For sports apparel brands, the Olympics are arguably the most important stage for marketing. So how did the sports marketers fare with the Chinese market in these Olympics? Here's a look at how things played out for Adidas, Li-Ning, Nike, Puma and Speedo. Adidas Adidas reportedly shelled out 70 million euros to be an official Olympic sponsor. Adidas gear was also all over Olympians, great for television exposure. But aside from shoes and uniforms, Adidas......

There's no Olympic medal for sports apparel marketing, but the race this summer between the category's top two brands is hotly contested. Ahead of the Beijing Olympics, Nike and Adidas are employing very different strategies to court the Chinese market. One key difference is Adidas' decision to invest in being an official sponsor of the games. This grants advantages like the right to use trademarked images (the rings, the event's logo, the words "Beijing 2008"),......

The tale of the Apple Computer Corporation in China has been a story of false starts, misadventure and curious competition. Like the all seeing eye of Mordor peering at China from the 3G enabled land of Hong Kong, Apple has sent its minions into the mainland many a time before but never with the success that they have enjoyed in markets like the USA. Even with success in Hong Kong and the rest of the......

Coca-Cola's latest commercial push before the Olympics features the TV commercial "Shuang City," starring Yao Ming as a torch bearer leading fans to the "Bird's Nest" stadium and shot by cinematographer Christopher Doyle (best known for working with directors Wong Kar-Wai and Zhang Yimou). Of course, as WSJ's Sky Canaves describes it, the commercial plays up the "feel-good" aspects of the Games: divers jump from skyscrapers, gymnasts leap through the streets and giant balloons emerge......

It's hard to name a global brand that has had smarter China marketing practices than Nike. The series of advertising shorts above, first posted on YouTube two years ago, features everyday Chinese who can't help but turn their day-to-day lives into athletic showcases. A flat round cracker in a university cafeteria becomes a discus; a pair of boys use a repairman's bucket as a basketball hoop; a young woman uses judo moves to take......

This latest video from China's Green Beat takes a look at the waste that results from excessive packaging in food, the associated cultural reasons that come along with it and how we can do our part to solve the problem.......

This cute little ad was created for Mentos by ad agency BBH Shanghai [h/t to Punk Planning]......

Less than a month after airing this commercial featuring Richard Gere driving the new Fiat Delta from Hollywood to Tibet, Italian automaker Fiat has been forced to withdraw the ad, and issue a statement extending its "apologies to the Government of the People's Republic of China and to the Chinese people". Readers of this blog (a group which no doubt excludes anyone from Fiat or their agency) will be aware that Richard Gere is a......

Nationalism has made its way into Olympic advertising as as this new television commercial by Chinese sports brand Anta shows. JWT Shanghai (part of the WPP Group) conceptualised the ad for Anta, saying it was "inspired by Chinese people’s response to the earthquake". Said the China chief executive of the agency, Tom Doctoroff:“We decided to extend the brand message from individual glory to national glory, encouraging everyone in China to stand tall through these obstacles.”......

“Asia is a market we have never really cracked. They don’t think they smell, but people everywhere smell” - Russell Taylor, Unilever - Whilst the UK currently leads the rest of the world in deodorant spending at around 125RMB per person annually, China's average is 0RMB with only 7 per cent of all of Asia reckoned to be using BO basher. It's no surprise then that Unilever (the people who make Axe / Lynx, Sure,......

Thomas Crampton, on a recent trip to Shanghai, catches up with Paul French of Access Asia. French says that so much of what Doctoroff, CEO, Greater China of J. Walter Thompson, and others claim as pioneering was done 80 years ago by adman Carl Crow (of whom he wrote a biography). We're still not quite sure what to think of French's views yet, but we know Doctoroff's Twelve Facts about the Confucian Consumer left us......

In this latest pod, Patrick Carr from Current TV takes us from Shenzhen to Shanghai and Beijing, and does a commendable job uncovering China's obsession with brands by looking at how affluent Chinese youth today are choosing to express themselves through fashion, nightlife and sports. Features Phil Dorman of Shanghai-based marketing agency Confucius Says.......

Photo from Asian Offbeat. The above Coca Cola ad image used in the window of a shop in Bremen, Germany, which features Tibetan monks with the caption "Make it real" has come under the spotlight lately, as Chinese netizens question if the company supports Tibetan independence. From Guardian Unlimited:First Tibetan exile groups attacked Coca-Cola for sponsoring the Olympic torch relay. Now the soft drink company is under fire from the other side of the......

Sam Flemming, founder of the Internet word-of-mouth research firm CIC Data observes in his latest blog entry that while some of the brands that had used the stars involved in the Edison Chen sex photo scandal as spokespeople were scrambling for help (by calling up his company of course) when the scandal broke out, some netizens were “more interested in the brands in the background of the photos than the people themselves". He points us......

While reading up on the latest lawsuits brought against Baidu by the world's top music labels, we were alerted to this old Baidu advertisement that stars Hong Kong funnyman Stephen Chow (周星馳) as Ming Dynasty poet Tang Bohu (唐伯虎). In the 1min 50 sec long spot, Tang Bohu endeavours to charm over a girl with a Caucasian man who says nothing apart from “我知道” (I understand) in all the wrong tones. The Caucasian represents Google,......

This ad by French car-maker Citroen reads: Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's. It's true, we are leaders, but at Citroen the revolution never stops. We are once more going to put in motion all the machinery of our technological ability, in order to repeat in 2008 the successes obtained in previous years.Needless to say, the ad invoked the fury of the Chinese community in Spain and Citroen was forced to issue an......

Talking out of the ass takes on a new meaning with this highly arresting environmental ad campaign by the Guangdong Advertising Agency [1], conceptualised and put together by an entirely Chinese creative team. We couldn't help but notice the underwear marks left on the guy's ass. Just what kind of underwear leaves that kind of a mark? Also: we wonder if this ad will ever see the light of day in China? [1] This......