Download The booming PR Industry in China

•The data comes from CIPRA
The birth of China’s PR industry
 PR is a young industry in China, burgeoning in the 1980’s.
 It is a vibrant industry for the young too, the average age of working
staff in this industry is around 30.
Since the reform and opening up in the 1970’s, many special economic zones have been
set up in coastal cities of China to draw foreign investment.
This brought in many multi-national companies into the Chinese market. They built
factories and sold products here, and also established their PR department, which gave
birth to an emerging industry.
China’s rapid economic growth in the past 30 years has repositioned itself as the
strategic market of many foreign companies and even the largest market in the world.
Excellent local brands gradually appeared, and started to compete with their foreign
counterparts in the Chinese market.
In the silent battle of fighting for market share, China’s PR industry has started from
scratch and grew from strength to strength, playing an indispensable role in marketing
strategies.
•The data comes from CIPRA
Market Volume
•The annual growth rate of PR industry remains at 30%
•It is estimated to reach 9.5 billion ＄ by 2015.
•The data comes from CIPRA
Market Volume
Beijing
Shanghai
Chengdu
Guangzhou
 PR companies are mainly located in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu.
 Beijing takes up around 70% of the market, because here are the major media of China.
•The data comes from CIPRA
Market Volume
 The lion’s share of the market are devoted to Automobile, IT, FMCG (fast-moving
consumer goods), Medical care and Finance.
 PR service in the automobile industry is the leading performer in China’s PR
industry, accounting for 25% of the market share. China’s automobile industry has
been blooming and China is now the largest auto market in the world.
Automobile Industry
Service Scope
Main services of PR companies
Products
promotion
Brand
communicati
on
Digital
marketing
Activity
management
Crisis
management
Event
marketing
Corporate
Social
responsibility
New growth point: demand for PR services in government, NGOs and cities has increased.
Industry trends

Capital inflow: With more frequent capital flow and operation integration in this industry,
more investment and institutions are coming in, greatly promoting the development of
China’s PR industry.

Integrated service: PR companies will strengthen integration and transformation,
spreading from coastal cities to inland cities, from single service to integrated service.

International PR agencies go local; local PR agencies become international
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In the past 16 years Blue Focus:
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Business evolved from IT sector to automobile, FMCG (fast-moving
consumer goods), DCG (durable consumption goods), medicine, etc.
Services become diversified from providing communication service
to activity management, digital marketing, entertainment marketing,
now heading for integrated marketing.
Offices expand from the Beijing Headquarter to Shanghai,
Guangzhou, now reaching 23 offices in China.
As the largest and most successful PR agency in China, Blue Focus
is an epitome of the development of China’s PR industry.
International companies entering the Chinese market
They have been in Chinese market for long, with a large number of local staff even at the
management-level
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Most of them have their own PR department and a lot of them cooperate with PR agencies
Some of them conduct cooperation with international PR companies through global
procurement; but more and more Fortune 500 companies choose local PR agencies,
because local PR agencies are familiar with the market, especially with media relations,
which is deemed as an important factor in PR services.

Steady growth in PR Input: thanks to China’s overall economic trend and the growing influence of PR industry, many
brands have raised their investment in PR industry to expand their market share and brand influence.
More frequent PR activities in New Geographic markets: because the purchasing power of the second-tier and
third-tier cities have been unleashed and major brands are penetrating into these cities.
International companies entering the Chinese market
New comer foreign enterprises in the Chinese market: Most of them
are sales companies who only set up offices in China. Their market
share in China is waiting to be expanded and most of their brands
are promoted by distributors or agents, without the setup of PR
department.
These companies are not yet well-known in China. They don’t have
a clear long-term promotion strategy. They mainly need services
such as activity management, exhibition promotion and crisis
management.

Foreign enterprises that seek to enter the Chinese market. They are
interested in this market yet totally strange to it. PR services they
may need are strategy consulting and market research.

Chinese companies going international
Successful local brands which are competing in the global arena:

There are two types of Chinese companies in overseas market, first, the independent brands such as
Lenovo, Haier and Huawei; second, monopolistic stated-owned enterprises such as CNPC, Bank of
China and BAOSTEEL.

These brands have been navigating the international market for many years and have stable
international market share. They have their fixed PR agencies in the local market or rely on their PR
department in the foreign market.
Chinese companies going international
Although most local brands focus their business on the domestic market, they have
never stopped exploring new geographic markets.

In recent years, Automotive, fashion consumer goods (costume, watch and jewelry),
airlines are entering the international market. Their demand for PR services in the
local market have risen.

Chinese brands are showing the world that they know more about consumption
experience and care about quality , design and innovation.

The world is ready for Chinese brand
Johnson, Mayor of London, are traveling in China in the TX4 car co-manufactured by China’s Geely
Motor and the British Manganese Bronze, promoting London Olympics.
The world is ready for Chinese brand
Shiatzy Chen
A Taiwanese brand which has entered the European market. It holds fashion shows in Paris every
year, grabbing the attention of top fashion media.
The world is ready for Chinese brand
The fusion of inspirational elements from
French and Chinese culture captures the
ethos of Qeelin, China’s first luxury jewelry
brand. The brand was founded by Dennis
Chan and Guillaume Brochard who share
the mutual dream of combining the rich
aesthetic heritage of China with the
French mastery of luxury craftsmanship to
create stylish, contemporary jewelry.
Launched in Paris, 2004, Qeelin swiftly
became an international brand. All Qeelin
collections are exclusively made of
precious metals and stones, such as gold,
platinum, diamond, sapphire, ruby and
naturally, the Chinese national stone, jade
The world is ready for Chinese brand
SHANG XIA
Founded in 2008, SHANG XIA is a brand for art of living that promises a unique encounter with the
heritage of Chinese design and craftsmanship.
Together with the celebrated Hermes Group, renowned Chinese designer Jiang Qiong Er established
SHANG XIA with a mission to create a 21st century lifestyle founded on the finest of Chinese design.
City Image Promotion in overseas market
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There is an increasing demand of Government to enhance city awareness in international market.
Issue marketing is a widely used way, which usually initiated by the government and put forward by
domestic PR agencies together with agency in local market
Take London Olympic for example, many
provincial capital cities have been
promoting their images in London in the
hope of attracting more tourists.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of
Sino-Germany diplomatic relations. As
the first Special Economic Zone in China,
Shenzhen is holding exhibition in the
Chinese Culture Center in Bolin to uplift
its international profile.
Any ideas to grow business exchanges between our
network and your market
New companies that are entering the Chinese market

Blue Focus is a comprehensive PR company, with many partners in various sectors in the
Chinese market. We can help companies who want to expand business in China break industry
barriers, through conducting various marketing strategies.

If your clients or partners want to promote your brand in China or seek to understand the
Chinese market, we are definitely your best choice!
Chinese companies that have PR demand in the international market

As more Chinese brands are going global, their images in the international market are to be
enhanced. We regard this as a huge opportunity.

At present, Blue Focus has hundreds of clients. In case they seek to promote their brands in
the foreign market, we would recommend the IPRN members to them.
Any ideas to grow business exchanges between our
network and your market
The following sectors enjoy the fastest growth in recent years:
Issue
management
A lot of clients show great interest in issue management to raise brand
awareness in overseas market as well as Chinese market
Campaign like international sports event, international culture /art/music
activities will be widely welcomed as a good way to promote their brands
Digital
marketing
Blue Focus is the leading agency in digital marketing of China. Though
Facebook and Twitter are blocked in China, we successfully put forward
domestic SNS, such as Renren and Weibo. With extensive experience in
social media, we can provide digital marketing plans that are well
adaptable to the Chinese market for our international clients.
CSR project
CSR is becoming more and more important in China recent years and
some clients are seeking for new projects, so qualified international CSR
campaign will be a good choice for them. And if you want to do CSR
project in China, BlueFocus will be ready to support you too, since we
have wide cooperation with NGOs in China and we have rich experience
in planning CSR campaign for clients in different field.
Any ideas to grow business exchanges between our
network and your market
 Exchange mechanism and business growth points are
base on effective communication.
 Thus we have the following suggestions regarding how to
enhance communication among the IPRN members:

Promoting IPRN to outside world: to raise awareness and
influence of IPRN worldwide, like promoting our website or in
twitter/linkedin; So that more and more clients may turn to IPRN
for help if they have PR demand in certain market and IPRN
members may also exchange information from these Social
media platform

Promoting internal communication among IPRN members :
Newsletter will be a good way