From November 3 to 8 during the reading week, FHSS Associate Professor Richard Xu led DCOM students to Shanghai for a six-day field trip. The trip spanned across the commercial, public relations, academic, and creative fields, providing students with an immersive industry insight and academic exchange experience.

In the realm of business practice, students decoded brand emotional value and operational intelligence. They conducted on-site research at the Ganghui Henglong Plaza, focusing on commercial models and brand strategies. Key visits included Tiffany, Fendi, POPOP, LOVOT, and VAUDE, where students delved into high-end brand customer experience design, emotional marketing, and localization strategies. The manager of Tiffany shared insights on the importance of "empathetic sales" and brand storytelling. Fendi showcased innovations in lighting, display, and strategies for appealing to younger audiences while maintaining its century-old brand identity. After the brand visits, Wu Yunxuan, Key Account Manager of Grand Gateway 66 and a 2017 graduate in Public Relations and Advertising, further analyzed marketing strategies for commercial real estate by drawing on the mall’s 520 campaign and anniversary celebration cases. This provided students with a more comprehensive understanding of the synergy between brand operations and mall marketing.

In the frontier exploration of the industry, students gained insights into AI and global communication at the headquarters of Ruder Finn in Shanghai. The Ruder team shared their collaborative model for helping Chinese brands expand internationally and discussed how AI is reshaping content creation while raising higher demands for strategic thinking in the industry. In a simulated planning session, students worked in groups to develop a campaign for the launch of Vivo X300 in Singapore, experiencing the pace and creative challenges of a PR agency firsthand. 

In the academic dialogues, professors and students engaged with Fudan University and Donghua University to explore new pathways in communication education. At the School of Journalism at Fudan University, both faculties discussed the university's distinctive "2+X+Y" curriculum system and the "learning through competition" model, exploring the current value and challenges of advertising studies. At Donghua University's College of Humanities, students visited the "Urban Governance and Communication Innovation Lab" and the Textile Museum, gaining a firsthand understanding of the university's fashion communication specialization and its interdisciplinary integration. Both universities expressed their willingness to collaborate on curriculum development and faculty-student exchanges, laying a foundation for future academic cooperation.

At the creative hotspot BangX, founder Wang Shenshuai shared his mission to "create explosive creativity," using the award-winning public welfare short film "Don’t Let the Future Suffocate" as an example. He emphasized that great creativity often creates or comes close to conflict, stimulating the public's "witness" mindset. He encouraged BNBU students to remain authentic, maintain a unique perspective, and always think from the root of the issue.

This Shanghai field trip not only enriched students' professional knowledge but also built a communication bridge between universities and enterprises. Students gained substantial insights into brand strategy, PR execution, academic research, and creative practice, laying a solid foundation for their future career development and academic exchanges.

Reporter: Fu Yingzhi
Photo: Zhao Yilin
Edit: Dr. Richard Xu, Ms. Alice Rao