Business Symbiosis, Civilization Endurance - The 2026 Tiger Roar Ceremony Kicks Off in Shanghai
The ultimate value of business lies not only in the scale of growth but also in the height of civilization.
The height of civilization determines the depth of the industry and defines the length of the industry cycle. On May 28th, the 2026 Huxiao Festival kicked off in Shanghai with the theme of "Building a Community of Business Civilization", which deeply deconstructed and fully verified this underlying logic of the industry.
At the opening forum, Ji Mo, Managing Director and Chief China Economist of DBS Bank; Hu Yong, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication of Peking University and the Chairman of the Academic Committee of the Beijing Institute of Information Society; Hu Yanping, a well - known digital economy scholar and a specially - appointed professor at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics; and Deng Jianguo, a well - known communication scholar and a professor at the School of Journalism of Fudan University, four heavyweight guests, made important interpretations and predictions on the key variables of the era, looked ahead at the international economic situation, and thought about the development and impact of AI in contemporary society. They provided unique and profound perspectives for the industry to accurately grasp the opportunities of the era and calmly deal with cyclical changes.
In the afternoon, 14 sessions of the appreciation of excellent winning cases of the 17th Huxiao Awards were held in sequence. The appreciation was themed "Business Practice: Unlocking the Growth Code" and was carried out layer by layer around four core directions of user insight, technological empowerment, effect growth, and scenario experience, providing practical samples that can be learned from, implemented, and have long - term effects for the entire industry. While the appreciation of excellent winning cases of the Huxiao Awards was going on, two parallel forums of the Huxiao Festival, the First E - commerce Marketing Forum and the Sixth Automobile Marketing Forum, were also held simultaneously.
This festival was guided by the China Business Advertising Association and jointly hosted by the Organizing Committee of the Huxiao Awards and the Digital Marketing Professional Committee of the China Business Advertising Association. On the opening day, more than 40 partners, more than 200 well - known brands, and more than 500 industry executives gathered together. They condensed consensus through ideological collisions and inspired the industry through practical sharing, demonstrating the leadership and appeal of the Huxiao Festival as the core platform in the field of brand marketing digitization.
Based on Practice, Unlock the Growth Code of Business Civilization
The opening forum was hosted by Zhou Junfu, the host of the program of First Financial of Shanghai TV Station.
Ding Junjie: Acting President of the China Business Advertising Association
At the opening ceremony of the 2026 Huxiao Festival, Ding Junjie, the acting president of the China Business Advertising Association, delivered a speech. Ding Junjie first thanked the guests who participated in the opening forum. In his speech, he emphasized the importance of the community of business civilization. When business thrives, the economy thrives; when civilization prospers, the industry prospers.
Building a community of business civilization is not only a mission entrusted by the era but also an inevitable trend of the industry's development. To build a community of business civilization, we should take value as the core, return to the origin of long - termism, and take the ecosystem as the foundation to gather the strength of collaborative symbiosis.
Liu Dongchang: Member of the Standing Committee of Putuo District, Minister of the Publicity Department, and First - class Inspector
Next, Liu Dongchang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Putuo District Party Committee, the minister of the publicity department, and a first - class inspector, delivered a speech.
Liu Dongchang introduced that Putuo has been identified as one of the three major agglomeration areas of the digital advertising industry in Shanghai, and digital advertising has been included in an important track of Putuo's "1 + 2+3" modern industrial system. In 2025, more than a thousand digital advertising enterprises had gathered in the whole district, with a revenue of over 40 billion yuan. Currently, Putuo is actively building an "Eight - in - One" full - life - cycle service system around the digital advertising industry to help cultivate the industrial ecosystem.
Subsequently, the four heavyweight guests delivered keynote speeches in turn, decoding the core logic of business civilization construction from dimensions such as macro - economy, technological change, and industry responsibility.
Ji Mo: Managing Director and Chief China Economist of DBS Bank
Ji Mo gave a speech titled "Global Macroeconomic Outlook", analyzing the opportunities and challenges of Chinese business under the evolution of the global economic pattern.
Ji Mo looked ahead at the global macro - situation in 2026: The US economy is resilient and inflation is rising, and the Federal Reserve has shifted to a neutral stance; geopolitical conflicts have pushed up energy prices and exacerbated inflation, and global funds have flowed into safe - haven assets; the Chinese economy shows a pattern of strong external demand and weak domestic demand, with export growth, weak consumption, and a significant drag from the real estate market. The credit growth rate has reached the bottom. China is accelerating the diversification of energy imports, promoting the upgrading of new - quality productive forces and the service industry, and steadily promoting the internationalization of the RMB.
She emphasized that the situation in the Middle East has impacted oil prices, inflation, and global growth, and the risks of supply chains for energy, fertilizers, and rare gases have increased. China needs to strengthen its energy, food, and technology independence and strategic reserves.
Hu Yong: Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication of Peking University and Chairman of the Academic Committee of the Beijing Institute of Information Society
Hu Yong gave a profound speech titled "What Does It Mean to Be Human in the Age of AI?"
Hu Yong proposed the possibility of an embodied and relational humanism, which is put forward in response to the failure of traditional humanism and the negation of human value by post - humanism. The core is to affirm life and return to human practice. The new humanism advocates that humans are not algorithms, and consciousness cannot be separated from the living body. The uniqueness of humans stems from vivid life experiences; it emphasizes physical presence and real interpersonal connections, and empathy needs to be generated in embodied interactions, and digital virtual relationships cannot be substitutes; it advocates respecting life, upholding biophilia, admitting human finiteness, and coexisting with all things in nature; it opposes technology worship and takes physical presence, mutual touch, and harmonious coexistence of life as the core to reconstruct human value and the meaning of action.
Hu Yanping: Well - known Digital Economy Scholar and Specially - Appointed Professor at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
Hu Yanping gave a speech titled "How to Complete the Thrilling Leap of the Intelligent Economy?"
Hu Yanping believes that in 2026, the intelligent economy is at a critical point of warp - speed leap. He pointed out that the intelligent economy takes AI as the original force and presents 20 major characteristics such as exponential growth, dual - cycle, intelligent deflation, and social polarization, superimposing the two super - cycles of technology and industry.
He also analyzed the focus points such as the gap between China and the US in AI and the lobster phenomenon, emphasizing that development needs to balance innovation and governance, adhere to the people - centered approach, solve problems such as distribution and ethics, and build a sustainable ecosystem to complete the leap from technological change to civilizational evolution.
Deng Jianguo: Well - known Communication Scholar and Professor at the School of Journalism of Fudan University
Deng Jianguo focused on communication changes and shared "What's Left for Advertisers in the Age of AI? - Reconstructing the Talent Competencies in the Communication Industry".
Deng Jianguo analyzed the core competencies of advertising talents in the age of AI. He pointed out that consumers buy not products but emotional expressions and identity recognition. He emphasized that although AI can efficiently generate content such as copywriting, posters, and videos and reduce the cost of creative expression, it cannot understand human nature.
The communication media is iterating, but human nature remains unchanged. The core value of advertisers in the age of AI lies in understanding human nature, grasping social emotions, constructing cultural symbols, and producing great creativity that can arouse emotional resonance. The core value of advertisers lies in four - layer abilities: humanistic and social insight, theoretical critical thinking, empathetic communication, and technological expression.
Based on Practice, Unlock the Growth Code of Business Civilization
In the afternoon, the appreciation of excellent winning cases of the 17th Huxiao Awards was held as scheduled, with the theme of "Business Practice: Unlock the Growth Code", and was hosted by Zhou Jun, the executive secretary of the Huxiao Awards Jury and the founding partner of Shixiang Group.
Appreciation of Excellent Winning Cases of the 17th Huxiao Awards: User Insight
The user insight module focuses on "Cultural Empowerment and User Empathy", centering around anchoring people's hearts and building a trust community through cultural resonance.
Yan Jin, the business planning manager of the licensing department of Shanghai Film Group, shared "Full - link IP Development: From a Movie Ticket to the Langlangshan Universe"; Feng Wei, the director of the cultural and creative center of the Shanghai Museum, shared "The Strange Cat Night at the Shanghai Museum: 'Come to the Shanghai Museum and Pet a Cat!' "; Yu Fei, the sales director of Weibo, shared "A New Paradigm of Socialized Communication for Maopu Herbal Wine × the Short Drama 'I Longed for My Father to Be a Success in the 1990s' "; and KUKA Mattress shared "Searching for the Eastern Dream and Weaving the Dream of Intangible Cultural Heritage - KUKA Mattress's Answer to Eastern Sleep".
Yan Jin shared the innovation of shifting from single - box - office revenue to a diversified and compound economy with the IP of 'Little Monsters in Langlangshan' as the core, and introduced the practices of content promotion, cross - border licensing, all - domain marketing, offline scenarios, and long - term ecological layout.
Feng Wei shared the case of the Shanghai Museum using the cat cultural relics in the ancient Egyptian exhibition, combining with the pet economy, and creating the 'Strange Cat Night' with the trinity of 'people - cat - museum' for the first time, and proposed reusable methodologies such as cultural IP + emotional resonance, daring to innovate and break the situation.
Yu Fei shared that Maopu Herbal Wine used customized short dramas to break out of the industry fate of short dramas being 'fast - food and forgotten after being aired', and proposed a communication solution of 'a good drama + an amplifier', that is: the high - quality plot shifts from a sense of pleasure to emotional healing, fitting the trend of healthy drinking; taking Weibo as the core, building a topic matrix, node explosion, and a public co - creation amplification system.
