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A Walk Down Wangfujing

Friday, 16th May 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (1)

This one's for the advertising and marketing nerds out there. Wangfujing pedestrian shopping street is, in some sense, the Times Square of Beijing—full of ads, bright lights, flagship stores and tourists. It runs a length equivalent to a couple of city blocks, and right now it's plastered with sports advertising. Here's a full accounting of the ads up right now.

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Corner of Wangfujing and Dongdan Santiao, outside the entrance to Wangfujing Bookstore. Below a giant TV screen (one of three along Wangfujing) runs a long strip of an ad for China Mobile, a cell phone service provider and one of the domestic Olympic sponsors. Inside the building is a McDonald's and the Beijing 2008 Olympic Flagship store, aka Fuwa heavan.

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On a building facing a small side street, Adidas puts an ad featuring the Chinese women's volleyball team. Above and behind is an ad for Chinese electronics maker TCL, featuring tennis stars.

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Kobe Bryant welcomes you to the Nike store. Another official Beijing 2008 shop is next door.

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Across from Kobe, Tiger Woods stares down from above a Muslim restaurant, hawking TAG Heuer watches.

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Kobe is with us again, in an ad running across the rooftops, featuring a close-up of his face and a plug for a TV program airing in China May 18-25.

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Next to Haoyou Emporium, Olympic sponsor Johnson & Johnson advertises waterproof bandages with an image of a swimming youngster.

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Above the Dan Yao building, in a massive ad for Chinese sports apparel brand Li-Ning 2006 Tokyo Marathon champion Ambesse Tolossa crosses a finish line with the Forbidden City in the backdrop.

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A little further down… Kobe's back! This time in a three-story-high wrap around the (second) Nike storefront.

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On the front of a second Li-Ning store, across from Nike, Olympic champion diver Guo Jingjing prepares to dive off of the Great Wall.

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The Adidas store places the Chinese women's volleyball team above its entrance and…

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… some everyday people running in front of the Bird's Nest at street level.

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Finally, at the northern end of the pedestrian street, Kobe marks his territory one last time.

So what's up with Nike's all Kobe, all the time strategy? A couple of weeks ago, it wasn't like that. He shared ads on Wangfujing with other Nike spokes-athletes Liu Xiang (110-meter hurdles world record holder), Roger Federer (tennis star) and Yi Jianlian (forward for the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks). But Kobe just won the NBA's MVP award, he's leading the Los Angeles Lakers' playoff run and will be featured in a show on CCTV next week.

Tags: Adidas, advertising, Guo Jingjing, Kobe, Li-Ning, marketing, Nike, Tiger Woods, volleyball, Wangfujing

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