The gradual easing of COVID restrictions has meant many of our Hot Potters have in recent months gone back to work remotely from their home cities, visit their families, and immerse themselves back into the buzz of daily life in China. Last week we sat down with Chen Jin, our superstar account manager, to talk about some key trends in retail and youth culture which she noticed during her trip back to Nanjing in Eastern China.

Hot Pot China were briefed by Marcus Wareing to explicitly grow the awareness of Michelin-star restaurant Marcus Belgravia amongst Chinese foodies overseas, and specifically to see an uplift in peak and off-peak bookings from this consumer segment.

In this article we’ll share an overview of our KOL and Chinese social media strategy to achieve some brilliant results for the brand.

Galerie du Thé, a premium tea brand that is part of the renowned Ahmad Tea brand from Winchester in the UK, wanted to grow its popularity amongst a young Chinese audience. GdT wanted to tap into the increasing popularity of a quintessentially British afternoon tea, to enhance its discoverability on key Chinese platforms like Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book), and ultimately to improve brand perceptions within the segment and grow sales.

A KOL, or Key Opinion Leader marketing is essentially a Chinese social media influencer or brand ambassador with a large following. As the power of Chinese social and review platforms grew in the 2010s, the integral role of celebrity and influencer profiles with high followings increased.

These KOLs have now become crucial as a marketing tactic for brands looking to grow in China. According to the latest data, the market size of the KOL industry in China has grown from 32 Bn RMB in 2018, to 98 Bn RMB in 2021.

WeChat is an all-in-one app that has direct messaging, a Facebook style social wall, in-built games, short video, peer-to-peer national payment system, e-commerce and much more. It’s used by over 1 billion people a month and there are more than 20 million ‘official accounts’ made up of brands, influencers and media outlets.

WeChat’s demographics are spread quite evenly throughout the Chinese population, given the ubiquity of penetration in the country. Owing to the deep penetration and multi-purpose usage of WeChat in China, it is important for businesses to establish themselves on the platform, both from a payments perspective as well as in terms of having WeChat as a CRM tool. 

This blog discusses the latest findings from our Cultural Intel Community, sharing insights from the fast-growing and interesting female shoe category in China.

Norwegian fashion brand Holzweiler wanted to launch in China, and so approached Hot Pot to work with them and deliver a full, insight-driven marketing strategy for market entry. In this blog, we share some insight into how we put robust tracking in place for the influencer element of the campaign we ran for them.

The gifting of Hongbao, or red envelopes, to family and friends during the New Year festivities is about as common a sight as you can expect to see in China during Spring Festival, or Chun Jie (春节).

At Hot Pot we wanted to explore why a 13 second, totally wordless video of an unmarried aunt handing out Hongbao go viral in the last few weeks. What does it say about China’s changing attitudes towards its often stigmatised unmarried women? Importantly, what should brands take note of?

Hot Pot’s Insight team recently conducted a snapshot study into female bag buyers living in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities in China, in order to help established and emerging accessory brands navigate this time of great opportunity.

Whilst Manchester City should be commended for looking to engage with and capitalise on its enormous Chinese following, both in China and overseas, the clever thinking behind the links to a Chinese moon rover was weakly executed, and the lazy creative left us considering it as a missed opportunity. We highlight 4 constructive lessons that City and other fashion/sports brands can learn from their CNY launch.

We asked the Hot Pot China team to share some of their suggested New Year’s resolutions for businesses considering engaging new audiences in growth markets, in particular those looking at the opportunity of China in 2023. What can businesses do differently with China in 2023 to grow revenues? What trends should they be aware of? How can they grow in new markets like China and amongst inbound Chinese around the world?

Hot Pot’s Chen Jin and the Whittard of Chelsea team share a case study of our recent Hot Chocolate campaign last month. Our challenge was to deepen education around Hot Chocolate’s versatility in the run up to winter, and utilising our consumer insight panel we delivered some steaming results.

It is no great secret that tough COVID-19 restrictions in China have had a widespread impact on the population’s daily life.

China’s ‘Zero Covid’ strategy extending and deepening the lockdowns to such an extent that young people’s daily lives and motivations for free time have been changed significantly.

Amidst a context of social and economic disruption, there has been a lot of negative sentiment around investing in activities and driving commercial return from China. However, Chinese fan engagement around the FIFA 2022 Qatar World Cup suggests this is premature.

Hot Pot’s Adam Sandzer and Adam Doffman have highlighted why shifting focus away from China is a mistake.

Hot Pot China recently had the pleasure of attending Cosmetics Business Live, an industry event for the beauty, cosmetic and skincare industry. We discussed a number of key trends relating to Chinese digital marketing, how to grow a beauty brand in China, and referenced a number of interesting case studies of brand ambassador selection.

Earlier this year, Lanvin Group announced it was likely to vote on an Initial Public Offering (IPO) to fund future growth of the company. Whilst the group recently decreased its valuation owing to global economic factors, the experts at Hot Pot China took a look behind the headlines and explored both the promise and pitfalls of the Lanvin brand expansion, and what it means for brands looking at the Chinese marketing opportunity, in particular utilising digital marketing channels.

11.11, otherwise known as Singles Day, is now a major date in the diary for brands operating in China. We take a look at some of the results from this year’s e-commerce festival, and highlight 3 reasons to be cautiously optimistic about the brand landscape.

For most international brands, 11.11 represents the biggest sales opportunity in the annual calendar. How to plan successfully for this crucial day? How far in advance should brands start planning?

Hot Pot look beyond headline reports of this years’ 618 to take a closer look at results and what they tell us about China’s current consumer landscape.

In this article, Hot Pot take a look at 5 beauty brands that are not yet fulfilling their potential in China.