Tireless Guo maps auction plan

In the last month or so, Guo Zhen-Xi, the youthful and charismatic face of China's broadcast industry, should have earned enough air miles to take him round the world several times over. As China Central Television's advertising director, Guo has been criss-crossing the mainland with a bevy of CCTV stars and a reinvigorated ad sales team to ignite interest in the national broadcaster's annual airtime auction. Overseeing his fourth auction, the 39-year-old Shandong-born Guo is remarkably unruffled. His unlined face breaks into a ready grin. No mean feat considering that he has to ensure 12 hours of intense bidding will deliver half of CCTV's 2005 revenues. Which is why he is determined to surpass the staggering Rmb 4.4 billion (US$532m) CCTV raised last year by another Rmb 500 million. To do so, Guo will need more multinational advertisers than the four who bid for the first time last year. More so this year as Beijing's drive to cool an overheated economy could leave local advertisers a little less trigger-happy. Fortunately, Guo -- Peter to his multinational clients -- has spent the better part of his three years in the hot seat assiduously wooing the likes of Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Nokia. A key part of the courtship's success has been a tireless drive to turn a lumbering monolith into a client-centric yet business-savvy operation. "Before I took up the advertising director's post, CCTV operated in a seller's market. It just waited for clients to come, there was no service," Guo recounts. Bursting with enthusiasm and ideas, he expanded the ad sales team from 40 to 100. The additional head count was deployed into new departments that handled client service, brand management, research, contract management, broadcast monitoring and production. "In the past, we had only two divisions -- the business and information divisions, which were responsible for signing contracts and broadcasting ads," he recounts. So momentous have the changes been that media agencies now liken CCTV to a well-oiled aircraft carrier when comparing it with its rivals. With the overhaul done, the former journalist and show producer is now using his time to evangelise about media's role in building brands and enterprises. He frowns on the practice of "having dinner, drinks and bargaining for a discount" that is part and parcel of ad sales activities in China. Instead, Guo's weapon of choice are seminars and roadshows, where he's in his element telling agencies and clients about the slew of ad sales initiatives he's crafted. The most recent were changes to advertising formats for the upcoming auction, undertaken after consultation with advertisers and agencies. In making these changes, Guo is looking to enlarge the advertising pool and intensify the bidding process. He wants to attract marketers with a tight budget (through new 10-second spots and a loan scheme for small and medium-sized firms) as well as the crucial multinational dollar (with new 30-second spots). After all, CCTV's credibility can only grown when an advertiser of Procter & Gamble or Colgate's stature moves from the sidelines to centre stage to successfully bid for prized slots. Says Guo: "International enterprises have increased their adspend on CCTV by more than Rmb 1 billion annually on average since 2002 -- they realise the marketing department's shift to be more marketing-oriented." Even so, Guo isn't taking chances. This year's auction will kick off at precisely 8.18 am on November 18, a surfeit of eights since the number rolls off the tongue as "get rich" in Chinese.