China Marketing Insights Monthly Newsletter [January 2023]
Hello There,
Welcome to 2023! What a great start to the year.
In this newsletter, we cover several marketing reports as well as research on China’s outbound tourism. Next, we look at 4 very interesting marketing reports in China – 1) Youku Screencast Interactive Advertising Marketing – an overview from the report by Miaozhen and Youku on Youku screencast interactive ads; 2) China Brand Marketing Traffic – we highlight the three major consumer trends in China and some excerpts; 3) 2022 World Cup Marketing – we highlighted user insights, media data and brand marketing; 4) KOL Marketing White Paper – we compiled platform differences, user insights, pain points and brands selection method
We also cover the 2023 Xiaohongshu Annual Life Trend analysis with an excerpt from the report by Xiaohongshu.
Lastly, in the app of the month, we feature VariFlight – a professional flight service APP, committed to providing users with a “worry-free” and “time-saving” one-stop diversified air travel solution. We detailed the user profile analysis and marketing opportunities.
Sincerely,
Mia C. Chen
CEO & Co-Founder of OctoPlus Media
China TV Screencast Advertising (Youku) Marketing Report
TV screen-casting is to present the screen of mobile device A on the TV screen in “real-time” through technical methods, also known as the same screen, screen sharing, multi-screen interaction, etc. After years of development, China’s projection screen has gradually entered a stage of stable development. Miaozhen and Youku jointly released the “Research Report on the Marketing Value of Youku Screencast Interactive Advertising”, based on this report, we compiled the following key overview.
From the preparation period back in 2003 to the current stable development period, screen-casting has successfully attracted hundreds of millions of users. Screen-casting functions are increasingly abundant and have stronger advertising performance, coupled with continuously upgraded screen effects, dual-screen interactive content has attracted users’ attention and engagement. The stickiness of screen-casting users continues to increase, with the average daily viewing time reaching 1.82 hours, the average number of days of use in a week reaching 2.85 days, and the proportion of screen-casting users has increased by 52%. Users use screen-casting mainly for “screen sharing” or “interpersonal sharing” content, and will simultaneously open the shopping apps to buy while watching and interacting online.
Screen-casting marketing has gradually become a shared home scene marketing resource, with up to 52% of users accessing marketing information through “TV screencast advertising”, which indicates that screen-casting has become one of the main channels for smart TV users to access marketing information. Based on the advantages of “wider coverage”, “friendly duration”, “audience attention”, and other advantages of screen-casting ads, up to 68% of users have been longing for screen-casting ads, and trust and accept screen-casting ads.
“Screencast interactive advertising” is a new form of large-screen marketing for smart homes, with the help of high-definition visual effects of the large TV screen, it can effectively help brands establish recognition, deepen impressions, and successfully complete user longing, while mobile phones synchronously push purchase methods to users, effectively help brands shorten the conversion path and quickly improve conversion efficiency.
User Analysis of Youku Screencast Ads
- Mainly young and middle-aged people with high education, the average age is 32.3 years old, and the proportion is slightly lower than the average age of smart home large screens of 32.6 years old.
- A balanced ratio of male and female users, with 53.7% female users and 46.3% male users
- 8% of young and middle-aged users aged 26-40 years old
- 3% of users with a bachelor’s degree or above, and the proportion of users with a master’s degree or above is significantly higher than the average level of smart home large-screen users
- Covering all levels of cities, Youku users in the first-line cities (first-tier, new first-tier, second-tier) have a high screen-casting usage rate, with a weekly usage rate of more than 55%
- Most of the users have small families and stable family relationships, while the proportion of “small families” of two generations is more than half, and the proportion of users of “couple world” is higher than the overall level of smart home large screens.
- Users pay attention to their quality of life and follow fashion trends, and moderate impulse consumption, while the average monthly income and spending are higher than the average level of smart home users
- 6% of users cast their screens more than 3 days a week, and more than 85% of Youku users have an average viewing time of more than 1 hour per day
Advantages of Youku screencast interactive advertising marketing
Youku has a member + non-member user ecology with 30million+ MAU, users have high spending power and focus on the quality of life in pursuit of fashion trends. Youku screencast traffic has high commercial value and reaches, effectively engaging users through real-time dual-screen interaction. Youku screencast interactive ads have higher acceptance, credibility, and high attractiveness, up to 41.9% of users have been longing in the past six months, and 52.6% of users purchased products within 3 days after product longing.
- Traffic+: Nearly 90% of Youku screen-casting users have Youku mobile membership and membership users who cannot be effectively reached by video pre-roll ads can be more effectively covered by Youku screencast interactive ads. Youku screen-casting users have used an average of 2.31 membership benefits of the Youku video platform in the past month. Youku screencast interactive advertising has broader marketing coverage
- Form+: The brand-new style of casting ads provides real-time interaction and a dual-screen window experience
- Reach+: Compared with the average level of large-screen smart home ads, Youku screencast interactive ads have evident advantages in reach. The reach capabilities of Youku’s screencast interactive advertising on the large screen (OTT) and small screen (mobile) are higher than that of smart home advertising
- Touch+: Youku screencast has become an important advertising or marketing information point for users, mainly due to the Youku screencast interactive ads having strong appeal and being able to gain user acceptance and trust. Within half a year, 41.9% of users were longing by screencast ads and purchased the products within 3 days after product longing
Please contact us to get full report.
2022 China Brand Marketing Traffic Insights
In the post-epidemic era, there are still many unstable and uncertain factors in China’s economic recovery, and at the same time, people’s consumption views have also changed due to the impact of the epidemic, creating new trends. In the trend of “fickle” consumers and an “uncertain” environment, brands will face more severe tests.
Miaozhen has released the report “2020 New Insights on Brand Marketing Traffic – 20 Questions on 2022 New Insights” which analyse the market overview, value, users and application. Based on the report, we’ve compiled some excerpts below.
Three major consumer trends in China 2022
- Consumption upgrade: “cost-efficient” is no longer the only consideration, the aesthetics of the products and the inner experience brought by the products are also included
- Focus on brand: During the epidemic, a large number of after-sales issues have occurred, driving consumers’ preference for trusted brands
- Long-termism: The epidemic has changed the concept of consumption, and now it is more inclined to long-term investment such as health, education, and financial management
Today, in order to counter these challenges, achieving certain growth results is the firm goal of the brand. Advertising investment is the foundation for stable marketing performance, with long-term impact to help resolve the current situation.
Currently, the three major entrances to reach consumers are personal scenes, family scenes and public scenes, while the four major touchpoint to reach consumers are mobile phones, PC, smart home large screens and outdoor. According to the “2020 New Insights on Brand Marketing Traffic” released by Miaozhen System, although mobile phones are still the screen with the highest daily usage rate of netizens, the weekly penetration of PC screens in the survey results increased by 10% YoY, ranking second in the penetration, and is the largest and most important touchpoint end. According to the data, the average daily usage time of each screen terminal is up to 5 hours for PC screens, 4.4 hours for mobile phone screens, and 3.8 hours for smart home screens. It can be seen that the ultra-long stickiness of the PC screen is an important touchpoint for brand marketing and is also a gathering place for office workers. As the sense of technology continues to improve, PC screens will bring more possibilities for brand marketing.
Most PC screens user characteristics:
- First-tier market
- Young and middle-aged
- Highly educated
- High-income earner
In terms of media, advertisers choose six major decision-making factors for media cooperation, including user scale, audience portrait, brand image and safety, marketing effectiveness, resource coordination and cooperation cost-effectiveness. According to the survey, in terms of media reach, desktop media, as a necessary software for PC screens, has the highest weekly reach rate (accounting for 97%), far exceeding other media software for PC screens, and also has more than 40% users exclusively rate advantage. Different media have different images for users, for example, news and information media have a high credibility advantage, while short video and audio media have the advantages of popularity and youthfulness, and desktop media has the advantages of technology, presence, and high-end image.
In addition, the top three advertising acceptance rankings are desktop media, social/chat software, and information software. Among them, desktop media is the media with the highest acceptance of PC screen advertising, and its user ratio is as high as 90%, which is much higher than other PC screen media.
PC screens have different user characteristics in different usage scenarios:
- Entertainment scene: 30-50 years old users located in first-tier cities, with middle and high-education and middle-income earners
- Office scene: First-tier cities, users aged 21-40, with high education and high-income earner
- Learning scene: Users aged 18-20 in first-tier and second-tier cities, mainly low-income users
For brand advertising, visibility, interactivity, accuracy and historical cooperation effects are the four major considerations for advertisers to invest resources. The multiple types of advertising resources of PC screens can meet the different needs of brand marketing, achieve cooperation, precise positioning, and increase user reach.
The following is the ad acceptance, ad engagement intention and subsequent ad behaviour ranking of each PC screen advertising type. It can be seen that PC screen direct advertising, PC lock screen ad and in-feed ads perform better in terms of ad acceptance, interaction intention and follow-up behaviour intention, which is an ad type that deserves to be considered.
According to the survey results, PC screen advertisements is stable in 2022, and the number of advertisers who will increase their investment is expected to increase slightly. Therefore, the following five major marketing scenarios can focus on or invest funds in PC screen desktop media advertising to increase effectiveness and cumulatively drive sales.
Five scenarios for desktop media advertising on PC screens
- Reach goals (for specific groups of people, to achieve higher increments)
- Event sales (official spokesperson announcement, brand day, brand promotion day, etc.)
- New product launch (PC screen desktop media multi-advertisement resource linkage to achieve synergy between product and effects)
- Brand story (delivering brand concept)
- Precise marketing (PC screen desktop media search ads to accurately reach the target group of the brand)
Overall, driven by the epidemic, the usage rate of PC screens has increased significantly, and desktop media, as a necessary software for PC screens, has become the best choice for advertising due to its high reach rate and advertising acceptance. In addition, PC screen direct advertising, PC lock screen ads, and in-feed ads have received high willingness from consumers in terms of advertising acceptance, interaction intention and follow-up behaviour.
The above is the key content of the new insights into the China brand marketing traffic in 2022, if you want to know more, please contact us.
2022 World Cup China Brand Marketing Insight
According to data from QuestMobile’s 2022 World Cup Marketing Insights Report, the trend of World Cup-related content has increased significantly closer to the start of the World Cup, and most of the content is related to World Cup knowledge, popular national teams, and World Cup winner predictions. Most of the World Cup watchers are men aged 25-35, and users whose interest are sports accounts for the most.
In addition, Chinese companies occupy 4 seats among the main sponsors of the World Cup, the largest sponsor is Wanda Group, and the rest are Hisense Group, Mengniu Dairy and VIVO. Of course, in addition to sponsorship, several Chinese listed companies are directly involved in the construction and guarantee of the Qatar World Cup, such as China Railway Construction Corporation which participated in the construction of the stadium, Changjiang & Jinggong, Power Construction Corporation of China and so on.
Media data – CCTV, Douyin, Migu video
Douyin and Migu Video respectively obtained the World Cup broadcasting rights from CCTV, and Douyin is also the first short video platform in China to obtain World Cup broadcast rights, including Douyin Express Edition, which covered a total of 829 million users across China’s network in this World Cup event. Between the opening and the closing match, the cumulative number of online visitors in the Douyin sports live broadcast room exceeded 40 million, peaking around the first goal, and eventually accumulating a total of 108,000 barrages. Here’s what the platforms are doing for FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022:
- CCTV: To create a full range of experience and column topics with the watch, play, sing, and chat, such as a live broadcast program with “anchor to watch with you”, variety shows such as “Hello World Cup” and so on. CCTV also launched an AI-intelligent editing highlight and morning/evening newspaper section to help fans quickly view content; even through the 3D virtual intelligent voice assistant Yang Xiaoyun to interact with users using voice interaction.
- Migu Video: Improves interaction with fans through activities such as picking teams, and football stars, guessing the winning team and creates the “metaverse” World Cup virtual interactive space and launches a variety of sports courses, inviting everyone to practice and create a comprehensive audio-visual experience.
- Douyin: Through various variety shows, join hands with celebrities in the football industry and well-known e-sports commentators to share football passion with users, such as “DOU to the World Cup”, “Stilll Fan Zhiyi”, “Understand the Ball Conference”, etc., and launched the World Cup gesture dance topic to increase traffic. Douyin has utilized the mature commercial closed-loop capabilities in the platform to play around the “World Cup economy”.
(Image source: all from QuestMobile)
Brand marketing
The World Cup brand marketing is mainly based on emotions to arouse user resonance, topic-driven interaction, and product as the starting point, and TVC advertising is still an important way for brands to convey the concept of the World Cup, reaching consumers through various emotional connection points, such as “World Cup classic moments”, “fan celebration parades”, “champions”, etc., causing emotional resonance among users. Other types of marketing include launching customized products, signing/sponsoring popular teams, and topic marketing, especially the word “World Cup customized/co-branded” itself has its own halo, and the gameplay is diversified, such as the launch of World Cup-themed limited food and drinks, World Cup official TV/mobile phone and other home appliances, digital, team jerseys or football, etc.
This series of marketing campaigns successfully led to brand sales growth, most notably in food and beverage, especially Mengniu, Coca-Cola and Budweiser. Coca-Cola, Budweiser, and Mengniu Daily recorded sales of 467,000, 338,000 and 7.751 million respectively as the World Cup opening ceremony approached on the Douyin channel. The distribution of TOP3 sales volumes in the Douyin channel is food and beverage (62%), sports and outdoor (19.9%), and cultural and creative products (8.2%). Here are some examples of brands for each marketing event in the 2022 World Cup:
- Released customized products: Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Budweiser, Yili, Adidas, Hisense
- Signing/sponsoring popular teams: Yili, Panpan, Nike, Adidas, NetEase News, Xiaohongshu
- TVC: Mengniu, Coca-Cola, Hisense, TCL, Budweiser, Meituan
- Topic marketing: Mengniu, Hisense, Yili
In addition, the value of World Cup IP has been fully tapped, with scene + World Cup elements as a “marketing gimmick”, all kinds of beer, beverages, snacks, sports outdoor and cultural and creative supplies have been sold hot, and the sales of Douyin’s officially authorized souvenir stores have exceeded 10 million.
In general, creating high-quality marketing content and creating a deep interaction with users, and even allowing users to enjoy a comprehensive experience, are the core marketing strategies of brands in this World Cup. If you would like to know more about advertising and marketing solutions, please contact us.
2023 China KOL Marketing White Paper
Miaozhen System and China Advertising Association jointly released the “2023 KOL Marketing White Paper”, which explains in detail the 6 major trends of KOL marketing and 6 major practical guidelines of KOL marketing in 2023. The following is an overview of key points compiled according to the report.
China’s social marketing continues to rise in 2022, which means that there is great potential for emerging advertisers to increase their investment, especially for emerging advertisers/brand owners to change their social marketing budgets by as much as 81% in 2023, an increase of 2% over the past year. KOL marketing has become the focus of brand marketing, with a ratio as high as 66%. Nowadays, KOL marketing is the top priority of brand marketing and product longing is still the core appeal of KOL marketing, but the purpose of KOL marketing in China is no longer limited to this. Brands look forward to becoming more diversified and helping to expand the entire marketing link. Advertisers have three major goals for KOL marketing in 2023: product cultivation (74%), brand communication (65%) and conversion (64%)
The evaluation indicators of brand KOL marketing activities are dissemination power (achieving exposure), goods promotion (promoting conversion) and product cultivation (strengthening brand recall), while brand marketing activities have different appeals.
Difference comparison of each platform ：
Platform | Kuaishou | Douyin | Bilibili | Xiaohongshu | ||
Differentiation | Acquittance social platform, spontaneous dissemination of major events, and viral swiping of moments | Replying on people as a platform, inclusive mechanism trusted e-commerce strong repurchase | Super large traffic pool, efficient streaming delivery, fast conversion of low customer orders | A public entertainment venue, a national exposure machine, and a hot search all over the country | A platform for young people, UP content creator mainly focuses on in-depth content and immersive impact cognition | Trend leader, KOC co-creates and explores new tracks to seize the mind
|
In terms of user structure, female users of Xiaohongshu and Weibo far more than other platforms; WeChat has more middle-aged and elderly users, while young users are more active on Bilibili and Xiaohongshu; Kuaishou’s user score distribution is more inclined to the lower-tier market, while Weibo and Douyin users are more distributed in first- and second-tier cities.
The figure shows the goals of brands to launch KOLs on major social media platforms. Among them, Douyin and Kuaishou have a global marketing mentality, WeChat and Weibo take brand exposure as their biggest advantage; Xiaohongshu and Bilibili are quite effective in product cultivation.
The following are the user magnitude, characteristics and industry characteristics of major Chinese platforms.
| Weibo (national social platform) | Douyin (national traffic stage) | Kuaishou (hinterland of trust culture) | Bilibili (a product-longing community for young people) | Xiaohong (a gathering place for place characters) |
User magnitude | 580 million MAU | 700 million MAU
| 600 million MAU | 310 million MAU | 200 million MAU |
User characteristic | More female users, younger users, and more top-tier cities user
| Balanced male and female users, a balanced age distribution of users and many users in top-tier cities | Balanced male and female users, a balanced age distribution of users and a high proportion of users in lower-tier cities | Balanced male and female users, with the highest proportion of young users and more users in lower-tier cities | The “she” attribute is significant, and there are more users in top-tier cities |
Industry characteristic | Overall, users who focus on the beauty and food and beverage industries accounted for the largest proportion | ||||
Industry bias is not strong
| Compared with other platforms, automotive users account for a significant proportion | Industry bias is not strong | Compare with other platforms, smart consumer electronics users account for a significant proportion | Compare with other platforms, the user of beauty makeup and mothers and babies account for a significant proportion | |
Latest news | 1. In May 2022, Weibo officially launched the #Hongru Project# to support professional content and authoritative experts to help rational voices. · Weibo Super Celebrity Day 2022 | · Ocean Enginge released full growth plan. · Douyin e-commerce releases “high-quality author spirit” to seek long-term value. · Douyin’s new brand incubator, Douyin brand. · The Douyin product longing APP Kesong was briefly launched; | · Kuaishou E-commerce builds the ultimate trust system and establishes the second growth curve. · Kuaishou E-commerce’s new strategy in 2022 “Engaging in fast brands”. · Magnetic Engine Releases “Kuaishou Master Five Forces Model” | · Bilibili is online for immersive video streaming, and the main content of UP is preferred for advertising · The live channel launched a shopping area, and the “little yellow car” function was added | ·Xiaohongshu co-innovates new brands with consumers · Dandelion platform “Thousand Powder Commercial Monetization Project” · The concentrating platform upgrades dual-field intelligent advertising; |
Compared with 2021, the overall number of KOLs in 2022 has increased by 14%, of which KOCs accounted for the largest proportion of 76%. Among the many platforms, Xiaohongshu has become the platform with the highest proportion of KOC, accounting for 81%. China’s overall digital human market is growing steadily, and virtual KOLs have grown significantly, with a YoY increase of 292%.
Two pain points faced by KOL marketing
- Uncertainty of content: how to filter influencers who fit your brand to create high-quality content
- Uncertainty of dissemination effect: how to expand the radiation of influencers and brand cooperation, widely attract accurate traffic with high-quality content, and convert it into actual sales
Brand KOL selection method
- Measure the CPE of the talent
- Achieve KOL effect measurement according to the business and industry benchmarks provided by major platforms
- Accurate content labelling
- Intelligent talent selection
In addition, cross-borders and circle-breaking is inevitably good way to break through the predicament, and diversifying content can drive traffic. In order to ensure long-term marketing, it is imperative to integrate talent and brands accounts and build a matrix for influencer self-broadcasting
Other ways to drive brand marketing effectiveness
- Screen dominance rate SDR
- Closely related to e-commerce conversion
- According to the comparison of Double 11 e-commerce data in the same period, Xiaohongshu’s search scene highly overlaps with the top 10 brands in the Tmall beauty category, with a ratio of up to 70%
- Content marketing effectiveness evaluation and adult placement decisions can be carried out according to the needs
- Social ROI cross-domain longing attribution
- It can scientifically evaluate the conversion efficiency of KOL’s product-longing posts on e-commerce post-links, and quickly find high-quality longing stickers for agile promotion
- Segment consumers based on demographic attributes (gender, age, etc.), demographic insights (based on customers’ expressions on social media), and interest circles. Then, according to the labels of different groups of people or customized topics, the index data is used to find influential KOLs within the circle or topic, and to realize the radiation of different circles and the consolidation of the brand image under the topics
“Alternative KOL: Virtual Human”
With the progress of the times, the commercial value of virtual humans has soared rapidly, and they have also gained a share in the Chinese marketing circle. According to the Miaozhen Mingjian system, the volume of virtual humans has increased by 292% compared with last year. Weibo and Bilibili platforms are the main positions for the development of virtual humans, accounting for nearly 70%, with rates of 31% and 28% respectively. At present, the virtual human class is mainly concentrated on the low- and mid-tier (T4 & T5) on major platforms. For the direction of cooperation, in addition to brand marketing in various industries, virtual humans also participate in social responsibility marketing (e.g., public welfare activities) and public services (e.g., promoting traditional Chinese culture).
Top 10 virtual humans with the most commercial value
- Little monk
- Liu Yexi
- Tianyu
- Love and producer
- Yishiqi
- AzA
- Luo Tianyi
- A-Soul Eileen
- AYAYI
- A-Soul Diana
In addition, Miaozhen launched the “Virtual Human Business Value Evaluation Model”, which objectively evaluates the commercial value of virtual humans through the three dimensions of virtual human appeal, activity, and business practice, combined with the Miaozhen algorithm model, so as to facilitate the selection of virtual KOLs that fit the brands.
To sum up, in the Chinese marketing market, KOLs are the primary brand marketing method. Therefore, the selection of marketing platforms and KOLs is extremely critical. It is necessary to accurately locate the target group while matching the brand image. In addition, virtual KOLs are also a modern marketing trend.
If you want to know more about the China KOL marketing report, please contact us!
China's Outbound Tourism Marketing Research 2023
China was an important player in the international market until 2020 and it is also the world’s largest source of outbound tourism and tourism consumption expenditure country. Since the China government began to release more and more good news about outbound tourism, and after the epidemic prevention and control policies began to have major adjustments, outbound tourism has gradually accelerated towards the pace of recovery.
The new policy has a rapid impact on overseas tourism consumption, with the substantial opening of the borders and resumption of overseas travel driving the highest search volume on the Chinese travel platform Ctrip in the past three years. After the release of this series of optimization measures, China’s tourism industry sees hope for recovery. Based on the market survey of the travel industry conducted by China’s Outbound Travel & Tourism Market (COTTM), we have compiled some key insights to know more about the next trend of China’s outbound tourism.
During the period from 2020 to 2022, major overseas tourist destinations promoted their destinations and related tourism products through various platforms in China market, with social media (35.48%), online marketing (27.96%) and roadshows (17.20%) accounting for the TOP 3 promotion methods. As overseas tourism has hope of recovery, according to the COTTM survey results, a whopping 31.58% of the Ministry of Tourism/Embassy/Tourism Bureaus (representative office) believe that China’s outbound tourism market will fully recover in the second quarter of 2023, and 28.95% believe in the third quarter.
Up to 71.06% of the major Ministry of Tourism/Embassy/Tourism Bureaus (representative office) are very confident about the arrival of Chinese tourists in 2023. Among them, the Qatar Tourism Boards view China as an important market to develop and cultivate and has huge development potential. The representative of the Spanish Embassy in Beijing believes that Chinese fans have a high degree of attention to the promotion of the destination on the official account, regardless of the offline and online promotion, Chinese tourists have shown a high degree of interest and love for Spain. After China opened its entry and exit, major Ministry of Tourism/Embassy/Tourism Bureaus (representative office) will promote their respective destination countries through a series of promotion methods. Among the promotion methods, offline activities accounted for the highest proportion, and among them, offline exhibitions accounted for the highest proportion 16.42%.
According to the survey results, 45.95% of Chinese tour operators believe that the top choice for Chinese tourists for outbound travel is Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and other Southeast Asia countries, followed by Japan and South Korea with 17.12%. In addition, business and leisure activities between China and destinations in Central Asia, South Asia and West Asia will become closer and more frequent with the advancement of the “Belt and Road Initiative”. It is worth mentioning that after Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Saudi Arabia last year, has signed the 《The Implementation Plan of the Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the Joint Construction of the “Belt and Road Initiative” and the “2030 Vision”》, and at the same time announced that opening up Saudi Arabia as a destination for Chinese people to organize outbound tourism, which will promote Chinese citizens to visit Saudi Arabia or other Arab countries in the form of business travel and leisure travel.
Qatar, which successfully hosted the World Cup, will further increase Qatar and other Middle East regions as destinations for outbound tourism, and attract Chinese tourists who are interested in bespoke themed tourism products such as customized luxury travel, parent-child, adventure and entertainment theme. Among the types of resource providers in the destinations, the TOP3 that Chinese tourism operators want to know about are ground pick-up services (20.86%), themed customized tour services (18.06%) and hotels or accommodations institutions (18.06%). At present, up to 36.84% of Chinese tourism operators are actively looking for outbound tourism resources, followed by 22.11% of operators forming teams for the outbound tourism business.
To find out more about the survey results or trends in China’s outbound travel, please contact us.
Xiaohongshu Marketing Lifestyle Trend Analysis Report 2023
The “2023 Life Trends” report was released by Xiaohongshu and the Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, with the theme of “Into Real Life” to observe and study the lifestyles of young people. The report uses Xiaohongshu’s data statistics and topic content of Xiaohongshu in the past year to subdivide several life keywords to mine and analyse the life trends in 2023, and the following is an excerpt of some from the report.
The situation and coping patterns of the new generation of young people
Situation 1: Young people in Generation Z, who have experienced the stage of national economic transformation and economic slowdown, resulting in fewer opportunities for young people to start their own businesses or start a business to get rich, further the competition for opportunities and pressure in society is more intense. Thus it is unfair to many people from ordinary family backgrounds
Situation 2: Due to the normalization of the epidemic, young people have begun to reflect on the consequences of industrialization, the internet, and penetration of globalization into the world, and have cultivated an optimistic attitude and engaged in the so-called “real life”
Situation 3: Social networks and life are closely linked, young people share ‘real life” through social networks, find users with the same life philosophy and hobbies and form interest circles
Coping mode:
- Self-sustainment: Under the influence of uncertainty and powerlessness in the general environment, young people should focus and care about themselves, whether physically, mentally or conceptually. Appropriately pursuing a stable and happy life with a peaceful mind is also an acceptable life
- Look around: This generation of young people is considered a “lifestyle social” generation, and online platforms based on similar interests and hobbies are more influential for them. Therefore young people should be more aware of the importance of their surroundings and pay more attention to the people around them, even if they are geographic, such as neighbours, friends and parents
- Rational decision-making: The data shows that young people in this generation are a generation group with high cultural literacy. They have a strong sense of reflection, and a better understanding of social risk, relatively they are more cautious in making any decision, especially when it comes to self-needs and self-esteem, and can be more rational in relationships, consumption, marriage and work
Invest in real-life emerging trends
- Warming up neighbourhood: The number of related notes increased by 213% YoY in 2022, and many people began to know neighbours in the community by looking for “nearby” people to buy in groups and barter due to the shortage of materials during the epidemic. For this reason, young people are more willing to actively participate in community activities, go to community alleys, or drink coffee and chat with neighbours. Keywords in note include community activities, community shops, community building, etc.
- Eat local authentic flavours: The number of relevant notes increased by 227% YoY in 2022, mainly due to young people no longer wanting to be limited to restaurants marketed by chains, homogenization, and influencer, and have begun to explore authentic restaurants that only locals known as new targets. Young people are beginning to prefer local characteristics and local customs, such as Liuzhou luosifen snail noodles, Hainan coconut chicken and other local delicacies. Keywords in the note are greasy spoon, local delicacies, home-cooked dishes for a super meal, etc.
- On a trip: The number of notes increased by 193% YoY in 2022, and compensatory travel has become a long-term expectation for many people in the new year due to the long stay at home caused by the epidemic, so they cherish the opportunity to travel more and willing to invest more effort, time and money in travel. Young people in first-tier cities are generally under intense pressure, and travel will be a much-needed way to relieve stress. The searchable keywords on the notes include self-driving tour, GanQing Grand Ring Road, Chuanxi self-driving tour, etc.
- Light decompression: The number of related notes increased by 303% YoY in 2022. In recent years, due to the environmental impact, most people feel powerless and unable to control their fate, so they need to decompress quickly and easily. Over the past few years, the simple and easy ways to decompress include watching short decompression videos, knocking electronic wooden fish to gain tranquillity, walking paper dogs for companionship and fun, etc. Relevant notes that people often search for include decompression videos, slimes, yoga and so on
As a whole, the life trend in 2023 is more inclined to invest and enter real life, and after experiencing various environmental pressures and difficulties, actively feeling and pursuing innovative life will be the new trend of contemporary young people, which is also Xiaohongshu’s wish for 2023 in this report.
If you are interested in Xiaohongshu, OctoPlusMedia provides Xiaohongshu operation and content services, please feel free to contact us to learn more!
VARIFLIGHT: China Flight Service App Advertising to Chinese Travellers
VariFlight, founded by Feiyou Technology Co., Ltd., is a professional flight service APP, committed to providing users with “worry-free” and “time-saving” one-stop diversified flight travel solutions. Since its launch, VariFlight has accumulated more than 210 million downloads, making it the most well-known travel app in China. It provided analysis and itinerary planning services to more than 300 million people, as well as an early warning of flight delays. It is also officially authorized by the China government to connect with the official channels of air traffic control at the airport to obtain air travel data.
VariFlight revolves around a solid triangular ecosystem of civil aviation travel: the main body of the civil aviation industry players, commercial customers and passengers. VariFlight has processed 1,600 flight information per second, 94% real-time data on international flights, 100% real-time data coverage for domestic flights and provides data and hardware solutions for more than 80 airports in China. In addition, it builds data processing and application capabilities for enterprises to improve decision-making and operational efficiency. At the same time, it provides comprehensive one-stop travel services such as airport radar information to civil aviation industry insiders and travel transportation and accommodations recommendations to the passenger, and provides passengers with travel management services so that passengers can reach their destination on time.
User Profile Analysis
- Leading position in the aviation industry
- 90 million+ registered users 26 million+ MAU, 5million+ mobile DAU
- 32+ million Weibo fans, 1.5 million+ WeChat fans, 24,000+ high-quality content in the flight industry
- The proportion of male users is prominent, as high as 54%
- The main user group is 24-40 years old, reaching 49%; 63% of users are married
- 45% of users are located in first-tier cities and 19% in new first-tier cities
- Most of the users are frequent travellers, with 69% of users flying more than 11 times
- The main active use time is distributed between 9 am – 8 pm, mostly during working hours
Most of the users of VariFlight are high-net-worth young elites, most of whom have a higher education background, with 79% of users having a bachelor’s degree or above, and 23% having a postgraduate degree. The core user group is mainly business travellers or leisure, the business travel elite group is mostly business elites and senior white-collar workers, while the leisure travel group mainly focuses on luxury travel and quality of life.
VariFlight Advertising Inventory
- Open screen advertisement: located at the core focus of the APP launch, supporting static advertisement, GIF advertisement, and video advertisements format
- Homepage pop-up window, function combination pop-up: located at the core focus of the APP launch homepage floating layer, with manual close settings, supporting static advertisement and intelligent function placement ads (implanting creative display according to local weather or airport congestion to enhance user attention)
- VariFlight’s high-exposure touchpoints
- VariFlight content module
In addition, through platform cooperation, there is huge traffic flowing to the regular flight inquiry page every day. For example, by entering the flight number query through WeChat/Baidu, VariFlight will provide the first result, upon clicking, the user will enter the Fight Ticket Inquiry Mini Program to view the detailed flight information, and exposure placemat is available on this page is available for brands.
China’s outbound tourism industry is recovering at an accelerated pace, if you want to know more about the advertising and cooperation model of VariFlight, please contact us.
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