While crawling the Web, we found this piece: China takes on local version of “The Apprentice”. It was almost a year ago when media reported that Trump’s hit reality show was going to spurn a Chinese version. Now we know “The Apprentice” will be the “first reality television show in China to be fully licensed for production and localization from original North American producers” but details of the project are shrouded in secrecy.
As a brand, Donald Trump is already well-known in China. In fact, local media have hyped a few Chinese versions of Mr Trump, real estate moguls who have made a killing in the housing boom. But we have yet to see a reverse branding phenomenon from China.
McCann Erickson, the advertising and communications company, is hoping to change that. It is shifting its Chinese strategy to focus more on assisting local companies to develop brand recognition overseas, the FT reported. The move highlights both the emerging strength of Chinese companies and their struggles to promote their brands internationally.
After decades of phenomenonal economic growth, China has launched an impressive array of products but has not mastered the skill at cultivating global brands. The fledgling advertising and PR market in China is fairly fragmented; Chinese companies often opt to do their own PR and marketing or appointing Chinese companies that clearly lack the expertise of foreign communications companies. But the latter group has at times struggled to find a foothold in China, where overall advertising expenditure is estimated to grow by up to 20% a year. More than 80% of advertising spending in the 2nd quarter of this year went into TV, according to Nielsen Media Research.
This is where McCann comes in - it operates in China “through a joint venture with newspaper group Guangming Daily”, and is developing promotion strategies for local groups such as Midea, a white goods manufacturer. With 2008 Beijing Olympic Games will be an opportunity for leading Chinese brands to showcase themselves. McCann’s progress will be closely watched by its competitors, foreign and Chinese alike.