On May 18, 2017, the New York Festivals, one of the world's three major advertising festivals, opened grandly at the Lincoln Center in New York. The New York Festivals, also known as the New York Festivals (NYF), was founded in 1957 and includes the New York International Advertising Awards, the New York International Television & Film Awards, the New York International Radio Awards, the AME Awards for marketing effectiveness, the Health & Wellness Awards, and the Midas Awards for financial marketing. This year, over 3,000 companies from more than 80 countries competed in 19 categories, with an international grand jury and executive jury composed of over 400 of the most senior creative directors and world-class creative directors from 75 countries. The New York Festivals holds an extraordinary reputation in the global media and advertising industry, and the rigor and authority of its judging and review process are globally recognized as the touchstone for excellence in advertising creativity and marketing communications.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the New York Festivals, and the conference presented two special awards: one for the United Nations public service, and the other for China Brand Communication. As China has become the world's second-largest advertising market and increasingly attracts international attention, the New York Festivals this year awarded the "China Brand Communication Awards" for the first time, recognizing media companies with the most outstanding brand communication capabilities, and commending the largest life-scene media group in China, Focus Media Group, for its excellence in brand ignition, brand upgrade communication, and media innovation.

Jim Smyth, President and Chairman of the New York Festivals, congratulated Focus Media on becoming the first Chinese media company to receive the China Brand Communication Award from the New York Festivals. He said that Focus Media Group pioneered the elevator media, a highly valuable and interactive digital media network, globally. The "China Brand Communication Award" aims to commend Focus Media for helping more than 5,000 international and local brands succeed in the Chinese market, leading the Chinese media industry in creative innovation, and making outstanding contributions to the media industry and brand building and communication. The success of Focus Media is one of the most important media innovations in China and even globally.

As the first Chinese media expert invited by the New York Festivals, Ms. Chen Yan, Chief Strategy Officer of Focus Media, attended the conference and delivered a keynote speech titled "A Whole New World — A Glimpse of China Advertising Media Innovation." Chen Yan stated that China's market is huge and growing rapidly, and the consumption upgrade is being driven by the "three-high" population: those with high education, high income, and high consumption. Mobile and passive are the core trends in Chinese brand communication. Chinese consumers spend 4-5 hours on their phones, so mobile is the trend. Users have choices on their phones and mainly look at content; ads are often selectively ignored. Therefore, it is essential to focus on content marketing, integrate into popular social IPs and topics, and create social hot events. At the same time, information models are undergoing drastic changes, but life scenes are hard to change. It is crucial to seize the closed living spaces that the mainstream population must pass through, such as apartment buildings, office buildings, and cinemas. These places can reach white-collar and gold-collar workers and the middle class with high frequency, representing the majority of mainstream consumption power and influence in Chinese cities. Concentrating advertising on these trendsetters who influence China's consumption market is the foundation for igniting mainstream consumption trends. Today, the influence on mainstream consumers in China is shifting from television media to life-scene media represented by elevator media. In the mobile internet era, people can access any information anytime, anywhere, but information overload and too many choices still pose huge challenges for brand communication. Either embedding into the information and entertainment hotspots that consumers care about most, or embedding into the most daily life spaces and scenes of consumers, will be the core choice for advertisers.

As the most core and important life-scene media "position" for igniting the mainstream consumer population in the era of consumption upgrade, Focus Media has become the fastest-growing media platform globally in the past decade. According to the WPP Group's BrandZ report over the past two years, 81% of China's top 100 brands chose to advertise on Focus Media's elevator media. This fully demonstrates that placing ads in life-scene media like elevators is the best choice for brands to succeed in the Chinese market.

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