With this being the year China hosts the Olympics, advertising expenditures are expected to rise to an all-time high on the mainland.

It seems timely to review how advertisements on the mainland have evolved over the past decade.

We asked Kevin Ng who has spent the last eight years in China as Creative Director at various international agencies including Ogilvy & Mather, for his opinion.

Q: What was your first impression when you first worked in China?

“When I first arrived in Beijing, there was no concept of ‘art direction’. The market mainly comprised of ads in announcement format like this!”

Q: How has advertising in China changed since?

“There are many more talented local art directors, many who can even be considered brilliant. Ads are now based on consumer research and insights, and tend to focus on the lives of consumers, rather than product messages by manufacturers.

Campaigns now last three months as opposed to an entire year. More money is being poured to online advertising.

China used to be a market where global ads were simply translated into Chinese for local consumption. Today, some advertisers are even using Beijing and Shanghai as hubs for global ads production.In fact, there is now advertising clutter in China!”

Q: What is the biggest challenge of creating ads for the vast China market?

“Catering to local cultures and traditions.China is a country of many tribes, with different regional and ethnic beliefs, customs, dialects and traditions. You need to be sensitive to all of them.

Last year was the year of the pig for example. The pig may be a good symbol in Southern China but it is considered very dirty in the Northwest.”

Q: How, in your opinion, does China advertising differ from other markets such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan?

“Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan can develop their own flair and style. That is more difficult to do in China for the reasons listed above.

Like the US, where the behaviour of consumers tends to differ from the East coast to the West coast of America, China has three main markets/regions: South, North (which includes the North-east) and the Northwest.

Even in China, you need to ‘go local’ to create effective advertising messages.”

Read our post about China’s emerging global brands.

For more information, please contact Manifesto.