With almost double the population of Europe, China offers immense opportunities for innovative brands who can navigate it successfully, as shown by the success of Duolingo, Athletic Greens, and Samyang Foods.

Success entails navigating cultural nuances, regulatory compliance, and intense competition. For global brands, achieving success also means finding a nuanced approach that blends global brand identity with localized brand building strategies and social media campaigns crafted for China.

In the early days, establishing trust and credibility among Chinese consumers is a top priority. This often takes the form of strategic partnerships with local influencers and online creators to enhance brand perception and navigate the intricacies of digital marketing solution in China. Moreover, China’s digital ecosystem, dominated by apps like Douyin, demands tailored strategies that resonate with the preferences and behaviors of Chinese consumers. This includes adapting content formats, messaging, and promotional tactics to align with cultural norms and consumer expectations.

Despite the many decisions, platforms like Douyin and Ocean Engine serve as modern-day compasses guiding brands through the forest of KOL marketing, social media campaigns, e-commerce operations, and online advertising in China.

In this post, we will explore how these platforms revolutionize digital marketing solution in China and delve into effective China marketing solutions, uncovering the keys to achieving long-term growth in this dynamic market.

Douyin: Revolutionizing social media campaigns in China

With over 600 million daily active users, Douyin has transformed digital engagement with its blend of creativity, entertainment, and e-commerce integration.

By offering multiple and diverse content formats, user-generated content, live interactions, product shelf listings, and powerful virality, Douyin provides a valuable platform for brands to engage with their target audience in the new era of social commerce.

Here is a quick snapshot of Douyin’s key benefits.

1. Diverse content formats: From short videos to text, images, and livestreaming, Douyin enables creators to effectively captivate interest and build meaningful relationships with users through social content.
2. Live interactions: Douyin’s social livestreams offer a live view of showcased products, fashion shows, and other brand events while enabling real-time user interactions with popular hosts and Chinese influencers.
3. Viral content: One of the most exciting features of Douyin is the ability to go viral. Livestreaming, easy video-sharing features, and a legion of key opinion leaders (KOLs) in every niche offers a level of virality not possible on more traditional platforms.
4. User generated content: Creator collaborations and Douyin Hashtag Challenges help amplify brand visibility and drive user engagement, unleashing a new level of community building and innovation.

Launching your own e-commerce store on Douyin

Douyin is not just a social platform. As a super app, the platform offers a comprehensive suite of e-commerce solutions for brands entering the Chinese market or expanding their online presence. This includes innovative e-commerce products for brands and a seamless shopping experience for users, allowing shoppers to go from discovery and awareness to conversion on the same app.

Below are four key features of Douyin for retail to consider for your own e-commerce strategy.

Douyin Lite Shop: Rather than relying on external platforms, Douyin Lite Shop provides a centralized hub for e-commerce brands, simplifying product management, promotion, order processing, and the delivery of outstanding customer experiences, all through a user-friendly platform built inside the Douyin mobile app.

Interest-driven e-commerce: Douyin’s interest-based e-commerce model seamlessly integrates content and commerce, providing businesses with a fresh approach to customer engagement. Through short videos, livestreams, Douyin Mall, and in-feed content, Douyin facilitates a complete consumer journey by matching relevant products with interested users.

Douyin EC Global: Douyin’s cross-border arm, Douyin EC Global, allows cross-border sellers to sell directly into China. From advanced marketing tools to robust e-commerce capabilities, and logistics support, Douyin EC Global offers end-to-end solutions tailored for cross-border sellers. This includes access to bonded storage facilities and streamlined direct mail services. By leveraging these resources, sellers can optimize inventory management and expedite the delivery process, ensuring products reach consumers within 2 to 5 days on average.

Optimized search: Douyin’s highly optimized search and Lite Shop features are designed to connect brands with users actively seeking product-related content. This dynamic synergy between content creation and storefronts forms the cornerstone of a robust and sustainable business model for e-commerce brands and creators.

Ocean Engine: Empowering online advertising in China

Ocean Engine complements Douyin’s social and e-commerce capabilities by offering sophisticated marketing solution and advertising tools to spark interest and drive conversions.

From native ads integrated into users’ feeds to strategic placements across high-traffic channels, Ocean Engine empowers brands to engage prospective customers through an array of brand-building solutions.

Below are seven ad formats to consider as part of your Douyin advertising strategy.

1. Brand Takeover: Ensuring premium visibility, this ad format prominently showcases the brand’s videos at the forefront of an immersive, uninterrupted, and full-screen user experience. With streamlined ad creation and inbound traffic management, a Brand Takeover efficiently captivates audiences and firmly establishes the brand at the forefront of consumer consciousness.
2. TopView Ads: Empowering brands to craft and tell an immersive story, TopView Ads displays a brand’s sound-on content when users enter the app. This ad format dominates the screen for the first 3 seconds, delivering an uninterrupted and clean viewing experience. After 3 seconds, the ad smoothly transitions to an in-feed video, boosting ad interactivity and resulting in higher brand exposure and recall.
3. Creative Pop-Up: Brands can elevate their impact when users open the app by incorporating attention-grabbing graphics and interactive elements. Creative Pop-Ups encompass features such as Twist to Open, Eye-catching Button, Gestures, TopView Ads, interactive effects, and more.
4. In-Feed Video Ads: With a variety of creative styles to choose from, In-Feed Video Ads boost user engagement and conversion. In-Feed Video Ads blend nicely into users’ daily experiences and expectations on the platform, providing a more natural way for brands to appeal to their audience.
5. Carousel In-Feed Ads: With a minimum requirement of 3 images, this ad format offers a lower barrier to entry in terms of content creation. Carousel In-Feed Ads are highly effective at enhancing both click-through and view completion rates.
6. Content Promote: Used to achieve a range of marketing objectives including lead generation, brand promotion, product seeding, user engagement, and follower building, Content Promote is a fast and efficient way to get views and boost interest. This works by promoting organic content and seamlessly integrating it into users’ “For You” feed.
7. Content Promote Optimal A3: Optimizes ads with the objective of product seeding and A3 audience acquisition, effectively mobilizing a community of users already familiar with the brand and willing to buy (A3).

KOL marketing solution in China

Douyin is one of the top platforms for brands to collaborate with creators and influencers across an array of content formats including short videos, live shopping broadcasts, and product seeding campaigns.

While influencer marketing solution is prevalent across social platforms, Douyin stands out as the most trusted among online shoppers. For one, Douyin creators excel at crafting authentic and relatable content that resonates with their followers, driving heightened engagement and boosting sales for the brands they choose to endorse.

Secondly, creators on Douyin maintain a close and trusted relationship with their audience, which lends credibility and trustworthiness to the brands they are endorsing. With the phrase “as seen on Douyin” becoming the modern equivalent of “as seen on TV” in China, this has led to a significant increase in brands allocating their budget towards influencer endorsements on Douyin.

While navigating the selection process for finding KOLs for your brand may seem challenging, brands can easily find creators and influencers in their market niche on dedicated service platforms such as Ocean Creator Marketplace (Xingtu) and Douyin EC Global’s KOL Alliance.

Recipe for virality: Samyang Foods teams up with Douyin and Ocean Engine

From Duolingo to Athletic Greens, more and more brands are partnering with Douyin and Ocean Engine to craft and deliver unique social media campaigns in China. Among these success stories is Samyang Foods, which utilized both platforms to execute a viral marketing campaign that propelled its brand to new stardom in China.

As a leading South Korean instant noodles manufacturer aiming to expand globally, Samyang recognized Douyin’s immense reach and influence within the Chinese market. They embarked on a multi-faceted marketing solution, beginning with the launch of a 3D Branded Hashtag Challenge on Douyin under the hashtag #ExplodeWithSamyangNoodles.

Learn more about digital marketing solution in China

Whether it’s launching a new product, enhancing brand visibility, or driving direct sales, Douyin and Ocean Engine provide a gateway for global brands to thrive in China’s complex and dynamic digital landscape.

For direct assistance, including specific China marketing solutions and brand building strategies, please feel free to reach out to Ocean Engine via the Contact Us form on our website.

To learn more about online advertising and digital marketing in China, you may like to read our detailed write-up on how to advertise in China using Ocean Engine.