I've spend the best part of a month in China and things have moved on here whilst I have been away. One of the most interesting things is the way the powers that be are starting to firm up a realistic viewpoint around behavioural advertising. The idea is that advertising messages if accurately targets transcend being a sales message and become useful information - in a lot of respects similar to the effect of PR. Definitely something to keep an eye on as this maybe more powerful and measurable than social media.
The second thing that struck me was how, in spite of events like the financial crisis, 'people like me' has been displaced as the most trusted authority by experts in the latest Edelman Trust Barometer.