ShanghaiZhan: All Things Global Marketing, Advertising, Tech & Platforms

Is there a balance in the creation of advertising and the use of AI? Many are signaling a massive transformation of the industry. With cutting-edge AI video creation tools, China is at the forefront of this paradox. We spoke to Arthur Ma, co-founder of Red Horse Productions, one of China's leading advertising and commercial production houses, with 16 years of experience in building international campaigns for brands such as L'Oréal and OPPO. He joins Bryce and Ali to map out exactly where AI fits in modern ad production, and where it hits a wall, requiring a human creative leap to close the gap.
Key takeaways:

AI now touches roughly 30-40% of his projects, but mostly for early-stage creative (storyboards and concept visualization), not final footage
Premium and celebrity-driven campaigns (L'Oréal, top athletes) still demand real shoots; AI is reserved for motion-fill or budget-constrained work
One Viagra campaign went heavily AI-generated to hit a 3-week deadline and a fraction of the budget a traditional feature-style shoot would require
Chinese consumers show far higher comfort with AI in advertising than US audiences (85% vs. 16% approval), though Arthur argues authenticity still drives emotional impact
The real differentiator isn't the tool. It's communication skills, creative judgment, and the ability to make the creative leap AI can't generate on its own

Would you consider yourself a "slogger" or a "kisser?" We've all been told that there are only two ways to the top. You either go the slogger route, grind yourself to a fine powder, give up your weekends and social life to get ahead, or you master the dark arts of office politics as a kisser. Joining us are Bhasker Jaiswal and Anupam Mukerji, authors of The Zen Hustle Code. They’re here to pitch a third archetype: the Zen Hustler. It’s a career operating system that replaces mindless hustle with deliberate leverage—and they've got the sporting anecdotes and 'real-world' scars to prove it actually works.

For Shanghai Zhan’s “100th episode month,” Bryce and Ali welcome back Gordan Domlija for a fast-moving riff on the biggest themes from the show’s history: the collapse of the old brand/commerce divide, platform overload, creators as media channels, AI’s impact on agency value, and why cultural fluency is becoming a commercial advantage.

Is the old China-first Asia marketing playbook breaking down? In our 100th episode, Julien Lapka joins Shanghai Zhan to discuss how China, Japan, and Korea are becoming a more connected cultural triangle. The conversation explores how travel, social media, beauty, retail, hospitality, craft, food culture, and algorithm fatigue are reshaping consumer expectations across Northeast Asia — and why brands may need to think less in terms of isolated markets and more in terms of regional cultural influence.

Episode 99!: Mariano Bosaz, author of Digital Mindset: Marketing Strategies in the Age of AI, joins the podcast to argue that “digital transformation” is no longer a department, a buzzword, or a consultant’s slide deck. It is now a personal survival skill.

Mariano explains why leaders who treat AI as optional are already behind, why analog mindsets still dominate large organizations, and why brands must shift from chasing attention to creating real consumer involvement. From Formula One simulations and AI agents to synthetic creators, disclosure anxiety, and China’s speed-at-scale, this episode asks whether marketers are ready for a world where disruption hits individuals rather than companies themselves.