Don’t just tell a ‘beautiful story’, give a reward, Weibo boss advises on marketing to Chinese
Ken Hong
The head of strategic marketing for China’s Twitter-like social network Sina Weibo has said that when marketing in China it is not enough to just “tell a beautiful story” – Chinese consumers want “real rewards”.
Speaking at the Social Matters conference in Hong Kong yesterday, Ken Hong, GM of Weibo Strategy Marketing, suggested a material reward for engaging with a brand in social media is more powerful than slick marketing in China.
“In China, don’t just tell a beautiful story,” Hong advised delegates in an on-stage interview with the global MD of Social@Ogilvy, Thomas Crampton. “Show real rewards,” he said, such as a discount or a promotion.
“It’s not enough to give Chinese consumers a great video,” he said, suggesting that consumers need to be involved through activities such as exclusive product launch events.
“They have to know what is the benefit for me. They’re [Chinese consumers] very practical in that sense,” he said.
Hong added that China’s consumers are very demanding, and are quick to complain about a product or service if they feel isn’t justifying their time in social media.
He said: “[Social media] fans are worth something (business-wise). They’re not just a number.”
Sorry, Ken, I’m not buying your Kool-Aid.
For years, brands in China have dumped millions of RMB into Sina Weibo and ePR agencies have spent them on recruiting vampire fans (fake fans) and prize-only fans (jiang ping kong – who only join pages to win prizes, some of which are fake fans too) to create branded Weibo pages which are millions strong but do not contribute to a brand’s business turnover at all. Clients are all too aware of such strategies and are no longer so gullible.
Now, with Weibo’s usage and engagement figures in China at an all time low, you are advising brands to double up on the failed strategy of giving more prizes in exchange for getting these fans who only love prizes and not brands?
Is this an effort to boost advertising interest and dollars on a flagging social platform?
More importantly, isn’t good brand content that informs and entertains provide its own reward to viewers?
After all, successful bloggers like Han Han are able to attract millions of readers and shares simply because his content is meaningful, socially relevant and heartfelt. And he only posts once a year on Weibo, which also shows that spamming Weibo users with promotion and prize driven messages may not be the best way to handle Weibo…
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