From Cover, issue no. 343, November 26th, 2007
Translated by Zuo Maohong
Original article:[Chinese]

Half a million dollars is what it took for former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to endorse Chinese real estate developer Guangdong Guangda Group. The once little-known company has shot to fame overnight as news of Blair's three-hour appearance at one of its properties on November 6th made the rounds of international headlines shortly thereafter.

The mastermind behind the publicity stunt was Yasong China Communications Company.

"We invited Mr. Blair as the spokesman for Guangda in order to win some sudden fame for the company and advertise its villas that will be launched soon," says Qin Gang, its board chairman.

Guangda is a real estate developer that has been building houses around the Shongshan Lake in Dongguan region for years. One of its latest projects is centered around 132 luxury villas priced above 10 million yuan each, due to be launched in December.

Dongguan is situated in southern China's Guangdong province. The region has long been regarded as an undesirable place to live in, thanks to rapid industrialization embodied by mushrooming factories and pollution.

According to Qiao Qijun, Guangda's design director, the villa project is tailored for the riches in the Pearl River Delta. However, the company's reputation is confined to Dongguan, and due to the region's infamous living conditions, it has proven difficult to promote such an extravagant project.

The company realizes that the draw of Dongguan's Shongshan Lake area, which has 70 percent of its land covered by greens surrounding the eight kilometers square of lake, is little known to the outside world.

Thus, Guangda appointed Yasong to begin planning an unusual marketing and branding strategy in September.

Strategizing Moves
"After numerous discussions, we finally reached a consensus to invite a world famous personality, a world class politician at that, as our spokesman," Yasong's Qin says.

Bearing in mind that politicians currently at their posts are hard to invite, Qin then focused on retired ones who still command a certain influence today.

Travel arrangements proved difficult, Qin explains, "It is impossible for us to have such an important politician come such a long way just to attend our function. It was only possible to get him over on the sideline of his visit to Asia."

After much consideration, the short-listed candidates were reduced to two, with the other being former United States vice president Al Gore. Both of them are active on the world stage. Gore has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his persistent efforts in environmental conservation while Blair, newly retired from his post, has been named the Middle East envoy. 

The final decision came after scrutinizing the work schedule of the two candidates, and finding a time slot to coincide with the planned launching of Guangda's luxury villa project. Qin, through his connections with foreign affairs personnel, had found out Blair's "Asia tour" timetable in November, including its coverage of places like Beijing, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

From the timetable, Qin spotted a window of opportunity between November 5th and 7th, when Blair was scheduled to attend a campaign in Hong Kong by General Chamber of Commerce and Goldman Sachs, and two days later at Business Week's annual CEO meeting in Beijing. The time gap between the two events would allow the possibility of another event to be slotted in, especially as Dongguan is only two hours drive away from Hong Kong.

Down to Implementation
"Everything was a challenge to us, from the negotiation, the reception down to security issues … We didn't get the official approval until the day before Blair's visit," says Qin.

Usually, such an application needs multi-level governmental approvals and would take about half a year but Guangda managed all that within a month.

"We got in touch with Blair's office via Business Week," says Guangda's Qiao Qijun. Guangda soon received a reply, demanding that the speech be delivered in a five-star hotel, and t hat the guests be celebrities in politics and business. The reply also stated that Blair wouldn't visit any individual business project but would like to know more abouot residential development in China.

Qin says, "The reply indicated that Blair's office was totally in agreement to our invitation, and that they tried to make it purposeful made us very excited." It was set that Blair would drop into Songshan Lake in Dongguan on his way from Hongkong to Beijing, visit a residence district that represents China's residential development, and then go to the hotel to deliver a speech. 

"After everything was set, other details became important. The key goal of the event was to attract as much public attention as possible to the company and its projects," says, who is especially proud of his strategizing maneuver on two details.

The first was how to make Blair linger longer in the residential district. In the initial proposal, according to Qin, Blair was to take a walk around the Songshan Lake to learn more about the residence's conditions and later talk with the municipal leaders in a VIP chamber.

"Blair's office hoped to cancel the walk around the lake for security's sake," Qin recalls. Guangda then persuaded the office that the walk was necessary for Blair to truly understand the residence condition in China, adding that the VIP chamber was built on a slope where cars were not allowed. That convinced the office.

In fact, the so-called VIP chamber is a showroom villa of the project, which is purposely rushed to completion in conjunction with Blair's visit. Moreover, all the villas under construction would be in view when Blair walked along the lake.

"He (Blair) understood the underlying commercial tone once he got off the car and saw the whole project." Qin recalls, adding that Blair quite enjoyed the more than ten minutes' walk.

The security issue was complex. According to regulations, the bodyguards cannot be arranged until the visit is officially approved, which means that the company had only a day to put things together.

Both the provincial and the municipal security bureaus were set to safeguard the guest during the entire visit. Apart from six escort vehicles and three bodyguards, both the chamber and the hotel were equipped with electronic security screening equipment.

To Qin, Blair seemed to be quite satisfied with the trip. The talk with government officials lasted nearly an hour, about 40 minutes longer than initially planned. Later, Blair gave a 30-minutes speech, and allowed another 30-minutes for questions and answers session. To show his intimacy with China, Blair had mentioned at the beginning of his speech that his sister-in-law was Chinese and his seven-year-old nephew was learning Chinese.

Foreign Politicians and a Media Circus
Both Guangda and Blair benefited from the event; the latter pocketed half a million dollars, while the former gained fame through various domestic and international media coverage, some controversial.

In fact, the Blair's "brand endorsement" case is not the first of its kind in China.

The first Chinese company to use foreign politician as spokesman was Shenzhen's Jingji Group. According to the company's brand development manager Xiong Jiatao, former US president Bill Clinton had been invited to "endorse" Jinji's real estate project on May 23rd 2002.

Back then, Jingji only had three projects under its belt and was not well-known. When Chen Hua, then its top manager, proposed Clinton as a spokesman, people took it as a joke. To everyone's surprise, the proposal turned into action and led to resounding success. The company became famous overnight, and Clinton was paid 250,000 dollars.

"It costs less to invite a foreign politician than a movie star. And the impact is broader," Xiong says.

After the first successful attempt, Jingji repeated the same strategy when celebrating its 10th anniversary. On December 12th, 2004, the former British Prime Minister John Major was invited to attend Jingji's anniversary celebration, during which he participated in a ground-breaking ceremony, visited a real estate project, dined at a hotel, and then attending a banquet-- all within 12 hours.

Up till now, Clinton has been the most active former politician in China, having come three times for commercial activities in the mainland. Compared with Blair, Clinton has demanded smaller fees and seemed to adopt a "small profits, quick turnover" strategy.