China: A New Cultural Revolution?

As the great wall crumbles between communism and capitalism, between party firebrands and product branding, Danny Edwards looks to the opportunities opening up in China as the country gets its first Cannes Grand Prix and its creatives struggle to bring originality to the forefront while still shifting product

“Chinese creativity is alive and blossoming,” says Nick Cohen, executive creative director of Wieden + Kennedy in Shanghai, and it’s a statement that’s hard to argue with. It has long been the case that Asia, and China in particular, has been an economic star, one which businesses in all sectors and of all sizes have been eyeing up. Looking east, with dollar, pound, euro or a multitude of other currency signs in their eyes, businesses have looked, and continue to look, for ways to mine the second largest economy in the world, behind only that of the United States. Advertising is no different, and various agencies and production companies have opened offices in China over the past few years. But while economic advancement might be an initial reason to head east, it’s the creative progression which has attracted many. Cohen himself cites the country as a “new frontier” and a “true adventure” as reasons for his move there. And Graham Fink, Ogilvy’s new CCO, has been lured from London by China’s bright, creative lights.

But for all the talk of its imminent world domination, has China really got the creative chops to compete with established advertising hubs such as the US and the UK? It is only since the 80s that China has crept towards a more capitalist society and it is playing a fast-paced game of catch-up with its more advanced counterparts when it comes to the art of selling. “Chinese advertising is still in its infancy,” states Johnny Tan, executive creative director at BBH Shanghai. “But as with all things in China, growth is at an accelerated rate that is unprecedented. I believe some of the best creative minds in the business are here [but] there still isn’t a truly unique brand of ‘Chinese voice’ in its advertising.”

China’s path to gold

Georg Warga, executive creative director at Proximity Beijing, believes that part of the problem is that China has yet to tap into its own culture as far as creativity is concerned. “Today,” he claims, “influence from abroad is still prevailing.” That may be the case but China has still managed to evolve into a creative beast to be reckoned with in a relatively short space of time. You only have to look to the 2011 Cannes International Festival of Creativity and at China’s first-ever Grand Prix win to see that while they may still be finding their own path, it’s a path that’s paved with gold. The Grand Prix in question, awarded to JWT Shanghai for their Samsonite press campaign, Heaven and Hell, was, according to Tony Granger, who headed the press jury in Cannes, “an exceptionally beautiful piece of work” and choosing it as the Grand Prix was “the easiest part of our decision-making”. It was the work of a Chinese creative team, aimed at a Chinese audience, which goes some way to proving that the native creative talent is there and able to produce great, insightful and award-winning work.

There is sometimes the risk of believing that an emerging market has to have the experience and expertise of a fully formed market to evolve, and while the strength of diversity is inarguable, BBH’s Tan believes that Chinese creativity is in China’s hands. “I’m not sure if [diversity] is a negative or a positive thing at this point,” he says. “Clearly, infusing expertise from the West will enhance the quality of the work. However, I do believe that the future of Chinese advertising lies in the hands of the Chinese. Sure, we can have our finger on the pulse of Chinese culture, but no one knows it better than the Chinese.”

Diederik van Middelkoop, creative director at Massive Music in Shanghai, believes diversity will push Chinese creativity to the levels needed to compete with established advertising countries. “[Diversity] is a good thing,” he says. “Ultimately China will be helped by being as international as possible. I think the creativity level of the industry needs diversity for it to measure up against the levels of other, mainly Western, countries. The level of creativity in China is trailing far behind the global standard, but not for lack of potential.”

A new creative consensus

Talk of creativity and whether China’s agencies need to tap into it locally or internationally is fine, but that’s almost like running before you can walk. A more pressing question might be whether Chinese clients are eager to buy into creative solutions – and whether Chinese consumers will embrace them. The general consensus seems to be that they are. “I think clients are more and more open to ideas that foster provocative, alive relationships rather than a one-dimensional, one-way dialogue,” says W+K’s Cohen. “We’re currently doing lots of interesting things with Nike, Levi’s and Converse, to name a few.” Tan agrees, and though he also thinks that traditional TV commercials remain the prevalent source of communication, “things are starting to change rapidly [and] there’s a distinctive surge in the hunger for difference.”

China, do you copy?

One example of how China is embracing creative advertising is Saatchi & Saatchi Guangzhou’s work for Ariel where the team at the agency, including executive creative director Fan Ng, came up with the interactive Ariel Wii game. Huge, white, digital t-shirts were hung in various spaces and Nintendo Wii controllers were then disguised as sauce bottles as members of the public were invited to use them to throw stains all over the t-shirts. They were then given a separate, Ariel Wii controller which removed the stains to bring back the perfect white garment. It was a huge success, attracted many hundreds of people to the events and is a perfect example of the new, lateral thinking that clients and agencies are employing to attract people to their brands.

While Tan believes that TVCs are still the dominant force in Chinese advertising he readily concedes that, like everywhere else in the world, it’s the digital realm that will both attract consumers and test agency and client creativity. TV might still be the medium of choice but the online world is where China is migrating. But is China able to deal with that migration? There is certainly an appetite for social media within the country. China has its own version of all the major Western platforms; Weibo is the Chinese version of Twitter, Renren is their Facebook (with almost as many users of Renren within China as there are on Facebook in the rest of the world) and Youku is their YouTube. “The Chinese audience is one of the most digitally savvy in the world,” says Tan, “especially the Chinese youth. Perhaps at this stage the number of great pieces of digital content remains few but there are some that do stand out.”

Proximity’s Warga is slightly more sceptical. “[China is] not very innovative in the digital arena,” he states. “I see copycats everywhere.” And that copycat mentality is, as far as Warga is concerned, China’s main problem. Too often they look to existing ideas and executions, and not just those in advertising, to promote their brands.

“The Chinese are good at copying everything,” agrees Massive Music’s van Middelkoop. “It’s part of the Chinese culture and, typically, clients want security in the execution of an idea and the most secure option is a copy of something that was already successful.”

Clients in China like metrics. They want to know that something will work for them and, ultimately, sell more of their product. As a relatively young advertising country, it seems they are less concerned with brand building than with product shifting, and it’s impossible to fully research, test and preview a creative idea before it’s put into practice. Sometimes you just have to take that creative leap, and China’s still limbering up for the jump. “In general,” explains Tan, “there is a great ambition towards doing great work, towards creating iconic brands [but] perhaps the commitment and courage needed to create that kind of work is still lacking. Work that is truly inspiring often cannot be measured against the common matrices set forth. The Chinese industry needs to break out of these yardsticks and take bigger leaps in order to not only create great work, but work that is genuinely effective.”

The new frontier

Ultimately, we end where we began, with the assertion that China is, as Nick Cohen said, a new frontier and a true adventure. With China embracing Western influence and experience, and established, Western creatives eager to sample what China has to offer, it won’t be long before one Cannes Grand Prix becomes many and China eases itself to the forefront of creative thinking. Already the boundaries are blurring, as Cohen says when asked what the differences between the current Chinese and Western advertising industries are: “Nothing and everything,” he enthuses. “Nothing in that both industries are about helping brands and businesses win followers and loyalty. Everything in that the speed of change China is experiencing makes it an incredibly dynamic marketplace. It’s wide open.”