66 Chinese Companies Raise Brand Visibility with Promotional Films on Large Screens Overlooking NYC's Times Square during China's National Day

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Oct 08, 2015, 10:52 ET

NEW YORK, Oct. 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Chinese-themed films, videos and announcements dominated the many screens that overlook New York's Times Square on October 1^st and 2^nd, an event that originally got its start when the Chinese government ran a series of short films promoting the country on the same screens in 2011. Sixty-six Chinese firms decided to run short bilingual films in both Chinese and English promoting their brands on these same screens during the 66th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, an event that has been celebrated in the country ever since on the first of October as National Day. The Chinese companies have chosen the anniversary as a most appropriate day to showcase their strength and vision in global integration and service.

Times Square is a major commercial intersection and neighborhood in the heart of New York's Midtown Manhattan, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue. Brightly adorned with massive outdoor screens and serving as the world's venue for competition between the top international brands, Times Square is also known as the "Crossroads of the World" and a must-see stop for any tourist visiting the city. In 2011, the Chinese government ran a series of short films promoting the country during President Hu Jintao's state visit to the United States on the same screens in 2011, bringing a lot of attention to China from the four corners of the globe.

Themed "66 Chinese brands expanding into international markets", these promotional films were displayed on Thomson Reuters's large screens overlooking the square. China is leading the world's headlines at the moment as a result of President Xi Jinping's just completed state visit to the United States, and the Chinese companies immediately saw the opportunity to leverage the event as a way to accelerate their pace at globalization. At the same time, the 66 Chinese brands' collective show in Times Square timed to coincide with the 66th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic worked to maximize the level of attention that was garnered.

Passers-by on the streets below that were interviewed said that it was the first time ever to see so many Chinese companies showing up on the screens, providing for them irrefutable evidence that China had succeeded in transforming itself from the world's factory floor to a country in the middle of building a coterie of strong brands that would soon become household names. Chinese tourists and businessmen that happened to be passing through the square expressed amazement at the progress and development of the Chinese companies, especially the effort put into building brand awareness. Many clearly beamed with pride as they were interviewed.

Setting a record in the history of overseas promotional efforts by Chinese companies

Since May 1995 when Sanjiu Medical & Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. became the first Chinese company to run promotions on the screens overlooking Times Square, organizations and businesses in China began to use the unique advantages of the famous locale to show themselves to the world. The premiere of a short promotional film entitled China-People, which was conceived and produced by the Information Office of the State Council, on January 18, 2011, served to push the trend to a new high. The collective effort by the 66 Chinese companies is the largest such effort to date, setting a record in terms of what Chinese companies have done to promote themselves beyond the borders of their home country.

The organizer of the collective show explained that, though the promotion, system of invitation and organization for this effort was by no means perfect, the companies that participated were supportive and understanding of the difficulties involved. Nevertheless, he continued to explain, the sense of exhilaration and reward from the effort of the Chinese companies to expand into world markets as a collective and to let the world become aware of their brand-building efforts more than compensated for any gaps in execution. Learning from the experience, the organizer plans to continue to launch a series of promotional campaigns featuring Chinese brands, to remain committed to servicing the international communications needs of the brands, and, going forward, to enhance the understanding that international markets have of Chinese companies.

The 66 firms that participated in the collective effort: