SHANGHAI, CHINA (December 21, 2011) -- China's reputation as a global powerhouse has focused mostly on its economic growth, but the mainland's creative agencies are slowly earning credibility for producing good local ads.
China has become more important for advertisers, which has an impact on agencies, said Dick van Motman, DDB Group's president and CEO, Greater China, this week on "Thoughtful China."
Even so, he added, China still is not on a par with the best creative markets in the West. Brazil's population is just over 190 million, "but in terms of where it performs in the creative ranking, it's very high," Mr. van Motman said. China's 1.3 billion population, by comparison, "has a long way to go" to match the work produced by the world's top ad markets.
The lack of great creative work produced by agencies in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou can't be entirely blamed on agencies or their clients. A shortage of pop culture in China is also to blame.
"For all of China's size, there are relatively few stories or characters that the whole country knows. Neither Mao Zedong nor the Monkey King makes great marketing. This poses a big problem, since it's still a mass market economy," said P.T. Black, Thoughtful China's senior creative director. China's broadcast mass media "is like adults crowding into a kiddie pool -- restrictive boundaries, shallow content, and not enough of it, so advertisers don't have much to work with."
China's ad industry has hit a handful of significant milestones already, including top prizes at the prestigious International Festival of Creativity, also known as Cannes Lions, starting with China's first-ever Gold Lion in 2008, won by TBWA at the Cannes Lions film festival for an Adidas campaign. DDB won China's second Gold Lion in 2010, for a China Environmental Protection Foundation campaign.
This year, JWT won China's first-ever Grand Prix with a Samsonite ad, while the WPP agency's Lo Sheung Yan, executive creative director, Northeast Asia and chairman. China, was named the first Chinese jury president. Mr. Lo will lead the Outdoor jury in 2012.
In a special year-end episode, we examined what it takes to create great ads in China that resonate with local consumers and whether Chinese agencies can match the best work from the West.
Three of China's most-awarded creatives -- Mr. Lo, Kevin Lee, executive creative director and partner, Leagas Delaney, Shanghai and Fan Ng, Saatchi & Saatchi's executive creative director, China -- were invited to a panel discussion to share their favorite three campaigns produced in China this year.
Barred from presenting any ads created by their own agencies or ads made outside China, they chose an eclectic array of local work that included a surprising amount of humor, which advertisers there normally avoid. The fact that two of them danced around our rules by bringing ads from Taiwan and Hong Kong, because they didn't find three great ads within the mainland, is a telling indication of how they view the overall quality of creative work produced today in China.
This week's episode of "Thoughtful China" includes highlights from their discussion, but an extended version, including creative from all nine campaigns, will be released early next year.
Find out which campaigns these three leading creatives chose as the best creative work produced in China this year in this week's episode HERE.
