[PR & New Media] Mr. E Goes Easy to Shanghai EXPO---Viral Video Campaign

Executive Summary
This proposal is to build a viral video campaign for British Embassy in China, to help UK tourists having an easier, more convenient and fun trip to the Shanghai EXPO.The campaign will be based on social media, using viral video to create a cartoon character to attract attention, gather interests, and build up online communities to share handy tips and touring information for UK citizens who want to travel to Shanghai and visit EXPO.

It will be running throughout the whole EXPO event (May—Oct), and evaluation will be carried out along with the execution to better monitor and adjust the campaign to gain better results.

Background
With the opening of the grand event EXPO approaching, tourists’ interests are increased, all participating countries start promoting their own pavilions to attract visits. However, the basic information for tourists as where to live, where to eat, how to visit, and what’s difference between EXPO trip and an ordinary tourist trip to China are still provided mostly by traditional travel agencies or books.

Shanghai is a metropolitan which has a huge population and all the hustle & bustle of a big city. Over the years, foreign tourists often find themselves a bit at lost in the city which is five times bigger than London, and it takes time to figure out all the information from different travel books and magazines.

The Shanghai EXPO mascot Haber, is more of an image with less practical functions as providing touring information.

Therefore, UK embassy in China wants to provide UK tourists coming to China a new integrated platform to get specific and handy information about EXPO trip in a fun way to help them enjoy it to the most.

Objective
Share useful tips and handy information about travelling in Shanghai, help UK tourists enjoy a simple, easy trip to Shanghai for EXPO, save the usual hustle & bustle during travelling in a metropolitan of an unfamiliar country.

Key Message
Go Easy to the Shanghai EXPO!

Target Audience：Tourists who are
- UK Based
- Interested in travelling specifically for EXPO
- Unfamiliar with China
- Aiming at an easy & fun trip instead of exploring & experiencing

Strategy
- Create character & brand by stop animation
Mr. E would be the brand for this campaign. E stands for easy, enjoy and EXPO;Mr. E’s characters would be a bit laid-back, clumsy, not fussy, has passion for exotic travelling but not really into DIY trip, quiet, with a sense of humour;
The unique style of stop animation decides it’s the best way to present such characters of Mr. E, as its usage of real texture to create original, genuine, fun and nostalgia atmosphere.

- Attract interests by viral video

Appearance of clumsy but cute Mr. E in a simple viral video with little background introduction will attract interests from audience in a relatively short time. Stop animation style has its own charm in terms of attracting interests.

- Build up connection with audience through online community and real-life interaction

After the viral video, online community will be built up on the basis of widely shared interests for Mr. E. It’s a direct and integrated communication channel with target audience. And the real-life appearance of Mr. E and its interaction with audience will help to maintain and increase the connection in an emotional level.

- Share information through social media platforms

Mr. E will share his tips and useful information during travelling through social media platforms, so that any members of the online community will be receiving the information at real time, in a simple way.

Tactics (Timeline included)

- April: Mr. E appears in stop-animation viral video
First Viral Video launch on Youtube, a month’s time given for spreading out;
Background introduction will be as simple and short as possible to raise general curiosity;
No youtube channel would be set up at this stage to keep the video genuine and close to the audience

- May: Mr. E has online community
Based on the growing interests, Mr. E will have his own fan page and twitter account;
Mr. E’s facebook fan page will mostly be used to upload pictures and videos of him travelling in EXPO, and to start discussion and chat inside the community, while his twitter account will mostly be used to release useful tips and travel information. The function of the two social media tools will be clearly separated so that audience don’t get confused and know exactly where to find the information they want;

Mr. E will not have a blog---this is decided by his character: being a bit laid back and wanting to save as much trouble as possible, Mr. E is not into writing more than 140 words quite often and prefers to share in a more direct and easy way;

Mr. E will have a second stop animation video and then, have his own youtube channel, which would be used for the sequel throughout the EXPO period.

For the start, Mr. E will share tips regarding “where to stay in Shanghai”, recommending convenient hotels with personalities and reasonable prices.

- June: Mr. E shares tips of restaurants in Shanghai
Mr. E continues to share tips and information of restaurants in Shanghai through Twitter;

If Mr. E find some places really convenient with reasonable price or eat, he will leave his image somewhere in the building or the place, anyone find his image will be getting a small travel kit through online community, related pictures will be updated accordingly on facebook to create heated discussion and attract interests to go out in Shanghai City to find Mr. E’s image;

3^rd stop animation video updated on Youtube channel, theme of restaurants too;

- July: Mr. E shares tips of “what to see” in EXPO and in the city
Mr. E will give a general introduction of “things you can’t miss out” in EXPO, both on facebook and twitter, to raise enough interests and participation;

Meanwhile, Mr. E will continue to explore Shanghai in his own way: easy, convenient and fun.

There will be more specific transport information shared in terms of “how to get where”, which will also be updated mostly on twitter only;

4^th video will be updated on youtube, to keep audience interested and emotionally connected

- August: Mr. E introduces pavilions representing different countries
Mr. E will go to visit the most representative pavilions, pictures taken with certain part of pavilions as background of Mr. E and shared on facebook, start a quiz of “which country does this pavilion belong?”

This is just for fun experience and no prize or awards will be given

Mr. E’s 5^th video will have both stop animation and real video footage, to leak the first bit of surprise

- September: Mr. E goes from stop animation cartoon into real life world
A real Mr. E (a prop man wearing costume) pops up at different landmarks in the city and EXPO at random time, doing funny things or doing nothing, in the crowd, making clumsy movements but with happy and satisfied expressions, start the discussion of “Look, Mr. E is there, he’s around us!”

- October: Mr. E interacts with the community
Online community members bumped into Mr. E on street and being videotaped and shared online;

Mr. E walks into UK pavilion as the highlight of the whole campaign. Representatives from the British Embassy in China will welcome Mr. E and give him a simple guide of the pavilion. Those who are lucky and bumped into Mr. E will be invited to attend the small event too;

Pictures and videos will be shared accordingly

- Future
After measurement, Mr. E may continue his journey to South Africa in June.
(Brand to use for British Embassy in South Africa)

Measurement
Activities of Facebook fans and twitter followers will be monitored throughout the whole campaign:

- How many fans/followers in total;
- Quantity and content of daily discussions;
- How often new discussions and replies to old discussions appear

Visits of youtube videos on a daily/weekly/monthly basis;

Analysis in depth regarding youtube viewing traffic

General awareness and discussions about Mr. E on Internet( New Media Coverage)

Traditional Media coverage of Real Mr. E’s appearances (escudo event) in September and October.

Sample Interviews at the end of the campaign to measure target audience’s awareness and interests of Mr. E.

Measurement reports will be provided on weekly and monthly basis, and a final report will be provided one week after the whole campaign finishes.

The Importance of Lobbying for NGO development in China

NGO, shorten for Non Government Organization, has been independent from government since the day it was founded in western society. Of course NGO needs a good relationship with the government under most situations, but sometimes those activist groups also go directly against decision makers, which is accepted by the whole democratic society.

However, the development of NGO in China is quite different. As the NGO research expert, researcher of China Science Institute in Environment Research Center, Mr. Kang Xiao Guang expresses: " In recent years the amount of NGO has increased obviously. However, the real development of NGO is still low. The influence of these NGOs to the political and economic aspects of Chinese society is still limited. According to international NGO standard, these can not be counted as real NGO."

One of the main reasons is that in current political system, each NGO has to be supervised by two seperate government departments, which then results in neither department being willing to take the responsibility to supervise. Then without the official recognition, NGO can't be legally recognized. The lack of communication and trust between the two sides then restrict the development of NGO.

And that's exactly why NGO should pay more attention to lobbying in terms of developing in China. Even if you are a NGO, you need to keep a close relationship with the government. That's how things work out in China. Don't dream of becoming an activist group and express ideas by parade. Such things dont exist in this country.

All the biggest NGO in China, such as China Red Cross, Soong Ching Ling Foundation(SCLF), China Youth Foundation, are all seen as "semi-government" organizations, while others like Oxfam, Greenpeace and WWF all have their ways to develop: Oxfam is based in Hong Kong to keep its independence, Greenpeace hires former employee (Ms. Yong Rong) of Chinese Embassy in Africa as the Executive Director of Government and PR, while WWF, being the first one to sign the agreement and accept the supervision of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, has always been in a good relationship with the government. None of those really successful NGOs can afford to lose the support of the government.

The latest PR event initiated by WWF is the Earth Hour, which has won great media coverage (especially online), and WWF successfully convinced 33 governments in different cities in China--which is an astonishing triumph, if anyone has any idea of how difficult to persuade a Chinese local government to join in something that does not necessarily and directly link to the "official achievements". It also shows how successful WWF is in terms of building up and maintaining relationship with the government.

33 cities in China that have participated in Earth Hour Event.

References:

Development of NGO in China:
http://www.westwomen.org/changdao/2007/1123/article_204.html

WWF China:

http://www.wwfchina.org/

Oxfam China:

http://www.oxfam.org.cn/

Greenpeace China：

http://www.greenpeace.org/china/zh/

Take it Slowly--- the recent online campaign of PETA Asia

Over the years, PETA Asia has been developing steadily in mainland China. The strategies can be concluded as two main methods, one is to invite celebrities to become spokesperson and gain publicity and awareness from the public. And the other way is to take action against cruel animal treatment. Its key messages are: becoming a vegetarian to save the planet and anti fur in fashion industry.

Generally, the public takes a hesitate attitude towards vegetarian and anti-fur action.Thousands of years' culture has made being a vegetarian more connected to Buddhism, while normal daily Chinese food contains various vegetables and sometimes it doesn't make any differences between normal food and vegetarian food. Chinese people take food as part of the culture and holds pride for it.

However, the celebrity approach PETA Asia has taken has shown quite great influence to younger generation who are more concerned about environment and global warming. And then their opinion will influence the whole family. Combined with the religious effect, more and more people are either becoming a vegetarian or accepting vegetarian lifestyle.

As PETA's approach is much mild compared to its style in western world, Chinese people find it more acceptable.

The latest celebrity for PETA is a Taiwanese actress, and the above posters enjoyed high exposure on media.

However, recently PETA launched a new online campaign on one of the most popular social media website in China: Douban.com, with the slogan as "Fish is your Friend, not Food."

The moment this slogan appears on Douban, discussions went heated. Most people got irritated and think PETA is being "ridiculous".

One Douban user said: "No more dogs and cats for food, that's what we are supposed to do. No chicken and no fish? That's just too extreme."

Days after the campaign launched, a new online campaign was set up by Douban users, called "Veges are your friend, not food." For the sarcasm to PETA, they used pictures of vegetables made into cute shapes.

This is followed by some bloggers revealing PETA being extreme activist groups in foreign countries and called for public's alert of "What kind of actual organization is PETA". Articles have numerous visits and been copied to all major forums, which has clearly effected PETA's reputation among online communities.

To try to convert Chinese people into vegetarians, it takes time. Nobody could change overnight from eating dogs into becoming friends with fish. Years of efforts from PETA and other NGO such as WWF has greatly improved the situation for animal rights in China. However, it should not be taken for granted that the same pace would work to change people's eating habits.

Nothing extreme can work out in China, and the fundamental reason lies in Confucianism. As an activist group famous for all kinds of extreme escudo events, PETA needs to take it a bit slowly.

Related links:

PETA Asia:http://www.petaasiapacific.com/

Douban Group:http://www.douban.com/online/10361633/

A Second Thought about Political PR in North Korea

Maybe I AM getting a little obsessed with the absurdity of this country's peculiar political environment as it always reminds me of the darkest twenty years of "Culture Revolution" in modern Chinese history.

A second thought about political PR in North Korea. Maybe it is not accurate to say that the country has no political PR as the political propaganda to the public and to foreign visitors are also part of the special political PR. And I have to admit no matter how ridiculous we think it is, North Korea is doing an excellent job of political propaganda to the people.

A lot of pictures in North Korea taken by a Hong Kong resident called himself Pazu (online ID) who has paid a recent visit there. Thanks to him and his Nikon (which has a "hide" button to prevent all the pictures been deleted by the local authority), we can have a peak of the real situation in North Korea.

All pictures copyrights reserved to Pazu.

The Media

All the great stories about Kim Il Sung

All the stamps are for propaganda too(are stamps part of the media too?), 216 is the birthday of Kim Il Sung

In the train, in the hall, both Kim Il Sung and Kim Jiong-il's images but been seen everywhere at any time.

Only Kim Il Sung's statue is facing the South( In East Asia culture, facing south means the respect)

The simple way of repeated appearances of images and messages has worked quite effectively. North Korean people today still holds strong worship to their political leader and to their political system.

North Korean people are waiting for the tourists to leave, and then bow to the statue of Kim Il Sung and show their respect and worship.

Pazu's full ablum about North Korea: http://www.douban.com/photos/album/24923563/?start=0

The existence of Political PR is the proof of democracy

This is my argument for yesterday's debate, regarding whether political PR is evil and harmful to the democratic system.

First, have a peak of the following video, which recorded the moments when former political leader of North Korea, Kim ll Sund died, the general reaction from the public.

Obviously they were all devastated about Kim's death, despite this leader's controvesial reputation throughout his political life.

I will not talk about the complicated politics here, but it is clear that North Korea cant be counted as a democratic country, and that's why people would have unanimous reaction/opinion towards a rather complicated matter/issue. They dont get to see both sides of the coin, and they dont have a say.

And there is no need for political PR in that country.

In a democratic society, political PR does make politicians into jokers or celebrities, and it does spin or twist the fact under quite a lot circumstances, and sometimes it is not good for the public interests.

But does that mean it's harmful for the democracy?

Spin or not, lie or not, it still is a way of communication, it provides the public options to choose to believe or not, to support or oppose, its own existence is built on a democratic social system where everyone gets to express their opinions, and gets to choose which side of the story they want to believe.

With political PR, politicians can be dressed up really nicely or destroyed in two days. And the public gets to see the whole process of how it's done.

You may not like it, but you cant deny it's part of the democracy.

Coming from a country where is far less democratic, I'd love to have political PR as a proper industry one day in my home country. I wouldn't mind it's being spinning around, because I'd get the right at the same time to stand out and speak out it's wrong.

And that's all about democracy, isnt it, stand up and have your say.

Political PR helps that, so it's helpful to a real democratic system.

For North Korean people, the day they have political PR is the day they wont be shot to dead for using a mobile phone to call people abroad.

[PR & New Media] Social Media Press Release

"Social Media" Explained in Webcast

----Webcast released by PRism Agency introducing the idea of Social Media

03.06.2010-Facebook is no longer just for chatting with friends, and forget about using Twitter for celebrity gossips only! Social Media has better use than that.

PRism Agency recently released a webcast introducing the idea of social media to the business world.

The webcast aims to directly answer the following questions by using images and edited videos:

 What is social media?

 What are the sociological and cultural concepts behind social media and what is their relevance to PR?

 How will the agency be using social media?

 What are the benefits to the client?

 What are the negatives to the client and how will they be dealt with?

It is hoped the webcast would help to give a better explanation and illustration of social media in a simple and direct way, to encourage the use of this new way of communication for public relations campaigns. Both advantages and disadvantages are given to build a full image of social media and to distribute constructive strategies for public relations practice.

As the technology director of PRism, Ms Viola Wu stated: “The purpose of making this webcast is to give out the idea of social media as simple as possible to prove its potential in future market for public relations. Those who are interested in using social media for public relations are expected to find this webcast easy to understand. And it also helps us for a more efficient communication with clients on the basis of mutual understanding of social media.”

PRism is one of the leading agencies for new media and NGO projects in UK. One of its recent projects are for the recruiting program of Girlguiding UK.

For more information please contact viola.wu@PRism.com

-------the End------

News Facts:

- Currently, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and Flickr are among the most popular social media platforms on Internet, each with huge user generated databases and are continually increasing everyday.

- It takes 38 years for radio to reach 50 million users, 13 years for television and 4 years for Internet to reach that number, while it takes less than 9 months for Facebook to have 100 million users.

- With more than 100,000,000 videos, Youtube has become the second largest search engine in the world, after Google

- 25% search results of world’s top 20 brands are linked with user generated content

Will Women Run PR

After the heated debate in class, I found it very interesting to look into the topic: PR being feminizasid but fewer women can actually run the industry.

According to Women in Public Relations : How Gender Influences Practice by Larissa A. Grunig, and Linda Childers Hon, there are already explanations in print on why women have been welcomed into public relations. Donato (1990) provided seven reasons: the sex-specific demand for women, women as a "better buy", new publics, female-intensive industries, affirmative action, gender ideology and women's attraction to public relations.

My opinion is biologically, women being naturally good at communication is the advantage to PR industry. But it does not necessarily mean women can or will run PR.

The matter of "can"
With more social development, although it's still physically challenging (long working hours, great pressure), nowadays women has little obstacle for can or can not run the industry. Actually, those few female leaders in PR industries all have excellent performances in career.

The matter of "will"
However, not all women are willing to sacrifice so much for work. Compared to the unfixed and long working hours, constant pressure in PR industry, more and more women choose to return to family.

The Reality
If you are young, it is perfect to have some experience in the industry, tough but rewarding. However, as the age increases, pressure from family life and the glass ceiling in work environment push women away from the role of managing the business in PR. In my past experience, for all the agencies I used to work for in Shanghai, the only department where you get to see more middle-aged women is the finance department. On the contrary, the Creative department are mostly for young boys, Account department are mostly for young girls, and they keep coming and going, in contrast with the relatively steady middle level management.

For those ladies who choose to stay, quite frankly, there are sacrifices in life that can be felt whether they want to hide it or not.

And then the problem comes to personal values. I'm not saying that those women who believe they can find balance between work and life in PR are over confident. It's just a bit unrealistic to be present everywhere when you have 3 client meetings in a day and your son's football match in the afternoon ( Don't even think about video meeting, in the era of high technology we all live, clients are quite often and unsurprisingly old school to insist on your presence; Or, watch the Oscar Nominee film: Up in the Air). Imagine this day is a typical day in your life, it's obvious you'll have to come to a choice decision at some point in your career path. And it's not about sexual discrimination, I believe women are born with the nature of the strong willingness and talents for taking care of the family. It's biological differences, not discrimination.

So women running PR is not a problem of "whether you can", it's a matter about" whether you will". Usually women end up choosing to live the life with their families instead of their work, and there is nothing wrong about it.

Let's be frank, Samantha from Sex and the City, the perfect stereotype for successful women in PR, even as a fictional character, she doesn't even have a stable relationship.

References
Women in Public Relations : How Gender Influences Practice

Ethics in PR

Ethics has always been a tricky topic for PR practitioners; “spin doctors” tend to walk in the grey area, which sometimes get morally challenged. But is there a different standard for ethics in different aspects of PR practice?

I think for those who work in the areas and campaigns which are related to the welfare and benefits of the public, there should be less allowance for the “grey area”. No matter it is for political PR, consumer PR or public sector PR. Practitioners should make sure the PR activities would not be part of the “scheme” that could possibly harm the public.

However, for some other PR practice, it is purely personal choice to do the “spin”, such as Max Cliford, the man of celebrity PR. People have controversial opinions about him, as he’s always playing the trick to manipulate the media and create buzz-----but, for celebrities only. It’s different from starting a war, or running away from taking responsibility for product quality problems, or covering the truth that the public deserve to know. He is doing the publicity for the celebrities, and worst of the worst, the public got some annoying gossips and tacky headlines. All the manipulations and spinning is part of his work, no matter how others hate it, and how fluffy it makes our PR industry looks like, maybe Max Clliford hasn’t done the “right thing”, but he hasn’t caused any inconvenience to the “greater good” of the public, either.

Therefore, I do believe ethics in PR industry should be treated differently in terms of different practice. As long as it does not hurt the public interests, or most people’s welfare, it’s remained in the safe zone called “personal choice” and deserves less judgment.

[PR & New Media] Webcast - What is Social Media

The webcast is made mostly of random pictures from web, thanks to Google Image.com.

I try to use as simple and direct expressions as I can to explain the definition of social media, to my (potential) clients who know nothing about it.

My idea about social media is a platform, where everybody can share everything with everyone else, with no restrictions such as time and space differences.

However, as it says in Virtual Revolution, the new technology is just a new way of reflections of human behaviours, and human nature is not going to change because of that.

As long as human exists, no matter it's social media or some other kind of new technology, good & evil exist.

The Role Social Media Plays in Crisis Management

Social Media's booming is now recognized by almost everyone. A recent article about " Five Steps to Better Crisis Management in PR Week by Kate Magee has put using social media as the "biggest change for crisis management".

There are two major reasons for that: one. social media provides instant communication channel which makes bad news travel even faster and more difficult to control, so it can be the biggest threat in terms of crisis management. On the other hand, just because of its direct, instant and influential style, using in a proper way, social media can greatly help with the communication and the crisis management by clarifying misleading and exaggerate messages and sending out proper information in time.

"Eurostar's recent crisis, when snow-disrupted trains left passengers stranded during the week before Christmas, was a classic example of why having a grip on social media is crucial. Passengers were tweeting complaints and updates about the situation online. But Eurostar was hindered from the outset - it did not own its 'eurostar' or 'eurostar uk' name on Twitter."

'Digital has changed everything,' says Alex Woolfall, head of issues and crisis management, Bell Pottinger. 'Our starting point for clients is now finding out where an issue is going to break online.'

According to Martt Cartmell in PR week, "half of all agencies (51 per cent) had a client that had exp erienced a crisis management situation involving social media in the past 12 months. Some 61 per cent said the use of social media had exacerbated the story, while 45 per cent said it gave journalists easy access to disgruntled people. "

Therefore it is clear that social media is playing a more and more important role in crisis management as it's accelerating the news no matter in a good way or a bad way. To use it to help with the crisis, honesty should still be the priority in terms of PR strategy. With social media, people are having more close contact with each other, and any deliberate spin or made-up stories would be easily exposed, and influence other peers. For corporate, building up a personal, sincere and active social media image is one of the best ways to help with crisis management. And they are cheap.

One last thing is the proactive procedures. An active social media account is absolutely essential. Eurostar didnt have a twitter account, but the situation would be any better if it had a twitter account but hadn't logged in for ages. Audience needs to feel the genuineness to become interactive with the corporate on social media platforms during crisis management.

Therefore, use social media as the weapon in Crisis management, not just a new fancy toys just to show how “ techny savvy" the company is.

References:

http://www.prweek.com/uk/news/search/986223/Crisis-Communications-Five-steps-better-crisis-management

http://www.prweek.com/uk/news/search/990713/Corporates-increasingly-turn-social-media-mend-damaged-reputations/

Case Study of Google China--How lobbying affects Crisis Management

Google China Censorship Issue Case Study

View more presentations from Viola5.

This case study is more focused on how lobbying affects crisis management in China.

Timeline
2010 Jan 12^th, Google declared on its official blog that it “should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.”

2010 Jan 13^th, Some young Internet users sent flowers to Google China office, as a gesture of mourning. Controversial comments appeared online,

2010 Jan 14^th, the Spokesperson from Foreign Office expressed that the Chinese Internet is Open, and the government encourages the development of Internet, the Chinese Law prohibits all kinds of hack behavior and international internet enterprises are always welcomed developing legal business in China.

2010 Jan 15^th US Congress expressed their concern regarding the issue, senator Hilary Clinton, asking for further explanations and Internet freedom from Chinese government.

Background
2009 Janaury - April. The Central Government carried out the regulation towards online pornography information/resources with seven different ministries(Central News Office, Ministry of Industry & Information, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Business & Commerce, SARFT and the Head Publishing Association), with a lot of well-known websites on the list to be regulated. and Google was on the list twice.

2009 June 18^th, without much improvement or response from Google,

-Afternoon, The Internet Information Supervising Center called a meeting with Google China, acclaimed it not being cooperative to relative laws and regulations and made strong criticism. An official from the center told the press that Google China would make an public apology later.

Around 6 o’clock, the PR representative of Google China, Ms Wang Jing Hong said nothing was clear at that moment and no comment on the situation whatsoever. Situation would be updated in about an hour. But no further response followed for the next hour.

-Evening Google was accused of providing pornographic information and links by the most influential News Program of the most influential Media platform, the News Broadcasting at 7 on CCTV. Then the official accusation was followed by more detailed reports by two other most influential talk show and news program;

-Midnight Google China made a statement on its corporate blog, declaring it would dedicate more efforts to filter the pulp and inappropriate information online, which was hardly recognized as an apology.

2009 June 24^th-26^th People.com.cn(the website of People’s Daily, the most official Newspaper in China, voice of the Central Government) posted criticizing articles about Google China everyday for three days, saying the public all welcomed this regulation towards Google and attention should be made in case Google China continue to mess around with everyone.

2009 Sep. 04 Kai-Fu Lee, former CEO of Google China, left the company. Kai –Fu Lee was once recognized as the one to lead localization of Google China, however, things didn’t work out quite as planned.

2009 Nov. 30, rumor on Twitter that Google China is about to shut down. But twitter was already blocked so the news didn’t go far enough to China.

According to Political Lobbying by Charles Miller, there are a few characteristics of how decisions are made in UK based political system.

• Rarely single-facted

• Shaped & taken by several people

• Heavily influenced at a relatively low level

• Evidence-driven

• Negotiated

• No universal template

Proactive: keep active and regular contact with the government, don’t wait till something happen. And if something does happen, give a quick and proper response.

Local: understand the message the government sent out. For Google, it’s not the pulp information that really matters; it’s the political sensitive information.

Low profile: Kai-fu Lee has always been a high profile person, lecturing around the country, on TV show and publishing books.

Talk to them first: media should always get the news one step later than the government

Talk to the right one: Besides the seven ministries, the one really matters in this issue is actually the Central Publicity Department

Talk to them in private: build relationship with them under the table

Don’t—
Make it political
Confront
Count on third party influence

What did Google do?
Didn’t respond much to Jan-Apr criticism.
Didn’t really apologize
And…release the news before negotiating with the government.

Is Google quitting?
Maybe. If they don care losing the market of 384 million people and annual revenue of 600 million dollars.

On 02^nd Feb, 2010,no further announcement of whether to pull out from China, instead, Google China released new Gadget as “Google Map for Spring Festival Travel”, which includes the transport information from 31 major city train stations, ticket offices and 160 airports, aiming to provide more convenience to millions of people who are determined to travel back homel. Meanwhile, the Spokesperson of Google China continues to express “the Headquarter of Google China is under routine operation.”

Google needs to understand they’ve only got 2 options: keep censoring or giving up 600 million dollars.

PR strategy for Microsoft's CSR in China---Using MSN

This is the latest newsletter I received from Microsoft China. In the picture it says:

"Our teacher said, books are the hope and the way to get us out of poverty. Without books, it will be the day without sunshine. I want to have books."

This is a new charity event called "Love 2010", initiated by Microsoft China and China Population Welfare Foundation, sponsored by other corporations including Gettyimages. The event ask people for donations to specifically buy books for children in underprivileged areas.

Microsoft has always enjoyed a relatively good reputation in China. In terms of consuming market, Microsoft still holds the first-choice place for most target audience, which could be greatly contributed to its success on CSR.

Over the years, Microsoft China's CSR strategy is clearly more focused on providing education facilities. According to Corpwatch.Org:

"Since 1999, Microsoft China has provided nearly 4.5 million yuan ( US$ 542,000) to support computer skills training projects for laid-off and migrant workers in Liaoning, Sichuan, Guangdong and Shanghai.

"Microsoft is committed to addressing the digital divide issue," said David Kay, deputy general manager of Microsoft China, "because we believe, as a technology company, our combined resources-including products, technologies, solutions and cash grants-can be most effectively utilized in tackling this issue."

In 2008, Microsoft says it will increase its investments in China next month by donating two fully equipped infowagons, open a Partners in Learning school, Launch a Family Education PC program for rural communities in Miyun county outside Beijing, and provide digital literacy content in libraries and iCafes across Xinjiang.

One of Microsoft's advantages in communication to Chinese audience is the popularity of MSN. Following local brand QQ, MSN is the second biggest online instant messenger tool。 Although the total number of MSN users is 30 million, about 1/3 of QQ, most of its users are office workers with higher education, which means Microsoft would have more effective influence channel to the "elite" part of the whole population through MSN. And that's what exactly Microsoft has done.

Through MSN, Microsoft has 30 million users to send update newsletters. Being a MSN user for more than 7 years, I have found out the newsletters are generally friendly and mild, not pushing and clearly noted "advertising" on the title, even most of the contents are not advertising, just software updates, charity , or some online events.

In 2008, after the Torch Rally incident in Europe and North America, MSN China invited users to use the little red heart sign in their signature to show patronism. It only took days to make almost everyone's MSN window looks like the following picture:

And most of the users kept their signature the same way throughout the year for the earthquake and the Olympics. It implies how powerful MSN can be in terms of communicating with audience in China. Later, inspired Microsoft started another event, asking users to put another specific sign in the signature, with the promise of same amount of donations to sick children coming from the corporation as the user numbers who followed the "signature action". And with no doubt, it was another success.

These events need small budget but created great influence. Microsoft always to put its position on the same side with Chinese users, patronism, and the support to the rural areas. It deliberately avoids the impression of " an American corporation" to build up the emotional connection with the users. And also because MSN users being the "elite group" of the whole population, they have better resources to respond and take an action towards the message, as well as influence the rest part of the population.

For the latest event, Microsoft still sends the message out through MSN newsletter, and then created a specific website for online donations, to show pictures of the books donated and villages and children benefited, to run donation lists to show the fairness and openness of the whole event. Whoever gives donation online also gets to choose what kind of "educational books" he/she wants to buy for the kids. This is perfect for those who sits in the office, has a loving heart but busy life, 8+ hours' work in front of a computer screen with MSN account signed in---- with a few clicks they can help out without leaving the desk to check all the details, and pass it on to their friends and colleagues and clients on MSN too.

As social media is still warming up in China, MSN remains one of the most powerful communication platforms. Making the best use of it helps Microsoft better develop its CSR strategy and increase its healthy and localized image for Chinese users.

Related links:

Love 2010 main site: http://love2010.msn.cn/

CANGO : www.cango.org

Corpwatch Org about Microsoft CSR in China: http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12317