"This is a typical case to show how a campaign fails in China if the brand/agency doesn’t understand the landscape and the censorship in this “Greater China” area."

Just curious: What do you mean by 'fail' and why do you think the brand/agency doesn't understand the landscape? :)

I like the sunstopper campaigne and feel that the ideas and concept are innovative and original, and had been studying how DDB structure the campaigne to pick up some ideas from them. Below is what I found.

To generate interest within the English speaking community, western blogs and social media sites like twitter, facebook, youtube, etc were linked up with each others. To generate interest within the Chinese community, China blogs and social media sites like sina, youku, zousa, etc were linked up with each others. These 2 sets of linked social sites then drive the community towards www.sunstopper.sg, a convergent point. www.sunstopper.sg is owned and will not be 'harmonized' as the owner will not post any material sensitive in the eyes of the Chinese Govt. In short, it works like this:

{China social media} --> sunstopper.sg <-- {English social media}

Using China social media sites to target the China community is the right thing to do as these are sites where they gather, and also leads me to conclude that the campaigne designer is well aware of the great firewall of China.

It was unfortunate that during the campaigne, some of the china social media sites were 'harmonised' for reason unrelated to this campaigne. But from what I can see, such disruptions did not derail the campaigne and the Chinese community at large are still being drawn to the remaining China social media sites and eventually driven to www.sunstopper.sg. If you ask me, I will say that it is pretty well executed inspite of the unforeseen circumstances.

Personally, I neither see how the campaigne had 'failed' in China, nor any indication that 'the brand/agency doesn’t understand the landscape and the censorship in this Greater China area'.

Censorship is always a risk in China. In this case, I will say that the risk is pretty well managed. :)

Hi buddy,

Thanks so much for your interests and comments here. Cool thoughts.

As I said, "from a strategy perspective", the Sunstopper campaign is great. It utilizes a good opportunity, and it tries to connect with popular social media sites.


You perspective is:
{China social media} --> sunstopper.sg <-- {English social media}

Of course, the campaign minisite is well designed. It integrates the information from various social media sites and it won't be "harmonized". This is a traditional "one-way communication" digital marketing approach (traffic, microsite, content).


My perspective is (see the difference from yours :)
{China social media} <--> sunstopper.sg <--> {English social media}

I believe DDB has such perspective as well. Campaign microsite is just a integration platform. Consumers check out the site, then generate their own content and interact with each other on social media sites. At the same time, the microsite can associate and highlight all these user-generated interactive content.


If you agree with me on it, hope you can understand what I mean "fail". Current situation is:
{China social media} --> sunstopper.sg <--> {English social media}

"It was unfortunate that during the campaign, some of the china social media sites were harmonised". This is not ture. Facebook and most microblogging sites including Zuosa have been blocked for a period of time. That's the problem of campaign execution. Why not open a group on Kaixin001.com and a microblogging account on Taotao.com?

We are marketers, we are not teachers. Great idea needs great execution to make it happen.

Thanks for you clarification. You have a good point that the arrows can be 2-directional, it is something that I should have picked up and keep under my belt, so thanks for pointing this out. I am also glad that you are not considering that the campaigne had 'failed' simply because some of the china social media sites were 'harmonized' during the campaign, but rather it is the effect of such 'harmonization' to the campaign that is important. We are on the same page up to this point. :) However, this is also where I start to hold a different view.

My view is that despite 'harmonization' that affected some of the china social platforms, there are still sufficient 2-directional linkages between sunstopper.sg and the china social platforms, and the campaigne still managed to fulfill its mission of generating interest and publicity for the product. In this sense, there actually were redundancies built into the usage of china social platforms that carried it through. As you have pointed out, "Why not open a group on Kaixin001.com and a microblogging account on Taotao.com?", which also points to the same concept of building redundancies into the usage of china social platform. But the next logical question is: "how much is enough?". From a resource allocation point of view, efforts and returns need to be balanced. We may question the campaign designer's choices of china social media usage retrospectively after the 'harmonization' event had occurred, but in the beginning all sites have a risk of being 'harmonized'. What's important is for the campaign to still go through despite such risk to achieve the desired outcome.

"We are marketers, we are not teachers."
Precisely. We should be evaluating the success of a campaign on the marketing effect, i.e. the big picture. Social media and whatever online platforms are the means, not the end. From the publicity and interests that I am seeing, I am inclined to think the campaign is a success. :)

Just to point this out, access to microblogging site Zuosa has not been restricted. I do agree Tencent's Taotao is another alternative too.

Just check out Zuosa, it is available right now. But it did be blocked last week.