It seems like an impossible mission to enable a foreigner to experience China’s 5,000-year history in just a few hours, but Mark Zhou, a Chinese, and Alex Koi, a Singaporean, have done just that.

In an effort to enable people to get to know China, they have launched “urban safari” activities, in which the participants in a simulated environment can enjoy all kinds of food, videotapes and a detailed explanation to get an intimate feel of China’s history, culture, arts and folk customs in just six hours.

Zhou is chairman and CEO of HighTeam Communications Co. Ltd., one of China’s top 10 public relations companies, and Koi is the company’s president. Clearly, their “urban safari” is another smart PR activity.

Discussing how they came up with the idea of an urban adventure, Koi told Beijing Review that eyeing the country’s rapid economic development more and more multinationals are investing in China and an increasing number of foreigners are coming to visit or live in China. Whatever their purposes are, they must first understand China, its past and future.

“Urban safari” is a unique service provided by HighTeam. Industry experts think it will come into full play during the Olympics next year, when the 17th World PR Conference will also be held.

In the view of many industry insiders, the 2008 Olympic Games are an opportunity for China’s public relations industry to make a big breakthrough.

Seizing an opportunity

“The opportunity that the Beijing Olympic Games brings to China’s PR industry has three aspects: branding, profit and internationalization,” said Zheng Yannong, Executive Vice President and Secretary General of the China International Public Relations Association (CIPRA). For top sponsors like Lenovo, the largest PC supplier in China, the Olympic Games are an international platform to further promote their brand and reputation, while foreign partners and sponsors are more focused on their influence on China’s domestic market. For small and medium-sized food and travel companies, PR activities are directed at one simple goal: making a profit from the Games.

The government is also paying increasing attention to its public relations efforts. For the first time, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) and the Beijing Municipal Government have hired professional PR companies to promote the image of Beijing and the Games.

In the days when China was bidding for the 2008 Olympics, PR work was highlighted.

Zheng noted that a PR team composed of people proficient in foreign affairs and communications was formed right after the establishment of the Beijing Olympic Bid Committee.

He said CIPRA planned many PR activities to work in conjunction with the committee and sought consultation and advice from elite international PR companies such as APCO Worldwide, Hill & Knowlton and Weber Shandwick.

“With the help of the experienced PR companies, the policy-making for China’s bid for the Olympic Games was made more scientific and internationalized,” said Zheng.

“In fact we can see the influence of PR companies on other big events, such as Shanghai’s bid for the 2010 World Expo, the China-France Culture Year and the Year of Russia in China,” said Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Qiao Zonghuai.

Today in China, many may know the term “public relations” but few really know what it means. While still a new concept and industry, public relations is gaining momentum and growing stronger.

“Today’s PR is not just about ‘smiling to your clients’ any more,” said Dai Yu, Deputy General Manager of the China Hotel in Guangzhou. Dai went to work for the hotel’s PR department in the 1980s.

“When we want to recruit PR staff, we choose those who have sharp brains and ability, not those who are good-looking. PR is more than spending money and smoothing connections, it’s more about marketing and making money,” Dai said.

A question of connections

In the beginning, public relations in China mainly referred to “connections.”

“In China, connections mean everything. You can use your connections to make things work for you. This is the hidden rule, which fashioned PR with Chinese characteristics,” said Chen Tongkui, a journalist with the Shanghai-based Xinmin Weekly. He pointed out that real public relations should be aimed at fostering broad and efficient communication among industries, the government, the public and social organizations.

“After all, PR in its essence is for the organizations and units to establish favorable relations and share benefits with the public through various methods,” he added.

It has long been held that if you have a quality product you do not need to worry about marketing because people will eventually find out about it. But this is not the case any more. Customers today won’t bother to seek out a new product.

As a result, more and more sellers have come to an awareness that their products need to be promoted. Thus China has entered the era of advertising.

In 2001 China became a member of the World Trade Organization, which brought opportunity to the PR industry. “Those big multinationals that have already set foot in China began to step up promotion and those foreign companies that wanted to enter China also needed the PR companies to help them establish their brands in China,” said Guo Huimin, Vice Secretary General of CIPRA.

Meanwhile, the large domestic PR companies are growing more mature, evolving from simple media promotion to strategic consultation, government PR, brand marketing, company image designing and crisis management. Companies are more aware of the benefit of integrating their advertising, marketing and PR activities.

Public relations in China has a roughly 20-year history, dating from 1984, when the first American PR firm, Hill & Knowlton, set up a representative office in China, and 1985, when the first domestic PR organization was established in Shanghai. But it is not until the last 10 years that China has seen the development of a true industry.

According to a China PR Blue Book released recently, the number of existing PR companies exceeded 2,000 in 2006, while the figure in 2003 was below 1,500. In addition, a large number of media and consulting companies also touch upon the PR business. The annual PR revenue has skyrocketed to 6 billion yuan in 2005 from 1.5 billion yuan in 2000.

“Though it’s still a little early to call it a ‘PR industry,’ public relations in China possesses the necessary elements for an ‘industry’ and it is maturing in that direction,” said Zheng of CIPRA. A three-tier industry system has been constructed, including professional PR companies, special PR organizations and special education and training institutions. Its services cover corporate, governmental and non-profit organizations and the PR business is being fragmented.

“But we lack a proper industry criterion to regulate its development, and the homogenization of the market competition becomes the bottleneck to its further development,” he added.

These days, CIPRA is working on the annual report for 2006 to “track the growing PR market and evaluate its development.” The report is expected to be released in March.

International cooperation

When foreign PR companies first landed in China, they didn’t collide with the domestic ones in major businesses. “In the past, native Chinese PR companies could only provide low-end services, but now they have begun to grasp the high-end market,” said an industry insider in the condition of anonymity.

“Home-grown PR companies used to focus on holding events but now they have begun to pay attention to the branding strategy,” said the anonymous source, who also acknowledged that domestic PR companies still lag behind their foreign counterparts in terms of brand resources, expertise and talent.

In the view of HighTeam’s Zhou, “internationalization is an inevitable path for China’s PR development. Upon our establishment in 1995, the first major client we received was IBM. As we were still a small company at the time, all we could provide was low-end services like designing, and printing.” After that, the number of clients increased. In 2005, HighTeam established a joint venture with George P. Johnson Co., a leading full-service event marketing agency based in Michigan.

In 2004, HighTeam became China’s first PR company with annual income exceeding 100 million yuan. The next year the company made an income of 145 million yuan, and so far it is one of the fastest growing PR firms in the country.

Since most of HighTeam’s clients are from foreign countries, the company devoted some 100,000 yuan to providing 18 months of English-language training for a dozen of its key employees. The company also has its own Skull Camp, in which market research and analysis is an important course for the trainees.

HighTeam commits itself to integrating the different thought processes of East and West. It has employed 20 foreign marketing experts, who work closely with the Chinese staff. “What I appreciate more is the united efforts of our foreign experts and Chinese native talent,” said Zhou.

“We only consider foreign PR giants and native ones that have cooperation [arrangements] with foreign PR companies as our direct rivals,” he said.

“China’s PR market will come into balance, with international PR companies growing more localized and local ones becoming more internationalized,” said Darren Burns, General Manager of the Shanghai and Guangzhou region for Weber Shandwick.