Inbound

We promote your content, create leads and help drive your program sales to TV networks, VOD sites, producers and independent buyers.

China has over 2,000 TV channels competing for eyeballs. Powerful VOD sites intensify the competition and the demand for content. Chinese production entities have stepped up their production efforts in recent years, both in terms of quantity and quality, to satisfy the demand for content.

However, Chinese audiences and distribution platforms also seek TV programming and formats from abroad. As elsewhere in the world, global hit brands such as The Voice, Got Talent, the Idols franchise, Breaking Bad, Skins or Sherlock, just to name a few examples, are most sought after by platforms and audiences. Beyond these major deals that generate massive PR in the West and China alike, Western content distributors and Chinese buyers strike other deals, both big and small, on a regular basis.

CMMi supports international TV program and formats producers and distributors to efficiently and successfully promote and sell content to China’s plethora of TV networks, VOD sites, producers and independent buyers.

We have consistently enabled our clients to increase their revenue from Mainland China by over 150% annually and facilitated package and individual deals between foreign and Chinese parties for thousands of hours and episodes of drama, entertainment and factual content.

We organize film festivals, professional summits, content showcases and specialist conferences in China.

In the era of virtual communications, prestigious events that bring real people together have never been more important for maintaining high-level relationships throughout the year, specifically in China where personal relationships are crucial to success.

We have been facilitating professional media exchange with China since 1990, hosting and co-hosting all-scale conferences in cities across the Mainland, Hong Kong and Singapore. Events we have successfully planned and organized include the first ever Festival of German Cinema in China, CASBAA Online Video Forum and the China Germany Media Forum, which will be held for the fifth time in 2014.

As exclusive China agents for MIPTV, MIPCOM, MIDEM and the Asian TV Festival, we have also played a central role in bringing China’s biggest players to the international market over the last decade, including Vice-Ministerial visits, VIP dinners and elite round table discussions in Cannes. In this role, we also host China media-focused panels and workshops in Cannes and elsewhere, including panels on China’s formats, animation and documentary markets.

We manage media business in China, build foreign brands into the fabric of the Chinese media industry and drive sales. We help initiate, negotiate and implement strategic cooperation agreements with Chinese partners.

Experience shows that the Chinese market is difficult to build from abroad. Media companies encouraged by their growing business here thus face the choice of either establishing China operations or appointing a local representative.

With China’s unique political, economic, legal and cultural environments hindering or even prohibiting Western content and concepts, ceding control over your brand or content may be dangerous, while establishing the right corporate structure can be time-consuming and costly.

Many companies are not willing or ready to incur these risks in a notoriously volatile market where ROI cannot always be predicted and where maintaining even existing relationships requires hard work, patience and flexibility.

We understand this dilemma and so provide foreign clients with sensible Representation solutions to nurture the Chinese market and successfully establish their brand presence, without incurring the financial risk of establishing an office or losing oversight of the business.

Backed by full secretarial services, we build client business in China by providing you access to our unrivalled contact network. We position and establish your brand presence, design and distribute marketing collateral for targeted groups and drive sales via well-established and continuously expanding channels.

We help initiate and implement cooperation with Chinese partners and provide strategic advice, be it for a single project or a long-term investment. In every case, our objective is to build your business.
All our clients receive regularly updated CMMi analysis on relevant news and trends in the market. If and when appropriate, we will actively help you transition to the optimum China trading structure and establish dedicated operations.

From European film and TV promotion organizations organizations, TV production and distribution houses to US entertainment marketing firms, many clients continue to be represented by CMMi, while we have helped others progress to successful opening of their own China offices.

To help you understand the China market and expand your contact network, our Road Shows offer face-to-face meetings with prospective business partners in China. Each CMM-I managed visit equips you with a clear understanding of opportunities and challenges in your targeted sectors.

Whether this is your first foray into China and you are interested to meet key players, or you have some contacts in China already and have accumulated a few (good or bad) experiences, it is hard to know the full potential of the market for your brand and products.

To help first-time entrants and industry groups understand China, and to help companies with some experience to expand their contact and client networks into new provinces or sectors, we plan and execute Road Shows.

This means, we work with you to assess and define your offering for China, we schedule meetings on your behalf with TV networks, VOD sites, film and TV production houses, publishing and music companies, government agencies, media investors, content buyers and sellers.

We plan all the travel logistics and deliver a full pre-trip briefing. One or more experienced, bilingual CMM-I consultants and project managers will accompany you to all meetings to facilitate communication, providing you with background knowledge and advice during discussions and negotiations with Chinese partners.

Following your visit, we aggregate meeting memos, market intelligence and recommendations into a comprehensive report, so you return from China with a clear understanding of key players, opportunities and challenges, along with a roadmap for next steps.

We deliver commissioned research and provide confidential strategic counsel for international media clients exploring and developing business in China.

China wants and needs global media cooperation. Our experienced US, European and Chinese team provides strategic research and consulting services for international media clients that want to successfully enter and develop business in this complicated market.

In a country where doors open and close quickly, statistics can be unreliable and regulations change frequently, we base our advice on hands-on consulting: we work with you to define your offering and then engage in face-to-face interaction with relevant Chinese prospects on your behalf.

Supported with hard data where applicable, we aggregate direct market feedback and apply our decades of experience to determine where the opportunities lie and how you can capitalize.

In our final Research & Strategy report, which we often present in person at our client’s headquarters, we make detailed recommendations for your market entry and development. Transparency and honesty are our guiding principles and if the market prospects are weak, we will tell you straight.

With CMM-I, you receive all details of the prospects we contact on your behalf, so you can independently follow up on all opportunities we discover.

Many of our Research & Strategy clients retain us to organize a Road Show or for project implementation and business development services.