KOL price are too high for most of Brands in China 

Source: China Hush

The Key Opinion Leader (KOL) or called the influencers have the wind in stern in China. These public figures are mainly present on the digital platforms and represent for companies a real opportunity to develop their activities.

In this article, we will introduce you to these new digital personalities and the interest of touching them to develop your business. However, the tendency to use a KOL for brand communication campaigns has a certain price …

The Craze for KOL in China: A price to pay for brands

KOL tariffs vary enormously, ranging from a hundred dollars to several thousand. These new personalities have succeeded in understanding the strong interest that brands have towards them. Since the KOL hold a strong power in the negotiations, the prices for the publication of content can sometimes be incredible.

Indeed, celebrities like Xue Zhiqian ask for the publication of a post on Weibo more than one million yuan or 150 000 dollars or even the actress Fan Bingbing whose revenues rise this year to 74 million dollars becomes the best-paid actress in China.

These incredible sums that can be spent by brands to appeal to these personalities seems surprising but becomes a source of effective communication in a world where the Chinese consumer becomes tend to hate more and more advertising and spends most of his time on digital media.

The price charged by the influencers will also depend on several criteria:

• The extent and commitment of these subscribers
• The size of content to promote
• Social media used in the campaign
• The proximity and interest between the KOL and the brand

In China, you will find several types of influencers present throughout the Chinese digital ecosystem.

The first category concerns celebrities including actors, singers and television personalities. These influencers have a great influence on their communities and appealing to them as part of your promotional campaigns will require a substantial budget.

The price of a publication also varies from the media used. Indeed, in China, the most important media is WeChat, influencers therefore ask for a higher price for companies that want to reach their community through this network.

The first category concerns celebrities including actors, singers and television personalities. These influencers have a great influence on their communities and appealing to them as part of your promotional campaigns will require a substantial budget. Indeed, celebrities like Xue Zhiqian ask for the publication of a post on Weibo more than one million yuan or $ 150,000 or the actress Fan Bingbing whose income amount to 74 million dollars becomes the ” Best paid actress from China.

The second category is defined by digital personalities who are also called Wanghong. In China, two leaders are leading the way. Zhang Dayi, considered as the Kendall Jenner of China and Papi Jiang, a famous Chinese humorist, well known for her podcasts featuring the everyday life of Chinese people and ironically traces the news.

In 2016, she was voted number 1 celebrity in the Middle Empire and is often prized by brands who want to sponsor its content. They are, however, pay 20 to 40% less than our first category.

Bloggers, considered a real expert in their field, their community generally makes them trust blindly. Bloggers communicate through posts on their blog, conducting reviews or tests on the products they present. The general budget allocated for this type of influencer is between 100,000 and 300,000 yuan.

In fourth position, we have the Wemedia, these are small companies writing niche articles on the Weibo platform. The cost of a publication is around 1,500 to 60,000 yuan.

Finally, as a final category, we find leaders of opinion specialized in a particular field or industry. Let’s take the example of Wang Tao, a rally driver and editor at AutoHome. An expert in a particular industry will cost you between 1000 and 10 000 for a post.

Influence Marketing

The emergence of the digital sphere allows companies to integrate into their communication strategies, this new generation of influencers that will help directly or indirectly, brands to gain notoriety and visibility.

Influence marketing becomes an almost unavoidable technique for brands because of the ease of interacting more directly and easily with its target. The perpetual change of our environment allows the brands to adapt to it and to offer consumers more creative and interactive content to reach them.

We can see a general loss of interests of the individuals concerning the intrusive advertisements in the daily life of the consumers. They become more demanding towards brands. Engaging a KOL will allow you to credible your messages and position yourself as a more authentic brand.

However, as does the dissatisfaction of individuals from traditional advertising channels, Internet users are increasingly beginning to pay attention to those influencers who have many partnerships with brands, which they will judge to be less authentic and less truthful.

As we have seen, the prices charged by different influencers vary considerably depending on their reputation, the number of subscribers they own and the audience they can cover. It is obvious that for small companies, allocating a budget of $ 150,000 for a position on social networks is unfeasible. You need to analyze the influencers in the Chinese environment to target those that will match your expectations.

How to target the KOL and use their influence on digital media

At first, it will be interesting that you target the KOL that you feel relevant to contact for the development of your strategy.

Several ways are available to find the KOL you will need:

– Search engines on different digital platforms

– Databases and SEO databases such as Robin8, Newrank

– KOL agencies that will recommend the influencers they support.

When these two steps are completed, all you have to do is to provide the appropriate content to the influencer so that he can share and disseminate information to his community. Several means exist for conveying information.

The most common of these are social networks. As we mentioned earlier, WeChat is the largest social platform in the country, with no less than 800 million monthly users. The Chinese population is very active on the media as well as influencers. Products reviews are also a very popular tool, whether through a post on a blog or a video magazine, demonstrating a product has always had a positive effect on the purchasing behavior of the product. consumer.

These product reviews redirect influencers to another means of promotion that is social commerce. Indeed, each post made are accompanied by a link redirecting the user to your e-commerce site.

As a foreign brand, it is crucial for the good development of your activities on Chinese territory to understand and grasp at first the Chinese digital sphere, which is completely different from the one we generally known in the West. To successfully promote your products and services and gain visibility, you need to follow the trends of the digital ecosystem and what better way than targeting the KOL to attract your target.

In addition, developing a communication strategy for your Chinese audience generally requires partnering with a local partner.