March 17th, SHANGHAI – Labbrand partnered with social media intelligence company Linkfluence to host a breakfast seminar themed “Making the Most Out of Chinese Social Media” in Paris. The three speakers, Nicolas Farman, General Manager of Labbrand France, Amy Loa, Labbrand’s Digital Strategy Manager and Guilhem Fouetillou, Chief Evangelist Officer at Linkfluence, shared their insights about how foreign brands can harness the potential of Chinese social media.

Throughout their presentation, speakers strongly underlined the importance of localization: every Western brand entering China needs to adapt its strategy and positioning, regardless of its size, heritage or reputation. The Chinese market is indeed young and culturally unique, both in terms of social media penetration rate, platform choices and customer habits.

Linkfluence and Labbrand identified three key characteristics of the Chinese digital world:

• Huge: China’s two largest social media platforms Sina Weibo and WeChat boast more than 100 million and 570 million daily active users respectively.
• Mobile: you just need to take the subway in any major Chinese city to realize that almost everything is done on smartphones here, from booking your train tickets to searching for the best restaurant deals.
• Sophisticated: Alibaba’s online payment service Alipay is the perfect illustration of the growing sophistication of the Chinese web, allowing users to securely complete B2C transactions as well as paying utility bills from their phone.

Amy Loa also provided real-life examples of brands who failed to effectively leverage Chinese social media and discussed about best branding practices for establishing a strong and consistent presence on both WeChat and Weibo.

The first step for any international brand expanding its business in China is to understand the subtleties of China’s web landscape: Twitter and Facebook do not have equivalents here, where the most popular social media platforms offer a wider range of functionalities and a different type of interaction with their users. For instance, WeChat has now become an integral part of Chinese people lives and offers a very intimate experience: if used properly, it can thus be a powerful tool for building brand equity and engaging with the local audience.

This was the first breakfast seminar organized by Labbrand in France since the opening of our Paris office. Following this successful event, Labbrand and Linkfluence will renew their partnership to hold a LABsquare event in Shanghai this summer.

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About LABSquare

LABSquares are an open space for thought leaders to exchange ideas and network; a social, spontaneous and informative experience. In LABSquares, leaders push the boundaries and talk about the future of innovative brand thinking.

About Labbrand

Labbrand is a leading China-originated brand consultancy, working collaboratively with consumers & corporations to build and strengthen brands through culturally relevant actions. To achieve success and brand innovations, Labbrand seamlessly coordinate research, strategic decisions, and creative implementation.