The speed with which the digital revolution rocked our worlds has been shocking. 76 percent of marketers surveyed by Adobe agreed that marketing has changed more in the last two years than in the past 50. As brand marketers, we were just figuring out social and e-commerce and then mobile hit and we had to start all over again. We scrambled, letting the dizzying array of devices, jargon, and acronyms intimidate the hell out of us. We were on edge. With digital budgets nearly doubling each year in China, we felt like we were riding the tiger. We hit the panic button. We set up “digital divisions”, hired “digital people”, and charged our chief talent officers to write jargon-filled employment ads for outsider “digital pirates”. We hoped an influx of “digital people” would save us and our campaigns. In 2014, however, the avalanche of digital change is beginning to abate a bit, making this the year to turn the corner on digital paranoia and begin to do really great work with a significant digital component. First, digital growth rates are coming back to earth. eMarketer forecasts digital growth rates in China will drop another 50% in 2014 and even drop into the single digits by 2017. These rapidly dropping growth rates give brand marketers breathing room in 2014 to better align their budgets to match the shift of eyeballs to digital. Second, smartphones and tablets are no longer “future” devices, but instead they have become a familiar and ordinary part of our everyday lives. Like our target demographics, we use smartphones and tablets on a daily basis, and better understand how to harness these platforms for effective brand communication. Finally, as the digital dust settles, brand marketers are coming to realize that the core of advertising – great content delivered to audiences at scale – has not changed. The few so-called digital specialists we brought onboard are helping us to migrate great content and campaigns onto new platforms and measure results. We have learned, however, that great campaigns cannot be outsourced to “digital pirates”. 2014 is a year for brand marketers to realize the value of their work at the heart of advertising, and put themselves into the digital driver seat. With the stage set to make 2014 the “catch up” year for digital in China, the aim of this “playbook” is to help brand marketers raise their digital IQs over the course of 2014 in sensible and measured ways. We have created a checklist of 8 “must-dos in digital for 2014” to be spaced out over the course of the year. The playbook can help brand marketers prioritize and become familiar with new tools and opportunities presented by digital, and to inspire and guide, rather than to overwhelm.

1. 2014
01
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
02
03
04
05
06
07
08

2. INTRODUCTION
Turning the corner on “digital panic” and
hitting digital stride in 2014
“The avalanche of
digital change is
beginning to abate,
making this the year
to do really great
work with a
significant digital
component.”
THE DAYS OF INSANE GROWTH IN
DIGITAL AD SPENDING ARE BEHIND US

3. BE ALWAYS-ON IN
“REAL TIME”
BE ALWAYS-ON IN
“REAL TIME”“Rather than run ‘campaigns’ in the old broadcast
model, digital marketers must be always-on, producing
content and driving interaction in real-time.”
01

4. BE ALWAYS-ON IN “REAL TIME”
Marketers ranked
“responding to customer
interactions with sufficient
speed and relevance” as
the most critical factor in
the future success of their
marketing programs.
- Forrester Feb 2014
01
CHINA LEADS THE WORLD IN SMARTPHONE ADOPTION
– THE KEY DRIVER FOR “REAL-TIME” MARKETING

5. For marketers, moving
into “real-time” means
moving deeper into channels
that are always on with
consumers such as mobile,
e-commerce, and social.
REAL-TIME BIDDING IS GOBBLING UP
NON-PROGRAMMATIC DISPLAY BUYS
“Real-time” action item for 2014:

6. SPOTLIGHT CHINA’S
POST-90 SGENERATION"Thinking and acting like China’s post-90s generation
will help brands raise their Digital IQs."
SPOTLIGHT CHINA’S
POST-90S GENERATION02

7. “The post-90s
generation ranks
surfing the
internet as the
top way to spend
free time.”
RISING ONLINE STARS TO WATCH INCLUDE
SHOPPING, FASHION, VIDEO, & TRAVEL
POST-90S SNAPSHOTSPOTLIGHT CHINA’S POST-90S GENERATION02
HALF OF POST-90S MEDIA TIME IS ALREADY SPENT ONLINE AND THE NUMBERS
CONTINUE TO RISE

8. CHINA POST-90S GENERATION CHARACTER TRAITS
AS REVEALED BY KEYWORD VOTING
Puma - Dance Dictionary
宅 自由 个性
敏感 时尚 叛逆
高调 早熟
情绪化 神经质

9. “Taking an inventory of 2013 online brand content and working
to double the visual aspects in 2014 will drive impact.”
VISUALIZE YOUR
CONTENT
VISUALIZE YOUR
CONTENT03

10. VISUALIZE YOUR CONTENT03
VIDEO: THE MOST COMPELLING ONLINE FORMAT
2013 ONLINE VIDEO USERS TOPPED
428 MILLION
Checklist for making 2014 the year to “visualize” brand content
Online video as a percent of total digital spending among GroupM China
clients has doubled from 17% in 2011 to 35% in 2013, a testament to the
strength of video as the most compelling online format.

11. Minutemaid – Share 200 Days of Sunshine
Snickers – Help the Hungry
ECCO: Walk with Passion

12. GET AT LEAST 5% OF
YOUR CHINA SALES ONLINE“Now is the time to strategize for the time when 50% of
sales come via online channels.”
GET AT LEAST 5% OF
YOUR CHINA SALES ONLINE04

13. “The ROI endgame for
digital marketing,
e-commerce enables
marketers to correlate
their media investment
with actual sales.”
GET AT LEAST 5% OF YOUR CHINA SALES ONLINE04
“E-commerce suits
the connected-ness
and impatience of
modern Chinese consumers.”
DIGITAL BUYERS IN CHINA: EXPONENTIAL GROWTH
ONLINE SHOPPPING RATES IN CHINA ARE
MORE THAN DOUBLE GLOBAL PEERS

14. “A.T. Kearney recently ranked
China as the most attractive
e-commerce market in the world.”
A SIGN OF THE TIMES: APPLE RECENTLY
OPENED ITS OFFICIAL STORE ON TMALL

15. BRIDGE
CONNECTIONS
“As consumers jump more frequently between devices,
brands can position themselves in the interstices,
bridging physical-digital, TV-digital, and digital-digital
device connections.”
BRIDGE
CONNECTIONS05

16. “By the end of 2014, most
of China will be carrying a
smartphone and looking at
it over 100 times a day.”
BRIDGE CONNECTIONS05
WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY DEVICE SALES IN CHINA, 2012-2016
MULTI-TASKING BECOMES STANDARD AS
MEDIA FRAGMENTS AND DEVICES GO MOBILE
What people do while using a tablet computer

17. NUMBER OF QR CODES GENERATED VS.
SCANNED IN CHINA
Starbucks – Product calendar

18. SOCIALIZING YOUR
BUSINESS“2014 is the year for catch-up on missed opportunities
in social by investing into WeChat – the future of
social.”
SOCIALIZE YOUR
BUSINESS06

19. SOCIALIZE YOUR BUSINESS06
CHINA LEADS EVERY CATEGORY IN SOCIAL MEDIA
INTERACTION/ACTIVITY RATES
WECHAT & WEIBO LEAD CHINA SOCIAL PLATFORMS

20. Coca Cola – Wearable Movie
Social Action Items

21. BUILD DATA
ASSETS“Rather than just talk about ‘big data’, brands can
centralize their first-party data into data management
platforms (DMPs).”
BUILD DATA
ASSETS07

22. BUILD DATA ASSETS07
DATA ASSETS THAT ARE CRITICAL TO MARKETING EFFORTS

23. “Understand firsthand what the consumer journey is
like on your brand sites across the various devices.”
GET CROSS-SCREEN
OPTIMIZED
GET CROSS-SCREEN
OPTIMIZED08

24. 67%
CROSS-SCREEN HOUSECLEANING CHECKLIST
08
61%
GET CROSS-SCREEN OPTIMIZED

25. “When it comes to
budget planning, too
many brands in China
merely roll-over the
previous year’s
spending.”
AFTERWORD
RAISING DIGITAL IQS
MARKETERS PUTTING FOCUS ON SOCIAL, MOBILE AND VISUAL
TARGETING THE TOP TIERS

26. DISRUPTING YOUR BUDGET INTO DIGITAL
WHAT AN AGGRESSIVE 2014 BUDGET MIGHT LOOK LIKE
ALLOCATING SPEND WITHIN DIGITAL
BRAND DOLLARS POUR INTO PRE-ROLL VIDEO ADS

27. “As brand marketers,
we need to become
digital-centric and every
bit as passionate about
the internet as our
Chinese consumers.”
CONCLUSION

28. GroupM Interaction, the digital arm of
GroupM, the world’s #1 media investment
management group, is a team of digital
professionals who enable GroupM agencies
(Maxus, MEC, MediaCom, Mindshare) to
provide cutting-edge digital solutions and
insight for branding and performance-based
online marketing in China.
For more information please contact:
craig.watts@groupm.com