Social media platforms are the gateway to KOL marketing. According to Accenture, up to 70 percent of Chinese born after 1995 prefer to buy products directly through social media rather than other channels. In the rest of the world, it is 44 percent. Additionally, McKinsey China states that 50 percent of the mainland’s digital consumers use social channels to research products or receive recommendations.
When it comes to social commerce, making full use of everything China’s popular platforms have to offer is the way to make an impact with KOL campaigns. While it varies by sector, certain apps perform better with KOLs than others, generating more Media Impact Value™ (MIV®) in return.
Xiaohongshu, for example, had 42 percent more shares for major beauty brands than major fashion labels, while the latter had 58 percent more on Weibo. If we take Tom Ford Beauty, their MIV® distribution had a MIV® share of 67 percent on the Xiaohongshu platform and 24 percent on Weibo while Burberry Fashion came up with 55 percent on Weibo and 20 percent on Xiaohongshu. Beauty naturally finds a strong resonance on platforms like Xiaohongshu which allow more space for educational content such as beauty tricks, styles, trends or even product reviews.
Official account pages for Burberry and Tom Ford Beauty on Xiaohongshu. Photo: Screenshots
Interestingly (though not shockingly) for local players, the trends are different. Beauty firms witnessed 69 percent more MIV® share in Douyin than fashion firms. Perfect Diary, for example, had 96 percent more MIV® in-app distribution than sportswear giant Li-Ning. Alternatively, fashion houses saw 68 percent more MIV® sharing on Weibo — local clothing name Shushu/Tong had 49 percent more MIV® than its compatriot in the beauty sector, Into You. Short-form video platforms like Douyin have also proven to resonate well with beauty as KOLs and creators have more freedom over the type of content shared and that content is easily digestible by their audience. Douyin is a leader in its field, and domestic companies using it have naturally understood its power.
Taking it a step further, if we analyze campaigns with KOLs, these generate 85 percent more MIV® than mainstream fashion apparel. Look at Lancôme, which generated 152 percent more MIV® than Chanel Fashion. Interestingly, this gap was even greater among local businesses; globally, Chinese beauty establishments generated nearly nine times more MIV® than their fashion counterparts, with Florasis’ MIV® being 20 times that of Icicle. This goes hand in hand with the growing power of beauty brands in the country today. Oushiman (OSM) demonstrates this well. The group generated $13.3 million (RMB 92.1 million) in MIV® in Q1 2022 versus $1.4 million (RMB 9.7 million) in Q2 2022 locally, showing an incredible growth rate of 848 percent in just one year . Comparatively, Chinese fashion lines have not seen the same treatment, as the market remains dominated by Western competitors.
Finding the right platform and the right KOLs for a campaign can be a long and difficult journey. This makes it even more important to always keep the campaign goal in mind. Whether it’s driving sales, raising awareness or building brand image – keep the vision clear.
This is an op-ed article that reflects the views of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of Jing Daily.
Kim Leitzes is MD of APAC at Launchmetrics
