Yue Sai Buzzed my Blog

"Girls seriously, how could we make it without make-up?"

Most digital strategies fail to impress my brilliant mind, but there are glorious times when I am truly amazed and break business routine to blog about it. And this is how L’Oreal Yue Sai’s social media strategy buzzed the blog of an overwork lady temporarily away from her beloved Shanghai.

Yue Sai Kan, a Chinese woman born in Guilin, raised in HK and US founded the eponymic cosmetic brand Yue Sai  in 1992 to cater to the skin & tastes of Chinese women.

L’Oreal – which does not need an introduction unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last 20 yrs, bought Yue Sai in 2004 and took it to the next level with a greater use of natural ingredients.

Yue-Sai Kan by Andrew Rowat

In 2010, how to reach out to a younger and edgier population of active Chinese women?

Yue Sai needed a virtual lifting as it had never been very active online according to the brand marketing director Michelle Kwok.

Early in june, L’Oreal launched Buzz my Heart, a serie of 8 webisodes starring 3 young women (4 would be too SATC right?) each of them encountering different life  and love problems of course.  I remember this strategy was actually used around last year by Maybelline in the US and the scriptwriter was..Candace Bushnell herself, – the author of Sex and the City. How will it go in China ?

If girls busy with love and make-up may sound shallow, this is nonetheless adequately good marketing : content placement, cinema-like quality videos, online penetration out of the brand website on Yoka, soft seduction with no brand mention until the 5th episode…

You can watch the 5th episode here. I’m off to a mani-pedi now.

Buzz my Heart

Client : Yue Sai – L’Oreal
Agency : Wunderman
More ? L’Oreal Freshens Up Yue Sai’s Image with Edgy Web Series

July 14, 2010 | BuzzandtheCity | Tags: , , , , , , , | No Comments »

BuzzandtheCity in Paris

logoparis

June 13, 2010 | BuzzandtheCity | 1 Comment »

The Fast Food Fight Club

 

McDo waitresses © Si Mao Savait

McDo waitresses © Si Mao Savait

 

 

I was always told it is rude to play with food but fast food doesn’t really count, right?

I just love the latest marketing operation of Mc Donald’s in China : coupons from KFC and Burger King can be used at Mc Donald’s until March 23rd. This is priceless : imagine you being in KFC marketing team, working your ass off, trying to get budget from the account guys for investing in some campaigns, standing behind the designer until it is done, doing silly excel tabs for planning, only to get your clients stolen by Mc Do…That’s infuriatingly brilliant.

 You can read the original article (in French) on Si Mao Savait – If Mao only knew…or just order a take-away :

 

KFC arrived in China in 1987 with a shop near Tiananmen Square. Actually, that’s where I had my first KFC when my Chinese friends took me there in 1992 and I remember being quite happy having something else than noodles (for my defense, I was 12) but I digress. KFC with 2000 locations is the leader on the Chinese market with “localized” menu with a chicken base and a family . The ratio here KFC vs McDo is 2:1, the opposite of other markets throughout the world. If you should order, dial 4008 823 823. But you should know that my uncle’s cats, which are fat greedy thieves, don’t eat KFC…

 

McDonald’s came first in Shenzhen in 1990 and counts today around 1000 locations. Interestingly, McDo is perceived by Chinese people as foreign : only 8% think it is a Chinese brand, vs 25% of Chinese considering Coca Cola as local. McDo is also opened 24/7 with delivery available at 4008 517 517 (517 pronunciation in Chinese is close to “Wo Yao Chi” meaning I wanna eat) and the company recently signed an agreement with Sinopec to develop Drive-Ins in gas stations throughout the country.

 

Last but not least, Burger King has around 30 locations and adopts a “higher” positioning with menus around 28 Y vs 15 Y for its competitors, playing the foreign card with allegedly swiss cheese melted in their buns and high-end locations (like Beijing Airport latest Terminal 3), and you can order in Shanghai on Sherpa’s.

 

One last for the road : McDo @ 4am

 

 

 

 

 

March 23, 2010 | BuzzandtheCity | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment »

China reached 384 millions netizens

 

Internet in China 

CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center) has just published today its 25th report on the development of Internet in China (only available in Chinese for now).

At the end of dec 2009, the online population in China had reached 384 million netizens. The adoption rate is now 28.9% of the Chinese population. The number of mobile users netizens reached 223 millions of people  (+120 millions vs 2008) or 60.8% of netizens.

This huge increase is partly due to 3G mobile phones launch in China since last year. (source : CNNIC/BNP Paribas Atelier Asie)

 

January 15, 2010 | BuzzandtheCity | Tags: , , , | No Comments »

Baidu temporary unaccessible

baidu_search_engine

 

 

 

Since today 7am, Baidu.com was not accessible, whereas Google.com and Google.cn were perfectly working, leading Google.cn to an abnormal increase of traffic.

According to an official announcement from China’s number 1 search engine, the problem occured after a registration change in USA on website register.com. Last night, a search on DNS (Domain Name Server) was leading netizens to Yahoo.com website…

A surprise for us, more used to the issue of not being able to access foreign websites from China.

Baidu is now accessible again, but I wonder how much money did it cost for today’s paid search loss…

January 13, 2010 | BuzzandtheCity | Tags: , , | 1 Comment »

Most watched videos in China in 2009

What did the Chinese netizens watched and praised on Youku in 2009? Here is a selection from Kaiser Kuo’s top 10 on  Buzz.Youku.com

 

Xidan Girl

 

In January, a video of a young girl singing in Beijing Xidan pedestrian underpass was uploaded and quickly, the Xidan Girl phenomenon was born. BBS and blogs were buzzing about the girl named Ren Yueli. She finally went on Dragon TV singing contest “Oriental Angels” but didn’t win. She is reported back at Xidan again.

 

TVCC on Fire

 

We all know how much the Chinese fancy fireworks and firecrackers for Chinese New Year. On February 9th, I received some calls from friends around town who were witnessing a huge fire taking over Beijing Television Culture Center (TVCC) also known as the Mandarin Oriental Hotel-to-be. Within 20 minutes, fire was up to top and lasted several hours, taking the life of one firefighter and injuring seven others. The building, aslo designed by renouned dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, still stands reminding us the tragic incident.

 

Solar Eclipse

 

 

 

Many people traveled to Shanghai to watch the total solar eclipse on July 22nd, only to find rain and clouds. Nonetheless, I found the light over Shanghai absolutely stunning during the eclipse. The video is taken in Wuhan where the view was clearer.

 

 

Michael Jackson’s tribute

 

 

 

All of us remember where we were and what we were doing when the King of Pop died on June 25. This video is one among the numerous homages by Chinese netizens to the greatest artist of our times.

 

PRC’s 60th Year Anniversary

 

 

Keywords : China, PRC, Anniversary, Beijing, Parade, 100 000 participants. Well, just a large-scale reminder of where we are.

 

Thai Boxing vs Chinese Kung Fu

 

 

This video featuring the match opposing Muay Thai boxers and Chinese Kung Fu fighters was watched by more than 10 million people in 1 day : China won, of course.

 

Looking forward to 2010′s China most buzzed videos,

 

B.andtheCity

 

 

 

 

January 10, 2010 | BuzzandtheCity | Tags: , , , , | No Comments »
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