The brand custodians and political advocates are already trying to mark their claim on the inter-locked rings of the Beijing Olympics. We’ve seen Mia Farrow chastise China for its role in Darfur, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has made throat-clearing noises over air pollution in Beijing. Pepsi has dropped its flagship blue to go a little pink in China to help endear itself to the patriotic fervour.

Brands have spent mega-millions on legitimate sponsorship deals to secure their connection to the Olympic Games. And the guerrilla marketing campaigns are even more ubiquitous than the guerillas who followed Mao on his Long March to Yan’an in the 1930s.

So, how is all this affecting the grass roots population of China?  How does the average man, woman and child on the street feel about the Beijing Games? Well, to be brutally honest, very little!

The Beijing Olympics, although less than a year away, are far from being a “change agent”. It is not of massive importance to the wider society – at least, not yet. There is a whole lot more going on in people’s hearts, souls and bank balances that distract them from the efforts of the marketers and foreign political celebrities.

How do we know this?  Because a great way of learning what is important in a society is to listen to the questions that society’s members are asking one another.  Ethnographers refer to this methodology as non-participant observation.  Others might call it eavesdropping!

When Synovate China established its consumer (off-line) panel, we wanted to make the panellists feel valued as part of a community. That way, whenever we wanted to reach out to them, we could achieve good levels of empathy and therefore better rates of cooperation.

To encourage our panellists to believe that they are not just a commercial abstract, Synovate established a name or identity for our panel community: ehaoqi (pronounced e-how-chee, which means “curiosity” in Mandarin Chinese). And we provided a forum where panel members can poll each other and satisfy their own curiosity, just as one might when sitting at a sidewalk café. In short, we let them talk to each other and ask questions.

And our conclusion from this “non-participant observation” (okay, eavesdropping) of the polling that our ehaoqi panellists are doing with each other is that the Beijing Games are not really a hot topic yet. Of the 194 different questions that our ehaoqi-ans have asked each other, only one relates to the Olympic Games.

Actually, sporting themes register quite low in general in terms of sparking our consumers’ curiosity. Ten different questions emerged around sport, with the Chinese football team edging out the NBA and Italy’s Serie A football league. Incidentally, the English Premier League (EPL) may need to rethink its TV distribution rights in China, or perhaps work out a way to bring back Beckham – no mention was made of the EPL amongst our ehaoqi-ans.

The theme that is most dominant and most engages our consumers’ curiosity about each other is their fellow citizens’ opinions on sex, relationships and love. One in every five questions posted related to this theme.

The Iraq war and other geopolitical issues are not a subject of interest. In fact, there is very little interest in anything related to politics.

After love and relationships, the ehaoqi panellists seem to split into two camps. There is a very large sub-community seeking their fellows’ opinions and views on issues relating to morals and integrity.

And then there are the web denizens, asking all manner of questions about the Internet. The questions range from specific online games to the authenticity of products bought online, the price point for a handbag purchased online to how you can make money online.

The love affair with celebrities of a non-sporting kind also registers significantly. This echoes other research Synovate has done which shows the enduring strength of movie and pop stars over athletes in terms of capturing the hearts and minds of consumers.  Perhaps marketers should reconsider the use of sports celebrities in the Chinese market in favour of using screen and pop idols as the cornerstone of their empathy-building strategies.