On June 22 the second Global Brand Forum took place in Beijing under the theme "Brands create life." The forum was jointly organized by the Ministry of Commerce's China WTO Research Institute Hong Kong Polytechnic University's Asian Centre for Brand Management the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Urban Development and Environment Research Center and its Research Center for Sustainable Development. Chinese Internet enterprise Tencent did very well at forum winning four awards. Lau Seng Yee Tencent's Executive Vice President Online Marketing Services & Corporate Branding took the title of "Most Influential Advertiser and Promoter in Building a Chinese Brand" and the company's QQ.com portal was awarded "Internet Medium with the Greatest Advertising Value in China." Tencent Founder and CEO Ma Huateng was named among the "100 Chinese Lifestyle Influencers" while Tencent finally won the coveted "Best Chinese Lifestyle Brand" award
Commenting on Tencent's award the head of the Global Brand Forum said that developments in communications and the Internet had greatly influenced people's lifestyle. Tencent with the country's largest user base had not only influenced people's traditional communication methods but also contributed to creating a lifestyle. The fact that almost everybody online has a QQ account is a phenomenon that is truly unique to China's Internet culture. According to Tencent's latest quarterly report at the end of March QQ accounts are now close to 600 million with over 250 million active users.
The organizing committee of the forum noted Tencent's strong performance across all the "Best Chinese Lifestyle Brand" evaluation criteria. Tencent's QQ brand is closely related to people's daily life. Like mobile phones and e-mails QQ has become a fundamental communication tool people use on a daily basis. Focusing on the company's "online life" model which leverages the IM platform Tencent has helped people satisfy their diversified needs and offered new experiences in areas of work study leisure communication information entertainment and e-commerce. Tencent was also recognized for its innovative ideas spirit and innovation fostering culture high product and service quality customer satisfaction and ability to tap in to current social trends and values.
Lau Seng Yee said that Tencent's mission was to improve the quality of people's life via Internet means. He expressed his wish that its products and services become as basic and integral to people's life as water and electricity and make life more convenient and diversified. To help achieve these objectives Tencent recently launched a new brand strategy and a campaign using the slogan "High Response Great Impact" in an effort to build up the perceived maturity of the brand. Lau also remarked that with Tencent's high brand influence on people's daily lifestyle he expects more and more traditional enterprises to leverage Tencent's platform and brand in joint promotions. Recently Tencent signed a contract making its charming penguin mascot an endorser for ZSM Pharmaceutical. The contract value of this endorsement exceeds that of Hong Kong pop star Jay Chow. For Lau Tencent's awards at the Global Brand Forum are a clear indication the brand has increased in value.
