Sichuan Earthquake Shows Hope to the Future of Chinese

“In the aftermath of the great Sichuan earthquake, we’ve seen a hopeful glimpse of China’s future: a more open and self-confident nation, and maybe — just maybe — the birth of grass-roots politics here.” Such opening is so refreshing and enlightening. It was from Nicholas Kristof’s Earthquake and Hope on New York Times.

Chinese government has always been portrayed as a no-freedom-no-right communist by Western media (American and European). Most of the coverage is on unsafe products, trade surplus (i.e. deficit in the other countries), human right, property copyright, Tibetan freedom and other negative events. Different culture, and in some cases lower education level, somehow got translated into being uncivilized. To some, communist must be autarchic.

Sichuan earthquake proves them wrong. China has been changing to the right direction. I am glad Kristof shared his thoughts on NYT.

After the earthquake, the Propaganda Department instinctively banned news organizations from traveling to the disaster area. But journalists all around the country ignored it and rushed in. The order was withdrawn the next day. After then, the authority ordered media to focus on the outstanding relief effort. Yet journalists investigated why schools collapsed when government offices stand; and if there were corruptions. Apparently, media scored again.

Earthquake is sad. But I am very impressed by the overall positive attitude.

• Prime Minister Wen Jiabao rushed to the disaster area to oversee rescue operations.


• There are crying faces who lost their loved ones, but those who survive are thankful.


• Many children lost their limbs, but are grateful being saved.


• Buildings were collapsed, but will be rebuilt.


• Schools could be ill-structured; those responsible will be punished.


• Food and supply were short; help is being transported over every day.


• No one fighting for limited resources. Everyone try to help each other.


• Chinese traveled from around the nation to volunteer.


• Mourning messages, articles, video, and animations flooded all major Chinese websites.


• Billions of dollars of donation were collected domestically and from overseas.


• Media offered a good balance of the coverage.

I do not know if such affirmative outlook is a result of pressure from the authority. No doubt it helps to heal those were hurt, unite the country, lift up the nationalism overseas, and build a positive image of the nation’s value around the world. I am pleased to see how Chinese united together. I am proud to be Chinese.

National Association of Asian Publishers

A group of Asian American publishers had recently established the National Association of Asian Publishers (NAAP). Congratulations!

Extract from their press release:

NAAP's mission is to develop the Asian American market and to increase advertising share for Asian Pacific American publishers, including both English language and Asian language media. NAAP’s first priority is to reach out to over 400 identified Asian print, electronic and online publishers throughout the United States. NAAP will focus on three areas: (1) market research, (2) matching circulation verification and analysis with the needs of advertisers and (3) developing new leaders in the field of Asian Pacific American publishing.

Recent statistics show that Asian Pacific American buying power is growing proportionally faster than any other group: at $427 billion in 2006 and expected to top $622 billion by 2011. Buying power of Asian Pacific Americans is growing three times faster than APA population growth.*

Linguistically and culturally, Asian Americans are primarily an immigrant population but with the highest English literacy rate of any minority group, and among the highest birthrates in America. This means that Asians and Pacific Islanders are retaining their cultural heritage and cultural sensitivities while at the same time functioning and contributing to American society. Studies have shown that most Asians socialize with other Asians, and use English as their preferred language.*

"Asian and Pacific Islander publishers are experiencing major growth all over the country, and we know no limits – from newspapers to magazines to electronic publishing, we are helping to drive the new economy. NAAP welcomes all API publishers and seeks to represent our common goals," said Ted Fang, publisher of AsianWeek.

"It was exciting to witness history in the making as I watched the formation of the National Association of Asian Publishers. I expect this market segment to experience significant growth and look forward to the future success of this worthy organization," said Alan Levy, vice president of marketing and sales for Verified Audit.

* Sources: Kaiser Family Foundation/San Jose Mercury News 2004, Selig Center for Economic Growth, InterTrend Communications, 2006

While most traditional print publications in general market struggle with decreasing circulation, Asian American publications indeed have been growing remarkably. Both marketers and general market publishers should make a note of it.

Lack of Data, Lot of Promise For Asian American Media

CNNMoney posted an article "Lack of Data, Lot of Promise For Asian American Media" on December 18, 2006. Many key players in the market, including media and agencies, were interviewed. Their opinions vary sharply. (The link no longer works. See below for complete story.)

The Asian American market is definitely growing, just not sure at what rate. There is no data to support. Only one TV station is on Nielsen. Less than 5% of the publications are audited.

More and more Asian American media outlets come out every month. Many of them are branches of mainstream, eg. MTV Chi, MTV K and MTV Desi; OnWheel’s Asian On Wheels.

Asian marketing is a fun place to be at now and in the coming years. Though the harvest time may not come very soon, it sure is promising. Those who stay long and overcome all the challenges and learn the process will be the big winners – both media and marketers, both product and personal growth.

Lack of Data, Lot of Promise For Asian-American Media
December 18, 2006: 10:04 AM EST

Dec. 18, 2006 (Multichannel News) -- Asked about the state of the Asian-American television advertising market, more than a dozen media and marketing executives provided sharply different opinions.

"Definitely flatline," answered Elcid Choi, executive vice president and director of new client development for the multicultural agency GlobalHue.

"Nominal growth," said Michael Sherman general manager of KTSF, a broadcast station in San Francisco that transmits foreign-language programming for Asians.

"Very strong growth," said Saul Gitlin, executive vice president of strategic marketing services at Kang & Lee, one of the larger Asian-American advertising agencies.

But no one suggested the market was shrinking.

The different opinions point to perhaps the biggest challenge facing the Asian-American media industry -- the dearth of data. Only one media outlet subscribes to Nielsen Media Research ratings. And no firm collects industry-wide information about how much brands are spending on television advertising.

Still, there is widespread agreement about the attractiveness and potential of the Asian-American market. In September, the University of Georgia's Selig Center for Economic Growth released a report estimating Asian-American buying power at $427 billion.

This represents an almost 60% jump since 2000. According to the Census Bureau, the Asian-American population is approximately 11.9 million. This represents a 20% increase between 2000 and 2004. Almost half have a bachelor's or graduate degree and a little under a fifth earn over $75,000 a year.

"It makes strong business sense to target Asian-Americans," said Joe Min, account manager for Toyota at Long Beach, Calif.-based Asian-American ad agency interTrend. The automotive industry apparently agrees and is an active advertiser in the market.

Chrysler just recently re-entered the Asian-American advertising market with a television campaign promoting its Sebring model. It is the first time Chrysler has advertised a new model simultaneously in the general and Asian-American markets. The campaign began in late November and will run through the first quarter of next year.

The buy concentrated on Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco through a mix of broadcast and pay television. The campaign actually consists of spots in three languages -- Chinese, Korean and then English for Indian-Americans. The creative is the same, albeit with different actors and voiceovers. English was used to reach out to Indians from all different regions.

According to Holly Scerbo communications manager for Chrysler Marketing, "The demographics make it attractive and challenging," Sherman agrees the market is very attractive. KTSF, which broadcasts Chinese-language programming in primetime, including local newscasts in Mandarin and Cantonese, is the only Asian station or network that subscribes to Nielsen. In primetime, it is often San Francisco's second most-watched foreign-language station, behind Univision but ahead of Telemundo.

Last year, following the January 2005 move to Nielsen, Sherman saw a big jump in advertising dollars. But this year has brought in little additional revenue. A little over half of the station's advertising comes from national accounts.

"Over time the advertising community has come on board, although not as much as I would have thought," said Sherman. "People's understanding of the market is not that great. A lot of our work goes into explaining the Asian market."

Partly, that is a reflection of the inherent complexity of the Asian-American market. The largest immigrant groups are from China, India and Korea. English-language competency varies from near universal for Indian immigrants to significantly less for Chinese immigrants.

Aside from KTSF, there are only a handful of local stations and no national broadcast network transmitting Asian programming full-time. The stations typically carry programming from several countries, with primetime going to the largest immigrant group in the area -- Chinese in San Francisco and Korean in Los Angeles.

In addition, there are a few dozen pay television networks that feature original-language programming imported from Asia. Two networks, AZN and ImaginAsian TV, air a significant amount of programming that is either in English or subtitled.

There are also three MTV Channels that have launched over the past two years: MTVK, for Korean-Americans; MTV Chi, targeting Chinese-Americans; and MTV Desi, for South Asian-Americans. The VJs speak primarily in English as they introduce Asian music videos.

National advertising on these stations and networks comes in a range of languages, including Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean and Tagalog, as well as English. Although there is no industry-wide breakdown, a majority of Asian-American advertising appears to be in foreign languages.

"We know that overall the majority of Asians are immigrants and show a preference for their own language," Gitlin said.

Most of the advertising on The Filipino Channel is in Tagalog and comes from local businesses. Western Union (NYSE:WU) (NYSE:FDC) and California utility PG & E have both placed commercials in Tagalog. "Over the last three years, mainstream advertisers have begun recognizing us," said Jun Del Rosario, a product manager of TFC's Manila-based parent company ABS-CBN.

The network has some 200,000 subscribers via cable systems and DirecTV. Thomas Tseng, co-founder and principal of multicultural market research firm New American Dimensions, argues there is too much emphasis on Asian-language media. "There is a slew of media reaching that immigrant but there aren't a lot of media reaching the American generation," he said. Tseng pointed to surveys his firm conducted this summer, which find a sharp drop in Asian-language fluency by the second generation.

"When you look at a lot of the in-language media they tend to reach an older demographic," said Thomas Pyun vice president of advertising sales at ImaginAsian Entertainment.

Bill Georges, senior vice president of marketing and sales at Comcast-owned (NASDAQ:CMCSA) AZN, recommends first-time advertisers in the Asian-American market begin with English-language ads. Not to reach young U.S.-born Asian-Americans, but to reach the largest number of viewers possible.

"For too many years we had advertisers believing they were doing 'Asian marketing' when what they were doing was Chinese marketing in San Francisco or Korean marketing in L.A.," he said. "The English-language is a way to aggregate the Asian audience." Georges projects his ad sales revenues will increase some 75% next year.

The large number of networks for a relatively small audience that is fragmented by language combined with modest demand from national brands and little ratings information means that advertising costs are comparatively low.

"Your production costs a lot of times outweigh the media outlets. You are spending $100,000 on a spot and spending $75,000 on media," said Global Hue's Choi. Spending more money to produce a commercial than to run it is practically unheard of in other markets.

While the lack of ratings is an oddity in the market, it apparently is not deterring committed advertisers.

"We take a holistic view of how we are reaching our audience," Honda manager of emerging markets advertising Barbara Ponce said. "If Nielsen isn't available, we will look at other metrics while not closing the door".

Kang & Lee's Gitlin said those brands that make investments now in Asian-American advertising will reap tangible benefits. "The future is very bright. By the time we hit 2010, it is just going to accelerate," said Gitlin. "Asian marketing is going to shift from being an option to being an imperative opportunity."


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ImaginAsian's "Big Tent" Approach

ImaginAsian Entertainment is the cover story of the Money section in today's USA Today.

Michael Hong, CEO of ImaginAsian, said that they are doing a big tent approach, trying to make the TV channel accessible to all Asians and non-Asians. I admire his ambition. Asian is a very much diversified group, yet we do share some similar culture and value. It is not easy to find the right programs to make everyone interested.

Right now, most Asian media are by ethnicity. Even for some pan-Asian stations like KTSF and KSCI, they have specific program/time slots for different ethnic groups.

Language is definitely the biggest challenge. Unlike Hispanic, Asians do not speak the same language. In fact, English is the common language among us as Bill Georges, SVP of AZN, once put it.

Being an Asian and one who work in the Asian advertising industry, I do looking forward to seeing more Asian entertainment options. Ten years ago, no one would think Univision and Telemundo would grow to its current size. When will we have our UniAsian and TeleAsia?

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Asian Media Planning and Buying

In Media Planning 101, students learn about Rating, GRP, CPM, CPP and so. They plan base on MRI and Nielsen data. While these techniques are useful, it does work for Asian media planning. Why? Because we don't have syndicated research data like MRI and Nielsen and that only a few Asian American publications are ABC audited.

Adding to the fact that the market is very diversified, Asian media planning is indeed extremely challenging. It is very difficult for general market media agencies (who are from the traditional schools) to manage. To deal with Asian media portion, they have three options:

• Put together a very basic plan and buy for some level of awareness. There are few major media in each market/segment. Just buy some full-page ads or 60-second spots on premium position/time would not be too wrong.


• Outsource it. Pretend you have the capabilities in-house but actually let your affiliates do it. Form a different agency with the affiliate in case the affiliate has existing client(s) that have conflict of interest.


• Let go. Admit you are not ready and ask client's Asian agency to do it.

Most of my clients have their general market media agencies handle all diversity media plan and buy, except Asian. But it is not easy for them to let go and keep letting go. I believe it is the nature of business –- people try to have it all.

Before you decide which option you or your agency should take, see my other Asian Marketing blog entries on my experience working with general market agencies when I worked for an Asian publication.

• IBM -- Traditional vs Simplified Chinese
• McDonald's -- Language Difference
• IKEA -- English Ad On Chinese Newspaper

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Asian Media CPM

I was in a new business pitch last week. The media director of the prospect company asked me why the CPM of the Asian media was ridiculously high and how it justified. While he was the only one I met so far raised the question, I bet many other general market media professionals share the same thought.

I must admit Asian media CPM is relatively higher than general market, range from 1.5 to 10 times more depending on the market segment and media type. Why does it still make sense? Here is my defense.

1. Asian media are very targeted. The more narrow targeted a medium is, the higher its CPM is. That is the nature of the business. Higher CPM but less waste, money well spent.


2. The attentiveness of Asian media are much higher than average. Audience is very involved with the media/programs/contents. You’d rather pay higher CPM on one designated medium than to pay lower but share audience’s attention with other media at the same time (eg. TV & Internet).


3. Response rate of some major Asian media are enormously high. Since the audience is very involved, they pay attention and take action accordingly. Place a small announcement in an Asian pager for a cultural activity, you will easily find full house the next day.

For the above reasons, Asian media demand higher CPM. But come on, give me a break. Our media budget has been – still – just a drop of bucket. Asian marketing tend to overdeliver.

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Media Pricing

Met with Donald Post, an experienced media and agency guy, today. He told me how easy magazine buy used to be more than a decade ago. Ever since there have been print sales professionals who help advertisers negotiating the best price, position and added value; the rate card numbers became reference numbers. While the middle person helped selling the media, it hurt the pricing infrastructure.

Don was surprised when I told him there are many ethnic media mean to have rate card for reference only and actual rate could go as low as 10% of the open rate. There is no standard. It all depends on what is the brand, who you are and whom you talk to. Today AE John gave me the rate $1,200 and claimed it was the best rate ever ($3,000 open rate, $1,700 after all frequency discount). After I submitted the plan, client could call me tomorrow and asked me to send IO to AE Mary of the same publication at the rate of $1,000 for 9 insertions.

Yes, it is that bad. It is so embarrassing. Of course, we complained, so as the other Asian agencies. But it is an industry problem. Luckily, not all Asian media are like that. Only very small number of them in some particular segment and media type still do that. It is definitely an ethical issue.

In advertising, agency and media are partners. We work together to grow the business. Asian marketing is still just a drop of the bucket in terms of overall advertising spending in the US. No matter how big the buying power Asian have, how good the Asian agencies are, the needle won’t turn until the Asian media get more disciplined and organized. So, wake up, people!

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Asian on TV

In the past few years, we see more and more Asian faces on screen. Some well known Asian artists include Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Lucy Liu, Sandra Oh, Daniel Kim, Yunjin Kim, to name just a few. But are the roles these Asian play in the movies really Asian?

Tony Award winner B.D. Wong plays a doctor on Sesame Street, Jurassic Park and Law & Order. In the interview with ABC 20/20 Hollywood Stereotypes, he said the image of Asian "pisses him off". He wants to be cute but Asians are not in Hollywood.

In Hollywood, Asians are either boring professional or kung fu experts. Yes, martial arts are part of the Asian culture. Yes, Asians accounts for 30% of the medical scientists in the US, and that 17% of physicians and surgeons are Asians. But that does not mean Asians are not cool.

I found the recent Alberto VO5 "Break the Mold" spot (see below) which features two Chinese rebellious teenagers run away from a strict school, captures very well what Asians really are. Asians will find this spot particularly interesting, no matter they like it or hate it. The spot should be very eye-catching to non-Asian as well. After all, it looks so different from the other commercials.

Some of the marketers are smart enough to share general market creative with their diversity AOR before production to see if it makes sense to apply the creative in multiple segments. In some cases, some additional shadow shooting with Asian talents will work. That could save a lot of production cost.

What marketers should also do is to make sure Asian talents are included in the general market media as well. After all, it is the minorities in the US that are the majority. 5% of the population is Asian and they represent $260 billion annual buying power. While many Asians consume Asian media, they don'’t live in a vacuum. They are reached by general market advertising as well. Keep that in mind, whether you do Asian marketing or general marketing.

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