The meteoric rise of Bytedance in 2019, a short-form video content platform, points to the emergence of a new marketing format in China. Indeed, the country’s advertisers are showing keen interest in Key Opinion Leader (KOL) and short-form videos to engage end-users in 2020.
Jointly created by Miaozhen Systems, AdMaster and GDMS, the China Digital Marketing Trends 2020 report surveyed advertisers, agencies, publishers, tech marketeers and companies for a comprehensive overview of where the market is heading this year.
The report found that advertisers are expected to increase their marketing spend on “New TV” – such as Smart TV, OTT TV, DTV, IPTV – by 21%. Furthermore, the respondents plan to up their spending on other new technologies, including IoT, VR and AR, by 17%.
Since KOL marketing represents a US$9-billion-dollar industry in China, 63% of advertisers are expected to invest in KOL marketing in 2020. Investments are also shifting from WeChat (a popular social media platform in China) accounts to short-form videos and live-streaming.
With the advent of 5G, 53% of advertisers plan to increase their investment in self-produced micro movies to reach out to new mobile users.
The report concludes that, in general, the marketing budgets are moving towards mobile and cutting-edge technologies to better understand customers’ journeys.