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A Story You Must Know about Chery and CCTV

2009-06-26 18:52 BJT

Jin Yibo, General Manager Assistant of Chery Automobile

The First Advertisement Placed on CCTV

In 2003, Chery placed its first advertisement on CCTV. Due to the limited fund, we invested only 580,000 yuan into the creative and production of that advertisement.

It was a big issue to advertise on CCTV. After it was broadcast, I felt very nervous. Will it work at all? How much will the investment pay off? Bothered by these questions, I was very disturbed.

To my relief, the advertisement soon got responses, quite encouraging responses. Some members of the Chery Drivers Club, after watching the advertisement on CCTV, started a heated discussion on BBS. One bulletin impressed me a lot. The member said: “Haw-haw, Chery has advertised on CCTV. That means, Chery is a famous brand. My wife will never shame me for buying a less known brand. Why, it’s advertised on CCTV!”

I was finally relieved after reading that bulletin. Our advertisement worked!

Chery QQ Becomes Famous Overnight

In 2004, we placed an advertisement on the Prime Reources of CCTV for the first time. I can still remember it. Our advertisement was broadcast on the Special A time period of the Prime Resource on alternate days for one month. The 15 broadcasts cost us 5.6 milliion yuan and made Chery QQ famous overnight.

That advertisement was very creative. It put QQ cars on a T-shaped platform that symbolizes fashion and leads trends. QQ cars were represented as fashionable clothes for urban men and women. QQ cars became a new fashion trend in modern metropolitans. In this advertisement, the fashionable and original qualities of QQ cars were displayed vividly. Its slogan “Now I only dress in QQ” soon became a catch phrase.

This advertisement was made by an excellent team. The creative was generated by the Taiwan-based advertising agency Ideology. The video was directed by one of the top 10 advertisement directors well known around the world. After broadcast in the prime platform of CCTV Special A time slot, QQ soon became the best selling car.

Prime Resource and Chery’s Partners

On November 18, 2005, I attended the CCTV advertisement bidding for the first time. At that time, I was not very familiar with the procedure, the bidding skills and how to judge the bidding prices. I was a little lost. From 2006 to 2008, I joined the bidding for three years and became more familiar with it. Looking back at the four years, I find they are very valuable and unforgettable experiences for me.

After we placed advertisements on CCTV, many changes took place in our partners. The most common story is that our partners changed their attitudes to us. They did not quite recognize us originally. Thanks to the CCTV advertisements, they were more active in our cooperation. Many users also told us it was the CCTV advertisements that helped them know Chery and become loyal supporters of Chery.

Among the many changes brought about by the CCTV advertisements, the most important is that our sales volumes have risen and our brand image has been promoted. As for my feeling about the cooperation with CCTV, I would say that CCTV has the highest coverage rate, the most influence and the most authority. With the prime advertising resources, enterprises can rapidly upgrade their brand values.

Brief Profile of Chery Automobile

Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. was founded in 1997. Its construction started on March 18, 1997. Two years later, its first car came off the production line on December 18, 1999. On August 22, 2007, the one-millionth car of Chery rolled out the assembly line. Chery produced one million cars in just 93 months, creating a world record. Chery was also the first independent automobile brand of China that reached this productivity scale. Up to now, Chery has got an annual productivity for 650,000 finished automobiles, 650,000 engines and 400,000 gearboxes.

Chery now has four sub-brands, namely Chery, Karry, Riich and Rely. The four brands cover such areas as family cars, minicars, commercial vehicles and high-end models. This stragety of “Mega Brand” meets different consumers’ needs in different market segments. Under its passenger car brand, Chery has put on the market a dozen of finished car models, like QQ3, QQ6, A1, A5, A3, Tiggo3, Eastar, Cross Eastar and Cowin. The mini car brand Karry has two finished car models on sale, that is, Karry A18 and Karry S22, with dozens of stock finished car models to be put on the market. In the past years, Chery products have been favored by consumers. In 2008, Chery achieved a sales volume of 356,000 finished cars, among the top five sales volumes for passenger cars. This achievement also helped Chery maintain its status as the No.1 selling independent automobile brand in China for the eighth consecutive year. In 2009, Chery aims at an annual sales volume of 419,000 cars.

In 2003, Chery began to advertise on CCTV with an advertisement expenditure of 25.84 million yuan. From 2004 to 2007, Chery advertised on CCTV with an increasing amount of expenditure, with 27.4 million yuan in 2004, 41.32 million yuan in 2005, 76.43 million yuan in 2006 and 128.93 million yuan in 2007. Meanwhile, Chery’s sales volumes also increased year on year, with 86,568 cars sold in 2004, 189,158 cars in 2005, 305,236 cars in 2006 and 381,000 cars in 2007.

In 2005, Chery Automobile participated in the Prime Advertising Resource Bidding of CCTV for the first time to bid for the advertising at the Special A time period. From 2006 to 2008, Chery joined the bidding for the advertising at the Special A time period every year.

Beside advertising service, CCTV also supports Chery Automobile with intensive and wide news coverage in its prime programs like CCTV News Broadcast, Topics in Focus, News Probe and Dialogue. In 2005, Yin Tongyao, the Chairman of Chery Automobile won the reward of CCTV Chinese Economic Annual Figure. On May 18, 2008, Chery Automobile donated 12 million yuan to the earthquake-hit regions at the fund raising ceremony held by CCTV to call for the communications and cultural systems to help the earthquake victims under the theme of “Dedication of Love”.

In the past years, supported by CCTV, Chery Automobile has steadily increased its annual sales volume and greatly promoted its brand image.

Editor: 绿光 | Source: