China video site obeservations

There’s a very interesting article issued in May 2010, which provide a comprehensive survey on China’s video site, and in-depth research on major video sites from three aspects: a) basic info, b) content, and c) user and advertisement.
Kind note that video site here means all the sites that typically have video-related business, and can be divided into two categories:
1) Video portal site (straight-up video site), include Youku, Tudou, 56, Ku 6, Qiyi, Joy,cn,
2) Portal website that has video function, include Sina, Tencent and Sohu.

Take-away and analysis:
• Speed, quality of the picture, and video content are three most important factors for video site selection.
• Video portal sites beat portal sites in speed, traffic and quality of the pictures. Therefore video portal sites are the way to go.
• Ku6 is the unexpected dark horse, beats competitors in picture quality, traffic and the amount of originals. These provide us guidance on platform selection.
• Different from the US, Movies and TV are the most accepted and liked program for Chinese online audience. Therefore tend to attract advertisement.
• Audience is still reluctant to typical video Ad, yet character-driver Ad is different story.

Part 1 Basic Information—video portal sites, specifically Tudou and Ku6 are the way to go
Speed—straight-up video sites are faster than portals
Portal site is slower than straight up video portal site. Reason: as trading company, major portal sites such as Sina and Sohu won’t heavily invest in upgrading server and other technologies until they see promising profit. Within video portal sites, Ku6 stands out to have the fasterst speed.

Traffic—Youku, Tudou, and Ku6 are top three
The top three sites that have the highest traffic are Youku, Tuou, and Ku6. Within portal sites, Sina and Sohu has different model—Sina focus more on news reporting, whereas Sohu’s model is more like Hulu.
Noteworthy is that Ku6’s traffic enjoy tremendous growth, mainly because the strong support from Sunda.

Part 2 Content—fierce competition among video sites, professional content is the majority.
Speed, picture quality and content are three most important factors in site selection
Speed is the most important factor in choosing video sites, 33% of the researched audience chooses speed to be the most important factor; content is the second most important factor (28%). Picture quality is the third important factor (26%). Noteworthy is that the brand value of certain site is the least important factor for audience. This means that, audience are not confined to one video site. This leads to fierce competition among video sites.
In terms of picture quality, Ku6, Sina, and Qiyi top the list, Youku is in the bottom. The reason is that Youku needs to control cost given its highest user base.
All video sites categorize its movie and TV content by region. Youku and Joy.cn has the highest percentage of content that’s from Hollywood and Europe. Tudou has the biggest percentage of Asian content.
Professional vs. Original
Ku 6 stands out to have a stronger content team. Youku stands out to have the highest amount of user upload and user interaction.
Out of all the audience researched, 39% of them are most interested in new movies and TV, second interested content is entertainment and variety show (10%), third interested content is sports. Different than YouTube, originals are the least popular category (3.7%).

Part 3 Advertisement—advertisers favor professional and authorized content, audience needs time to accept
From advertiser’s perspective, Ku6 and Sina attract advertisers most for its support for high-definition, and authorized professional videos; Youku and Tudou are considered to be risker in copyright due to the mix of both professional and original content. Video advertisement is well-accepted among advertisesr; however, users are not so excited about video advertisement—33% of the audiences researched indicate that they cannot accept Ad on video site.

Access
In terms of how to access video sites, the most common way is search engine (26%); website links is in the second place (25%); advertisement is the least common way to access these sites (0.4%).


Source:
http://www.chinaz.com/Webmaster/Topsite/05251163002010.html
www.kejixun.com

Friday China Ad Industry Mashup

-       Euro RSCG continues momentum in new business

-       Continue fast change in agency industry

-       Branded TV drama rated 100 million views on Tudou

 MEC's Dominic Ng to lead AB InBev at MediaCom Shanghai Aug 27,2010
Dominic Ng, who was most recently national managing director at MEC China, has been internally transferred within GroupM to become the managing partner of MediaCom Shanghai to lead the AB InBev team.
Under Ng's leadership, MediaCom Shanghai won AB InBev’s media pitch. The contract is reportedly worth US$190 million (RMB1.3 billion) and will take effect on 1 October.Ng has already stepped into his new role. Michelle Ko, president MEC China, will take over Ng’s role in MEC Guangzhou as a temporary arrangement.Apart from AB inBev, MediaCom China also added GAP to their client portfolio earlier this year.
Recently MEC has been awarded Mercedes-Benz China's digital buying business, effective July 10th 2010.
http://www.campaignasia.com/Article/230203,mecs-dominic-ng-to-lead-ab-inbev-at-mediacom-shanghai.aspx

Media veteran Frank Lin resigns from McDonald's after five years, effective in October Aug 27, 2010
According to an industry source senior the former marketing director will join a new media company based in Shanghai. The company is still looking for his successor.
Lin had held various senior media director roles with agencies like FCB Guangzhou, MediaCom China and Hong Kong, and JWT Shanghai.
http://www.campaignasia.com/Article/230171,media-veteran-frank-lin-resigns-from-mcdonalds-after-five-years.aspx

Nike Hong Kong promotes Amy Wu as territory commercial director Aug 27, 2010
Amy Wu is marketing director for the past three and half years, to the role of territory commercial director leading the Hong Kong office.
http://en.campaignchina.com/Article/230192,nike-hong-kong-promotes-amy-wu-as-territory-commercial-director.aspx

Cupples steps in to fill OMD's regional role Aug 27, 2010
Omnicom Media Group's (OMG) Asia Pacific CEO Barry Cupples will add OMD regional duties to his current role as Maggie Choi departs. Choi has been with the company for 13 years and has decided to leave to spend time on personal interests. Her last day is 1 November.
http://www.marketing-interactive.com/news/21728

Aegis preps for a convergent media world Aug 27, 2010
Aegis is restructuring its media offering under five "power brands" Carat, Vizeum, Isobar, iProspect and Posterscope, according to chief executive officer Jerry Buhlmann.
Speaking at the announcement of its first half results, where it saw a strong return to profits in the first six months of 2010, Buhlmann said Aegis is moving towards a "well organized" and "competitive product suite" and will be eyeing companies in the faster-growing regions and markets, in particular China and Russia.
http://www.marketing-interactive.com/news/21736

Euro RSCG wins cooking oil Bohi branding duties Aug 27, 2010
The agency is tasked with brand positioning, communication strategy and creative development for Bohi's main cooking oil brand Gourmet Expert as well as brand architecture across Bohi's other cooking oil brands.
Mason Lin is the CEO of Euro RSCG Greater China; Edward Su is the managing director of Euro RSCG Shanghai.


http://www.marketing-interactive.com/news/21730
Unilever branded TV drama ‘Unbeatable' rakes in 100 million views on Tudou Aug 27,2010
Tudou announced that ‘Unbeatable', a 36-part branded drama series for Clear Shampoo, has been played over 100 million times on Tudou.com since its 5 August premiere.
According to Tudou, it is the second drama series that has passed the 100 million threshold, following 'The Myth', which was launched at the beginning of this year.
The drama has been aired across six major satellite TV channels and six web sites. PHD China is the media agency behind the campaign.
http://en.campaignchina.com/Article/230176,unilever-branded-tv-drama-rakes-in-100-million-views-on-tudou.aspx?eid=22&edate=20100827&utm_source=20100827&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=daily_newsletter&eaddr=msun@thoughtfulmedia.com

Taobao Mall calls media pitch in China Aug 27, 2010
OMD, MEC and ZenithOptimedia are believed to have taken part in the presentations yesterday.
Earlier this month Taobao signed a deal with Adidas to open its first online flagship store on the B2C e-commerce platform. Similarly, Uniqlo joined forces with Taobao to set up a flagship store supporting its e-commerce shoppers in the mainland during April last year.
Taobao announced at the start of the year to launch authorized offline stores to reach out to consumers unable to shop online in China. There are plans to deploy over 30,000 more stores in communities and schools across the country before the end of 2010.
http://www.campaignasia.com/Article/230230,taobao-mall-calls-media-pitch-in-china.aspx

Thursday China Ad Industry Mashup

I am going to start a China Ad industry mashup everyday starting from today.

Today there’s useful info on Levi’s first outside USA line Denizen

Bates 141 gets new hotel clients

Personnel change for Starwood China

Levi’s reach out 10 bloggers in Asia for Denizen promotion  Aug 20,2010

Levi’s recruits ten unpaid bloggers to represent the brand’s target audience, working within their own social networking spheres over a 100-day period, sharing experiences and thoughts. They are not linked to an official Denizen website.

Levi Strauss hires MPG for dENiZEN launch Aug 25, 2010

MPG China, part of Havas Media, has been appointed by Levi Strauss to handle the launch of dENiZEN and will provide dENiZEN full media services including strategy, planning and buying.  Thomas Wong is CEO of MPG Greater China.

Bates 141 wins 3M's Filtrete branding and creative duties Aug 25, 2010

Josephine Tsai, managing director of Bates 141 Shanghai, said they are now creating the backbone of Filtrete’s branding strategy for China.

Starwood names new marketing director for two hotels in Tibet Aug 26, 2010

Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide has named hotel veteran Elfa Cleofe as the complex director of sales and marketing for the St. Regis Lhasa Resort and Four Points by Sheraton Lhasa.