In the age of the “attention economy” and our much-discussed diminishing focus, to whom do Chinese beauty consumers truly listen?

Not brand official accounts, if you believe the data. In China, as in much of the world, there is a weariness with social media’s wall of noise, often driven by official brand content. According to WeChat’s own data, in mid-2019 one quarter of users followed fewer than 10 “official” accounts, and a further half of users followed between 10 and 20. A thunderous waterfall of content drowns users’ patience, and securing their attention isn’t simple. Indeed, posting too frequently can even do more to repel consumers than entice and engage them.

In reaction, we’ve seen quite radical shifts from brands—in the world of luxury fashion, Bottega Veneta pulled their Weibo account in early 2021 and shifted their strategy in favor of “organic” mentions. That’s all well and good when you’re a global mega-brand with a huge amount of brand awareness, an enormous global PR budget, and a legion of celebrity mega-fans. But what’s the solution for challenger brands trying to be heard in the face of content oversaturation and the accompanying consumer indifference?

One answer is product seeding.

In the context of China, there are two forms of product seeding—the strategy to “send and hope” to major influencers and celebrities, similar to the approach deployed by brands worldwide; and a mass-scale, paid seeding with Key Opinion Consumers, or KOCs. The content produced by KOCs does not follow as tight a script as a paid campaign with more established professional influencers, and provides a feeling of authenticity for brands through a more personal tone of voice, minimal sales content, UGC-style pictures, and shots of the product in use by the KOC.

Brands using this route can reach new audiences and leverage the inherent trust of the poster’s followers—someone “real” and in whose opinion they genuinely trust. A key theme in Chinese consumers’ relationships with brands is trust—and the mistrust of the leading platforms, of the authenticity of products, and of the claims made about them has long been an expensive puzzle for marketers.

This trust gap gives recommendations from your most trusted sources—friends, family, and your online tribe—an enhanced role in the consumer decision-making process. Consumer research shows that the purchasing journey online is twice as long in China as in the US or Europe, with eight touchpoints required before purchase—and typically four of those eight points are reviews by familiars or influencers seen on social.

Combined with the right hero-product strategy, seeding sees sales fly. Key sales platforms closely watch social channels like Little Red Book, BiliBili, and Weibo for evidence of recent, relevant seeding. Category managers at platforms like Tmall have specific thresholds of notes, comments, or posts per social channel before deeming a brand “ready” for the platform. Brands with established Tmall stores can also see improved traffic and conversion on seeded products. A color cosmetics brand we represent saw sales of their hero SKU triple over the course of a six-month seeding campaign. A luxury skincare brand we work with saw an NPD product rise into their top 10 SKUs in 2021 through wide seeding to build acceptance and buzz in a competitive category, at a high price-point.

At Samarkand Global, we represent some of the best global niche premium and luxury brands as they grow in the Chinese market. Based on our experience and data, product seeding is consistently the best marketing dollar we spend.