GroupM Interaction’s Digital+ conference: China focuses on synergy and convergence

In his opening statement, GroupM Interaction managing director Tony Chen mentioned the focus on multi-screen campaigns. “In June, China’s Got Talent attracted 30 million viewers online and 35 million viewers on TV. Targeting TV alone wouldn’t make sense,” he said.

A study by Sinomonitor and GroupM, which included over 5000 respondents in 20 cities in China, found that even audiences who preferred to watch videos online spent only 25 per cent less time watching TV than audiences who preferred TV over online videos.

While watching TV, users also enjoy using their smartphones or tablet devices to research programming or share what they’re watching with friends, raised Victor Koo, CEO of Youku during a panel discussing online video advertising strategies.

Users are no longer passive TV viewers thanks to their iPads, said Madhouse CEO Joshua Ma. “They’re active, engaged and ready to be leveraged,” he said.

TV networks, by and large, are not doing enough to tie into this trend, said Koo’s fellow panellist Jin Zhongbo, vice president of the Shanghai Media Group. “We need to focus far more on building on synergies like this. We’ve been a passive monopoly and I believe we could do far more.”

GroupM Interaction Global CEO and CEO of GroupM North America, Rob Norman, highlighted in his keynote talk the need for marketers to stop thinking of the digital world and physical world as separate. “It’s a mistake. The next generation (of consumers) is characterised by the ability to combine the best of traditional with the best of revolutionary. New things appear everyday, but the old things – print, radio – are not going away,” he said.

A marketing key word that’s trending, SoLoMo (social, location, mobile), speaks of convergence and integration both technological and physical, pointed out Tencent’s president of online media, SY Lau. “Tencent’s next generation of products going into 2012 will be centred around 'SoLoMo', around enabling users to use these features in a seamless and personalised fashion,” said Lau.

Retail and online in China are also seeing a convergence with search and e-commerce. President of DangDang Peggy Yu raised examples of sending samples to the webstore’s female-centric database to successfully promote diapers and baby formula. “The 7,000 samples of Wyeth baby formula helped both online and in-store sales,” said Yu.

While search has been known to be a great conversion tool for consumers looking to try new brands, it has also become a tool for retailers to form an impression in the consumer’s mind long before the customer has ever walked into the store, said Google Asia-Pacific vice-president Wong Jin-Lee. “Car companies have become one of our largest spenders in this arena because no one just spends a weekend going from showroom to showroom looking at cars anymore. They look online,” he said.

Mobile technology is spearheading the move to convergence. Rovio’s success at turning its mobile casual game, Angry Birds, into a merchandising juggernaut has led to over 10 million of its soft toys sold in less than a year. Outdoor campaigns are made personal to consumers thanks to QR codes interfacing with their smartphones and the enablement of rich media on mobile phones extends the coverage of every campaign, observed panellists during the evening session titled ‘Mobile+: Using Mobile to bridge outdoor, LBS, e-commerce and print in marketing activities’.

“What China is truly keen on is applications and strategies that make use of convergence across multi-platforms, and mobile is driving that move to synergy,” summed up Sara Si, vice-president GroupM China in a talk with Campaign.