virgin.jpgRapp, part of DDB China Group, has been awarded a Silver at the MAA Globes for its "Virgin Atlantic 8th Birthday in China Travel Agent Incentive." The ceremony took place in Toronto, Canada yesterday, Monday 20th October. The MAA Globes recognize the best promotion marketing award programs from around the globe. Rapp was the only agency from China to win an award.

"We're delighted and honored that our campaign for Virgin Atlantic has been recognized at the MAA Globes. It demonstrates how far Rapp in China has come over the last couple of years. The real beauty of this campaign was its cost effectiveness and measurable results - two fundamental requirements for our clients in today's economic environment," said David King, Managing Director of Rapp China.

"Rapp's campaign for Virgin Atlantic perfectly reflects their focus on "customer obsession" and on delivering the most effective and innovative solutions for clients," said Dick van Motman, CEO & President of DDB China Group

A summary of the campaign:

Virgin Atlantic was facing aggressive pricing from its two competitors, China Eastern and British Airways, on the Shanghai to London route. But Virgin maintained its key advantage of being the only airline to fly the route daily. For Virgin's 8th birthday in China, Rapp developed a strategy to publicize the event and drive ticket sales on a small budget. Knowing that 75% of Virgin Atlantic sales of daily flights from Shanghai to London were generated by just 30 travel agents in China, Rapp hatched the idea of turning travel agents into Virgin Atlantic advocates. Using Virgin's 8th birthday as the rationale, agents were offered a guaranteed birthday present reward for EVERY ticket sold. Participation was simple; for every flight sold, the agent could play an online "8" scratch card game to win a guaranteed prize,  such as luggage straps, baseball caps, t-shirts, and even return tickets to London, every time they played!

The top advocate travel agents were also invited to meet Richard Branson at a glamorous party in Shanghai, organized by Rapp. Over 4 million RMB worth of tickets were sold in just eight days-- 32% more than the target set by the client. The incremental return on marketing investment was 11:1.

About Rapp:

Ranked the #1 Global Direct Marketing Network (2007), the #1 Direct Marketing Agency in the US in (2004 - 2006) and the #3 Digital Marketing Agency in the US (2007) by Advertising Age, Rapp (www.rapp.com) is one of the world's largest direct marketing networks with roughly 50 offices in more than 40 countries, delivering over 40 years' experience in customer acquisition, retention and optimization to its clients.

In China, Rapp services a growing number of clients including Virgin Atlantic, Philips, Friesland Foods, Avis and IHG.


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Pop open the champagne! Call your Granny! Yesterday Campaign magazine announced that DDB Worldwide is Network of the Year for 2009!

A huge congratulations to everyone for bringing this fantastic recognition to DDB.
 
In making its announcement, Campaign noted, "This is the latest in a long line of accolades for the network, which, even in this most challenging of years, has enjoyed success around the globe. In a year when the collapse of some of the world's biggest companies hit ad networks hard, it was pleasing to see that there were still some global networks that were able to continue to push the creative boundaries. And of these, it was the progress made by DDB Worldwide that really caught the eye...Work was strong across the board, from DDB Istanbul, which was the third most awarded agency at Cannes, to DDB Chicago, which continued the success it has enjoyed on the McDonald's account with its eye-catching `No Fry Left Behind.'"

Campaign also saluted Tribal DDB Amsterdam and DDB Brazil for their outstanding work this year while crediting our network's new business wins around the globe, as well as bold efforts such as the expansion of DDB Health in Asia and Italy and key personnel appointments across our network.
 
We often say we are better when we are together and Campaign's words prove it.  This recognition is really a tribute to all of you, your creativity, your humanity and your passion to push the boundaries and be the best.

This honor is the latest in a long list of recognition we've received across our network this year.

That acknowledgment most recently includes:

·       Tribal DDB Asia Pacific, Digital Agency of the Year, and DDB Group Melbourne, Australia and New Zealand Office of the Year, Media

·       DDB Group Germany, first network agency in German advertising history to top the 2009 creative rankings of Horizont and W&V magazines

·       DDB Worldwide, Network of the Year, and Tribal DDB, Interactive Grand Prix, the Eurobest Awards

·       DDB South Africa,  The Annual's Agencies' Agency of the Year

·       DDB Singapore, Agency of the Year, Singapore Advertising Hall of Fame Awards

·       DDB Brazil, Agency of the Year, Colunistas Sao Paulo Awards

·       DDB Group New Zealand, Agency of the Year, The National Business Review

·       ARS DDB Venezuela, Agency of the Year, El Ojo de Iberoamerica and Publicidad & Mercadeo

·       DDB Guatemala, Agency of the Year, the Antigua Festival

·       Tribal DDB Amsterdam, Digital Agency of the Year 2009, The Internationalist

·       DDB Group Canada, Agency of the Year, Strategy

·       And, of course, DDB London, The Gunn Report's Most Awarded Agency in the World in 2009

 

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   1.     Go to the essence of the product.  State the product's essence in the simplest terms of its basic advantage.  And state this both tangibly and memorably.

   2.     Where possible, make your product an actor in the scene; not just a prop.  This makes for a tremendously effective method of getting your product remembered.  Because the provocative element in your advertising is also the element that sells your product.  This is so simply stated, so difficult to execute.

3.     Art and copy must be fully integrated.  They must be conceived as a unit, developed as a unit.

4.     Advertising must have vitality.  This exuberance is sometimes called "personality".  When advertising has a personality, it is persuasively different; and it is the one because of the other.  You must fight to get "bounce" in your advertising.

5.     It is little less than useless to employ a so-called gimmick in advertising ---- unless the gimmick itself tells the product story.

6.     Tell the truth.  First, it's a great gimmick.  Second, you go to heaven.  Third, it moves merchandise because people will trust you.

7.     Be relevant.  A wonderfully creative execution will get the big "So what" if it isn't meaningful to their life, family, business etc.  And always opt for an ad that's relevant over one that's exciting and irrelevant.

8.     Be simple.  Not simpleminded, but single minded.  Who has the time or the desire to listen to advertising?

9.     Safe ideas can kill you.  If it's been done before, your competition will be ready for it.  Your only chance of beating the competition is with advertising they've never seen before.  Which means you've never seen it before either!  Be brave.

10.  Stand out.  If your advertising goes unnoticed, everything has been wasted.

 The world has changed dramatically since Bill Bernbach wrote these principles.  But his advice is timeless.

 


 


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In the early hours of this morning Shanghai time - I watched as Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America. I have followed his progress with keen interest over the last 18 months. Taking his dream of being the first African American President of the US, and making it a reality is nothing short of incredible. And the way he went about it is even more impressive.

 

He was named "Best Marketer of the Year 2008" by Advertising Age magazine. And this is what I would like to focus on today. Obama is an example for all of us in the advertising industry. You can just imagine the Brief: "Get an African American elected to the White House." So just how did he go about it?

 

Firstly - his message to the people was simple and consistent - Obama is Change. This conviction was at the essence of the campaign. The campaign's creativity lies in how he mobilized the digital world to his advantage, in a way that no one has ever done before. In line with Marshall McLuhan, who is seen as the first prophet of the electronic age: "the medium is the message". Obama's campaign was all about change: change in approaching the 'consumer' (voter) and the 'trade' (campaign contributions). Change in distribution: micro vs wholesale.

 

No campaign has been more aggressive in tapping into social networks - Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, you name it, Barack was there. Most importantly the campaign was flexible and constantly adapted to a world where communication channels are always in flux. This is "the Swarm theory" in action showing us how marketing can harness the power of modern human communities and the power of influence. It is people grouping together and moving together without being told what to do.

 

He got the people behind him from the bottom up. These "brand" advocates were an integral part in building his success. He leveraged the financial power of thousands of small donors via the internet; people could give just a few dollars, or a few thousand. He realized that donating online is cheap and quick, and far less intimidating than writing a cheque. Though the majority of contributions were made online and were for US$100 or less, adding it all up was the big difference. And most important, via this he gave people a voice and involvement, with a one-2-one feeling. Kind of important when you want to be the one representing 'the voice of the people'.

 

Mainstream media followed the innovative path like CNN teaming up with Facebook to watch the inauguration live with your community, your friends. Brand involvement in 3 levels: Obama, CNN and Facebook. Talk about a win/win situation and category leadership.

 

Watching him yesterday was the embodiment of a successful campaign. Innovation and fantastic ROI are something that we try to practice everyday in our work, as well as always asking ourselves: "Why Not"?

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DDB China picked up 2 awards at the China Advertising Annual Awards, one of China's most prestigious Creative awards. Its Gatorade TVC "Beyond 2008" was awarded "Best TV Advertisement" and "Best of the Show". The TVC was praised for its freshness as well as clearly standing out from the many other sports related advertising which decorated screens last Summer, when China hosted the Summer Olympics.

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Tribal DDB, part of DDB China Group also just picked up 2 Silver and 1 Gold award at the ROI Festival (Digital Awards). Its McDonald's "Cheer for China" campaign won Gold for Most Innovative Campaign and Silver for Best Integrated marketing Communication campaign in the Food & Snack category. The digital agency was also awarded Silver for its "Gift for Love" Philips Campaign in the electric appliances category.

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IMG_0027.jpg IMG_0027.jpgCongratulations to our fit Soccer Players and Cheering Princesses. Last weekend was a great success even if we did not make it to the Final! It was a fun and a beautiful day - thanks for your support in this latest "Omnicom Cares" venture.

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Our creative and sometimes crazy colleagues at DDB Singapore have come up with an innovative idea to celebrate the year of the Tiger! 

Year of the Metal Tiger


The Idea & Execution

A Lunar New Year microsite of a different stripe. One made of hard rocking, heavy metal music of traditional Chinese New Year favourites performed by a heavy metal band. The lyrics were given a ferocious bite. They produced a souvenir CD in leather-jacket material with metal-studs that were delivered as greeting cards.

Metal Tiger CDMetal Tiger Horoscope

Online, a band of guitar playing, drum thrashing tigers were in performance. A motion-aware game allowed visitors to "head-bang" to the music, to get their fortunes told. And true to Chinese tradition, there were 4-digit lucky numbers given to would-be punters. The site went live on 1 Feb 2010. It was featured on the Chinese pop radio station 93.3FM this week. The blogs caught on to it. In less than 5 days, the Metal Tiger has roamed across 54 countries, reaching as far as Spain, Argentina and the Isle of Man.

The Results

Some clients loved it; some absolutely hated it. It was too edgy, too upbeat, eh ... too metal rock! Thankfully we had the other idea: The Chinese New Year ang pow. It comes in purple, with a friendly cat with upturned ears (The kids will love it!) Either way you like it, have a Happy Chinese New Year!

Tiger Ang Pow

 

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Welcome back to work after the Mid-Autumn festival. Hope you had a good break. This year we once again used this special holiday as an opportunity to help those in need. Instead of sending our friends and clients Mooncakes, we donated a library to MengShan School in Jin Shan District through the Shanghai Sunrise Charity.
Because we believe that children are the future. Because we believe that books can inspire their learning and creativity.
Here are some pictures of the library:
Library 1.JPG Reading room.JPG

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Guys,

 

Have you seen the Australia movie? Yes or no, you should have a look at the Tourism Australia Website.

 

We have accomplished the website of Tourism Australia, now it's your turn to leave a footprint on it! In the site, you will see lots and lots discoveries and beautiful scenes for you to experience!

No matter you have been Australia or not, this site is the one you can explore on line.

 

Just click in and enjoy the process, you will finally have a simple album for your own in Aussie experience .

 

Send your Aussie album and refer to your friend, asking them to have a on-line trip in Australia as well!

 

The site:

www.mytrueself.australia.com

 

Come on click in!!

 

 

 

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