It’s a common practice in the influencer marketing industry to send products to an influencer hoping for free publicity. We call this tactic product seeding. When done right, gifting is a great relationship-building [...]

Last year was the year of the Rooster, but it might as well be known as the year of Rap. Over the summer of 2017, the hit show The Rap of China launched a cultural [...]

There is a misperception all over the world that influencers have easy, glamorous lives filled with parties, gifts, and fans. Kids in the US aspire to be YouTubers when they grow up and [...]

Influencers starting their own brands was a disruptive trend for brands in 2017. Last year was especially prolific as countless influencers started successful physical product businesses — Becky Li’s new clothing line, for example, or Zhang [...]

KOL marketing is hot in China, and it’s only getting hotter. Local consultancy Analysys International projected that the China influencer economy will be worth over $15.5 billion this year. From frequently talked-about Weibo and WeChat KOLs, [...]

When it comes to China e-commerce sales, the topic of daigou is controversial. Some brands, especially those in the luxury industry, consider daigou to be a detriment. In other industries, companies have a [...]

2017 was a massive growth year for China influencer marketing campaigns. The industry matured, the quality of content rose, and influencer marketing has become mainstream. Influencers are slowly but surely gaining respect and [...]

As the major Chinese social media platforms Weibo and WeChat become saturated and give users declining organic reach while charging increasingly large sums for advertising, big brands are starting to turn to smaller [...]

China is the world’s leading consumer electronics market with revenue surpassing 97 billion RMB in 2017, but the competition for sales is fierce, especially in the smartphone market where dozens of homegrown and international brands [...]

Over the past year, we have frequently mentioned the emerging phenomenon of Chinese KOL brands — KOLs who turn the traditional sponsored-post model of KOL sales campaigns on their head by manufacturing and selling [...]

Chinese Millennials and Gen Z have been stealing the KOL marketing spotlight lately. Though it is true that the vast majority of KOLs are Millennials and Gen Z, it would be a mistake [...]

Miscommunication kills. The majority of fatal influencer marketing problems happen when brands and influencers don’t communicate clearly via the campaign brief. This is true all over the world, but for Western companies working [...]