On Dec 13th and Dec 14th, Unilever China leadership team made a trip to China's "Silicon Valley" -- Baidu, Sina, Sohu and MSN. Along with their visit to Taobao and planned visit to Tencent, almost all leading websites in China have got top to top conversation with Unilever.

Alan Jope, Chairman of Unilever Greater China, and Zhang Chaoyang, CEO of Sohu, sign strategic cooperative contract.

In China, there are 420 million online users and the total number is still increasing. Undoubtedly, the Internet has become the mainstream media where people obtain, share and release all kinds of information. Nowadays, consumers spend around 30% of their total media consumption online. As one of the biggest fast-moving consumer goods companies, Unilever will develop consumer- centric business, which needs to accelerate the online presence of brands to ensure that the company is following the Chinese consumer to her media channels of choice.

During the visit, the Unilever China leadership team established stronger top-to-top relationships with these exciting businesses. They also learned about many new innovative techs which prove again the high potential of the Internet. With the trend of more technology innovations, consumers have got more control than ever in terms of information and the capabilities to make the right choice. Meanwhile, more information sharing brings more challenges and opportunities to our brands. This visit comes up with a substantial strategic cooperation rather than solely a courtesy call. The leadership team has signed a strategic cooperative contract with Baidu and Sohu, and also strengthened collaborations with other Internet companies. The investment of Unilever in digital marketing in 2010 has almost tripled and is expected to increase more in the coming future.

For more digital marketing, the whole company should further develop professional digital capability knowledge. The leadership team visit is also an integral part. This year, the Lipton Chinese New Year campaign won the "Golden Award" of Unilever Global Digital Marketing. "Unilever has been a media and brand communication innovator worldwide for many years. The visits have provided us with dozens of ideas on how we can partner with these impressive businesses to bring useful and entertaining content to their online users. Watch this space for more news!" says Alan Jope, Chairman of Unilever Greater China.