Reprinted from Marketing Computers Magazine, now Technology Marketing
That's why most IT companies stick to the basics in Asia: a photograph of a product, a list of technical specifications, a description of a potential application, company logo, local contact information and a simple headline describing the most important features.
The Case for Technical Ads Technical ads almost always travel well across borders and cultures, if advertisers keep the message simple. These ads usually need few country-by-country changes other than translation. English is acceptable in some parts of Asia—former British and American colonies such as Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines and Singapore. But most other countries in Asia require local translation.
Using a simple ad layout also saves money. With 18 countries in the Asia Pacific region, most advertisers can't afford to create 18 different layouts. It's much more cost-effective to develop one standard layout in which English ad copy can be substituted for another language, depending on the country.
The question then becomes: How can companies make their ads stand out if they stick to a plain informational format? If every ad looks like every other ad, how can manufacturers ensure that their products don't get lost in the shuffle?
One option, using memorable graphics, only works if the images have universal appeal. Otherwise, the approach can backfire.
Several years ago, for example, Sun Microsystems devised a "Network the Dog" campaign to tout its workstations and networking capability. In Japan, where pets are often prized as expensive possessions, these ads—featuring photos of Sun's corporate canine mascot—caught the imagination of workstation buyers. But in Taiwan, where dogs are more likely to be on the menu, the campaign may have left customers hungering for more, in more ways than one.
Rare Success for image Ads Intel, with its agency Euro RSCG Dahlin Smith White, this year began a new version of its global "Intel Inside" campaign in Asia to promote MMX chips. Most recently, Intel launched a TV spot in China and India featuring a boy doing his homework on a Pentium computer. The commercial presses all the right cultural buttons in China: the government-instituted one-child policy, education as a Confucian priority and most parents' preference for a boy. "An Intel Pentium processor with MMX technology helps make schoolwork exciting," the voiceover says.
The company earlier this year launched its bunny-people campaign that also runs in the U.S. Bunny-suited wafer fabrication workers do cartwheels across the factory floor in print ads. And on TV, the same clean-room workers dance to rock music. The message: Intel chips take PC buyers into a new world of multimedia computing. The bunny-people campaign should attract young PC buyers, thanks to the proliferation of MTV and other rock music TV channels in Asia. The only potential for trouble is that Intel's ads seem to equate modernization (semiconductor components) with Westernization (rock music), a dangerous assumption in a region of the world where politicians often complain about the "erosion" of Eastern values.
If the images in Intel's campaign do prove popular across Asia, it will be a rare case among global campaigns. "We do placement for several major U.S. IT companies," the vice president of a leading independent ad agency in Seoul recently told me. "In these cases, all the creative comes from abroad. Sometimes the ads just don't click with our audience. But we have no control over content. The most we can do then is veto a campaign. It's very frustrating."
What's a Marketer to Do? If a U.S. company is unsure about whether a corporate image or product campaign will work in Asia, it's a good idea to check with local sales offices in Asia. The process may be unwieldy, but it's a prudent precaution. Even if local salespeople aren't schooled in marketing, they can sometimes catch embarrassing mistakes that might otherwise drive a stake through the heart of an expensive international ad campaign.
Consider how most Americans are unaware of how sensitive maps are in parts of Asia. An ad in China showing Taiwan in a different color from the mainland would certainly bring down the wrath of the government in Beijing. Different colors imply that the island is a separate country, not a "rogue province," as the government insists.
Another unknown issue, comparative advertising can be a problem in parts of Asia. In Japan, criticizing a competitor in print is frowned upon as impolite, and most Japanese publishers will refuse to run such ads. In other Asian countries, such as the Philippines, comparative advertising is banned altogether.
Act Locally The most effective global campaigns involve ads that provide a framework for local agencies to tailor a campaign. Before it embarked on its MMX campaign, for example, DSW teamed up with its Euro RSCG partner in Beijing to produce a Chinese-language "Intel Inside" Pentium bicycle reflector. With 8 million bikes in Beijing alone, this is an inspired promotion idea. The printed message cleverly warns other riders to keep their distance and drive safely. By connecting Intel with safety, the message also implies that gray-market computers with competitive chips may lead to accidents. Intel now hires teams of young people to hand out many thousands of these two-inch-square reflectors at Chinese IT trade shows. They are much sought-after, since bicycle riders often commute after dark.
Multinationals can also tap the creative energies of independent local ad firms that clearly understand what works and what doesn't in their respective countries. I recently visited Dazhong Jingwei Advertising in Beijing. Many of my colleagues at IDG in China, where we publish 16 IT magazines and newspapers, believe that Dazhong is developing some of the most innovative IT campaigns now running in China. Executives at Dazhong showed me an array of China-specific ads drawing heavily on historical allusions and mythic themes.
>> A series of ads for Shida Group, China's largest domestic terminal manufacturer, based on black-and-white ink wash illustrations of respected historical figures from the Song and Tang dynasties. The ads allude to these figures—unrecognizable to anyone not Chinese—to symbolize product integrity of Shida's terminals.
>> An ad for Microtek, a scanner manufacturer, based on a visual pun of two Chinese ideograms placed side by side. One Chinese character in the ad stands for the numeral 10, the other for 1,000. Visually, the only difference between the characters is a single brush stroke on which is printed the acronym for Microtek's proprietary software. A Microtek-labeled calligraphy brush stands poised above the "1,000" character. Just as the number 1,000 is 100 times larger than the number 10, ad copy claims Microtek's scanner is 100 times more powerful than its competition.
>> A corporate ad announcing the formation of a joint venture between Acer of Taiwan and Legend, China's largest domestic PC maker. "Acer and Legend are assembling an orchestra to perform across the next century," the headline declares. Two drumsticks, one labeled "Acer" and the other "Legend," beat simultaneously against an imperial drum hovering above a printed circuit board. (Drums were used during feudal times to entertain royalty and summon troops into battle.) A dragon, symbol of the Emperor, is emblazoned on the drumhead.
This ad wordlessly conveys that Acer and Legend have a common Chinese heritage and each is No. 1 in its respective market. The use of this subtle symbolism is particularly important because under Chinese advertising law, companies cannot legally say they are "No. 1" in a given market unless that claim is officially substantiated.
>> An ad for Qinghua, China's No. 1 scanner maker, features Lung Shen, the mythical figure in The Monkey King, a classical Chinese novel about the pilgrimage of a monkey to India to recover stolen Buddhist texts. In this tale, Lung Shen has three eyes, including one that sees all. So too can the company's high-resolution scanner, the ad declares.
Global Resonance? It's hard to imagine a Western ad agency creating China-centric images as striking as these. My Chinese colleagues tell me Dazhong's ads resonate deeply in their psyche, unlike so many ads exported to China by Western ad agencies.
The lesson in all this is that global ad campaigns can sometimes work well in Asia, especially for product ads that travel well across borders and cultures. But effective image campaigns sometimes require customized creative. When in doubt, American IT companies would do well to stick to the basics and focus on purely technical product ads.
Marketing Computers Magazine, now Technology Marketing, http://www.technologymarketing.com