What China Can Learn from Belgium

… at least in adland.

The EUROBEST winners were announced yesterday; a prestigious advertising price for creative quality in Europe. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think after the Cannes Lions, one of the more renowned prices in advertising an agency can get. The shortlists were already very promising for my very tiny country Belgium: 25% of all nominations came from Belgian agencies. The results again speak for themselves: 1 Grand Prix, 6 Gold, 8 Silver and 20 Bronze. Not bad for a country with a government (nationals get this) and a population of not even 11 million, right?

It’s not the first time and actually for us, as proud Belgian as we are (?), it’s almost nothing new anymore. For the past 10-15 years there has been a creative advertising revolution in our country, mainly fueled by small independent agencies, handing out severe bitch-slaps into the faces of the big global corporate holdings. We have tons of them. And they’re good. And it’s without any shame to say that there are huge cupboards with respectable awards to be found in Belgian agencies at this moment.

Despite enormous market, financial, consumer and social opportunities to bring in fresh ideas, China is lacking quality creative advertising. Still. Whether it’s because clients here “don’t get it” or they don’t want to take risks or it’s the brand manager that has to please his boss with short-term results … I don’t know yet. What I do have seen so far is that communication budgets in China are meant to create marketing and sales results and not creative ones. Which basically translates itself into the fact that China still sees consumers as consumers. While in the West they’ve joined the movement already a long time ago to see consumers as people. People with a strong personality who like to be entertained and not harassed by ads.

I was thinking yesterday what the cause could be for these approaches and more importantly: what the fundamental differences are between a country like Belgium and a country like China.

Where to begin?!

I think at looking how difficult the market in Belgium actually is. If you think about it: for 10 million people, we have 3 official languages, 7 governments, 4 adjacent countries with direct influences on the people in those areas, we house the European Union, we have a huge and varied middleclass … It’s such a differentiated market that planning becomes hard in Belgium. Actually planning is not as rich in Belgium as in the US or more global orientations. And that has forced Belgian advertisers to find this typical Belgian fresh tone-of-voice for brands to communicate. Then again, why is Belgium not conquering the world with their approach? We have to say as well: no matter how many awards this country has already earned, it always stays within Belgium. Few people and no agencies have made it abroad. Why’s that?

It’s time we bring in a creative revolution here as well. Think of the possibilities. While all marketing papers are writing articles about opportunities in the consumer market, e-commerce, digital / mobile, microblogging … few quality advertising awards are housed in China so far. Yes, we’ll see next year for the very first time the Chinese Lo Sheung Yan in the Cannes Jury. But it’s NOT enough and seriously, what took them so long?

I’m not here to weep. I think it’s an awesome challenge. It’s going to be hard. FUCKING HARD. But I’d like the idea I could contribute to make a difference. Because once China will realize entertainment sells, they will seriously take over the world.