The top 7 nominees for ROI Festival's Trust Is Gold III brand creativity proposition contest were unveiled on 21 November, 2018. As the biggest annual event in the industry, Trust Is Gold III is arguably the equivalent of "I am a singer" in the advertising world. In addition to exciting open competition, both the contestants and brand owner also highlight that draw the industry’s attention.

This year, Trust Is Gold III has Country Garden, a Fortune 500-listed company, as the contest proposed brand owner. Founded in 1992 by Mr. Yang Guoqiang, Country Garden is a top-notch real estate developer renowned in China and the rest of the world, committing itself to China's urbanization process. So far, the company has built more than 2,000 quality projects, adding modernistic look to more than 1,000 cities and townships and continues to cater to people's desire for a better life. More than 3 million people are now proud owners of Country Garden-built housing.

In a survey questionnaire entitled "Country Garden brings a family closer together", ROI Festival has in conjunction with the ROI list of business creativity ideas, recommended about 20 professional participants. Ultimately, 7 creative agencies, by reason of their strong experience and skills, outstanding content presentations, and unique insights into Country Garden and the real estate industry, successfully entered the second round and won the opportunity of face-to-face briefings with Country Garden's headquarters at Shunde, Guangzhou. Witnessed by officials from Country Garden, the top 7 nominees drew lots to decide their order of presentation.

An astute observer will no doubt realize almost all of the participants were past winners of ROI Festival's business creativity awards. For example, Wang Xiaosai who founded NEONE and won the grand prize this year, was the youngest contestant. Then there was Ms. Sheena Jeng, who served as a judge for ROI Festival's business creativity awards and led the team to win many awards and the only female on the list. Let’s take a look at the profiles of the nominees (according to the order of their appearance).

Zheng Daming

Founder & Chief Creative Innovation Officer, Z+

Distressed by the inefficiency of traditional advertising that has caused a huge waste of social resources, Mr. Zheng Daming began to study and practice shock wave marketing in 2009. In March 2014, he established Z+ (Z Plus) to promote marketing revolution.

He was admitted in 1998 to the Early Entrance Program of Shanghai Jiaotong University as a first-place winner in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai;

He is a winner of China's first THE ONE SHOW Silver Pencil;

China's first Cannes Lions finalist;

Ranked first in the Campaign Brief Creative List of local companies for 6 years;

Winner of more than 300 Chinese and international creative awards;

Served as judge for The New York Festivals, Adfest, Longxi Awards, ROI Festival, ONESHOW Chinese Creative Festival, Times International Chinese Advertising Awards, 4A’s Golden Seal Awards, China Advertising Festival, Guangdong Advertising Competition and National Youth Advertising Competition.

Kien Lin

Founder, LogiciLLogic

Born in a traditional Chinese family in Malaysia, Kien Lin is a fluent Chinese speaker. With a solid understanding of Chinese cultural traditions and a western education background, Kien is able to promote local brands using advanced international thinking and local knowledge, helping global brands expand the Chinese market.

He has been working in the advertising industry since 1994 and came to China in 2000. He served as managing partner of Leagas Delaney in Shanghai, managing director of Publicis Media, marketing director of NBA, and worked in a number of brand advertising companies including Draftfcb and Saatchi;

Also, he has abundant experience in offering brand creative services to dozens of well-known brands including Tencent, Shanghai Volkswagen, Gatorade, Amway, Carlsberg, Dunhill, Hilton, Coca-Cola, eBay, Fuji Film, China Telecom and Samsung. 

As one of the founders of LogiciLLogic, Kien has been committing himself to cooperating honestly with customers in pursuit of the best ideas and the greatest brand values.

Wang Xiaosai

Chairman & Chief Creative Officer, NEONE

With a copy writing background, he has worked in creative industry for 16 years. In 2013 he founded NEONE, a famous creative shop in Shanghai. He previously worked in Megaw, JWT, Energy Source and Tencent, and garnered over a hundred awards with his teams.

Adept at social integration marketing, he serves as the editor-in-chief and co-author of <Gold Copywriting>; Some of his representative works include UBER Hero Car, Alipay Wufu and Song Tea. Alipay Wufu as recipient of an award in the 2017 ROI Festival Grand Prix and Song Tea won the 2018 China Advertising Digital Awards Grand Prix.

He served on the panel of judges for China Advertising Digital Awards, China Content Marketing Awards, Mawards, Greatwall Awards and Academy Awards, and was nominated on the "Digital A-list" by Campaign, a global well-known media.

Sam Chung

Founder & Chief Creative Officer, WE Marketing Group

“I’ve devoted most of my life to advertising; no exaggerating, no boasting, no prejudice and no regret. I treat matters as I would treat myself - carefully - and like to treat people with respect as I would respect myself".

Sam Chung, founder of WE Marketing Group, has more than 20 years of working experience in international 4A advertising companies including TBWA, JWT and LEO BURNETT. He joined Grey Global in 1994 and served as the Executive Creative Director of Grey China in 2002. He co-founded WE Marketing with partners in 2005 and served as the Creative Executive for Greater China region.

He has served numerous Chinese and foreign clients: Nestle, Coca-Cola, Danone, Shanghai Volkswagen, Vanke, SONY, TSKF, ZTE, Pizza Hut, Marlboro, Procter & Gamble, Master Kong, Bank of China, City Telecom, Sun Hung Kai Properties, SAIC, Panasonic, Wong Lo Kat, CNICE, Estee Lauder, Mentholatum, Clinique and OSM.

His creative works have won many awards at home and abroad, including Clio Awards Silver Award, Cannes National Award, Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards of China Advertising Festival, Effie Awards Gold Award, Hong Kong 4A Awards Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards, Longxi Awards Silver and Bronze Awards, Asia Media Awards Best Awards, New York Advertising Festival and London Advertising Festival.

As one of the Top Ten Creative Directors evaluated by China Advertising Association (CAA), he served on the panel of judges for New York Festivals, London Festivals, China Advertising Festival, China Effie Awards, China Advertising Association Academy Award, Times Awards and Times Young Creative Awards.

Andrew Lok

Co-Founder, Civilization 

The introduction below is given by Lok:

My name is Andrew Lok. I'm an award-winning author, poet, lyricist, music composer and film director, and the co-founder of Civilization, one of China's top brand creative agencies;

I began my career as a journalist at United International News Agency. Eventually I found news-making more intriguing than news-reporting. In Singapore, I worked for many famous 4A advertising companies and served as a managing partner. In China, I held senior leadership positions at Ogilvy Beijing and Ogilvy Guangzhou.

I also worked for companies like Wrigley and Pepsi, and was responsible for developing long-term content branding based on the Chinese market. In October 2012, I founded Civilization with Alex Xie. Initially we had only 4 employees. 6 years later there were almost a hundred of them. We've built the company into as one of China's most high-profile advertising companies.

In 2015, I began to direct movies. In less than 3 years my works received more than 1 billion views.

Michael Dee

Chief Creative Officer, United Communications Group

A meticulous, decisive man who likes to try new things and seize the big trend, Mr. Di maintains perpetual curiosity and is fond of starting from scratch. He is never hesitant to ask "why not", and is extremely interested in making creative advertisement and training talented people in advertising.

He was the chief creative officer of DDB China, and the executive creative director of J. Walter Thompson Taiwan. He is often referred to by people as Riding Hood, he has built many famous brands including DeBeers, Clinique, Neutrogena, Lux, Estee Lauder, Pepsi, Coke, Nike and VW during his 30 years of working on advertising.

He was named by Campaign magazine in the Asia-Pacific region as the Creative Person of the Year in Greater China, He won numerous Golden Lion, Silver Lion, Bronze Lion Awards at Cannes Advertising, One Show Gold Pencil Award and AME Marketing Advertising Award. He led a team in winning Best Advertising Company of the Year in Greater China and Best Digital Advertising Company of the Year in Greater China.

His work was praised by Gunn's Report as one of the top 50 works that have won the most advertisements worldwide.

Sheena Jeng

Chief Creative Officer, McCann China

“Life is filled with uncertainty, but if we face it positively with a resilient spirit, we would be surprised by the opportunities that come along with such uncertainty.”

She has had more than 26 years of experience in advertising and has worked for Ogilvy, D'Arcy, Publicis Media and other famous 4A advertising companies. The team she led provided strategic partnership services for a number of international/local brands, including L'Oreal, Citibank, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, Fidelity Investments, Avon, Sanofi, Philips, Nestle, Heineken, Tencent Wealth Management, Roche and General Motors (Buick and Cadillac).

During her career she has won many awards for significant contributions to the industry, These include Cannes Advertising Awards, D&AD, OneShow Gold Pencil, Clio, Spikes Asia, Epica, New York Advertising Festival, Asia Pacific Advertising Festival, Busan Advertising Festival, Effie Awards, China 4A Gold Seal Award, China Advertising Great Wall Award, China Advertising Yellow River Award and Longxi Advertising Award;

She also achieved considerable success in business management, and has led her team in wining “Agency of the” on six occasions, including: "Clio Agency of the Year for China” in 2015 and "Campaign Brief China hottest agency" in 2017;

In addition, she was recipient of "Outstanding Women Award for China Advertising Industry” in 2009 and "China 4A Person of the Year” in 2016. She is one of the few all-round advertising persons experienced in CEO and CCO management, M&A and consolidation.

The gathering of the vast majority of creativity leaders in China’s advertising world not only enabled us to see a lineup that is grander than the previous year, but made the competition atmosphere more intense than ever before. What's more, Country Garden, which held the naming right, had planned a series of thorough activities to tell its corporate culture.

Visit the History and Culture Hall of Country Garden which began its operations in a modest brick house and had grown into China’s biggest real estate developer, and experience every detail in the company's struggle for a "good life.”

"Education-based poverty alleviation" is the way embraced by Country Garden throughout. Creative leaders came away from a visit to Guohua Memorial Middle School, the country's only free private high school funded by Country Garden, thoroughly moved and deeply impressed. Perhaps the best way to understand a brand is to explore the inside of it, step by step, for better knowledge and communication.

ROI Festival's "Trust is Gold" is the most popular annual creative event in the industry. With an innovative and open system, it never fails to draw widespread attention. This is not only because it is an open and fair creativity contest desired by many, but more importantly it has set a perfect business model for many brands and creative agencies seeking cooperation.

“I feel that I've received respect.”

“I have felt the sincerity of the brand from the brief.”

“Through this contact, I've changed what I knew about Country Garden.”

“It's a meaningful and beneficial experience.”

“Instead of taking us as outsiders, they shared information about the background of the real estate industry and helped us with producing something creative.”

This year, Country Garden launched a 90-second portrait-screen video creative-naming contest with a theme of "Country Garden brings a family closer together". The third round of creative proposals are expected in two weeks, for which we will to invite academic experts in advertising marketing. He Haiming, Associate Dean of China Advertising Institute, Jiang Qingyun, Director of Marketing Department, School of Management, Fudan University, and key opinion leaders from the industry, including Zhou Yan, former deputy director of CCTV Record Channel, and Yi Guangxu, founder and CEO of Feibo, will be the judges for the first knockout round.

ROI Festival's Trust Is Gold III Brand Creativity Proposition Contest as scheduled for launch on 11 December, 2018. Great proposals would be expected in the first round, of which 5 entries would be selected to advance out of 7 presented.

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