Where to begin
In July 2025, the Guangdong Provincial Rural Work Leading Group Office and the Provincial Publicity Department jointly issued the "Media+ Empowering the 'Hundreds of Thousands and Millions' Project Agricultural Product Market System Construction Action Plan (2025–2027)." This represents China's first provincial-level policy document dedicated to using "Media+" to empower rural revitalization. Now, one year after its introduction, what tangible results has "Media+" delivered?
A review shows that departments and local governments across the province have actively embraced "Media+." Major mainstream media outlets have stepped forward, moving from behind-the-scenes observers to front-line enablers. Market forces and social institutions have also participated, helping Guangdong's local specialty products gain popularity and break sales records. Today, "Media+" in Guangdong is evolving from isolated successes into a province-wide phenomenon.
On July 29, a provincial "Media+" case exchange conference was held in Guangzhou. Representatives from central, provincial, and city-county media, along with towns and villages, gathered to review a year of practice and share frontline experiences.
What exactly does "Media+" add?
Guangdong's exploration over the past year provides an answer: It is not a simple layering of media onto other industries. Instead, it leverages the media's credibility, content production capacity, and connective power to actively integrate into industrial development, public services, and grassroots governance. This transforms information dissemination into a systemic capability for resource integration, brand building, supply-demand matching, and value creation.
How to master Guangdong's local specialties?
The plan promotes a deep integration of "Media+Industry." It encourages local governments and media to collaborate on project construction, operational cooperation, and brand creation, jointly developing model projects and high-growth zones. Wu Jiang, editorial board member and economic news director of Yangcheng Evening News, cited the example of Meizhou's golden pomelos. "Meizhou pomelos have long faced a brand deficit. We cooperated with local authorities for brand co-creation, using campaigns and live streaming to support their growth, aiming to turn them into a well-known brand."
Media possesses communication resources and acts as a bridge connecting government, enterprises, academia, and research, giving it a natural advantage in building regional brands for Guangdong's agricultural products. At the Maoming Daily building, the "Good Heart Premium Products" mall displays hundreds of items, with the most prominent spot near the entrance reserved for Maoming mooncakes. Li Jian, Deputy Party Secretary and Deputy President of Maoming Daily, told Southern Magazine that about a decade ago, Maoming Daily first planned the campaign that helped Maoming earn the "China Mooncake Capital" title, transforming its mooncake industry from small and scattered into a wealth-generating sector with an annual output exceeding 5 billion yuan. "We participated fully in building regional public brands for Maoming lychees, Huazhou citron, agarwood, and mooncakes," Li Jian said. Maoming Daily has created both online and offline "Good Heart Premium Products" sales channels, moving over a million jin of lychees per season on average, with annual mooncake sales averaging over 20 million yuan. This year, they launched a lychee culture market, a national fitness hike, and a "Guangdong Goods Going Global" rural revitalization stage, significantly boosting national recognition of these regional brands.
At the conference, Wu Lixing, head of the Farmers' Daily Guangdong station, said that after the plan was released, the station immediately sent core reporters to farms and factories for a full-industry-chain investigation. They produced over ten reports, including "The Lychee Breakout," which analyzed variety selection, cultivation, preservation, and brand marketing, helping regions rediscover the cultural value and market premium of their specialties.
The key to helping local specialties reach further is breaking down production and sales barriers. The plan calls for strengthening "Media+Market" system integration. CNR (China National Radio) Guangdong Station has focused on systematic brand building, creating a "content creation + event implementation + channel distribution + industry linkage" communication system. According to head Chen Yayong, for the Xingning pigeon industry, they focused on core IP and published a series of in-depth reports, forming a replicable industrial communication path. For the kumquat industry, they collaborated with the central CNR Media Group to propose the "China New Year Kumquat" brand concept, implementing a complete set of actions from market research to a three-year plan.
As a specialized media outlet in the "agriculture, rural areas, and farmers" sector, Southern Rural News has deeply participated in building Guangdong's agricultural product market system. In the view of General Manager Zhang Lu, "The core function of media is to act as a matchmaker. We bring together farmers, cooperatives, buyers, and agribusinesses to support rural industrial development." At the conference, Dong Yu, host of Southern Rural News' "Miss Dong Talks Agriculture" studio, used the lychee industry as an example. From March to June each year, she works in Maoming's Gaozhou, visiting bases and farmers to become part of the industrial chain. She combines theory with practice, shifting farmers' mindsets from "I have to do it" to "I want to do it." For five consecutive years, she has planned from the flowering season, holding a supply-demand matchmaking event a month before this year's lychee launch, leading to large-scale cooperation intentions.
Boosting cultural value co-creation
The plan calls for strengthening "Media+Culture" value co-creation through creative communication marketing. It promotes the replication of successful market and brand creation experiences, such as Sihui's "Father's Love Like Orchid" campaign for orchids and Lechang's golden nai plum, and explores new models integrating production and market, like creating live-streaming e-commerce villages. Over the past year, fruits like lychees have frequently become "super hits." Guangdong media have discovered that their microphones can also amplify major agricultural IPs. They are using hand-drawn micro-dramas like "The Imperial Concubine Wants Lychees Again," and live-streamed Cantonese opera performances like "Ode to Lychees," telling Guangdong's agricultural stories through national trends, animation, short films, and games. Through sustained cultural promotion, the golden brand of Guangdong lychees is gaining global recognition.
As the largest lychee exporter in Guangdong, Zhongli Group has benefited from this cultural empowerment. Chairman Chen Yaohua shared, "'Media+' helped our international brand 'Lychee Huadan' go global with a song and dance. European clients proactively contacted us for exclusive agency rights." Another classic case is Guangdong's "New Year Fish." The province leads the nation in total aquatic product output and aquaculture production. In Doumen District, Zhuhai, the full industry chain of the Bai Jiao sea bass is worth 18.5 billion yuan. However, problems like "strong product category but weak brand" have plagued many aquatic companies. In November 2022, the Guangdong Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, along with the Zhuhai Municipal Party Committee and Government, first proposed the "New Year Fish Economy." Sustained media attention has widely promoted this concept, turning New Year fish into a popular Chinese New Year gift. "Going to Doumen to eat sea bass" has become a new holiday trend in Zhuhai, with many tourists traveling to the city for this fish.
What "Media+" has brought to local areas
If media practice answers how communication efficiency can be turned into industrial momentum, then local exploration answers how industrial momentum can translate into farmers' income. In Xuwen County, Zhanjiang, the "China's No.1 Pineapple County," media power helped transform pineapples from a product facing a sales slump into a source of wealth. "The exploration of the '12221' marketing system for Xuwen pineapples is also a history of 'Media+' exploration," said Luo Hongxia, Xuwen's Party Secretary. In spring 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Xuwen pineapples faced a sales crisis. Yangcheng Evening News collaborated with Pinduoduo to host "China's First Broadcast from the Field," inviting a Xuwen official into a charity live stream, which helped sell 300,000 jin of pineapples. "'Media+' is a key tool for solving market sales problems for agricultural products," Luo Hongxia stated. The live stream broke information barriers, creating a new "Media+E-commerce" model that helps pineapples sell well and reach far markets.
Media not only gives Guangdong's agricultural products innovative narratives but also smooths connections between supply and demand. Gaozhou, Maoming, is the world's largest lychee-producing county. But even good wine fears a deep alley; Gaozhou lychees previously faced sales difficulties. "The whole world now knows about Gaozhou lychees!" said Lin Changzhen, head of the Gaozhou Cai Xian Yuan Fruit and Vegetable Cooperative. Thanks to media coverage, the "local specialty" brand of Gaozhou lychees has been established. This year, the cooperative has driven a 10% year-on-year increase in lychee farmers' incomes.
At the conference, Zhai Na, member of the Standing Committee and Publicity Department Minister of the Lechang Municipal Party Committee in Shaoguan, shared the practice of using "Media+12221" to promote the Lechang golden nai plum industry. Lechang took the lead in issuing a plan for "Media+" to empower the entire agricultural industrial chain, driving multi-level media communication. They created the "Le Le" and "Chang Chang" IPs, launched youthful carriers like blind boxes, and released the agricultural tourism micro-drama "Journey to the West of the Golden Nai Plum," encouraging young consumers to visit orchards. They also placed ads at transportation hubs like Guangzhou South and Beijing West Stations, leveraging high-speed rail traffic to boost brand exposure. The golden nai plum output value increased from 1 billion to 1.2 billion yuan, with successful exports to the UK, Singapore, and other countries.
Zhang Jie, member of the Standing Committee and Publicity Department Minister of the Shixing County Party Committee in Shaoguan, shared a direct experience: "'Media+' has shown us results." This year, Shixing used a "Media+Shixing Bayberry" initiative to buck trends, achieving higher unit prices for bayberries. Zhang Jie believes the most important role of "Media+" is to create a self-regulating awareness among farmers to "focus on quality." When good products receive market returns, farmers in turn cherish quality, forming a virtuous cycle.
"Farmers who used to only know how to grow lychees are now setting up their phones, using camera language and local dialects to express their love for this land," described Shen Xiaoting, Party Committee member and Women's Federation President of Leiling Town, Chaonan District, Shantou. This year, despite a significant lychee production reduction, Leiling Town achieved "reduced production without reduced income." The local government built a full media matrix around the Leiling Lychee Cultural Tourism Season, creating a unified visual IP called "Lei Xiao Li" and combining it with Chaozhou embroidery intangible cultural heritage and the movie "Love Letter to Grandma." Against a backdrop of a small harvest, Leiling's fresh lychees were still exported to North America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, maintaining 23 consecutive years of stable overseas exports.
"'Media+' is a bridge that has brought together two teams鈥攏e from the propaganda system and another from the agriculture and rural affairs system鈥攊n a successful joint effort on the battlefield of the 'Hundreds of Thousands and Millions' Project, creating a new ecosystem for coordinated industrial development," said He Xia, Director of the Market and Information Department of the Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. After a year of exploration and practice, "Media+" has brought not just communication volume to Guangdong's "three rural" (agriculture, rural areas, farmers) issues, but also multi-dimensional empowerment in ideas, resources, talent, and culture. Thinking has shifted from "how to grow well" to "how to sell well." More cross-sector resources have been introduced, and a batch of rural internet influencers and brand ambassadors have emerged. Moving forward, the focus will be on guiding local areas to concentrate on specialized agricultural vertical tracks, planning exclusive "Media+" projects for each industry. This will use information flow to drive capital, technology, and talent flow into rural areas, using communication power to activate productivity, brand power, and competitiveness, continuously polishing the "Yue" (Guangdong) brand gold standard.
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