Ogilvy & Mather China, along with its social marketing arm Social@Ogilvy hosted a forum today titled “Full House” at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The event brought together representatives from “Duanzishou1” marketing company Louis Communications, hot new social media app named ‘same2 ’ and dozens of senior marketing professionals from the brand side to explore how to best develop effective brand-building in the social media era.
The main discussion focused on the characteristics and importance of “social circles 3 ;” online social communities tied together by their original, funny, young and dynamic personalities. They are distinctive not necessarily by the topics they discuss, but in the way they discuss and evolve language. More and more, trends and colloquial slang from within these diverse communities gradually begin to spread beyond their own circles and can have a “ripple effect” through mainstream culture, helping shape new trends, words and ways of talking.
“These social circles are unique due their incredible inventiveness, which does not necessarily have one specific creative direction. For the most part, the authors within them don’t write in social circles to garner glory for their name. They care more about approval from their online “social circles,” says Vin Xu, Founder and CEO of same. “Within our ‘same’ community, young people play around all the time in unusual and quirky ways, creating new languages and ways of speaking that would leave an outsider puzzled. But this does not mean that the social culture exists within a bubble. In fact, it is constantly affecting the mainstream culture. When they create something it spreads out and evolves.”
During the forum, guest speakers contributed their point of view on how to build brands within this social circle environment. The discussion specifically focused on the role of Duanzishou in both social and marketing environments. Social@Ogilvy and Louis Communications used this opportunity to announce a strategic partnership between the two, harnessing the creative resources of Louis Communications and Ogilvy’s systematic management of social marketing for clients who want to build brands by tapping into social circles.
CEO and Founder of Louis Communications, Lou Sir, is a famous real estate Duanzishou in his own right, founding his own company in 2013 that uses the content creeation power of the Duanzishou. In reference to this new partnership, Lou Sir says “Duanzishou are native inhabitants of the social circle environment, and also in the realm of creativity and promotion. They are well versed in the movements and mindsets of their social groups, but inevitably lack a view of holistic brand management. The cooperation with social@Ogilvy, will effectively unleash the power of these “Duanzishou” as an independent social content creators thereby helping more brands get a leg up in the social environment.”
“In social marketing, content directly impacts the results of a marketing campaign, and so should be at its core. Good content should start from a deep insight from these social circles and how the brand will be able to accrue positive brand power within target social circles. With more social circles popping up, brands should manage different types of content across different social circles, approaching audiences with the same brand message, but from different angles and contexts in order for your marketing campaign to be truly social” says Coolio Yang, Business Director of Social@Ogilvy Shanghai.
In the end, the speakers sat together to have a panel discussion focusing brand building within this social circle environment. They discussed how traditional marketing and social marketing can integrate, how social marketing can positively impact brand revenue and how brands can use colloquial language to speak effectively to their brands.
“Social circles are interesting because they provide more possibilities to the process of brand building,”says Debby Cheung, President of Ogilvy & Mather Shanghai.“Because brands can now approach their target with different angles and voices, the brands themselves can present a more multifaceted equity. Ogilvy has always been on the forefront of working on better social media content. Our partnership with Louis Communications will be another key milestone of our social marketing journey.”
1 Duanzishou (段子手) are a special type of online writer found in China. They are different from Western bloggers or “Key Opinion Leaders” in that they do not often have a single topic they discuss on. They are known more for their ability to play with words and situations, often shaping the way social circles form and evolve to create new social languages, memes and ways of talking about modern events and culture. They often write under different assumed personas. They can be found across all types of social media platforms and are consider creators of the culture surrounding social circles.
2 same is a new social media app aimed at younger generations of Chinese.
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