I want advertisers to buy our screens on evidence they can test themselves, gathered without recording any viewer's face, phone or movements.
I am Chief Marketing Officer of Xiaruntang Screen Network, a Shanghai-based operator of 41,000 digital screens in office lobbies, residential entrance halls and bus and coach interchanges across Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuxi, Jiaxing, Nantong and Ningbo. We reported RMB742 million revenue and RMB61 million operating profit in 2025, with 1,260 employees. Hexiaolan Property Services, a privately held property-management group, owns 54 per cent; Shulanmen Capital holds 31 per cent and management the remainder. I lead 64 colleagues across advertiser marketing, audience research, pricing and packaging, partner communications and our content-standards desk. Sales report to the chief commercial officer, and legal counsel decides questions of law.
My working life began in 2000 with consumer surveys, followed by five years planning television and outdoor campaigns at an agency and five years spending a brand budget at a Hangzhou tea-drinks company. Sitting on the advertiser's side taught me what no sales presentation could: a brand manager defending a budget needs evidence that survives her finance director, not an impressive impression count. I joined Xiaruntang in December 2015 to run audience research and pricing, and have been CMO since April 2022.
This site describes three decisions in which marketing gave something up. We refused a camera-based attention count that two national advertisers wanted and built district holdout tests instead. We held our national-advertiser rate card through the 2024 slowdown and designed smaller packages for neighbourhood businesses. We wrote category rules for residential screens and opened partner fees to owners' committees, losing revenue and some compounds. Each choice was argued with colleagues who disagreed, and each still carries costs I can describe.
District tests replaced a face-counting pilot
Twenty-three advertisers ran matched-district holdout tests between mid-2023 and the end of 2024. Seventy-one per cent of them renewed, against 52 per cent of comparable advertisers without a test. We lost one RMB9.5 million car campaign that required camera counts.
National pricing fell 7 per cent, not 25
Instead of the across-the-board cut proposed in 2024, we held list prices, set floors by building tier and added local fortnight packages. Realised national pricing ended the year 7 per cent below list; local advertisers grew from 17 to 29 per cent of revenue by 2025.
Residential complaints fell after category rules
Excluding unsecured consumer-lending and paid-livestream apps from residential screens cost about RMB21 million of annual bookings. Owner complaints logged by our property partners fell from sixty-three in the first half of 2025 to fourteen a year later.
Current focus
I am testing whether aggregated building-entry counts, which property managers already collect without identifying anyone, can replace our survey-based audience estimates for office screens, and documenting the buildings where those counts mislead.
Conversations I welcome
I would consider one independent board seat at a consumer-facing company outside out-of-home advertising and property services, with about twenty days a year, after my employer's consent and a review of advertiser, agency and partner relationships.
