Today, I get a sense that the law of diminishing returns is beginning to make itself felt. But maybe that is a good sign. Maybe it means the end of data gathering is in sight.

This morning, Dan informed me that the Shanghai Industry and Commerce Administration (or whatever they are called — the Shanghai Gongshang Xingzheng Guanliju) responded to our list of questions by telling her it’s all on the website and that there is no need for us to go talk to them. It’s not all on the website, so this is obviously an attempt to evade us. And our efforts to find the right person to talk to about the SMG-controlled up-market screen on the front of the New Era Mall have not got very far yet.

We had an appointment with the locally-based ad company that controls the shabbier screen on the front of the Orient Shopping Plaza. So we went over to nearby Fudan University first. We also decided to get them to write us another letter of introduction to the Shanghai Industry and Commerce Administration, asking for their cooperation and explaining that not everything we need to know is on their website. Whether this will get us anywhere, I doubt. But it’s worth a try. When dealing with government here, you have to have this kind of official introduction letter. Thank goodness we have that link into Fudan, otherwise we would be completely stymied.

Meanwhile, a chance meeting with Lu Xinyu (who I’ve just co-edited a book on Chinese documentary with) at Fudan led to her putting us in touch with the head of the advertising department there, a Professor Cheng who she said was very knowledgeable about everything we need to know more about. That might be so, but when we contacted her, we got the sense that Professor Cheng was very busy and also rather formal, as she asked us to send her a list of questions etc etc. Well, maybe we come across as amateurs outside the field to her, and since we’re on the verge of a new public holiday (which, if I’d known about, I would have tried to avoid), I can understand she must be very busy. Who knows if she will consent to give us an audience?

After all that, I was very relieved to have a very short but very interesting interview with Ms. Chen Jie (陈洁) of Single Movie and Media (森格影视传媒), the company responsible for the screen on the front of the Orient Shopping Plaza. Their offices are on the 9^th floor of the Pingsheng Building (平盛大厦), which is just north of the New Era/Youyi mall on Songhu Road. It is probably quite new, but is already beginning to feel a bit shabby, especially once you get past the lobby into the scratched up elevators. Ms. Chen apologized because she’d been hoping to set up a meeting with her boss, but he was out of town that day. The office itself was a very ordinary and unpretentious set-up with no reception area and nothing to show off. Ms. Chen gave us a flyer introducing the company, which features the Orient Shopping Plaza screen very heavily. It’s their symbol, I guess. She explained that they are not so much an advertising company per se as a media company that does things like shoot company videos, ads, etc. The scope of their business is the whole of Shanghai in theory, rather than being national, but I got a sense that they are heavily focused on Wujiaochang/Pentagon Plaza itself. So, immediately there is a major contrast between them and Shanghai Media Group, the dominant player in this market, and controller of the New Era screen.

Ms. Chen told us that they have always owned the screen on the Orient Shopping Plaza, and that, as far as she is aware, they do not pay any annual fee to the Orient Shopping Plaza for it because the physical thing is theirs. We queried whether they had to pay to hang it on the front of the OSP, and she said “no”. (Therefore, of course, it is also the case that the OSP has no say regarding what is on the screen and so on). Afterwards, Dan and I had a discussion about this. I remember the woman we met at the OSP telling us they did collect an annual fee for renting the space to the ad company that controls the screen. Dan also remembers her saying OSP owned the screen and rented it out. So, there’s obviously some confusion here. I guess it’s not so surprising: things like the annual rent for the screen and so on are a bit far removed from the daily business that these women are concerned with conducting. However, it makes sense is the screen is actually owned by Single Media. Having now seen other branches of OSP downtown, I realize it is actually a very up-market brand, a sort of Harvey Nichols of Shanghai. But the tatty screen and kitschy local ads really drag the image down, and I cannot imagine that they would tolerate it if they had any control over it.

Asked about the deteriorating quality of the screen, she claimed they had someone lined up to come along and fix it. Apparently, it is not difficult to fix an LED nor is it expensive, but the problem is finding someone with the skills to do it (like finding a plumber in London!). They have also considered putting a newer and bigger screen in, but that would involve negotiating with OSP etc etc.

As for clients, some seek them out. Otherwise, they depend upon the boss’s long-distance connections (he is from Fujian), and on spotting new businesses opening up in the neighbourhood and asking them. In other words, this screen is for people who cannot afford the SMG screen. She also pointed out that a very different target audience is involved, as the SMG screen cannot be seen easily by pedestrians in the sunken plaza, but is instead most visible to drivers in cars. Later, Dan observed that SMG is still a state enterprise and sees itself as the mouthpiece of the party and state, so they may not be so bothered that they don’t have a lot of commercial ads and are doing so much public service advertising. (Maybe, but I bet they’d go for more commercial advertising if there was interest in doing it out here in Yangpu.)

All in all, we got a very strong sense of a hierarchy of screens and advertising practices, plus of target consumers. I think this is going to help me to write a “tale of two screens” quite a lot.

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