Guangdong is intensifying its "Media+" initiative to deeply embed media capabilities into the province's "Hundreds, Thousands, and Tens of Thousands Project" for rural vitalization. This strategy focuses on adding depth, strengthening connections, and boosting conversion to promote local specialties and agricultural tourism brands.
The recently launched "Guangdong Goods Go Global" autumn campaign is in full swing, with major provincial media outlets working to further elevate the brands of local agricultural products and farm-related tourism. This is creating a new wave of media-empowered growth for the "Hundreds, Thousands, and Tens of Thousands Project."
During this year's lychee season, the "sweet economy" was robust, fueled by the "Media+" engine and supported by the powerful "12221" market system. This ensured a stable fresh fruit market and protected farmers' incomes. Another standout success was the Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium Viride, a local specialty, also known as Huajuhong. Beginning at the 2023 National People's Congress, the Yangcheng Evening News Group witnessed and promoted efforts by Liao Zhilue, a cooperative president from Huazhou, who brought the plant's seedlings to the meetings for two consecutive years, helping this "Southern Ginseng" gain national and international recognition.
Over the past year, Guangdong has innovatively implemented a "Media+" action plan to build its agricultural product market system. By leveraging media power to connect production with sales and activate the integration of agriculture, culture, and tourism, the province has created a new publicity pathway for its rural vitalization efforts.
The "Media+" Plan Takes Root Across the Province
On June 19, 2025, the province's Agricultural Affairs Office and Publicity Department jointly released the nation's first provincial-level document on this topic: the "Media+ Empowering the 'Hundreds, Thousands, and Tens of Thousands Project' Agricultural Product Market System Construction Action Plan (2025-2027)." Within six months, Zhanjiang became the first prefecture-level city to issue an implementation plan, and Lechang became the first county to do so. By January 2026, "Media+ 'Guangdong Goods Go Global'" was written into the provincial government work report for the first time. The institutional framework for "Media+" has taken shape rapidly, from the provincial top-level design to implementation at the city and county levels.
However, "Media+" is not simply a combination of media with the market, culture, or industry. It uses media's credibility, content production capacity, and networking power to proactively embed 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. In the year since the plan's implementation, relevant departments at all levels and mainstream media have worked in concert. They have deepened their involvement, strengthened connections, and boosted conversion rates, comprehensively promoting "Guangdong-brand" specialty agricultural products and building a strong agricultural brand. This has led to a continuous surge in publicity, rising brand influence, and fruitful sales results.
Adding Depth: A Victory for Production and Publicity
Previously, agricultural departments managed production while publicity departments managed communication, with a gap between them. Now, with "Media+" as a bridge, these two teams are working together in the "Hundreds, Thousands, and Tens of Thousands Project."
Examples of this deep integration are numerous. In Doumen District, Zhuhai, "Media+" is empowering the high-quality development of the Bai Jiao (white pomfret) industry. In Lechang, Shaoguan, it is boosting the Golden Nai Li (plum) industry. In Xingning, Meizhou, it is supporting the Xingning pigeon industry. In Yangxi, Yangjiang, it is strengthening the core competitiveness of aquatic products. In Xuwen, Zhanjiang, it is revitalizing the century-old pineapple industry. In Leiling Town, Chaonan District, Shantou, lychee is the medium for building a stronger market system. In Wutang Town, Suixi County, Zhanjiang, AI is cleverly used for lychee marketing. In Shishui Town, Gaozhou, the Tandi Village model uses "Media+" to construct a modern agricultural product market system.
What are the results of this year-long effort? Zhang Yi, CEO and Chief Analyst of iiMedia Consulting, stated that Guangdong has pioneered a solution nationwide. The "Media+" initiative has driven a structural shift in Guangdong's agricultural products from price competition to quality competition. According to iiMedia's big data monitoring, the total volume of online information about Guangdong's agricultural products has increased by over 30.1% year-on-year, and the readership of core topics on major social platforms like Douyin and Weibo has exceeded 139 billion. "The communication volume for agricultural products, agriculture, and rural areas has seen excellent growth, reaching double digits," Zhang Yi noted.
This surge in communication volume has directly led to a healthy recovery of agricultural product price systems. Zhang Yi explained that while farmers were once forced into price wars, mainstream media now provides excellent opportunities for products to be recognized and their prices to rise. The "Media+" empowerment has also fostered new business forms and opportunities. Zhang Yi believes that "Media+" has opened up fantastic opportunities for new industries in rural areas. By attracting more capital, tourists, and attention, it has spawned new ecosystems like cultural tourism integration, rural study tours, pastoral camping, and farming experiences.
Strengthening Connections: A "Brand Accelerator" for Agricultural Products
While adding depth involves deep insights into the industrial chain, development pain points, and consumer markets, strengthening connections links together the government, enterprises, and farmers. It connects people, goods, platforms, and media at all levels. Focusing on nine major specialty industries, including livestock, poultry, aquatic products, Lingnan fruits and vegetables, and tea, Douyin Group is working to build the "Guangdong-brand." For example, online transaction volume for Dongguan stored tea grew by 345%, Chaozhou single-cluster oolong tea transactions grew by 106% (with industry heat increasing 141%), and Zhanjiang golden pomfret transactions grew by 214%.
In its third year of supporting the lychee industry, Douyin's e-commerce platform helped sell over 400 million yuan worth of Guangdong lychees in 2025, a 976% year-on-year increase. Online sales of Maoming lychees increased 21-fold, driving 2.7 billion yuan in local cultural tourism spending and attracting over 15 million tourists. This demonstrates the power of "one lychee to invigorate a city."
Qiu Jun, Business Development General Manager for JD Retail's Online Fresh Food Division, also noted the significant brand upgrade of Guangdong's specialty products. Taking the Qingyuan "Running Chicken" project as an example, JD Fresh established a certified base in Qingyuan and released the "JD Qingyuan Chicken Enterprise Standard," covering the entire chain from breeding and processing to delivery. The project contracts over a dozen hillsides in the area, using a five-party collaboration model ("government + JD + state-owned/leading enterprises + cooperatives + farmers") for origin-based breeding and full traceability. "Through full media supervision, government-enterprise joint standard setting, and comprehensive media branding, we want to truly achieve standardized foundation, media-driven publicity, brand value increase, and smooth all-channel sales for high-quality Guangdong products," Qiu Jun said.
Boosting Conversion: 'Fairy Lychees' Achieve 'Billion-Plus' Online Buzz
Boosting conversion is about turning communication attention into brand recognition, consumer action, tourist traffic, and farmer income. The story in Wutang Town, Suixi County, is a prime example. "Our publicity was very passive before; no one knew our lychees were this delicious," admitted Hong Wenze, the town's Party Secretary. The turning point came with the full rollout of the "Media+" initiative.
Last year, Wutang established the province's first "Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) Village," helping farmers transform from "lychee growers" to "lychee sellers." Secretary Hong took the lead in creating the "Fairy Lychee Secretary" personal brand, appearing as an online spokesperson. The town mobilized over 300 local "grassroots recommenders" to form a team, building a comprehensive publicity system led by the Secretary. In 2025, they trained over 300 "digital new farmers," and online topics related to the initiative generated over 100 million views.
This year, Wutang upgraded to a "Xiaohongshu Village 2.0 + AI" model, offering a "2-day intensive training + 45-day online follow-up" program. AI technology now covers the entire chain, from planting management and market analysis to customer matching and sales. Over 300 lychee farmers have transformed from traditional growers to digital creators.
Marketing innovation has also been key. Wutang pioneered a tree-adoption and pre-sale order model. Using a dedicated platform for the 2,500-acre core planting area, they established a "one tree, one code" full traceability system. By the start of this year's harvest, 8,956 trees had been adopted, with subscriptions exceeding 17 million yuan, accounting for 40% of total production. This achieved the goal of "money received before the fruit is ripe." This model has also spurred the integration of agriculture, culture, and tourism, with attractions like a rainbow walkway, lychee square, and picking gardens forming a linked chain. The lychee industry is now moving from "selling fresh fruit" to "selling a brand, a story, and an experience." "The lychee prices were excellent this year. The town's total lychee industry output reached 333 million yuan, an increase of 20 million yuan from last year," said Secretary Hong.
Case Study: How Yangcheng Evening News Unlocked the Billion-Yuan Code for Huajuhong
How can media's communication power be turned into organizational capacity for resources? How can content's appeal be transformed into brand value? How can a surge in traffic be converted into sustained industrial strength? The Yangcheng Evening News Group is exploring "Media+" to empower the integration of agriculture, culture, and tourism, creating new IPs, new products, and new services, and launching replicable and scalable benchmark projects.
The rise of Huajuhong (Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium Viride) is deeply intertwined with the Yangcheng Evening News. "The transformation of Huajuhong from a 'local specialty' into a billion-yuan industry and a household name is inseparable from the empowerment of the media," said Liao Zhilue repeatedly. He credits the Yangcheng Evening News for its persistent attention to the product, stating that their reports were what truly brought it to national attention.
According to Liao, the total output value of the Huajuhong industry chain has jumped from 3.5 billion yuan in 2019 to 12.6 billion yuan in 2025, providing income for 350,000 local people. Before the 2025 National People's Congress, Yangcheng Evening News reporters visited Huazhou's fields. After in-depth discussions with Liao, they suggested he bring a Huajuhong seedling to the meeting. Their exclusive short video, "NPC Deputy Liao Zhilue: He Brings a Huajuhong Sapling to the National People's Congress," garnered over 20 million views online, bringing the product to the public's attention for the first time.
Before this year's NPC, reporters again found Liao in the fields, this time with a more international perspective. They invited an Ecuadorian student, David, to visit the ancient Huajuhong garden and plant an "international tree" with Liao. This cross-cultural dialogue brought new ideas for industrial development. A most touching moment occurred on the afternoon of March 7, 2026, during a Guangdong delegation group meeting. Vice Foreign Minister Hua Chunying tasted a Huajuhong throat lozenge brought by Liao and praised it. Yangcheng Evening News reporters captured this moment, and their video report was viewed over 12 million times, widely shared by major media outlets like Xinhua, People's Daily, and CCTV News. Huajuhong had another "glory moment."
To help "Guangdong goods go global," the Yangcheng Evening News also created the "Guangdong Goods Calendar" IP, recommending one specialty product daily, with a focus on helping products like Huajuhong stand out. Over 120 products have been featured so far. Furthermore, the Yangcheng Evening News has partnered with Maoming Daily and Maoming TV to establish the "Maoxuan Hechuang Research Institute." This group deeply supports the development of industries like Maoming eggs, tilapia, and agarwood, using brand building to help local specialties expand into overseas markets. In Qingyuan's Fogang County, the newspaper helped introduce a "Sunshine Chicken" farming project with a total investment of 60 million yuan, which has already generated 2 million yuan in initial sales. They have also established a "New Farmer AI Digital Marketing Service Center" and a live-streaming room to support agricultural sales, creating benchmarks for several specialty industries.
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