Thoughtful China Podcast

The U.S. has been a global leader in the move towards branded content and entertainment. This week on "Thoughtful China," learn how to create powerful content marketing from Deep Focus CEO Ian Schafer, one of the most influential voices in interactive marketing and social media.

This week on “Thoughtful China,” learn how to create online video content that engages Chinese customers, how to identify and leverage content creators who are emerging as key opinion leaders on online video platforms, what KPIs can evaluate content marketing programs and how the evolution of China’s digital media industry compares with more developed markets.

To celebrate the 100th episode of “Thoughtful China,” we invited past guests on our show, including some of China’s leading agency experts, to share their views about the top trends affecting China in 2014 and the Year of the Horse.

Market researcher Laurence Lim-Dally analyzes four films created by three brands — Pepsi, Johnnie Walker and the Chinese jewelry brand Qeelin — to explain how each one connects with Chinese consumers while remaining true to each brand’s identity and message.

As ad budgets increasingly shift towards online media, marketers want more accountability — but is the ad community ready to handle a shift in ROI measurement that has a bigger focus on sales revenue and purchase orders? We’ll find out this week on “Thoughtful China” from Wayne Arnold, Brent Cohen, Paul McNeill, Eugene Chew and Scott Silverman.

Johnny Galecki, star of the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, tells “Thoughtful China” about the role of social media in building a fan base in China and why it’s so important for western celebrities to build their presence in this market. Find out more in this week’s episode of “Thoughtful China.”

This week on “Thoughtful China,” Scott Silverman, worldwide managing director for Huawei at Ogilvy & Mather, uses a casino metaphor to talk about the safe and unsafe bets in China’s marketing world and where smart advertisers should be investing ad budgets.

Marketers in China face a challenging media environment, greater demand for accountability and a slowing economic growth rate, all of which create headaches when it comes to media planning. This week on “Thoughtful China,” guest host Clement Tsang interviews Frederic Jouve, Managing Director for Asia-Pacific at Acxiom, to find out what marketers can do to solve these issues.

How much will China’s ad market grow in 2014? In the first episode of this year. our guests share insights about spending levels in the coming year, based on budget meetings in late 2013. Are marketers spending more and changing the way they allocate ad budgets? Find out in this week’s episode of “Thoughtful China.”

This week’s show is a year-end special episode featuring four of China’s leading creative figures -- Jimmy Lam, DDB Group’s chief creative officer, Greater China; Graham Fink, chief creative officer of Ogilvy & Mather China; Mayan Lo, chairman of JWT’s Asia Pacific Creative Council; and Andrew Lok, founder of the independent agency Civilization -- discussing the top ads produced in Greater China during 2013. Find out which ads they picked in the final episode of “Thoughtful China” in 2013.

Thoughtful China and Advertising Age organized a sold-out gala on on Nov 7, to celebrate this year’s Ad Age Women to Watch China honorees. This week on our show, we’re sharing highlights from that event, where some of China’s most promising female professionals -- 16 of this year’s 19 honorees -- shared experiences and insights to a packed room.

Digital media is far more trackable than traditional media. Performance marketing allows advertisers to only pay for media actually consumed, enabling specific transactions and actions to be tied to costs. On this episode of “Thoughtful China,” we take a deeper look at performance marketing and how to navigate China’s complex, opaque media environment.

This week on “Thoughtful China,” experts on China’s sportswear industry like Jens Meyer at adidas as well as youth and social media experts examine the trends shaping that country’s sportswear industry and talk about what global sports brands are doing to build their business in this market.

This week on “Thoughtful China,” Adam Roseman, Andrew Collins, Elan Shou, Kevin Lee and Sirius Wan share insights about the risks and advantages associated with celebrity endorsements in China. Also, one of Hollywood’s leading men and the lead actor in “Arrow,” Stephen Amell, offers a celebrity’s point of view on this topic.

Despite some early rough patches for VC-backed Chinese companies that went public on foreign exchanges, venture capital is still making big bets in China. Find out why this week on “Thoughtful China,” when host Trevor Lai interviews investment experts Gary Rieschel, Perry Chui, William Bao Bean, Rebecca Fannin and Jessica Shu.