Branded content/Entertainment video is becoming increasingly poplar in China and is usually part of an integrated campaign. Most of these films use celebrities to draw an audience. They tend to be shot like mini movies or drama plays.

Censorship in China is still rife, even on sites such a YouKu, (China’s YouTube)

content is heavily controlled by the government.

The campaign started online, using Youku (China’s YouTube) to spread various ‘UFO sightings’ the purpose of which was to gather interest in the campaign and drive traffic toward ‘The landing’ which featured several news stories reporting Abo’s return to the SOHO GALAXY site.

These reports directed traffic towards an exclusive interview and then to a half hour debate which was shown both on TV and online.

Abo’s various appearances received millions of views, inspiring thousands to join an online debate.

The videos’ overall click view reached to 312,833 during the 2 weeks promotion period. Almost 1,500% higher than the average click view rate of previous SOHO videos - Weibo + Youku (Chinese Twitter and YouTube)

Overall Impression of the films: Over 43,008,550 (Weibo+Youku)

Weibo fans of Mr. Pan increased around 5m after the campaign launch from 10m of Oct, 2012 to 15m of Feb, 2013. Mrs. Zhang Xin also gained around 2m weibo fans from 3.8m to 5.6m.

By the end of the campaign, all 330,000 square meters of the Soho China’s Galaxy building were sold out, proving people were not only speaking up for original creativity in China, but investing in it.