Don’t underestimate cheap marketing

One of my favourite online news sites, ChinaSMACK translates hundreds of articles from the Chinese-language internet, along with comments from its netizens to give foreigners some fascinating insight into China’s society. The website also has a sub-section called Advertising @ ChinaSMACK, which focuses on the advertising industry in China. In an article written by Daniel Gilroy entitled “Weird & Wonderful Chinese Advertisings of 2010“, there was one particular marketing tactic that stood out.

Personally, I’m a huge yoga fan (Bikram is my favourite) and when I visited Shanghai in the summer of 2010, I discovered that this trendy form of exercise is also starting to become popular back East. Although quickly changing due to Westernization, most Chinese people aren’t overweight, maybe due to their nutrition and a lower dependency on cars. I also noticed that a lot people in Shanghai weren’t particularly fit, as exercise is seen as a way of staying healthy but less so seen as a lifestyle. (I will not go further into this as it can spur a whole new debate.)

This is where yoga comes into play. As the population of China is mainly Buddhist, yoga combines exercise and meditation to deliver many health benefits to people who practice it. To attract more students, Guangyin Yoga Club decided to use direct marketing to promote their studio. “Innovative, cheap and gets results,” that’s what the author says. The video below will show you just how many people were intrigued by the man in the tiny red box. After 15 days of campaigning, box idea generated many news reports, a video that was viewed over 300,000 times on Tudou, China’s version of YouTube and 682 new member sign-ups. All of this cost the studio $74. In the era of expensive 30-second ads, the power of reaching out to people directly should not be underestimated.