Exploring the Top 10 Marketing Trends in China for 2024

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As we delve into the year 2024, the landscape of marketing in China continues to evolve rapidly, influenced by technology, consumer behaviour, and economic dynamics. Here is our hot take on what we should be expecting to see in 2024 and what the top 10 marketing trends dominating the scene in China will be.

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1

The KOL downfall, let’s focus on KOC: Social media platforms continue to be pivotal in shaping consumer opinions, with influencers and KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) playing a crucial role in brand promotion. But with scandal after scandal affecting some of the biggest influencers in China, we can expect to see more vertical KOC (micro-influencer) campaigns.

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2

AR/VR and Digital Transformation: The digitalisation of marketing strategies remains at the forefront, with businesses increasingly leveraging big data and machine learning to target consumers more effectively and in 2024 we will also see brands jumping on new AR and VR experiences in China. If there’s a consumer market that will adopt AR/VR it will probably be China leading the charge in marketing innovation here. Might we even see NFT’s making a comeback? 

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3

AI: Yep, we’ll still be talking about AI in 2024, and we’ll probably be seeing more AI-generated content out there. This means more content, but it also means less creativity and individuality in online brand personas. 

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4

Localised Content: The advent of AI will mean more brands will start localising their content for the Chinese market, providing greater access to brand information. This will have the positive impact of more brands having ease of access to China, but could also create issues…will ChatGPT refer to Taiwan as an independent country or a part of China? There is a minefield of potential issues for those who rely too heavily on this kind of technology.

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5

Gen-z embracing their flaws: We’ve all seen the wild filters that can overtake social media accounts and promote unrealistic beauty standards and expectations. But Gen-z are fighting back, and a trend that was picking up steam last year was 接受不完美的自己 (accepting my flaws), where a popular social media app called Soul in China ran a campaign to promote acceptance of imperfections. Brands can use trends like this to create more personal and humanised campaigns with consumers in China in 2024. 

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6

Social commerce: We’ve mentioned this before, and we saw a big uptake in the integration of e-commerce features into social media platforms in 2023. 2024 will see this become more mature, and more foreign brands will begin to explore the cross-border options that are rapidly becoming available. 

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7

Sustainability: Sustainability is becoming more important and relevant for consumers and brands in China. Marketers need to demonstrate their commitment and actions to environmental and social causes, such as reducing carbon emissions, using recyclable materials, and supporting local communities

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8

More second hand, less luxury: Consumers will become increasingly open to second hand goods, a market that has not been very popular in China to date. etc more pinduoduo. Cost-effectiveness: It's not about not being able to afford xxx, but rather that xxx offers a better cost-to-value ratio

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9

RED: Little Red Book, Xiaohongshu 小红书 or just RED Is going to get bigger and broader in its user base in 2024, more brands will begin to utilise this platform, and it will become one of the 4 big social media platforms that brands will now have to have a presence on in China. 

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10

Gen Alpha in China: Or as they are known in China 10后 (meaning post 2010’s): They are just coming to an age where they can set up a Chinese social media account (so long as mum and dad agree). We’ve see how Gen-z has shaped social, and now it’s the time for Gen Alpha. 

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