#1

A journey by Maren Striker & Rogier Bikker

2 DUTCH GUYS DRIVING FROM CHINA TO HOLLAND USING ONLY CHINESE BRANDS

PROJECT REPORT

#2

SUMMARY (for very busy people only)

2 Dutch guys have driven from China to Holland, using only Chinese brands. Their

main sponsor was BYD (car). Product sponsors included Huawei (smart phones),

Lenovo (laptops), AEE (camera’s), XIYOUJI (clothing) and Braos (sunglasses).

In 3 months they drove through 11 countries, covering 20,000 kilometres on the

ancient Silk Road, without any of the Chinese products breaking down. This

remarkable achievement got picked up by the media and has contributed to change

the image of ‘made in China’.

Without media budget, the project reached 5.6mln people, worth a media value of

over 801,000 Euro. The video’s shot during the travel where watched more than 100k

times and 112 media reported on the project.

With an est. total project cost of only 70k Euro the ROI of this project is 1145%.

But above all, this has been a project that has inspired thousands and made the

dream of 2 guys come true.

#3

OUR STORY After living in China for more than 5 years, we

decided to drive from China to Holland, using only

Chinese brands.

With our passion for travel, and our enthusiasm for

China, we aimed to share with the world what we

see around us: a ‘brand new China’.

This is our story of how we travelled around the

world, captured the attention of millions, and

changed the image of ‘made in China’ for the better.

Maren and Rogier

#4

A YEAR OF PREPARATION We left our daily lives behind and in a year of

preparation we turned our dream into reality.

We realised we are the first foreigners to drive a

Chinese registered car out of China. Not an easy

task, so we learned.

But also sponsors, media, partners, website,

videos, photos, visa’s, gear, routing, car, planning,

border crossings, paperwork… you name it, we

planned it.

Luckily, Maren has ‘Planning’ in his job title, and

Rogier ‘Strategy’, so the year of preparation was

just as much fun (in our opinion) as the travel itself.

http://youtu.be/w9Ef0Cvk2Zc Watch Episode 0: A Week Before Departure  

#5

OUR SPONSORS Chinese car brand BYD (Build Your Dreams) signed

for main sponsorship by providing us a car (a BYD

F5 gasoline powered sedan) and organisational

support. The brand is the largest auto maker in

China and about to enter the European market. A

match made in heaven.

Other Chinese brands that believed in us and

signed for product sponsorship are Huawei (smart

phones), Lenovo (laptops), Ozark (outdoor gear),

AEE (camera’s), XIYOUJI (clothing) and Braos

(sunglasses).

With can’t be more proud to have so many great

Chinese brands behind us, all aiming to improve

their image abroad and in China by joining our

Brand New China project.

#6

OUR PARTNERS We couldn’t make this project happen just by

ourselves. So we found partners that where happy

to support us organisationally and with the

promotion of the project.

Likemind provided video production support,

Nuffnang Chinese social media updates, Yunio

provided cloud storage and ChinaNetCloud hosted

our website.

Our media partners AutoWeek, Arting365 and

GoChinaTV made sure our project reached large

audiences.

The amount of time and dedication invested by

these partners still amazes and humbles us. A big

thank you to all of them.

Organisational partners  

Media partners  

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OUR SOCIAL REACH (without media budget)

TOTAL VIDEO VIEWS: 110,097 Our videos where promoted on our own Facebook

and Youtube / Youku channel, as well as by our

media partners AutoWeek, GoChinaTV and our

sponsors.

TOTAL SOCIAL MEDIA FANS: 101,645 During our travel we updated our own Facebook,

while our social media partner Nuffnang kept our

Chinese fans up-to-date on Weibo and Wechat.

TOTAL WEBSITE VIEWS: 44,377 Our website brandnewchina.net has been viewed

more than 40k times by more than 10k unique

visitors, with an avg. time on site of 5+ minutes.

VISIT BRANDNEWCHINA.NET

#8

OUR MEDIA REACH (without media budget)

TOTAL MEDIA COVERAGE: 113 MEDIA Our project got covered by 113 mainstream, travel or

automotive media in China, Kazakhstan, Iran, Holland and even

Brazil.

TOTAL MEDIA REACH: 5,670,000 PEOPLE Our coverage in the 113 media has reached more than 5.6mln

people.

KEY MEDIA TITLES: China Daily (3x), AutoWeek

(6x), Algemeen Dagblad, Advertising Age,

Radio 1, Xinhua, Sina, ICS TV Channel,

Campaign Asia (2x), AdAge, Arting365, Auto

Home, Bright, Persdienst, RTV, Asian News,

Nieuws.nl, Blauwe Kamer, etc.

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THE RESULT

TOTAL MEDIA VALUE: 801,000 EURO An independent PR agency has calculated the media value of the

achieved media coverage to be more than 801,000 Euro.

TOTAL PROJECT COST: 70,000 EURO Total project costs including departure event in Shanghai, all travel

costs, all travel gear (incl. car) , sponsored products, video

production and arrival event in Rotterdam.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT: 1145% Based on a media value of 801,000 Euro the return on investment

is more than 11 times the total project cost.

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http://www.brandnewchina.net/media/ View complete media list:  

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http://www.brandnewchina.net/media/ View complete media list:  

#12

JOUW  CHINA  DAILY  ARTICLE?  

http://www.brandnewchina.net/media/ View complete media list:  

#13

http://www.brandnewchina.net/media/ View complete media list:  

#14

http://www.brandnewchina.net/media/ View complete media list:  

#15

OUR ROUTE The highest mountains, the hottest deserts: that’s

the ancient Silk Road. We set out to trace the steps

of Marco Polo in a 20,000 kilometre journey,

covering 11 countries in 3 months.

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OUR DEPARTURE FROM SHANGHAI We left Shanghai with a bang! We organised a

departure party for all our friends. Chinese drinks,

food and more than 50 friends made this an

unforgettable night.

The next day our main sponsor BYD organised a

media event for more than 20 media. They covered

the project extensively after a media ceremony at

the BYD showroom in Shanghai.

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EATING OUR WAY UP THE YANGTZE SHANGHAI > CHONGQING

http://youtu.be/P5hohEQum0M Watch Episode 1:  

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INTO THE WILD IN SICHUAN CHONGQING > YUSHU

http://youtu.be/Kxj6dYAjVp4 Watch Episode 2:  

#19

DASHBOARD DIARIES INTO THE DESERT YUSHU > TURPAN

http://youtu.be/chuW3LlQzHU Watch Episode 3:  

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CROSSING THE BORDER FROM CHINA TO KAZAKHSTAN TURPAN > KHORGAS

http://youtu.be/RifKBHn5G_E Watch Episode 4:  

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ON STAGE IN KAZAKHSTAN KHORGAS > ALMATY

http://youtu.be/ONiSX0L8lpY Watch Episode 5:  

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FINDING LOVE IN A KAZAKH CAVE ALMATY > SHYMKENT

http://youtu.be/fKyuNsxyNzY Watch Episode 6:  

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LOOKING FOR MARCO POLO IN UZBEKISTAN SHYMKENT > BUKHARA

http://youtu.be/iYeZMsDoYmg Watch Episode 7:  

#24

CRUISING THROUGH TURKMENISTAN ON CHEAP FUEL BUKHARA > SARAGHS

http://youtu.be/ggsUC5e6IKo Watch Episode 8:  

#25

EAT, PRAY AND LOVE IN IRAN SARAGHS > TEHRAN

http://youtu.be/h8sD4_XZRcI Watch Episode 9:  

#26

CELEBRITY FOR A DAY IN IRAN TEHRAN > TABRIZ

http://youtu.be/S_nGSenrFN8 Watch Episode 10:  

#27

FLYING INTO EUROPE TABRIZ > ISTANBUL

http://youtu.be/Cv9oRkSyQbc Watch Episode 11:  

#28

BROMANCE WITH THE GREEK GODS ISTANBUL > IGOUMENITSA

http://youtu.be/TuAJt5x6Rm8 Watch Episode 12:  

#29

VIVA L’ITALIA! IGOUMENITSA > SESTO

Watch Episode 13: Coming soon!  

#30

HOMEWARD SESTO > ROTTERDAM

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OUR ARRIVAL IN ROTTERDAM

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SHANGHAI TO WUHAN 1100KM

Longest drive in 1 day

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TURPAN, XINJIANG, CHINA 48 DEGREES AT 7:30 PM

Hottest place

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SESTO, ITALY -2 DEGREES

Coldest place

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ROAD S217, ANBANASHANKOU PASS, MANIGANGO TO YUSHU, CHINA 4859 METERS

Highest altitude driven with the car

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TURPAN, XINJIANG, CHINA -154 METERS (BELOW SEA LEVEL)

Lowest altitude driven with the car

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ITALY 1.82 EURO PER LITER

Most expensive fuel

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TURKMENISTAN 0.20 EURO PER LITER

Cheapest fuel

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97 DAYS

Total amount of days from Shanghai to Rotterdam

46 DAYS

Amount of days driving

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ROAD S217, ANBANASHANKOU PASS, MANIGANGO TO YUSHU, CHINA RAIN, MUD AND POTHOLES

Worst road condition

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ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN Most beautiful woman

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IRAN Most surprising country

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TURKEY 250 EURO/DAY

Most expensive country (avg. daily spend during our stay)

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IRAN 77 EURO/DAY

Cheapest country (avg. daily spend during our stay)

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1 lITRE / 12 KILOMETERS Avg. fuel usage of our BYD F5

56 KM/HOUR Avg. driving speed

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3768 PHOTOS 39 PER DAY

Amount of photos shot

3207 VIDEO CLIPS 33 PER DAY

Amount of video clips shots

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ZERO Broken Chinese products

ZERO Car breakdown or repairs

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6 BORDERS Border crossings with inspection

6 HOURS Avg. time spend per border

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1 CAR ACCIDENT Amount of car accidents

4 BRIBES Amount of bribes

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73.5 HOURS Hours Rogier called with his girlfriend

4018 MESSAGES Wechat messages Rogier exchanged with his girlfriend

#51

20,368 KM Total KM

210 KM Avg. KM per day of total days

443 KM Avg. KM per day of driving days

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Stay in touch!

Rogier Bikker ROGIER@BRANDNEWCHINA.NET Maren Striker MAREN@BRANDNEWCHINA.NET

facebook.com/brandnewchina

youtube.com/user/brandnewchina

weibo.com/thisisbrandnewchina

brandnewchina.net/wechat

i.youku.com/brandnewchina