The Digital Advertisement Zone Shanghai in the Zhenru subcenter of Putuo.

Shanghai's first digital advertising industrial park in the downtown area has opened in Putuo District aimed at meeting the city's ambition to become an "international digital advertising capital."

After 10 months of preparations, the Digital Advertisement Zone Shanghai was unveiled in the Zhenru Subcenter of Putuo. The core area of the park is within Haina Town, a pilot zone for Shanghai's digital transformation campaign.

Digital advertising refers to marketing to target audiences through digital platforms, including social media, email, search engines, mobile apps and websites.

E-commerce platforms, short videos and livestreaming, for instance, have become the most popular digital advertising forms among domestic customers.

The new park will help Putuo to attract the world's leading companies in the digital advertising sectors with an optimized environment and full-chain services, especially in intellectual property rights, said Jiang Dongdong, Party secretary of Putuo.

The park, covering a total of 1 square kilometer, is mainly based at the Hongqi Center and the adjacent Max City project, which rises from the Hongqi Village, a former notorious rundown urban settlement.

The region has been listed among the first batch of demonstrations in the makeover of the city's remaining urban villages. It will feature office high-rises, commercial and cultural sites and high-end residential communities.

Officials sign cooperative agreement for the development of Putuo's digital advertising sectors.

A public space for the advertisement park has been set up on the 12th and 16th floors of the Hongqi Center building, covering about 4,000 square meters, for shared offices, livestreaming programs, conference, road shows and exhibitions.

The exhibition mainly includes a brief introduction of Putuo, an overview of the park and its leading enterprises. An "awards center" displays world-renowned awards, such as Cannes Golden Lion Award, London International Advertising Award and New York Advertising Award, along with China's Great Wall and Tiger Roar awards.

Visitors can experience AI painting, face capture, robots, metaverse and other futuristic technologies to create immersive advertising effects.

The park will become a gathering place for leading enterprises, well-known awards and professionals to create a digital advertising industry ecology, according to the district government.

"Shanghai's advertising industry has shown a good development trend in recent years and played a positive role to strengthen the city's service level and core competitiveness," Ni Junnan, Party secretary and director of Shanghai Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, revealed at the opening ceremony of the park.

Ni promised to support and help drive the high-quality development of Putuo's digital advertising sectors.

The first group of enterprises.

The first batch of enterprises settled in the park include Leo Digital, Vision Star, Kuaishou Magnetic Engine, MSL, Qianma Network, Vland and other leading digital advertising firms.

Furthermore, according to a memorandum of understanding signed at the park's inaugural ceremony, the Shanghai International Advertising Festival will be held in Putuo for three consecutive years from 2023 to boost the district's digital advertising industry.

The Putuo District culture and innovation office has released a new batch of 22 supportive measures, ranging from office rent subsidies, executive support to financing services for the digital advertising sectors.

The district has also signed strategic cooperation agreements with the schools of journalism, communication and media of the Fudan University, East China Normal University, Shanghai University, Shanghai Normal University and Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts.

Under the cooperation deals, they will jointly cultivate professionals for the digital advertising industry and the park.

Putuo, formerly known for its chemical industries, now focuses on scientific innovation with four major parks within the district – the China Israel Innovation Hub, the International Innovation Center of Tsinghua University Shanghai, the Wuning Innovation Community, and the Haina Town.

Its waterfront along the Suzhou Creek, the Taopu Smart City and the Zhenru Subcenter will also provide sufficient development space for digital advertising firms, according to the district.

The shared office space at the Digital Advertisement Zone Shanghai in Putuo.

The 125-kilometer creek, which flows from suburban Qingpu District to downtown Waibaidu Bridge in Huangpu District, is the Huangpu River's biggest tributary.

The longest part of the creek is in Putuo, accounting for half of its downtown section, which aims to become a "sitting room" for the Yangtze River Delta region.

Putuo has been constantly working to improve the water quality of the creek since the 1980s, and intends to develop the area into an ecological zone and ideal place for living, working and innovation, as well as attracting the world's leading companies to the waterfront.

The district is already home to more than 1,000 advertising companies who contributed nearly 300 million yuan (US$43.5 million) to the Putuo's tax revenues.

"Now that Putuo District has formed a sound digital advertising industry ecology, the park, as an important carrier of the digital advertising sectors, will further gather industry resources and promote the large-scale development of the industry," said Zhou Hanyan, Party secretary and director of the Putuo Culture and Tourism Bureau.

Within the same office building, for instance, a livestreaming platform can easily find e-commerce companies to seek chances of cooperation. Digital advertising content can also be efficiently distributed under collaborations among "neighbors," according to the bureau.

"The park will also take advantage of the 'innovation engine' of Haina Town to provide digital advertising companies with broad development space and strong technical support," an official with the Putuo government said.

The shared office space at the Digital Advertisement Zone Shanghai in Putuo.

Haina Town, covering 3.12 square kilometers, mainly attracts high-tech incubators and research institutes as well as recreational and commercial facilities.

A large swathe of smart applications such as unmanned service centers and intelligent senior care systems will be applied here, according to the blueprint.

It will become the source of Putuo's scientific innovation sector and core area for the development of digital technology, according to the district government.

The town is being developed in ancient Zhenru Town, which dates back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279).

A monk named Yong'an erected Zhenru Temple and built a xianghua (scented flower) bridge, which brought worshippers to the area. Markets were later developed around the temple, which still exists, along with Zhenru Pagoda.

The town, formerly known as Taoxi, or peach creek, which sat between the former Jiading and Shanghai counties, was one of the city's four most prosperous marketplaces.

The Zhenru Subcenter will cover 6.2 square kilometers, based around the West Railway Station and expressways connected with the Yangtze River Delta region. The transport hub at the station handles more than 40,000 passengers daily.

Sightseeing paths have been planned for the subcenter for visitors to enjoy both the riverside greenery along the Zhenrugang, Dachangpu and Taopu rivers as well as the Caoyang Community, which sprang up in 1951 as a home to model workers of the city and has been listed as a heritage site by the city government.