Claire Davidson reports on day two of 2015 Shanghai London Advertising Forum

The Sweet Shop’s Claire Davidson (pictured left) is on the ground at 2015 Shanghai London Advertising Forum. Here’s Claire’s highlights of the second day of seminars at the forum.

I attended the second and final day of the successful and inspirational 2015 Shanghai London Advertising Forum in China today.  The schedule was again full of presentations and speaker sessions, with Chinese advertisers and London production, digital, interactive, post production and visual effects companies.

The first seminar I took in was with Jon Biggs, Creative Director of Media Monks, who brought us “At the Forefront of Interactive Production”.  Media Monks is an Interactive Digital Production Studio with offices in the US, the UK, Europe (which will also be opening an office in China in the new year).  Media Monks makes digital ‘things’.  We know that every moment digital is changing.  Thus there are new ‘things’ that we have to learn every day, and Media Monks makes it their priority to do so.

It used to be just websites and banners that held their focus.  Now it’s just well…  everything.  From mobile and apps (even those seem old skool) to digital wearables to VR to a whole world of toys to play with.  Today it’s a very wide field.

Media Monks loves interactive.  It’s like a return to our childhood where they make ‘things’ that we get to play with and engage with it.  Remember Choose Your Own Adventure books?  Didn’t we all think those were cutting edge back in the day…  Media Monks are now applying that with journeys and narratives in interactive films.  Media Monks start with their people.  They put their directors and creators and developers and technologists in the same room together.  It’s always a collective participation.  They make demos.  They build prototypes.  They mess things up.

It’s also here where the difficult questions are asked, such as:

~  Will each viewer see the story unfold differently?

~  Does this affect the story we’re telling?

~  Is the viewer inside the story, or are they outside looking in?

~  And what if they miss something important?

Everything that Media Monks do is powered by technology.  Again, they ask questions, such as:

~  How does it work?

~  Will it work on mobile?

~  Will it work across multiple screen sizes?

~  Is it social?

~  How do I actually interact with it?

~  Innovation?

Media Monks always look for simplicity with their innovation.  They want people to be able to pick something up and play with it straight away.  From there it will open up opportunities.  We then looked at case studies for Ikea and Adidas’ Nitrocharge boots.

Media Monks are an (awesome) team, willing to ask difficult questions, looking for simplicity, and creating experiences that people want to spend time with.

Next up for me was Andy Chan, ECD of FCB Shanghai, who talked to us about “Working with UK Production Houses.  The Good Stuff, and How We Can Work Better Together”.

For the Good Stuff, Chinese agencies look for:

~  World class quality

~  A global perspective

~  Top class creativity

~  Highly professional

~  Dedicated craftsmanship

~  Pride in their work

~  Breakthrough technology

~  Trendsetters

~  Award-winning

Chinese Agencies and UK Directors + Production Houses aren’t doing more work together because…

~  The Chinese are skeptical of the UK’s understanding of local agencies’ needs and difficulties.

~  Agencies will always approach a local production house to meet their regulations before a UK production house.  The local company may not have the UK company’s expertise, but this can be a shared learning experience.

~  UK Production Houses are regulated.  The rules of engagement between both countries are very different.

~  Do UK Production Houses know how to shoot the board in China?  Chinese agencies don’t want them to recommend that their scripts be  shot in the UK.

~  The UK teams don’t want to do sooooooooo many rounds of PPMs and offline edits.  They aren’t used to these.

~  Budget…  No need to elaborate there.

In China the client / agency / production company relationship is vertical.  What the client wants, you do.  Clients are demanding, and production houses need to be prepared.  Agencies don’t want to upset clients, and they want to keep them.

So what does Chan recommend?

UK companies must be prepared.

~  Be prepared to face more than three production companies bidding for the same job, all requiring treatments upfront.

~  Be prepared to respect the individual nature of the local market while introducing and educating the agency / client with what is  possibly a better way.

~  Be prepared to make changes until the client says ok, and then make more changes until the consumers say ok.

~  Be prepared to understand the cultural differences and insights that have given life to the board.

~  Be prepared to align all expectations properly at the beginning of your working relationship.

And then be extra extra prepared too…

~  Be prepared for all kinds of weird things happening on shoots.

~  Be prepared to be arrested for no apparent reason.

~  Be prepared to become a bug in your next life.  Don’t piss off the locals.

~  Be prepared to become lost in translation.

~  Be prepared to not become a hungry ghost.

~  Be careful of what you put into your mouth.

~  Be prepared to react quickly if your major prop goes missing.

~  Be prepared to have an open mind.

Understand and engage with the Chinese culture.

Two key words to take away:

~  Flexibility

~  Reactivity

Only when we have these can we work better together.

Thank you Mr Chan.

Up after lunch was Tony Liu, Creative Chairman from M&C Saatchi Aeiou who told us “Everything You Know About China is Wrong”.  Ooh ahh.  Really?  Even that you can see the Great Wall of China from space?  We looked in fast forward mode at China’s history from the Tang Dynasty, the Song Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty, Mao’s Cultural Revolution, and Deng’s Economic Reform, comparing these periods to what was happening in the West at the same time.

It’s been under Deng – from 1978 to 2012 – that China grew 103 times over.  Yes, that’s correct.  103 times over.  It was Deng after all who told us “To Get Rich is Glorious”.

When 3000 years of self-sufficiency meet 30 years of reform it brings about insecurity.

For the western world it was always ‘I Matter’.

For the Chinese world it was always ‘I Don’t Matter’.

These insecurities made questioning a sin.  It became a taboo to ask questions.  The right brain had shrunk over time, and imagination was lost.

Production in China is still relatively new, and it too was completely affected by insecurity, as well as created a few syndromes.

There’s the ‘Would You Like A Drink?’ Syndrome, an analogy where it’s asked:

Assistant:  Would you like something to drink?

Director:  Sure what do you have?

Assistant:  Let me go back and check.

There’s the ‘Can you Show me a Reference?’ Syndrome

Because people don’t believe or understand the power of imagination, therefore reference becomes the brainless way to communicate.

 There’s the ‘One Dollar Coke’ syndrome.

If I ask you to get a coke for a dollar and you get me a coke for a dollar, you are of no use to me.

There’s the ‘Fresh & The Stale Apple’ syndrome.

It’s here where clients have a lack of trust, a lack of security, a lack of understanding, and a lack of experience. And of course there is always someone willing to do it cheaper.

So how is production in China?

Liu told us to ‘Hurry up!  But slow down’.

Ooh, I love seeing Johnny Tan speak.

I always go away having learnt some amazing insights. Today we learnt about “Transforming BBH Shanghai and How UK Production Companies Can be Great Partners-In-Crime”.

This is BBH’s tenth year in China.  There have been two constants since its inception in this country.  Firstly:  the black sheep business card.  People in China still think it’s a cow or a dog.  Nothing has changed there.  Tan showed us what a cow looks like and what a dog looks like so that we don’t make the same mistake.  Got it.  Secondly BBH has consistently pioneered new things.  To pioneer is to break new ground.  To put it more simply BBH has been doing new shit.  It’s been about a notion of doing new stuff and being fearless.  BBH looked to create new formats.   Remember when we first heard about branded content?  They also looked to create new genres, by counter conventionalizing genres.  They introduced new things to disrupt the convention.  And like many other agencies around they world, they looked at new technologies.  They are constantly doing new things.  But at the forefront BBH also looks to change without changing.

Today we viewed case studies for Johnny Walker, Baileys, Visa, Yulu, Mentos, LG, Qoros. and WWF / Earth Hour.

Tan’s advice to UK Production Companies wanting to partner up:

~  Positivity

~  Commit to pioneering together

~  Be flexible, be curious

~  Embrace the unique challenges

~  Create new properties together

~  Collaborate

~  Explore your talent in collaboration with ours

Kitty Lun, Chairman + CEO of Lowe China was up next on stage to talk to us about “Creating China’s Most Awarded Advertising Agency”.  It comes down to one campaign, perhaps my favourite from all of the work I have seen come out of China and the Asian Region – Buick’s Human Traffic Sign.  There are 7 versions of the print campaign as well as the TVC.

This project calls attention to the alarmingly high incidence of injury and death in China as a result of both pedestrians and drivers failing to obey road signs.  Real accident victims were invited to participate in this very emotional plea to road users, holding traffic signs and shocking us with the graphic physical consequences of their accidents, as their eyes implore us, communicating a deeper sense of loss and pain. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from those faces throughout the spot when I first saw it and would challenge anyone to respond differently – a wonderful achievement for Lowe China.

During the past 15 months Human Traffic Sign has won 170 + international awards, including 12 Grand Prix’s, and counting.  It’s also the first time that an agency from China has been in the top 10 of the Gunn Report.  For the R3Agency Scope, the campaign received four out of five number ones in their Top Creative Performance.   At the same time, the people at Lowe first and foremost thank the victims for their bravery, and appearing in the campaign and all other road traffic victims.

David Abbott, when asked what his secret to running a successful creative agency was, his answer was ‘Simple. I just hired the best people’.  Lowe has a strong creative culture that they ensure is maintained.  Lun implores the quote ‘give me the freedom of a tight brief.’  Lowe likes to make famous ideas for their famous clients.  And that they have done.   Hear hear.

Thank you 2015 Shanghai London Advertising Forum for having me. It’s been thoroughly enjoyable.

Claire Davidson, Managing Director & Executive Produce
r – ASIA + MENA @ The Sweet Shop, reporting for Campaign Brief Asia at the 2015 Shanghai London Advertising Forum.