I was in the perfect position to observe our target market firsthand. Feeling refreshed to not to be in a crowd of expats, I was mind blown by how much the local scene has developed, mesmerized by the crowd’s energy, dance moves, chic attire, and especially their confidence. In the beginning, I was just interested because the Nengmao store-owner our street team interviewed last week was half-hosting the show and I really wanted to check out his 80′s China retro chic shirts designs.

As I arrived at about half past ten, a Taiwanese band named Go Chic was playing. On vocal was a sassy lady with short blonde hair jumping across the stage trying to hype up the crowd, but I was not too impressed.

Mao was the most packed I’ve ever seen it. Looking around, I wondered where all these trendy types are hiding during day time. It was the most hip/indie Chinese kiddies I have seen gather in one place, (guess I’ve been going to the wrong places…) Many of them were sporting Nengmao clothing, especially a lightning shirt that came free with the first 200 purchased tickets, good marketing strategy…

After a bit of wandering and chatting with strangers I seem to repeatedly encounter on the weekends, it was time to go back in and watch the main act- New Pants from Beijing. At first, it seemed a lot quieter than Go Chic, seducing the audience with a sweet little lullaby called “Being together.”

Then, out of nowhere, the keyboarder took off his bug-eye glasses, put on a Mao cap, and took over the center of stage, channeling a whole new vigorous atmosphere to the crowd. Their eccentric dance moves and rich instrumental sounds were driving the crowd and I was utterly surprised by their incredible performance. In fact, at that point I realized that I was a virgin to local Chinese acts and was astonished by how creative and musically talented Chinese bands could be. It was really refreshing to see such a passionate and energetic crowd, made up of 90% Chinese youngsters, basking in the glory of the lush sounds, rhythmical movements, and vibrant attires.

The fans at the front started mosh pits, a few attempted stage dives, and towards the end some even bravely climbed on stage, dancing madly with the band. It was a very “很HIGH” moment as the Chinese would say.

Finally, after a few encores, fans were satisfied, caught in the moment, and many rushed to the product booths to purchase more Nengmao shirts and other New Pants products. New Pants’ very own singer Peng lei wrote and illustrated one of the books for sell (Peking Monster). Its raw verse, childlike drawings, and imaginative content stand out as a great symbol of Chinese pop culture. When asked his opinion on the future of art in China, he explained,

“The Chinese government recently realized that investing in creative industries is much cheaper than subsidizing oil and coal. So they started to give money to young people to encourage them do the creative projects that might turn profitable. However, in China, the government still puts limitations on those of us who are “too” creative. For example we had some music performances that were shut down by the government because we were doing punk music, which those politicians thought was evil or something. So I would say there is still a long way to go before I can say that China is a country that supports its artists.”

Fortunately, from what we have seen on Friday night, even without the support from the Chinese government, the creative arts and music scene in Shanghai is thriving and doesn’t see a sign of stopping… yet.

A key question to first think about is:

How do you use social media to market your brand, get your customers to love you and talk about you?

As the number of digital agencies worldwide grows exponentially, companies will constantly be trying new and different social media strategies resulting in documented successful (and unsuccessful) case studies.

Any brand executing social media campaigns is somewhat trying to build customer advocacy for their brands. If they’re interested in having people talk about how good their brand is, then this is advocacy. Moreover, brands are interested in activating customers to push their friends and family to buy a product.

So how do we integrate consumer advocacy and brand advocacy? Let’s first look at a definition for brand advocacy:

“Brand Advocacy, is the active sharing of one’s beliefs, interactions, stories, experiences, thrills, and disappointments in regards to all products and brands.”

Brand advocacy in the social media world is built up by consumers clicking on a brand’s “fan” button on Renren or Facebook, sharing an online product review, setting your status message to things like, “Brand X is amazing!” and so forth.


So what are the essentials to building strong youth brand advocacy in the growing China social media landscape?

1. Product, product, product!

To make your customers love you, you have to put out good products. It’s as simple as that. Don’t expect to change consumer opinion by putting out a social media campaign if your product does not meet consumer standards. If you know your product is bad, social media cannot fix it.

2. Bring something new to the table.

Youth in China are becoming increasingly experimental. This is reflective of a maturing youth consumer. For example, a recent McDonald’s campaign utilized the specific demographic of Douban and created a unique “Bring your toys to life campaign” that involved uploading photos of your nostalgic McDonald’s toys acting out storylines. This was innovative and fresh. The Douban youth applauded McDonald’s for this campaign.

3. Create an interactive environment.

If you are going to create a mini-site (or a not so mini-site) for your campaign, then it’s best to create an interactive environment so that your brand advocates actually have something to do there. Ask them to participate, create something, interact with the brand, and share with friends.

4. But make sure it’s easy to do.

Provide clear guidelines, intuitive instructions, and create an easy to read and navigate user interface. The easier it is, the more your customers are enticed to interact with you.

5. Sharability.

Make sure if a customer endorses your brand, it is visible within his or her friend circle. This is why it’s best to utilize existing popular Chinese social networks such as Renren, Kaixin, and QQ. Of course it’s important to keep in mind that in China you must work directly with these social media networks and strike an exclusive deal. It’s highly important to involve platforms if you want to run social media campaigns in China, engaging in discussion early on with these folks can save you some time. (Not necessarily money though!)

6. Measure quality over quantity.

Instead of looking at the number of of impressions/clicks/comments you receive from the campaign, make sure to actually read what customers are saying about your brand. Just because your page generated millions of clicks, it doesn’t mean this has any effect on sales or brand advocacy.

If you’re unsure about entering into the social media foray and are still unclear about creating youth brand advocacy, it’s best to make sure you’re staying true to your brand ideals and not jumping on board a trendy social media campaign. Measure your options carefully, look at successes AND failures, and let us know if you need some actionable ideas.


Extended Reading:

• Fast Company Influence Project Fail
• Old Spice Success

With no further ado, we bring you enovate’s Weekly Weibo Roundup:

“Lovely young couple with great hearts, their love will last forever!”

2. LG’s “Sweet” Weibo Campaign





In April 2010, LG launched their Sina Weibo page featuring the latest LG Lollipop GD580 phone to target the post 80’s and 90’s Chinese youth. Over 8400 Chinese netizens followed the page. Their most recent campaign “ 甜蜜ME,” translates into “Sweet Me,” a collaboration with Guo Jingming (a pop idol and writer popular amongst post 80’s Chinese youth) along with his team who recently launched China’s supposedly “sweetest youth novel.” Exclusive videos of the “Sweet Me” book signing event attracted many of Guo’s fans at Sina Weibo. LG also released the pictures of “ Sweet Star” campaign to better target young consumers.


3. Han Han’s Magazine “Party” Released




On July 7th, China’s most popular blogger and best-selling writer, Han Han released his new magazine Party. Han argued that underpaid jobs for Chinese writers directly leads to the low quality of writing in China. To make a point as the main editor for Party, he promised higher pay for better quality output. He hopes this will help young writers explore and develop their unique writing styles as well as personal character. Many netizens have posted pictures of their copy of the magazine on Sina Weibo and are saying that they enjoyed the content and are excited to see what happens next with the project.


4. New Reality TV Show Targets Young Female Professionals




A new reality TV show “Looking for Dulala” debuted on July 12th on the Shanghai Dragon TV station. The show aims to assist young graduates in understanding themselves and setting career goals. Companies including L’oreal, COSMOPOLITAN, One foundation and China Life have lined up to recruit the best candidates to fill their vacancies through the show. Their Weibo page has attracted over 4000 followers. One viewer commented,

“I watch the show even though they play it really late at night. It’s worth it- I have learned a lot.”

5. The Cutest Cosplay Ever!




A mother who is a big fan of Arale, a Japanese cartoon character, dressed her daughter up like Arale and posted pictures on her blog. Creative factory reposted it at Sina Weibo where it received over 9000 retweets as netizens expressed their wishes to have a daughter as cute as her!

This week a music video called “So Close, So Far” captured the attention of Renren users. The MV ignited the post 80′s generation’s passion for discussing their personal experiences with and perspectives on love. It was shared 73309 times and viewed 510686 times. With vocals by Supergirl Jane Zhang, “So Close, So Far” became the theme song for the popular movie “Post 80′s.” Both the magnificent footage of Hangzhou’s West Lake and Zhang’s beautiful voice helped make the movie popular. In turn, the movie’s success has pushed this MV to viral status.





“Post 80′s” tells a story of three 80′s-born Chinese each on a quest to find enduring love.  Without famous movie stars or a well-known director, the movie aimed to capture the audience by connecting the characters’ experience with the generation’s own nostalgic memories and sentiments. The movie features events familiar to the post 80′s generation (most of whom are only children). It includes big events such as Beijing winning the Olympics bid, the suicide of Leslie Cheung, as well as little things like old toys. In the film’s background, problems all too familiar for the 80′s babies– troubled relationships, unaffordable housing prices, and unemployment are highlighted but, the main characters’ emotional struggles provide the main focus.

I felt a sense of connection to my generation after watching both the MV and the movie. These feelings are strong because we all experienced being locked at home alone when our parents were working during summer vacations, were criticized more than encouraged by teachers and parents, and grew up with more importance placed on academic achievement over happiness. In spite of this emotional scar tissue, our generation has grown up. We have bravely chased our dreams and loves. We have taken responsibility for our nation, families and ourselves. Post 80′s makes me feel as if all my efforts to grow up have been justified. It makes me feel that our generation is not dispirited, absent-minded, or nerdy but rather that our voice is strong and connected.

Beibei will be following her online shopping passion with a bi-weekly report on new online shopping trends in the market. This week’s topic explores the online shopping trends of new mothers and the un-sustainability of this habit.

As an expecting mother, 9 months of pregnancy is an both an exciting and exhausting period of time. In 2009, over 16 million Chinese mothers endured this child bearing passage to give birth to their wondrous bundles of joy. This 9 month period of time often represents 9 months of relative isolation and rest time for Chinese mothers, sparking what has become an unbelievable growth in online purchasing power.

This period of time for expecting Chinese mothers is a traditional period known as 坐月子 (Zuo Yuezi), which translates to “sitting the month”. Chinese people recognize “Zuo Yuezi” as a period when the mother’s body, including hormone levels and uterus size, returns to pre-pregnancy conditions. It usually lasts 30 days, but regional variants may last 60, 90 or as many as 6 months. Tradition specifies a restricted diet and puts limitations on activities considered to be harmful. During Zuo Yuezi, the mother is expected to spend all of her time indoors, much of it in bed, and is prohibited from numerous activities such as bathing, hair-washing etc. Online Chinese shopping sites have come to the rescue for antsy moms-to-be. Because of its convenience, new mothers increasingly go online both to look for necessities and entertainment.

New moms like meeting other moms with a baby of the same age. The BBS of Liba.com, a locally-based white collar household guide, has proven itself as the top online spot for moms to exchange various information including baby education, postpartum recovery etc. Moms post link recommendations in their online groups when they find good-quality baby items online. In addition, they often organize or join certain MSN /QQ online groups which provide another method to share resources and information. Fengli, a 30 year-old new mom who works as an editor at Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press shared the list of items she usually purchases online: early education books as well as other books she enjoys, snacks, toys, a baby seat & desk, diapers, imported milk powders, and other early education tools. Many moms confessed buying clothes and cosmetics for themselves on Taobao.com as they spend more time on their computers.

Aiyingshi.com was frequently mentioned by new Shanghai moms; it is a comprehensive online store selling baby items ranging from toys, formula, food, clothing and accessories.

One Chinese mom says,

“My baby is growing fast and quickly loses interest in his old toys. He has already outgrown his baby bed and now his baby seat too. I have to keep buying new items for him even though I think it’s wasteful and bad for the environment. China lacks second hand websites or markets for baby items, so it is inevitable for us to buy new things”.

Yihaodian.com is where moms go for snacks and imported food. Most expressed contentment with their “buy 100rmb, get free door-to-door delivery service” policy. Sometimes they can even get a better discount than they can shopping at supermarkets. Dangdang.com is another popular site with a wide variety of books to meet the mother’s needs.

Online shopping has certainly made preparing for a baby more convenient and sometimes it’s even cheaper. For these reasons new parents will buy more and more products online. Without a price incentive to create a market for used baby products or disincentive for buying new off the internet, sustainability is taking a back seat. With this increase in online shopping habits during the Zuo Yuezi period, we will be tracking whether or not the recycling habits of new mothers is increasing as well.

Can new mothers be the catalyst for actual sustainable change in China? Time will tell.

Mushroom hair

Name: Xi Xi
Age: 29
Loves to: Collect old toys
Favorite brand: His own brand- NengMao store (能猫商店)
Outfit highlights: Mushroom haircut, the same old framed glasses, shirt with his own name, cut offs

Chanel bag in yo face

Name: Cindy
Age: 23
Favorite TV show: America’s Next Top Model
Wants to live in: NYC
Outfit highlights: Cute bowtie hairband, Chanel bag show off, matching gold chains on wrist, suffocating rainboots

The Summer looks

Name: Chen Wei
Age: 18
Likes to: draw and shop
Loves to watch: Disney movies
Outfit highlights: Straw hat (Simon was right!), floral top, jean shorts, cool sandals, the regular summer outfit

Name: Athena
Age: 21
Likes to: play guitar and sing
Favorite TV show: The Big Bang Theory
Outfit highlights: Cute hair, cute heart belt buckle, cute blazer, cute shoes, cuteness all around

Work formal

Name: Gu Zi
Age: 23
Favorite celebrity: Zhou Bichang
Personal dream: To make enough money to provide for her family
Outfit highlights: Layers of black, harem pants, puff sleeve white blazer, bowtie shoes, nicely put together young professional appeal

The Couple

Outfit highlights (girl): Straw hat (once again!), intriguing animal graphic tank, matching necklace and anklet with bf
Outfit highlights (boy): Long hair, ink drips Elmo shirt, hip canvas shoes, manklet

Name: He Zhen Age: 21 Loves to: Play board games Wants to: Travel abroad Ideal career: Creative director

Name: Huang Juan Age: 21 Loves to: Shop Favorite brand: Dolce&Gabbana Ideal career: Editor for a cosmetic magazine

During lunch, I happened to chat with the Marketing Director of a large multi-national technology company. As we discussed the power of China’s youth today, she told me an interesting story about how her company is approaching the growing divide between the old and young in China within their own company. This multinational was growing concerned that it’s employees may not be “young” enough to identify the new trends in the technology field in China. Since it doesn’t always make sense to allow the “younger” employees to call all the shots in a company, they came up with an innovative idea to make sure that their internal generation gap was not getting too wide. They instituted “reverse mentoring” where an older employee was paired up with a younger employee, with the goal of the younger employee “mentoring” their elder. Although at first, this counter-confucian strategy seemed a bit odd to the employees, it ended up producing some interesting insights for both the younger and older employees, and the older employees came away with a much deeper understanding of their younger peers. Learnings ranged from interactions at home and online, mobile usage patterns to time management and the ability of younger employees to manage many conversations, and things at once. They even learned that younger employees actually welcome receiving texts during important tasks (including their “intimate” time with a significant other).





I’m not sure whether this approach is right for all companies – but it certainly shows how dramatic the generational shift is in China, and how it affects not only families, product development, business models – but also internal company culture.

So what trends are we seeing this summer? One item you are guaranteed to see young Chinese girls adding to their summer accessories is the straw hat. Their ubiquity has been on a slow rise since last summer, where we tracked a few trendiers types already incorporating the piece into the summer outfits and after recent trip to Hangzhou music festival, take my word that this is a must have for eighties/nineties girls this summer.





The straw hat itself is an accessory most readily identified with the 甜美 or ‘sweet girl’ style. Other important components in this style are pale, flowy tops or skirts with floral prints and flowery accessories. While this trend is not particularly ‘standoutish’ or unique it has moved from a hardcore contingent of those who followed Tokyo street style and been appropriated for a more mass and uniquely Chinese style. We see the 90’s generation mixing and matching with other popular accessories of the time, thick rimmed frames, canvas shoes, etc.

From a wider Asian perspective, being that this style is all about emphasizing the softness of being a girl, it’s a well endorsed look throughout Japan, Korea and Taiwan. While its roots lie in Japan, nowadays it’s fragmented into a more distinct style of ‘doll-kei’ and more recently the ‘mori-girl’ or forest girl styles. Of course we know that the Japanese invented ‘kawaii’ but there has definitely been some innovation around Asian in past couple of decades.

"doll-kei" and "mori-style"

In Korea, this author has drunk a few bizarre cups of coffee in ‘sweet girl’ or ‘fairytale’ style cafes. Couples can spend their afternoons lounging around in surroundings full of soft furnishings, lacey curtains with Beatrix Potter style illustrations adorning the walls, whilst cuddling up to oversized Teddy Bears with Pachelbel’s Canon playing over the stereo. Sickly sweet, some might say.

Back in China however, current fashion brands catering to the sweet girl style include Japanese brand Olive des Olives. Of course mix and match pieces can be found in Zara and H&M but the majority of young Chinese are no doubt purchasing from in the cheaper clothing markets – particularly the straw hats. Also Japanese toy brand Monchhichi, despite its frightening appearance, also seems to contribute as a significant handbag/mobile phone accessory to complete the ‘sweet girl’ outfit.

Beyond just the realms of fashion, could this trend evolve into something more? We here at enovate have visited some smaller independent tea and coffee houses opening by young entrepreneurial Chinese people. Following Korea, will we see a rise in cute cafe culture in China?

Although the ‘sweet girl’ style came to my attention through a simple straw hat, its more deeply rooted lifestyle elements tell an interesting story about Asian femininity in general. The very nature of being soft and cute is important in overtly male dominated societies like Japan and Korea, and although the battle of sexes in China has its own nuances, the importance of appearing soft and cute is still a mainstream ideal to finding a partner.

Nike: write your headline

As the World Cup fever continues, Nike has made sure to familiarize everyone with its Ad “write the future.” And now Nike takes a step further to introduce an interactive activity “write your headline.” The idea is for football fans to, via Facebook, Twitter, and other websites, write a 55-character headline for one of the best 50 football players. Nike will choose 100 headlines in random and display them on the top of one of the tallest building in Johannesburg through the “world’s largest LED installation ever.” The lucky fans will receive a video replica of what was projected as a gift.

Nike always seems to be a step ahead in breaking out new ideas, publicizing itself, and putting a twist on current trends. Its “interaction” technique for reaching online users both fosters creativity from its target audience without much effort and provokes enthusiasm from potential and existing costumers.

LePhone brand new AD

The Lenovo version of the iPhone – LePhone, has arrived with a new TV commercial. It attempts to depict a minimalist message, just like the “Apple-New Soul“  Ad, which conveys a powerful message through simple visuals and a catchy tune. However, after watching the LePhone commercial, I saw nothing memorable, with poorly designed visuals, the only attraction was the background music by “mainland Jay Chou” – Xu Song, but honestly, there is nothing special to it.

This failed commercial only makes LePhone look like a shanzhai product. So now, despite the quality of the product, people will only think of  Lephone as a shanzhai product.