ad spending on those 2 medias has the fastest growth:

However, let's keep in mind that CTR does not take into account fully the occupancy rates for outdoor as well as discount policies from vairous operators, so I personnally consider those numbers only as a trend for China and not to look at the nominal value of numbers here.