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RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

the advertisers that look to champion in China. Industry-wise, the auto sector appears to favor Douyin,
while consumer electronics advertisers tend to go for
KOL marketing is expected to be the first choice for Bilibili. Little Red Book seems to particularly attract us-
advertisers in 2022 when it comes to social marketing, ers mostly interested in cosmetics, parenting, food and
with 67% of respondents selecting the option (5% more beverages.
than that of last year), followed by promoting through
short-form videos and official social media accounts As more advertisers look to advertise through social
management. media, the industry has seen more KOLs jumping into
the business. In 2021, the total number of KOLs in Chi-
For those advertisers that would like to promote in col- na surged by 15% from that of the previous year, with
laboration with influencers, 54% of respondents hoped the number of key opinion consumers (KOCs; tier-5
the KOLs could help grass seeding consumers for spe- influencers) increasing by 5.5% year-on-year, accord-
cific products. To best advertise through KOLs, adver- ing to the reports.
tisers could pay attention to the varying user bases for
different social platforms, the reports suggest. While many marketers continue struggling with evaluat-
ing the performances of KOL advertising, Miaozhen
For example, video-streaming site Bilibili can serve as has developed a system to assess the efficiency for
a great platform for brands to communicate with young- such promotions. With Miaozhen's Social ROI system,
er consumers through creative content, while social advertisers can easily conduct attribution analyses, by
media and e-commerce platform Little Red Book, Chi- dissecting engagement data, incremental search UV
na’s answer to Instagram, can help experienced influ- (unique views) and a relevant performance index, to
encers give out more recommendations in detail. get more insights on the effectiveness of their KOL
campaigns. (Source: Miaozhen Systems) ◊
These platforms' rapid user growth also helps. In 2021,
Bilibili and Little Red Book saw the numbers of their By MediaBUZZ
monthly active users grow by 112.1% and 59.9% year-
on-year, respectively, according to the reports. The two
mainly serve young users in China's first- and second-
tier cities.

Short-form video and KOL promotion are social marketing focuses, followed by official social media account management

January 2022: Digital Media Trends & Predictions 11