January 2011 Archives

To usher in the Year of the Rabbit, we've decided to embark upon a little social experiment - through breeding bunnies. DDB China Group has launched a festive, interactive minisite that lets participants create their own virtual families of rabbits in celebration of an "abundant" new year.

You'll be able to breed and personalize your own rabbits by choosing parents from rabbits created by other users, and then watch your own rabbit breed and become a parent. You can keep track of how many family members your rabbit is related to, including children, grandchildren, brothers, sisters, and cousins, as well as the identities of the people who have created them.

Participate here! Come join us this Chinese New Year and help breed a little "Social Creativity!"

DDB China Group wishes you health and prosperity in the Year of the Rabbit. See you after the break!

The DDB China family welcomes a new face! Camille Daubenton has joined DDB China Group as new Corporate Communications Director. She will be based in Shanghai and will head up branding strategy, internal and external communications, and media relations functions across the Group's four agencies: DDB China, DDB Guoan, Tribal DDB, and RAPP China.

Originally from France, Camille brings extensive industry and communications experience to the role. She comes to DDB from Mindshare China, where she was previously National Marketing and Public Relations Director. No stranger to exotic locations, Camille has lived in Guadeloupe in the French West Indies, where she worked as Business Director at Trait D'Union, and on Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean, where she worked as Managing Editor for publication company 18 Editions.

Welcome onboard, Camille!

DDB China Group has taken home another Gold award at the prestigious 2011 AME Awards for our Green Pedestrian Crossing campaign for the China Environmental Protection Foundation.

The campaign won gold in the Low Budget category, and in addition took two silvers in the Outdoor/Transit and Public Relations categories, and a bronze in the Design category. Our Chinese New Year campaign for Lipton, "New Year, New Trend," also won a bronze award in the Foods category. Our launch campaign for Shanghai Volkswagen's Tiguan was listed as a finalist in the Automotive Products category.

The AME Awards honor results-driven creativity and is known for awarding innovative and exceptional work in the marketing and advertising industries around the globe.

DDB China Group has just been named Ad Age China's Agency of the Year! See the article here.

What a year it's been! First Campaign's top title, now Ad Age - 2011 is off to an incredible start!

Thank you to all our clients, partners, friends, and colleagues. You are what make all these achievements possible!

Last year, RAPP China helped develop a distinct brand positioning for InterContinental Hotel Group's (IHG) first boutique hotel opening in Asia Pacific, the Hotel Indigo Shanghai on the Bund. Located at Shiliupu Dock, South Bund, Hotel Indigo Shanghai opened in December 2010.

RAPP China developed a unique positioning concept that unites the hotel's brand hallmarks (Neighborhood Story, Fresh Design, Inspired Service) with the Bund's unique characteristics. Only a hotel that sits directly on the Huangpu River and features dramatic views of the Bund and Pudong skylines can rightfully claim a theme of, "Feel the Flow of the Bund."   

Together with Tribal DDB Shanghai, RAPP also designed and launched the Hotel Indigo website.

Some print ads from a recent campaign DDB China did for Volkswagen's New Beetle, aptly titled "Leaves", "Flowers", and "Grass". The campaign won Bronze in the Print category at the 2010 China 4A Golden Seal Creative Awards.

DDB Shanghai just held its annual Chinese New Years bash this past weekend and it was quite a festive affair. The theme was "I love the '80s", and the entire staff got decked out in all manner of costumes from China's 1980s. The night was filled with flash dancers, Michael Jackson moonwalks, gun-toting old school gangsters, kung fu demonstrations, Chinese school troupes and among much else, cross dressers.

Can you guess what team won best dressed? (They went for the gold!)

As 2011 gets off to a running start, some of our management team and fellow DDB-ers share their new year's resolutions (and words of wisdom):

Mike Mou, Account Director, Tribal DDB
"Make a greater effort to update my blog and share with my friends and family my life here in Shanghai."

DDB and Tribal DDB have definitely been in the spotlight over the past year, as they've been doing some amazing work. What many of you may not know is that RAPP, too, has been doing some fantastic work. At RAPP, we have our own events team that has been busy planning numerous high-profile events for important clients.

Aside from flawlessly planning and pulling off internal events for DDB staffers (like our fabulous Christmas party!), RAPP has done several sensational events for Continental Tire. Recently, when the company wanted to find a unique way to introduce their Viking tire brand to the China market, they turned to RAPP to make it happen.

So what did RAPP do? The team decided to fly 700 Continental Tire distributors and potential partners to Hong Kong for a mini-vacation, the highlight of which was a gala celebration dinner that served as the official launch of Viking Tires. Themed "A Viking Journey," complete with Viking dancers and performers, the gala focused on showcasing the Viking brand's journey from its northern European heritage to modern China, demonstrating its versatility and pioneering spirit on the rough roads that one encounters on one's journeys.

While the gala was the feature event of the trip, RAPP also organized sightseeing and shopping activities in Hong Kong for all of Continental's guests. What a great start to conquering Viking's launch in China!  

Last month, DDB Shanghai did another campaign for the China Environmental Protection Foundation to raise awareness of the wasteful usage of disposable wooden chopsticks in China. Every year, Chinese consumers use 45 billion pairs of disposable wooden chopsticks, which amounts to around 25 million trees, or 200 square meters of demolished forest area. If this rate continues, forests will disappear from China in just 20 years.

DDB recycled over thirty thousand pairs of wooden chopsticks from restaurants all over Shanghai, washed, processed and designed them to create a five-meter high tree structure. The chopstick tree was broken down in the middle and then displayed in a busy district of the city. The message couldn't be clearer - stop and think of China's dwindling natural resources the next time you're about to use disposable wooden chopsticks!