Two-day event, running October 20 &21, features seminars given by the best of British production and local Chinese creative talent.
This month marks a major event on China’s advertising industry calendar, as a delegation representing London’s leading production companies brought by the Advertising Producers Association will come to Shanghai for the Shanghai London Advertising Forum 2015.
The two-day event, running October 20 & 21 in the Huangpu district of Shanghai, will feature seminars given by the best of British production, as well as local Chinese creative talent. The delegation will be in Shanghai for a full week, also appearing at a pair of evening receptions and visiting various agencies around the city, in addition to the two-day main event.
The Forum program includes a veritable dream team of Chinese creative industry leaders, including ECDs of Ogilvy, BBH, W+K, Legas Delaney and FCB, CCOs from TBWA, Publicis and DDB, local production leaders Stink and the best in Shanghai postproduction (MPC). From London, the leaders of such production industry luminaries as Pulse, Glassworks, Framestore, Media Monks, Knucklehead and Rushes will all make presentations.
The event represents a unique opportunity for Chinese and U.K. companies to learn about the opportunities and challenges in working together and to find ways of cooperating that will benefit both them and the agencies’ clients.
Masterminding the event is the Advertising Producers Association, a trade body for commercial production, post-production, editing and music production companies for commercials in the U.K. Their objectives is to help U.K. production companies to understand, promote themselves and take advantage of opportunities in new markets overseas. The APA launched the Shanghai London Advertising Forum (SLAF) in 2007, after an initial visit to Tokyo in 2004, followed by visits to Beijing in 2009, Mumbai in 2011 and Silicon Valley, USA in 2013.
“The aim was for everyone to learn from each other, about the work they’re doing and the obstacles that needed to be addressed in order to work more with China,” explained APA chief executive Steve Davies about the objectives of the first Shanghai event in 2007. “Typically agencies and production companies overseas will be interested in working with the U.K. but they’ll raise issues like time, costs and cultural understanding. We know we have to work out ways to address those issues.”
Indeed, a key component of all the APA’s international programs is addressing overseas perceptions about U.K. production, including dispelling myths that all U.K. work is done with big budgets. The aim is not to persuade China or any other country to shoot in the U.K., but rather to encourage them to make use of the U.K.’s expertise to produce wherever is most appropriate.
Attended by some of the best of the London and Shanghai advertising industries, the 2007 event is still talked about as one of the most valuable events to be held yet in the city.
SLAF 2007 laid strong foundations for future cooperation between U.K. and Shanghai companies. Indeed, in the fifteen months following the Shanghai event, U.K. production companies generated £30 million of production turnover from the partnerships, with many more long-term relationships initiated.
The rapid growth of the Chinese advertising industry has inspired the APA to return to China’s commercial capital. Davies outlined the key changes he has observed since 2007 and how they will be reflected in this year’s event, “In 2007 it was a 100 percent TV-focused market. Now, other areas like interactive, experiential and digital work have become really important,” he said. “Agencies know they need to be doing that kind of work, but many don’t have the expertise, so they’re interested in engaging with British companies to help them. That’s a big focus of this event.”
Davis was keen to stress that TV will still play an important role across the two-day program, “I’m sure TV will remain extremely powerful in China, so we don’t want to downplay it. [TV and digital] often complement each other.”
In July of this year, Davies returned to Shanghai with a small delegation to meet with local agency production heads and ECDs. “I’m always impressed with the quality of the creative work from Chinese agencies,” he said. “What they’re struggling with is bringing their clients along with them, making them understand the value of creative work.”
It’s in this area that the APA feels the U.K. production companies can be of most help, “It’s up to us to help make great ads that really benefit clients,” Davis continued, “that will inspire other clients to want to follow that example.”
Besides learning, he emphasized that the Forum also offers valuable networking opportunities and the chance to build relationships. “I think by bringing people and making sure they have opportunities to meet, you build relationships where agencies and production companies can trust each other to work on projects,” Davis said.
Acknowledging the busy schedules of advertising professionals, Davies stressed that it wasn’t essential to attend the full two-days, but urged would-be attendees to take advantage of at least one day of the event. “We’ve set up a program where production companies can meet all the best people and learn,” he said. “The idea is to provide a platform that people can build on, to have meetings that will hopefully lead to partnerships. All they’ve got to do is get themselves out there.”
Shanghai London Advertising Forum 2015
Tuesday, October 20th & Wednesday, October 21st, 2015
9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Sigma Film Club @ Cool Docks
601 Waima Rd, 3a floor, Huangpu, Shanghai, China
No registration required, but please RSVP at slaf205.eventbrite.com.
Source: Shanghai London Advertising Forum 2015
Chris is a writer & producer based in Shanghai. He’s the founder of the China Animation & Game Network, encouraging communication in the industry via live creative networking events.
