Let’s explore how the COVID-19 has impacted Chinese expectations in terms of travel, how they are preparing their future trip online, and finally why tourism professionals (Airlines, Hospitality, Entertainment...) should reach out to them now.

Chinese Revenge Traveling has already started

The COVID-19 has created a significant amount of frustration on Chinese consumers, especially on those with the highest income brackets. As such, wealthy Chinese plans to spend more after the crisis. Where do they plan to spend the most? On experiences and travel for a vast majority. Around 80% of affluent Chinese millennials said they will travel more after the crisis!

During the crisis, Chinese consumers have spent hours online day-dreaming about their future trips. They had plenty of time to explore in detail and on multiple platforms different destinations. Here are the key digital trends we observe regarding travel:

Which destinations are the Chinese travelers considering the most?

According to a study conducted by CTrip, Thailand, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, and Dubai are the 5 most desirable destinations. Also, Oceania, Korea, and Northern Europe are also part of the most considered destinations.

What are the expectations of Chinese travelers post-COVID-19?

According to a study by China Luxury Advisors, 43% of the respondents expect to relax during their next travel. Among the activities considered, sightseeing remains the most popular (32%), but a fast-growing segment is interested in nature activities (25%).

Also, Chinese travelers will favor independent experiences rather than groups traveling. For example, over 80% did not want to travel in groups to visit a destination like Vietnam!

When the Chinese will start traveling again? 

Because of international traveling restrictions, Chinese travelers are focusing on domestic travel destinations for now. However, the massive numbers of travelers are showing their eagerness to travel and confidence in the “New Normal”.

During May Holidays, over 115 million Chinese traveled in China. 

For international travelers, more than 30% of Chinese people are confident and willing to travel outside of China this year. August and October are the period they believe will be the most favorable to do so.

Digital Traveler Journey: how Chinese prepare for their future trip online?

Discovery & Inspiration - Social Media and short videos platforms (Sina Weibo, XiaoHongShu, Douyin)

Before considering a future destination, the Chinese seek ideas and inspiration online. This discovery step in the Chinese tourist journey is key and rely mainly on Chinese social media platforms like XiaoHongShu (RED) and short videos shared on APP like Douyin (TikTok).

On XiaoHongShu (A Pinterest-like APP), Chinese travelers can explore pictures with reviews and comments posted by other users. XiaoHongShu is very popular among Independent Chinese travelers, especially young women tourists. Beyond travel, the APP is also used to prepare for shopping, especially luxury items that are bought outside China (Duty-free shopping).

Consideration & Exploration - Travel Forums (Qyer, Mafengo)

Once they start considering a destination to travel to, Chinese tourists will explore forums, like Qyer or Mafengo to prepare their trip and select activities and places recommended by their peers.

Chinese travelers prepare their trip in advance and with the COVID-19 crisis this habit is getting stronger. 

Mafengo is helping over 120 million users to prepare their trip every month and is a reference for young Chinese travelers. With Mafengo, they can read and share travel guides, read reviews, and tips about their destination (Hotels, restaurants, place of interest, museum…)

Qyer is a direct competitor of Mafengo, with a strong community who posted multiple articles and discussions about the places they have visited. The platform also includes trip planning tools and e-commerce features.

Purchase and after-sales - Online Travel Agent (CTrip, Fliggy, Qunar)

To book their trips, Chinese tourists will favor online travel agents. They will browse through different digital APP to find the best prices and discounts. OTA will be used from booking airplane tickets, hotels, and activities.

The OTA will be used before the trip but also during the trip to book some last-minute activities like museum tickets. This is especially useful for independent travelers who like to keep flexibility in the way they travel. After the travel, OTA can also be used to review and rate their experience online.

WeChat - The Chinese Traveler Companion - One APP for everything 

As the most popular APP in China, WeChat is widely used by Chinese travelers, before, during, and after their travel.

First, Chinese travelers will use WeChat to stay in touch with their friends and family during their trip. They will share their journey with Moments.

Beyond the social activities, WeChat will be leverage to prepare their trips. WeChat Official accounts and mini-programs are a very rich eco-system. It is ideal to find inspiration and explore potential destinations.

Furthermore, with WeChat Pay, Chinese travelers can now pay easily online and offline during their trips.

Digital marketing strategies to attract Chinese travelers post-COVID-19

The tourism industry is one of the most impacted sectors by the COVID-19 crisis. However, recovery is on its way and Chinese are a key target audience to reach out. Let’s discuss some digital marketing strategies, you can implement to gain visibility in China.

Target young independent Chinese travelers 

Chinese will favor independent traveling to groups travels. It’s a long-lasting trend that is strengthened by the COVID-19 crisis. In January, China put a ban on outbound group travel, but not on independent travel. Also, independent travelers are more flexible in their decision process, and will be the ones to start traveling first.

Grow your visibility on Chinese social media and travel forums

Create content about your activity and offers on the platforms use the most to find inspiration and do research like Xiahongshu, Sina Weibo, Mafengo, and of course WeChat. In the meantime, make sure to be active and use social media to listen and engage in social discussions about your destination.

You must be an expert about your destination and be capable to help and advise Chinese netizen directly on the platform they use.

Simplify Chinese customer journey from online to offline

Make sure to simplify the customer journey of your Chinese client. First, start leveraging WeChat official account to answer their questions online before their travel. Also, make sure to provide all relevant information easily accessible in Chinese. Finally, encourage Chinese visitors to review your activity online.

Build partnerships with travel and lifestyle influencers & KOL (Key Opinion leaders)

Give more visibility to your business by building partnerships with Chinese influencers who specialize in travel. First, you can follow them on platforms like Sina Weibo and engage with their content. Then, you can invite them to experience your activity and place when they travel to your destination. Finally, you can build cooperation with them to create some special content about your destination.

Work with a digital marketing agency to build campaigns and content in China

Use the support and expertise of a Chinese digital marketing agency like Next Ren Shanghai to create content in Chinese. First, Next Ren, a digital marketing agency, will establish your online presence on the relevant platforms. Then, we will promote your destination with the creative social media content, KOL collaboration, and campaigns. Finally to help you simplify your customer journey, we can create dedicated digital experiences like WeChat mini-programs and e-shop.

Reach out to Next Ren Shanghai team, your digital marketing expert to engage with Chinese travelers.

Next Ren is a digital marketing agency in Shanghai. We are experts in social media marketing (WeChat, Sina Weibo, RED, Douyin...). Every day, our team builds digital content and campaigns for international and local brands.

Follow us on LinkedIn and WeChat to stay updated on WeChat trends.

The post Digital journey of Chinese travelers post-COVID19 appeared first on Next 人.

So, in this article we will review which Chinese digital platforms are getting the most attention and spending from marketers. 

• Which platforms are hot and get the most attention ?
• How does it reflect Chinese consumers behaviors online ?
• Which digital marketing strategy you should adopt for advertising in China ?

Digital Marketing Spending in China: The Trends 

Before diving into the details, let’s have a look at the overall digital advertising spending in China.

In 2019, digital advertising spendings value will grow over 90 billions of USD with a growth rate of 18%. Today, digital represents almost 70% of the total media spendings in China.

Even if the market speed of growth will decrease in the coming years, we can see the large domination of digital marketing over traditional media in China.

E-commerce in China - A key focus of digital advertising spending.

Today, promotion and media buying in China are directed more and more to e-commerce platforms. The focus on e-commerce is a lasting trend in term of digital marketing. Over the last years, brands have been focusing their marketing spending on e-commerce platforms to impact online sales directly and efficiently. 

As a matter of fact, Alibaba has seen its market share of digital spending growing over the last five years from 21% in 2015 to 29% in 2019. Today, Alibaba is generating 50 RMB by quarter for each daily active user.

Discover the best e-commerce to sale your product in China

Digital marketing video platforms on the rise - Douyin, Kuaishou and Bilibili 

Short video platforms have captured more and more time from Chinese internet users.

As so, Douyin (also known as TikTok outside of China) is on the rise and is attracting more and more money from digital marketing agencies. 

In fact, Bytedance, the owner of Douyin and the news related platform Toutiao, is now the second largest ads platform in China with 18% of the Digital Spending. It quickly rose from only 2% back in 2016.

The popularity of video platforms among advertisers is directly related to the time spent by internet users. Everyday, Douyin users spend 88 minutes on the APP. With 83 minutes, Bilibili is not far behind and even beats the time spent on WeChat (82 minutes).

Chinese Social Media marketing: still an easy way to reach massive audiences

While Tencent (WeChat owner) has seen a slight decrease of 1% of its market share, Sina Weibo remains stable.

Most marketers consider those two platforms to be mature now and will maintain their level of spending as social media allow them to reach very easily massive audiences.

With 765 millions of daily users (DAU) for WeChat and 188 millions DAU for Sina Weibo, both platforms are still very performant to reach audiences from multiple demographics and profiles very easily. Also, the cost of digital advertising can be attractive, especially on Sina Weibo.

Learn how to buy media on WeChat

How to define your advertising strategy for digital marketing in China ?

Deciding where, when and how you should invest your advertising budget is not an easy task. This is especially true in China where the platforms are diverse, versatile with advertising systems not always easy to understand.

As a digital marketing agency in China, Next Ren Shanghai will be looking at those key aspects to help your decision:

• Brand Maturity in China. If you are new to the market, your investment will be strongly different from a more mature brand. As a matter of fact, you should focus your advertising budget on one or two platforms to maximize your impact and build an audience in China.

• Target audience in China. Who are you targeting ? The location and profile of your target audience will have a strong impact on the platforms you will select. Platform will have different targeting system and tools that will impact your advertising campaign. If you are targeting a very narrow audience, you will favor multiple platforms and collaboration with specialized KOL to make sure to reach out this specific target.

How to find KOL in China to promote your brand ?

• Industry specificities in China. Your industry and business will of course be another determining factor. If you are in the travel/ tourism industry, you will need to consider some specific platforms like Fliggy or Qunar.

As you can see, they are a wide range of aspects to consider and discuss. Our digital marketing agency will help you make well informed decisions to grow your digital presence in China. 

Next Ren is a digital marketing agency in Shanghai.

Follow us on LinkedIn and WeChat to stay updated on WeChat trends.

The post Which digital marketing platforms to choose for advertising in China ? appeared first on Next 人.

In this article, we will review:

• Why influence and KOL should be part of your digital marketing in China  ?
• How to define the right influence marketing strategy ?
• Where to find the key opinion leaders ?
• How to reach out and negotiate with KOL ?

Digital marketing in China: Why your brand need the influence of KOL ?

The first question you may ask yourself is why do I need to work with influencers in China ? 

In China, netizens have highly rely on the opinion of their peers to make decisions. Those social recommendations have grown in popularity and are often perceived as more reliable than media or advertising.

Building brand credibility in China with influencer marketing

As such working with influencers is first a way to gain credibility and trust among your Chinese audience. So, it’s important to select influencers you feel comfortable working with. You need to see them as trustworthy people yourself as they are endorsing your brand.

Bad endorsements is also a risk for brands. And, there are multiple examples of brands having faced backlash in China because of their ambassadors. For example, NARS, the cosmetic company was badly hit in 2018. The backlash happened after working with a KOL, who was detained for using marijuana back in 2014. As such you need to make sure your collaboration with a KOL do not turn into a PR nightmare.

Creating brand awareness in China with influencer (KOL) marketing

The second key reason to collaborate with influencers is to increase brand awareness in China. With large community on social media platforms like WeChat, Sina Weibo or XiaHongShu, KOL can give visibility to your product instantly.

However, you need to keep in mind that visibility is only a short term gain, and that your investment will be negative if your collaboration does not have a long term impact and make your brand memorable. 

A short term campaign with a KOL can have significant cost for a brand when you add up the influencer fee, the discounted pricing on product, the campaign production… If this is not done with a long term approach, the impact on the brand visibility will not be optimal.

In interview with Next Ren Shanghai, an influencer reminded brands that they need to have a long term approach of their relationship they develop with KOL to maximise the impact on the audience.

Read the interview of a French Food Influencer in China

How to make influencer part of your digital marketing strategy in China ?

Digital Marketing Campaigns in China

When you launch a new product, or want to celebrate a special occasion like Chinese New Year or 11.11, your brand will need to create a special campaign including digital content and interactive web experiences like games.

Working with KOL can give a genuine twist to your campaign and you should leverage KOL to create content like videos that will engage their audience with more impact. You might even decide to make the collaboration with this KOL the centerpiece of your digital marketing  with a co-creation.

Social Media Marketing in China

Social media platforms are the playground of influencer. They know the platforms inside out and might even give your brand visibility outside your brand social media presence in China. As such you need to integrate influencer in your social media strategy and leverage KOL support to:

• Gain visibility on your brand accounts, for example by reposting or commenting on your brand post on Sina Weibo
• Recruit followers and build your community on WeChat
• Explore new territories on platforms your brand might not be on yet like XiaoHongShu or Douyin

Keep in mind social media is about interacting with different communities, especially on public platforms like Sina Weibo. As such, social media listening is key in China to identify who is already talking about your brand including KOL as well as KOC (Key Opinion Consumers). As a brand you should have genuine interaction with their content, it will help you get some exposure and a positive image in those communities.

E-commerce Marketing in China

E-commerce is a key area of KOL collaboration as they can maximise sale and have a direct impact on your revenue online. KOL can help you demonstrate the value of your product to your Chinese customers with live streaming videos directly on e-commerce platforms like TMall or JD.

In the meantime, it is common for KOL and KOC to sell product directly to their audience on WeChat. As such WeChat has demonstrated over the year its capabilities to become a online e-commerce platform.

A successful way, brands have been collaborating with KOL on e-commerce in China is through flash sales on a limited amount of unique and exclusive product. For example, thanks to the promotion of a limited edition of 80 bags with a KOL, Givenchy manage to sell 1.2 million worth of products in less than 12 minutes.

Discover the best plaforms for e-commerce in China

How to identify, reach out and negotiate with KOL for your digital marketing in China ?

Work with a digital marketing agency in China

Part of the job of your digital marketing or social media agency like Next Ren in China is to help identify KOL and KOC for brands. They value added of an agency is to provide the client with an integrated comprehensive digital marketing strategy and planning.

As discussed in the previous points, KOL should not be approached ex nihilo and must be part of your digital campaigns, social media, and e-commerce effort. As such a digital marketing agency in China will make sure all the pieces fit together.

Use existing Chinese KOL platforms to recruit influencers

Today, multiple platforms will let you browse through KOL profiles for free or with a subscription model, like KOLStore.com.

If those platforms can be useful to reach out easily to KOL, collaboration will mostly be money oriented and evaluating the performance of each KOL can be a challenge.

Reach out to KOL and KOC directly on social media

This genuine research and reach out is our favorite method. As mentioned above, KOL research should be part of your pro-active social listening effort in China. If you are truly serious about being successful you need to know and keep identifying who is talking about your industry on social media; follow them and interact with them.

This methodology will give you the opportunity to build stronger and more long term relationships with KOL in China.

Negotiating and compensating influencer (KOL) for digital marketing support in China

Most influencers (KOL) in China collaborate with brands as a business. As such financial compensation is more and more standard. In this situation, many KOL will work with an agent that will directly bill you for the influencer service.

However, financially compensating influencers is not the only option. Providing product or experience for KOL to share and give away to their community can be beneficial for both. You must never underestimate the value of your brand and the positive impact you can have on them. This is especially true with smaller KOL or KOC who can gain legitimacy by collaborating with international or local brands.

Collaborating with influencers is a two way street. For example, giving access to professional resources can be highly valued (video production).

Like in all aspect of digital marketing in China, keep in mind you must be creative. Always think outside the box to find the best win-win deals for your brand and influencers. 

Pricing - How much does influencer (KOL) marketing cost in China ?

In China, KOL pricing will mostly be a function of the size of the community; and the number of fans they can reach . However, you should definitely factor the level of engagement; or the creative implication of the KOL to get the right price.

Here some references for brand to use in future KOL negociation:

For Sina Weibo, an influencer with a reach of 1-2 million people will cost around 30,000 CNY for one post. On another hand, on WeChat, for a reach of 50,000 people, the cost can rise up to 40,000 CNY.

As such, to build your network of KOL in China; you can reach to a digital marketing agency like Next Ren Shanghai !

Next Ren is a digital marketing agency in Shanghai.

Follow us on LinkedIn and WeChat to stay updated on WeChat trends.

The post How to work with influencers (KOL) in China for your digital marketing ? appeared first on Next 人.

●       How did he become a KOL in China ?

●       What is the daily life and challenges of an influencer in China

●       Why China is so unique when it comes to influence marketing ?

●       How does he collaborate with brands ?

The genesis: becoming a food KOL in China

Tell us a few words about you what is your background ? Why did you come in China ?

To give you some background, I fell in love with China very early. Since being a child, I have been practicing martial arts and have a full admiration for Bruce Lee. In 2008, I had the chance to visit China for the first time, teaching English in Chongqing. My love relationship with China was officially sealed when I met my Chinese wife in London a few years later, and when we decided to come to Beijing to live.

How did you start on Chinese social media platform ? Why sharing content about food ?

First, food is a central element of who I am. It’s part of a family heritage  transmitted by my mother. I believe food is a perfect key and opportunity to share, socialize and interact with people. I believe every culture, every man and woman, like France and China, can come together, and understand each other thanks to  food.

Second, food is also a great way to address a large variety of topics like health, children education, love or the environment. Those are growing interests in China where topics like fighting obesity, how what you eat impact environment, or how to convey your cultural heritage to your children in a modern society is at the heart of the Chinese society concern.

So, it felt very natural for me to use food as a key topic to share on Chinese social media platforms. I started by opening a Sina Weibo account in 2012. And, as I had some background creating media and marketing content for  work, I could very easily produce my own. So basically, it started as an afterwork hobby. To relax and chill, I took pictures of the food I cooked, sharing some recipes, and even filming myself cooking. It was the perfect way to improve my Chinese as well. All the content was then shared on Sina Weibo.

Influence: Building an audience and content on Chinese social media platforms

How did you do to grow your audience ?

It was very organic and progressive. It started slowly but some key people start noticing my efforts and found the content genuine. It gave me the opportunity to be invited to TV shows and events, each one participate in building my community and creating some buzz around my account. So the growth was not linear and it has never been an objective for me to have a big audience.

So, when did influencer became a full time activity in China? When did you become officially a KOL ?

My work before becoming a full time influencer was actually to create and manage a KOL program for a major Chinese e-commerce platform. So this professional experience gave me exceptional understanding of the key success factors and helped me to see the value of my effort in content creation. So, in 2015, I decided to focus on building my own content full time, and also luckily landed a major TV show for Anhui TV.

For me, the content is really at the heart of my work and the way I connect with my community. The growth of the social media community and engagement are the results of the content quality. It is the way to impact, connect with my audience and what motivates me on a daily basis.

You began on Sina Weibo, how about WeChat?

WeChat came later for me. Even if I saw the rise of the platform, I did not try to leverage it immediately as a “business” would do. So we started late, and as WeChat is quite “private” compared to Sina Weibo, it was not the perfect platform for us to share content with a massive public audience. Today, Sina Weibo still do a better job to achieve this purpose.

Some marketers and expert have been announcing the death of Sina Weibo for years. Do you think it still a relevant platform in China ?

Yes, definitely. Sina Weibo is a great platform to engage and share content. And over the years, it has shown some great resilience. In China, there are always new platforms and trends, which do not always last. For example, Miaopai or some livestream have been very hot 2 years ago but are not relevant anymore. However, live streaming has become very relevant on e-commerce platforms like Taobao or JD.

In the meantime, the main game changer was WeChat, it has definitely changed the way we interact in China. However, it is a very “private” platform and can not really be compared with Sina Weibo. 

As a KOL, are you “testing” those hot social media platforms ? What platform is hot right now in China ?

As a key opinion leader, I need to follow the trends, however it’s not always easy and can be time consuming. I want to stay focused on producing great content first.

At the moment, we have been developing XiaoHongShu (Little Red Book) since one year. I  am also building content on a cooking APP (XiaChuFang)) where I get amazing engagement from my audience.

How about Douyin (TikTok) which is very hot right now for video content ?

I have a mixed feeling about Douyin (TikTok). For sure, it’s very popular but the quality of the content can be deceiving. It’s really about entertainment and can some time feel like a waste of time for users.  For content on Douyin, the real challenge is to catch the user attention very fast and be impactful. Furthermore, the algorithm of TikTok is very random, some content get a lot of views, and the size of the community has almost no impact on the visibility of the content. So it is not an easy platform to navigate.

Influencer working with brands and digital marketing agency in China

Part of your activity as an influencer, is to collaborate with brands and digital marketing agency like Next-Ren. How do you apprehend this part of the job ? How do you work with brands ?

I mostly work with brands thought digital agencies, however, I remain an independent KOL and I did not sign an exclusive contract with an agent. This is important as it gives me the opportunity to really choose the project and the people I am working with.

I had the chance to work with dozens of brands and actively pitch some creative ideas. I like projects where I am a part of the creative process and I can add value that goes beyond pure influence. I believe this is also a way to stay true to my community.

Can you share the names of some brands you have been working with ?

Sure, I have the chance to work with brands like Samsung, Citroen, Mercedes Benz, Président or Siemens.

Great, what is your expectations when you work with a brand ? What are the challenges?

I am very flexible in the way I work with brands in China. The key expectations are content quality and staying true to myself and my audience. One aspect, I believe brand should improve is building long term relationship with influencer, and fight the short term, one time campaign approach. There is a lot of indirect exposure brand can gain from working with influencer on a longer time frame.

The daily life of an influencer in China

Can you tell us about a typical day of your life ?

Every day is different, but always very hectic. I am doing  most of the work myself, from planning content, writing scenario, filming, editing and even producing my own music !

Hopefully, I can always count on the support of my wife who is working with me and became both an agent and a project manager. Also, my two boys are very involved and became a central part of the content I create.

Outside the daily support of your family, is there a team working with you ?

We do not have a full time team with us at the moment. We recruit freelancers depending on the support us or the agency needs for each project. I had the chance to work in the industry for a long time in China so we can build a great team in little time.

What is Next ?

What are the projects you have in the back of your mind and hope to work on soon ?

Woww, there are so many projects and ideas I would love to develop around food as an influencer in China.

First, there is so much to discover in China for foreigners and even Chinese that I would really love to build a show to bring French chefs around China. And the other way around in France with Chinese people. I believe we have an incredible chance in France to have such traditions of craftsmanship in food that we should show it more to the Chinese people who love to travel in France.

For now we're focused on building our social media as we want to reach more Chinese fans and share our message of health and happiness. We get lots of positive comments every single day so it's very encouraging!

To build work with influencers and KOL in China, you can reach to a digital marketing agency like Next Ren Shanghai !

The post Influence Marketing: How a French KOL share his love for food in China ? appeared first on Next 人.

So, how to do marketing on Douyin (Tiktok) ?

First, we will explore how Douyin gives some great insights about Chinese people online behaviors and preferences. Also, we will see the evolution of Chinese consumers online habits. You can do marketing on Douyin (Tiktok) by listening and learning about your customers interests.

Second, we will review the video marketing opportunities for brands in China. You can do marketing on Douyin (Tiktok) by sharing and advertising on the platform.

Douyin: Chinese Consumers Insights and Behaviors

Early January 2020, Bitydance released on their WeChat account a detailed report on Chinese users behaviors and preference on the APP. This report in Chinese gives a great glimpse on how Chinese consumers behave online and what their preferences are.

The report is structured around 6 main parts:

• Chinese daily life: what do Chinese users share and like on Douyin
• Chinese preferences in terms of music and topics depending on their generation
• Travel favorite destinations for Chinese consumers
• Favorite food for Chinese consumers
• What Chinese are learning on Douyin 
• Cultural interest of the Chinese people

To start, we can see that family is at the heart of the APP with parents releasing over 3.08 millions videos every day with their children. Important moments of life are also celebrated - wedding is the most popular with 7 millions videos, followed by birth with over 1.7 millions videos.

Also, Chinese people love their pets, and the favorite dog of the platform was the Husky ! From a job perspective, teachers got the most attention followed by nurses.

In the meantime, the report shows that interests vary with age. For the ones born in the :

• 60's : Dancing & Weddings
• 70's : Food & Crafting
• 80's : Parenting & Scenic views
• 90's : Scenic views & City Exploration/Shopping
• 00's : Animation & Pets

Travel is also a very popular topic, with over 660 millions check-in. Bangkok, Seoul and Tokyo are the most popular cities abroad on Douyin ! Paris only comes in 9th position behind London (7th), Dubai (6th) and Singapore (5th). 

Finally,  Education is a key behavior on Douyin. We observe that influencers (KOL)  with more than 10,000 followers released over 14,89 Millions of videos with an average of 100,000 views. Cooking is the most popular topic for educational videos, followed by language learning.

How to do marketing on Douyin ?

With such popularity in China, Douyin is a platform that is attractive to do digital marketing. So how to start doing digital marketing on Douyin ?

First, you need to create short and impactful video contents. The most popular formats are short video around 15s. You will need to work with a video marketing agency, like Next Ren, to create some video content. You will need to create a significant volume of short videos to increase the chance of one of them going viral.

Then, to maximize the views on your content, you should work with influencers and key opinion leaders that are officially registered on the platform. You can work with an Influencer/ KOL agency, like Next Ren, to help you identify the right partners.

To conclude, Tiktok has a lot of value when you are a marketer interested in the Chinese market. First, it helps you understand trends in the market and how young generations behave (Chinese millenials, Gen-Z). Keep in mind that over 42% of users are less than 25 year old. Second, you can create viral content on the platform and can collaborate with influencer and KOL to get more exposure.

Next Ren is a digital agency in China who can help you build your campaign on Douyin. 

Follow us on LinkedIn to stay tune !

Source: Bytedance article on WeChat

The post Video Marketing | How Douyin (TikTok) is changing the game appeared first on Next 人.

• Digital Marketing spending will grow by 14%.
• Social Marketing will stay the main focus for advertisers.
• 53% of the advertisers will focus on self produced videos/ micro-films
  

Digital Marketing

First, the digital marketing budget growth will slow down in 2020.

In fact, digital advertising budgets will grow 14% on average in 2020, slower compared to the past 3 years.

Second, most attention will focus on social marketing. As a matter of fact, 71% of the advertisers will increase their social marketing budget in 2020.

As a whole, social marketing budget will grow by 15% in 2020;

In the meantime, social marketing and private traffic pools will be the forms of digital marketing most worthy of attention. Video ads and social e-commerce come in second.

Third, mobile marketing budget continues to grow.

Along 2020, digital marketing budgets will move toward mobile. Also, social media platforms and short-form video platforms will be the main beneficiaries of this growth.

Social Media Marketing & Content

First, KOL marketing will stay a hot topic and focus for 2020.

At the same time, short form videos and live streaming will become more and more popular.

In the meantime, we observe that sports events are a growing interest for advertisers.

Also, 53% of the advertisers will focus on onself-produced videos/micro films for content marketing.

In the meantime, we observe that Marketing AI is the digital marketing technology garnering most advertiser interest.

If you want to discover more, read the full report of the digital marketing trends in China for 2020 below:

To discuss how your brand can improve its digital marketing in China in 2020, feel free to reach out. Next 人 (Next Ren Shanghai) team is looking forward to support you.

Follow us on LinkedIn to stay tune !

The post What will be the digital marketing trends for China in 2020 ? appeared first on Next 人.

What is ADA ?

In a nutshell, ADA is a Chinese fashion APP. It let you dress up a 3D avatar with different pieces of clothes and garments. At the moment, the APP focus on high-end luxury items.

Now, the APP is only available on Apple Store. And it also remains in testing mode. Today, only a few lucky users with invitation have been able to try out the APP. So far, Sina Weibo has focused on inviting influencers and KOL from the fashion and luxury industry to try it out. This decision let us think that Sina Weibo will focus on building a qualitative and curated community on the platform to compete with a very dynamic Chinese ecosytem including a super APP like WeChat or raising one like RED.

This APP is highly interactive and lets the user highly customize the experience by changing the background or customizing the room. The APP already includes a reward system and paid features to monetize the APP. Also, VIP users can also enjoy discounts and exclusive access to special products.

Partnerships with international brands

From a products’ point of view, ADA has already secured some partnerships with large international brands like ARMANI, CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN, DIOR, BALMAIN or PRADA.

With this new APP, Sina Weibo is clearly targeting young, urban and wealthy Chinese netizens who have been showing an always growing interest for luxury and fashion brands. With a nice and ultra focus approach in terms of community building, Sina Weibo could make ADA a new reference in the luxury and fashion industry.

Strong potential for marketing in China

3D fashion APP are not a novelty. However, Next 人 believes ADA could show some great potential in the future for marketing in fashion and luxury brands. Why ?

• Market interest for “Virtual Dressing”
• Great potential for 3rd tier cities who have little access to luxury retail shops
• E-commerce and social media features 
• Support from his big brother Sina Weibo
• Qualitative community
• Early partnership with large international luxury brands like ARMANI, CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN, DIOR, BALMAIN or PRADA

Next 人 is a digital and social media marketing agency who helps you build your brand visibility in China. Check out our services here.

In Chinese

The post New Chinese APP let you virtually dress up with Prada or Dior appeared first on Next 人.

• First, reviewing the current challenges and issues RED is facing
• Then, analysing the strengths of the XiaohongShu and the digital marketing opportunities for brands
• And, finally giving our opinion on how and when a brand should consider leveraging the Little Red Book in China 

RED: content quality and platform management is under fire

A few days ago, XiaoHongShu has disappeared from Android stores in China. This situation fostered a lot of discussion online in China with close to a million discussions on Sina Weibo.

In the meantime, Netizens used this opportunity to be very critical of the platform. They feel the content quality dropped and the volume of ads and fake reviews increased.

This suspension of RED from the android platforms is happening a bit more than a month after the platform being warmed by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on user data collection. This situation make you wonder if the two are connected ? Is RED in serious troubles ?

The Little Red Book management team is well aware of those challenges. They already have intended to improve the quality of the platform with a serie of measures. In January, they created a brand partner program so paid marketing post by influencer appeared as such on the platform. They continued their “cleaning” effort in May by busting over 10,000 key opinion leaders with less than 5,000 followers.

Authenticity and trusted user generated content are the key values for users to come and spend time on the platform. As such, the recent backlashes might have a direct impact on the growth and the engagement of XiaoHongShu community.

XiaoHongShu: A mix of Social and E-commerce full of digital marketing opportunities

For foreigners, RED can be seen as a mix of Instagram for the user interface and Amazon for the customers review.

Born in June 2013, RED, is now 6 years old. It has attracted a community of 200 millions users with 80 millions active users. 

So far, XiaoHongShu did not grow as fast and as quickly as WeChat. And it has a long road before reaching the billion users. However, it has reached a point where it is ticking a lot of boxes to attract brands.

Red was initially design to help Chinese easily shop foreign products abroad. But it has quickly become a place where users reviewed, discussed and buy foreign products. This mix of social discussion and e-commerce is one the key value of XiaoHongShu for digital marketers.

RED discussions focus  mainly on cosmetics and skincare. But, now they expanded to other topics like travel, food, sport and of course fashion.

Today, this XiaHongshu user is a young and urban woman in China. 88% of its community is female, 60% is less than 30 years old and 57% live in the top-tier city. This demographic mix of millennials and Generation Z is the key target audience for most brands in China.

With its user generated content DNA, RED is the place to be for influencers (Key Opinions Leaders - KOL) in China. Today, the platform hosts thousands of influencers. They leverage their reach to negociate paid post with brands. Some KOL are charging 1,500 USD for one post to a community as small as 10,000 followers !

Leveraging KOL in China has been a challenge for several years. The results for brands are not always been great, with a lot of fake engagement and followers. RED is no exception to those challenges. It has become one of the key platform for brands and KOL collaboration in China.

With those strengths, the platform has know attracted over 6,000 brands including Fendi, MAC, Yves Saint Laurent or Shiseido.

RED: when and how to leverage it for your digital marketing ?

The more your brand / company is matching the following statements, the more RED should be part of your digital marketing approach in China:

• RED community match your brands target audience profile: young urban Chinese Woman.
• Your brand is related to the skin-care, cosmetics or fashion industries
• You are a foreign brand looking for e-commerce options in China
• Your company has already built a strong presence and engagement on WeChat and Sina Weibo
• KOL and influencers in China is part of your strategy in China

Here at Next Ren, we believe XiaoHongShu like WeChat in the past is at a turning point. It must find the right balance between marketing / monetization and value creation. He will also need to garantee a safe environment in term of data collection to keep user trust. 

Today, brands can already leverage XiaoHongshu to build their digital marketing strategy in China. But they must keep in mind the maturity and the size of the platform is not comparable to the bigger brothers like WeChat or Sina Weibo. 

RED is not niche anymore but as some way to go before becoming as mainstream as WeChat.

Contact us at Next Ren Shanghai to discuss your digital marketing in China and how to include RED

The post Is XiaoHongShu (RED) relevant to market your brand in China ? appeared first on Next 人.

Next 人 is a digital and social media marketing agency who help you building your brand in China. Check out our services here.

Follow us on LinkedIn to discover the latest digital marketing trends in China!

The post Report – China Luxury Digital Playbook 2019 appeared first on Next 人.

• How and where you can advertise on the WeChat platform ?
• How you can target the right audience with advertisement on WeChat ?
• What is the price of a WeChat media buying campaign ?
• What are the results you can obtain with an advertisement campaign on WeChat ?

Rules and media formats to advertise on WeChat

First, to buy advertisement on WeChat, you need to have a WeChat Official account and abide to certains rules, specially for certain industry like Finance or Pharmaceuticals for whom exist strong regulations regarding advertisement and digital marketing in China.

Then, you need to select or combine one of two format and placement options for WeChat ads:

WeChat Moment Ads

WeChat Moments Ads appear in the user WeChat Moments Newsfeed.  So, this ads format is the most visible and impactful but also the most pricey. The media to be display can be either up to 6 images or a 6-15 seconds videos. A description is displayed below the ad - up to 40 caracters. You can also add a link or a call to action. You can for example drive the user to a H5 digital marketing campaign mini-website or a WeChat mini-program.

WeChat Banners Ads

WeChat banners ads appear at the bottom or inside another Official account article. Official account like bloggers or news media can generate revenue in WeChat by letting WeChat display advertisement on their content / articles. WeChat banner ads are very simple and includes the account name and logo with a simple image or a short text - 40 caracters. Each banner includes a button with different call to action like follow the account or read an article.

Targeting the right audience with WeChat media buying.

Defining and targeting the right audience is a key success factor of your digital advertising campaign on WeChat. To do so you define your customer profile and make it match based on the criteria below:

• Gender
• Age
• City of origin
• Interest tags
• Location

Thanks to the location criteria, you will be able to target Chinese traveling abroad and reach out to Chinese tourist traveling in your country if you have business outside of China.

Don’t be too too restrictive and do A/B testing on different targets audience so you can better optimize your campaign cost and resuts.

Define your WeChat advertisement campaign budget.

To open your advertiser account on the WeChta platform, you have to deposit and plan to spend at least 50,000 CNY (around 6,500 Euros or USD)  on the platform. If you do not have this budget to spend to do advertisement in China, you should consider other platforms or methods.

The cost can vary dramatically depending on your target audience and the period of your campaign - price will rockets around certain holidays like Chinese New Year or events like 11.11 or Valentine Day.

On average, you can assume a CPM pricing around 150-200 CNY for Tier 1 Cities like Shanghai and Beijing for WeChat Moment Ads. The CPM will be cheaper and down to only 50 CNY for remote cities in China

For WeChat banner ads, the CPM for Tier 1 cities is around 20-30CNY. As you can see the price is dramatically cheaper for this ad format and balancing the right amount of budget on WeChat Moment ads vs WeChat Banner Ads will be key for the success of your campaign.

Define your objectives and the call to action of you WeChat advertisement campaign

First, to get the best results and optimize your budget, you must have clearly defined the objectives of your campaign. In this section, we will define the different call to action and the best performance for each king of media format.

As such, WeChat Moment ads are optimal if your key target is visibility for your ad and leverage the viral potential of the platform. WeChat moment ad will give more “space” to your ad visual. Also, if the user interacts with your ad, you will leverage the “viral” potential of the platform as the ad will also be display to his friends.

WeChat Moments ads will includes a link that will drive user to different possible pages like:

• A WeChat H5 Campaign Minisite
• A mini-program
• An introduction of your official account
• A page to download your native APP or a coupon

WeChat banner ads are simpler and less attractive visually than WeChat banner ads. However, they can have great conversion rate if your message is short and impactful.

With the WeChat banner ad button, the user can:

• Follow your Official WeChat account
• Be driven to your website or a H5 Campaign
• Download an APP
• Download a coupon or buy a product

Now, it's time for you to start building your community and presence online with WeChat advertisement. Still not sure, how to start to get it done properly, get in touch with us to get the support from our WeChat experts !

Follow us on LinkedIn to stay tune on WeChat trends in China !

The post How to buy media and advertisement on WeChat ? appeared first on Next 人.