McDonald’s unifies China PR with Weber Shandwick after Ketchum resigns

Posted to the Holmes Report here

McDonald’s has consolidated its China PR business with Weber Shandwick, following five-year incumbent Ketchum Newscan’s resignation from the business.

Ketchum’s decision to resign follows a review last year which saw it relinquish its full-service role on the account.

VIDEO: John Orme on the importance of social media for B2B engagement in China

In Beijing last week I caught up with John Orme, president of Porter Novelli’s China joint venture, Shunya International. While social media is often viewed as a consumer engagement tool in Western markets, things are a little different in China, where niche bulletin boards proliferate.

In the video below, Orme explains why social media is fast gaining particular importance when it comes to reaching B2B audiences in China.

Google China starts the year with a bang

January is supposed to be a quiet month but, in my experience at least, it rarely is. Already, we’ve seen Kraft make the rather curious move of calling in post-merger counsel for a merger that may not happen. And, from what I understand, London 2012 last week held presentations for its global PR business.

Interesting stories, but nothing quite compares to the Google China imbroglio. PRWeek Global has analysed the PR issues at play here, finding a sensitive and multi-faceted scenario which will affect Google, other foreign tech brands in China, and the country’s own homegrown players.

That, of course, is just one way of looking at Google’s rather remarkable decision to potentially call a halt to its China presence. In truth, there are so many angles at play here, it is hard to imagine another media story from Asia topping this one this year.

Where are China’s global brands?

Tom Doctoroff has an interesting article in AdAge, where he argues that a Chinese brand going truly global is still years away. It has already attracted some criticism on the comments, but will elicit little surprise from people familiar with this territory.

Doctoroff expands on many of the points he made in this feature I wrote for Media Asia earlier this year, which effectively concluded that – while the recession bodes well for Chinese brands – it would be a mistake to assume that they are ready to emulate the success that Japanese names like Toyota and Sony have had around the world.

For all of the reasons, check the stories above. Perhaps the best insight I received was from Larry Rinaldi, an adman who spent a tumultous few months as global CMO for Haier – widely cited as the most successful international Chinese business. Rinaldi was a little bitter, and understandably so, but he made some very important points about the structure, priorities and – crucially – budgets of big Chinese companies: