CReATION: Saatchi & Saatchi positions MWeb as dotcom pulse

<p>Saatchi & Saatchi Beijing recently set-out to fuel more dotcom </p><p>frenzy on the mainland, as the creative brains behind a portal launch by </p><p>South African media consortium MIH, entitled MWeb.com </p><p>(www.mweb.com.cn). </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Countering the constraints of China's Web-bound minority - which </p><p>constitutes only one per cent of the entire population - hinged on </p><p>localising the brand name to make it relevant to Chinese users; while </p><p>using it as the core focus of the US$10 million campaign. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"MWeb means nothing to the consumers we're talking to, so we had to come </p><p>up with some local identification," said Megavision director Allan Chou, </p><p>who masterminded the burst. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Re-naming the portal "Pulse 'Net" - with "mai bo" standing for pulse and </p><p>"wang" for 'Net in Mandarin; also signified "pulse of the times", he </p><p>added. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Ramping up interest for MWeb's Easter launch, an outdoor teaser burst </p><p>featured the tagline "what's your type?" above the MWeb.com URL. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"You really need to be clever in China with advertising messages - </p><p>because the people you're talking to are largely university students </p><p>who, in a few years, will be high-income, white collar individuals." </p><p>Running the pulse theme throughout the campaign, the TVCs - entitled </p><p>Vase, Basketball, Ice-cream and Kung-fu - feature a mercurial "M" </p><p>throbbing on each protagonist's pulse-point. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>In response to China's current outdoor scrum, Mr Chou said the TVCs were </p><p>a "call-to-action"; inciting user individuality via an intriguing </p><p>storyline where protagonists stated "I don't want to talk about </p><p>it ..." when queried about their throbbing "M". </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"We want people to identify with the site personally," said Mr Chow, </p><p>stressing that the agency has gone to great lengths to quash </p><p>similarities between the "M" pulse and tattoos, which held strongly </p><p>taboo connotations in China. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The creative team consisted of acccount director, Allan Chou, account </p><p>manager, Koji Watanabe and account executive, Roy Xu with strategic </p><p>planning by Dean Sciole. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Creative director was Trefor Thomas, with creative group head Steven </p><p>Cheng and Eugene Cheok. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Magie Tan featured as copywriter, backed by Farouk Jaffrey in the </p><p>director's seat and production house Planet Films Malaysia. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>