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By Jessy Chen

alumni voice • linking in

Did you catch a glimpse of TCL mobile phones

in Iron Man 3, or the popular Chinese food

brand Zhouheiya during its brief appearance in

Transformers 4? If you did, then you’re already

familiar with the work of Jianru Helian (CEIBS AMP 6 & LCP

2012) who’s playing a key role in introducing Chinese brands

to global consumers. Through Reach Glory Media Group,

the company she founded five years ago, Helian is driving

the globalisation of Chinese brands through entertainment

marketing – getting them screen time in major Hollywood

films and television shows so they’re seen by audiences around

the world, as well as in China.

With her short-cropped hair and trendy wardrobe, Helian

is the epitome of today’s business woman. She comes across as

extremely competent, candid, and fashionable. Her surname,

rarely seen in China, is said to be typical of descendants of the

brands ride Hollywood blockbusters to global fame

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By Jessy Chen

Huns and she seems to have inherited

the i r candour. Throug hout our

conversation she was unfaltering as she

shared her love for the entertainment

industry, her determination to make

a name for Chinese brands, and her

belief that there’s a bright future ahead

for entertainment marketing and her

company Reach Glory Media. Read on

for more:-

Why dId you decIde to start your oWN

busINess?

I’d been working in the advertising

and media industry since graduating

from university, and after more than

a decade, I had developed a thorough

understanding of customers’ needs,

market trends, brand marketing,

communications and innovation.

Having spent a few years at Warner

Brothers, where he was in charge of

the global market, my business partner

Ji Erwei was very familiar with the

Hollywood entertainment industry

and producing. We often discussed the

question of how to combine the needs

of Chinese brands with good movies,

and I suggested we work together to

create a framework for bringing both

sides together. We set up Reach Glory

Media Group at the end of 2010. I’m

the Chairwoman, responsible for brand

communication; he’s Executive Director

in charge of entertainment content.

Was It dIffIcuLt to get tractIoN IN the

marKet? What Is your company’s main focus?

The company grew quickly. We’re

headquartered in Beijing, and have

offices in Los Angeles, Seoul and

Shanghai. We help Chinese brands go

global through entertainment marketing

and have been involved in almost all

the biggest Hollywood blockbusters,

including those released in mainland

China. Reach Glory has put together

collaborations for many Chinese brands.

The fast food chain Zhouheiya was seen

in Transformers 4; TCL’s consumer

electronics products were embedded

in Iron Man 2 and 3; the apparel brand

Semir collaborated with Iron Man 2,

and the Internet apparel brand Vancl

has a deal with the American television

series The Big Bang Theory which is

popular around the world, just to give a

few examples of our work.

We are positioning Reach Glory

as an entertainment company with

brand communication as our core

business. We are trying our best to live

up to our slogan, “Know more about

movie producers than Chinese brands;

Know more about Chinese brands than

movie producers”. We want to help

finicky Hollywood directors see Chinese

brands and their products as being

easy to incorporate into their films in

an organic way; it’s about finding the

right balance between business and art.

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alumni voice • linking in

facing some difficulties in my career

at that time. The AMP Programme

inspired me to set up my own company.

Before CEIBS, I was involved in various

activities – advertising, public relations,

event management. “Business model”

was a foreign concept to me. I used to

compare what I did to “scrambling eggs”.

The many classmates I got to know at

CEIBS had a great impact on me. I came

to realise that I should stop “scrambling

eggs”, and instead begin to “keep a hen

to produce eggs”. I started to think

about business models, and learned

that the essence of a business model is

sustainability. Professor Katherine Xin

inspired me a lot, and taught me a useful

lesson: “Never be full-function, instead

focus on what you are best at; other

people’s skills can complement you in

the areas where you are not as good”.

By August 2008, when I completed my

studies at CEIBS, I had a clear picture of

what I should do. This was the greatest

learning from my CEIBS experience.

After graduating from CEIBS, I

began to work on movies, and stopped

everything I had been doing before.

I had not yet set up a company, but

began invest ing in movies as an

individual investor. Since I was really

eager to produce content and always

had a dream about being in the film

business, I later decided to work

with my friend Ji Erwei who had just

returned to China from Hollywood.

Together we invested in two movies;

he was the producer and I was the

presenter. This experience laid a solid

foundation for the movie product

placement work I am doing now.

The second turning point occurred

when Reach Glory was acquired by

Gangtai Holding. Reach Glory became

a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gangtai.

Having access to more investment

capital has helped our development

as it allows us to leverage our unique

advantages in brand placement and

joint promotion.

We don’t just broker deals, we also help

both the movie producers and Chinese

brands expand their reach into new

markets, achieving a “win-win” result

for all involved. Reach Glory’s business

can be broken down into four segments:

branded content, making brands

entertaining, producing entertainment,

and creating platforms for products.

you come across as a very coNfIdeNt

business woman who’s very sure of What

she WaNts aNd Where she’s going. were you

aLWays so cLear about What dIrectIoN your career shouLd taKe?

There have been two turning points

in my career so far. The first was in 2007

when I enrolled in the CEIBS AMP

Programme. I was feeling a bit lost and

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Who has beeN your most INfLueNtIaL roLe

modeL?

My uncle has always encouraged

me to do what I enjoy, and encouraged

my entrepreneurship, which has

helped me a lot. My parents died

when I was still a child, my uncle

is the one who raised me. He’s an

innovative person and doesn’t follow

a traditional path. His optimism and

entrepreneurial spirit have had a great

influence on me since my childhood.

He started his own business many

years ago, while most people were still

working for established companies.

M y u n c l e h e l p e d d e v e l o p t h e

optimistic and enterprising sides of

my personality. He often says, “You

don’t have to accomplish something

big, just remember to be happy and

hardworking, so you won’t have any

regrets in your life.”

When I was still thinking about

whether or not to stay in a big company

to gain more experience, remembering

my uncle’s words encouraged me to

start my own business. He said, “In

our family, no one is more suitable for

entrepreneurship than you. You have the

right personality.” He’s always supported

my choices. I later came to better

understand my uncle’s meaning. First of

all, women entrepreneurs actually have

more fall-back options and rarely start

a business just for the money. Therefore

they must intertwine their ideals and

preferences with the business. Apart

from that, when you do what you like,

it won’t be so tiring, and you will have a

better chance to succeed.

IN 2015, gaNgtaI hoLdINg acquIred reach gLory

for rmb440 million. Why do you thINK

such a Large LIsted compaNy WaNted you? What do you thINK the future WILL brINg for

your compaNy?

After the global financial crisis in

2008, there were many changes in the

advertising and marketing industry.

Clients became very cautious and

thought about their marketing expenses

more carefully. They wanted their

money to go further, and to achieve

much better results, or maybe they were

very targeted in their spending. An

increasing number of brands began to

promote their products via movies or

other content, hoping to create more

impact with less money. Entertainment

marketing and content marketing are

the future trends, and will be important

tools for companies to promote their

brands. For brands, the value of this

marketing strategy lies in the high rate

of return on investment; for producers,

it lowers their investment risk.

C o m p a r e d w i t h t r a d i t i o n a l

marketing, entertainment marketing

puts more emphasis on customers’ active

participation as well as an emotional

connection between customers and

companies. Entertainment marketing,

with brands at the core, relies on data.

Consumers are attracted by things such

as embedded advertisements, ads played

during the previews in the cinema,

and merchandising. These things

spark emotional resonance among

consumers and enhance a brand’s value.

All successful entertainment marketing

follows a similar path: authorised joint

promotion, applying movie elements

to products, promotions, ground

operations, media pitches and new

media marketing. When executed

simultaneously these things combine to

create a multi-platform “perfect storm”

of audience awareness during a movie’s

promotion and release period.

Gangtai has provided us with strong

support for content, and I think with the

acquisition we did not sell the company

in a traditional sense; the deal has given

us a capital platform. We need a large

amount of easily accessible capital for

movie and content production, and we

think we have a sound strategy for Reach

Glory’s sustainable development. I have

full confidence in my team: almost half

of them have overseas experience. Our

excellent team is unmatched by almost

everyone else in the market. They are

why we have been so successful so far.

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