While the environment has not typically been a hot topic of conversation among netizens, the recent law enacted this past June requiring all stores to charge for plastic bags has inspired not only online buzz but creativity among particular communities. For example, the popular Shanghai community KDS (which we discussed in a previous IWOM Watch here), initiated a "green bag" campaign and encouraged its members to design their own bags and then vote for the best design. The winning bags were then sold on the site.

In our latest IWOM Watch, we discuss this campaign in addition to other recent developments and unique elements of the KDS community.

Case Study

In response to plastic bag ban, Chinese netizens go green on BBS communities

Summary

Due to new laws limiting the distribution of free plastic bags, the use of re-usable bags has become much more popular. A number of companies have started to produce and sell their own green bags (Roxy, China Book International), whilst others use these green bags as promotional tools by sending them to certain target groups for free (Sina, China Mobile ).

KDS recently launched a campaign allowing users to design and upload their own green bag designs, with the most popular designs then being available for the users to buy. This event has been very popular among KDS’s netizens, with many users actively participating in every stage of the process.

CIC View

By companies allowing users the ability to design and produce their own bags, not only does it combine the marketing and market research process into one ( a process similar to the “Threadless” model). But also generates buzz/desire for these soon to be released products, as these campaigns tap into netizens DIY mentality.

Below is a screen shot of the index for the full IWOM watch report:

For related articles, please see below:

6 reasons brands in China should listen to IWOM (beyond seeding and crisis tracking)

IWOM Watch Apr 1-15: Understanding the Local Online Community Landscape

IWOM Watch Apr 16-30: Netizens find new channels for self expression

IWOM Watch half year review: January - June, 2008

Recently I was interviewed along with Adam Schokora (Edelman China Digital Manager) and David Wolf (CEO of Wolf Media Asia; read his blog for some of the most erudite, balanced and intelligent writing on Chinese media and marketing) on the issue of astroturfing in China.

I think it's a good read for a more balanced understanding of this situation.

I addressed this topic in an earlier blog post here, in response to an article written by Business Week which I felt didn't get things right in regards to the Chinese Internet or CIC’s position in the market.

For further reading on the topic, please see the links below:

- David Wolf, China's war for the soul of online corporate communications
(if blocked for China readers, try here)
- Will Moss, Is it "war" against Chinese blogs?
- Paul Denlinger, The PR Problem for Chinese Online Public Relations Firms
- China Web2.0 Review, The PR Problems of China’s Social Media

The China Business Network is hosting a dinner event this Thursday, August 21st in San Francisco to bring together visionary business, technology and media leaders who recognize the growing changes in China, and are looking to understand these changes and/or to factor China into future business or media plans. CIC is offering a complimentary white paper to all attendees, which include the Managing Director of Ogilvy's Global Technology Practice, OpenSocial Evangelist at Google and VP of Edelman among others.

Looks like a great event and an interesting group of people. For those of you interested in learning more about the event, you can access the event webpage here.

In preparing our research for CIC’s recently released white paper Tuning into Sports IWOM Q4 2007, CIC’s analysts also took a look at the buzz surrounding the Olympic Games to experiment using some of our new analytical tools. One tool we used is the KAM (Keyword Association Mapping) which we applied to the Olympic related data that we collected in the fourth quarter of 2007 with the purpose of analyzing the relationship between Olympic related IWOM and a selected list of brands and attributes. Below is a brief overview and explanation of our results.
(Note that the analysis is for the period Q4 2007)

(How to read the map: The distance between each brand and attribute demonstrates how closely each one relates to the Olympics and to one another.)

Summary of KAM:
KAM is CIC’s latest tool for analyzing online discussions around specific topics on BBS. Not only does KAM allow us to look at the online relationship between brands and attributes and a specific topic (i.e. Olympics), but it also allows us to see where brands sit in relation to one another around this topic. It does this by using text-mining algorithms to derive the most important language, issues and themes of our topic from online conversations and maps the results.

The topic focus could be brands, products, campaigns, or other specific issues identified by the client (in this case we chose the Olympics). With this advanced text mining technology, we think such visualization makes it more convenient for brands to effectively understand consumer’s feelings towards their brand, competitors, products, campaigns, service, spokespersons,etc..

How to “make sense” of all of this:
From the above map, we can clearly see Coke, an official Olympic sponsor, is closest to the Olympics, showing that it had the highest keyword frequency in discussions related to the Olympics. This means it has the highest number of mentions online discussed in proximity to the Olympics. At the same time, we can see how each brand or attribute relate to one another. For example, we can see that Samsung and mobile phones as well as Lenovo and mascot also have close relationships with one another. As we dug deeper we found the reason for the connection was Samsung and Lenovo both launched special edition Olympic products, Samsung with its Olympic edition mobile phone and Lenovo with its Olympic mascot flash drive, thus drawing Olympic related buzz online. We found that the special edition Olympic products inspired netizens to collect, discuss and show off (晒 or “shai”) these products online.

Moreover, the close relationship between McDonald’s and its marketing activity also stemmed from its Olympic campaign, “I'm Lovin’ It When China Wins (我就喜欢中国赢)” which encouraged participants to upload photos online, linking their online and offline campaigns. In only 2 months, more than a million people participated in the campaign.

As we see from the above analysis of the test data, by understanding how brands and attributes relate to specific topics, brands can initiate more strategic marketing campaigns by connecting with target consumers and stimulating netizens’ enthusiasm and participation.

For further reading, please see below:

Tuning into Sports IWOM 2007 Q4: BBS vs. Twitter
Sports White Paper Coming Soon: Ride the Wave of Sports Online Culture

Very cool... for the second year in a row I was awarded a Danwei “Model Worker” blog award. Danwei is an excellent blog that covers both on and offline media in China and has some great short documentaries at Danwei TV. It’s a real honor to be recognized by Danwei and to be in the company of such cool blogs as Imagethief and Digital Watch in the “Advertising, Media and PR” category.

For Danwei’s list of Chinese “Model Worker” blogs please go here.

I recently interviewed T.R. Harrington, Co-Founder and CEO, Darwin Marketing, for my Interactive China series on iTV Asia. Darwin has been doing search in China longer than just about anyone, and TR has unmatched experience and perspective on the topic. TR and I cover a number of topics related to search, IWOM and where the two overlap in China.

To watch the full interview, please see here.

For more on my iTV Asia and my Interactive China series, see our earlier article here.

For more reading, see below:

Almost 150,000 Chinese BBS messages mentioned Focus in Q2 and why Ford should care

We have written many a time about the power of net language as a symbol of net culture and as a way to connect to netizens (see here for one example). The fact that there is a unique net language underscores the power of online community.

In this issue, we see examples of well intentioned marketers who use net language in their communications, but end up hurting themselves by misusing it. They end up looking like the kids in school who are trying too hard to be cool, but end up proving they are not really cool at all.

For example, this real estate ad uses the "very...very" phrasing of "很黄, 很暴力" made famous by the CCTV interview of Zhang Shufan condemning the Internet as violent and pornographic. The phrase used says "It’s very expensive and a very good value upstairs, while very big and very fun downstairs" (楼上很贵很超值，楼下很大很好玩). This phrasing just doesn't ring true for the netizens it is trying to impress.

As we have said before, it is important to really understand online culture so marketers can truly and meaningfully connect with netizens by creatively recognizing their culture (see here).
Moto working with the net cartoon Tuzki (see here) is just one example of brands who appropriately leveraged net culture.

Case Study

Netizens criticize the misuse of net language in brands advertisements
网民对于品牌活动滥用网络语言表示反感

Summary

Recently some brands have been integrating net language into their banner ads offline. Pictures of these ads have become a popular topic of conversation among netizens online. Though some netizens thought these ads were creative, most found the use of net language in offline ads strange, especially as some of the words were often used out of context. Additionally, some of the “net terms” used had negative connotations.

CIC View

Net language has become a core element of online culture and is widely spread and used by the majority of netizens.
Some brands have begun to get their feet wet by using net language as a marketing promotion tool in offline campaigns to connect with netizens. However, the misuse of key net language terms, especially those with negative connotations, has led many netizens to become confused about the brands’ intentions and has done little to raise brand awareness.
If brands want to integrate net language into offline campaigns, it would be better to use neutral/positive words which are familiar to their core fan base. Brands should fully understand the meaning and use of each net term, in order to avoid criticisms from netizens.

Below is a screen shot of the index for the full IWOM watch report:

See below for other related posts that may be of interest:

IWOM Watch half year review: January - June, 2008

3 pathways to net culture

Hey DX, hope you like this post on net language for auto industry

IWOM Watch Jan 16-31: A New Kind of Net Star