Weber Shandwick in China Holds Advocacy Innovation Awards

Promising team members the chance to “show-off your innovation, freshness, creativity!”—the China office initiated the Advocacy Innovation Awards, a quarterly internal competition to recognise creative campaigns.

Managing director in China, David Liu, conceived the award programme as a catalyst for further creativity.

“There are so many people putting in long hours to provide unique campaigns for clients. A lot of the time it’s factors outside our control—time, cost, venue—that force us to find creative solutions,” explained Liu. “We don’t want their innovation to go unnoticed, and at the same time this award will promote more innovative PR strategies in the future.”

The first prize of the second quarter went to Bill Wu, Athena Wang and Sophia Wang from Shanghai Consumer Team. The half-year-long campaign of Pampers Development Journey was successfully organized to educate Chinese moms on Pampers BSOD Concept (Babies’ Stages of Development Concept). The team adapted online and offline programs to educate and entertain the moms with sufficient information and Pampers product benefits.

As a result, over 65,000 families were registered as new Pampers Club members, over 30,000 families participated in Pampers Carnivals held in 6 cities and over 100,000 target consumers got involved in the voting for talent babies. At the same time, the sales volume of related Pampers products was dramatically increased during the campaign.

The campaign also enabled Pampers brand to win three big awards on P&G Asia External Relations Symposium-- the “Influencer Marketing Award”, the “Choice of People Award”, and the “Chris Hassall Award” (representing the best GC ER).

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Conferences Call on Agency’s Crisis Management Expertise

Darren Burns, managing director for Weber Shandwick in Shanghai and Guangzhou, shared his experience with different types of mistakes made by major international corporations in China with a panel of experts from China, India, Japan and Malaysia at the 2007 IABC International Conference in New Orleans on 26 June.
He will go on to share further thoughts at the Crisis Management Salon in Shanghai as a moderator alongside panelists including a representative from one of Weber Shandwick’s key clients, Sophia Luan, director, public relations and public affairs for General Motors China Group.
“As the region becomes an increasingly larger part of multinational corporations’ business operations, greater focus is being placed at the global level on how to safeguard reputation—this panel seeks to offer suggestions on how to do this in a rapidly changing environment,” said Burns.
As serious mistakes ranging from cultural misunderstandings, legal ignorance, poor government relations and social and political insensitivity result in detrimental short- and long-term repercussions, the session seeks to provide insights on pertinent issues for foreign companies to reach their stakeholders in Asian countries.
The 2007 IABC International Conference is the largest of its kind in the region to be attended by more than 1,000 participants.

Darren Burns, Managing Director – Shanghai and Guangzhou
Weber Shandwick

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Activating Screengrab in Beijing and Shanghai

With the continued development of Screengrab—the agency’s interactive, social and emerging media practice—Antony Cheng, Emerging Media Manager at Weber Shandwick in China, recently performed a series of trainings on engaging social media.

The in-house trainings in Beijing and Shanghai focused on social media as an increasingly important part of the media matrix and looked at ways for PR professionals to harness this burgeoning sector in their PR strategies and campaigns. The training was especially essential in the Chinese market, where the number of Net users is second only to that of the United States’.

Cheng, who has been working in the new media field for six years, commented, “I was very pleased by the level of interaction from my colleagues and the enthusiasm they had for learning about this increasingly important area. It is crucial for all PR professionals to embrace social media if they want to deliver the best results for their clients in the future”.

Relying on its deep expertise in public relations, Screengrab helps companies build relationships with audiences on the Web through innovative online campaigns and Web sites. It also combines online grassroots techniques and Web technologies to amplify messages to audiences and to create consumer evangelists for brands. In addition, the team develops award-winning sites that help companies forge relationships with audiences to achieve their most important business goals.

Click here to learn more about Screengrab.

Antony Cheng, Emerging Media Manager, Weber Shandwick in China

Agency Releases China Auto Update

China automotive industry watchers now have a new resource: the China Auto Update, a quarterly news update from public relations firm Weber Shandwick.
China’s automotive industry is being revolutionized by change and growth. Among these changes are the Chinese government’s green vision for the country’s auto industry, a recent display of hybrid and battery-operated vehicles at the Shanghai Auto Show, and exponential growth in car exports.

Weber Shandwick published China Auto Update to keep auto clients informed of the latest automotive industry news and trends. The growing roster of Weber Shandwick’s auto clients in China includes General Motors, ExxonMobil, ArvinMeritor, Goodyear and A1GP Motorsport.

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