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2021 August
Rise of Network Novice Influencers: Advertising Going Borderless

Livestreamed marketing has not only become an emerging channel for advertising, but also a cradle for highly popular online influencers in recent years. No wonder young people are flocking to join the field of livestream hosts. Ivy Wong, Founder and CEO of VS Media successfully created a cross-geographical media platform for Chinese creative talents, striving to uncover and nurture influencers with strong potentials.

 

 

 

In response to various pandemic control measures, online shopping from the comfort of one’s own home has been flourishing. Youtubers, online influencers and other content developers with huge loyal viewership, as a result, have created a mega trend for the new media.

 

Non-celebrity online influencers are fan magnets

Ivy Wong is no stranger to new media. She has promoted and demonstrated internet-based marketing concepts, created the OTT platform “MyTV”, as well as developed and advertised mobile businesses.

 

At an industrial conference held in 2013, Wong became aware of the marketing power of media networks and their future growth potentials. “The atmosphere was very enthusiastic - a non-celebrity Youtuber from the US was revered as a star by many young followers.” Wong had never expected that a novice who was only sharing everyday routines could have caught the attention of that many young fans across geographies without much technological support or resources.

 

New media making giant strides amidst the pandemic

Wong subsequently founded VS Media, the very first media network created for Chinese creative talents and Hong Kong’s first multi-channel network company that became an official collaborator of YouTube. The company has been helping advertisers to identify suitable content developers. Today, the VS Media team has grown to about 100-strong, working with some 600 content developers with a global follower-base of 300 million. Its business is making giant strides amidst the pandemic, and the company is getting ready for IPO.

 

Although many creative youths are attracted to the enormous business opportunities, Wong pointed out that young entrepreneurs often lack experience and channels. Their varying standards of content quality could affect a platform’s ability to captivate fans. “We focus on uncovering program hosts or influencers with strong potentials, helping them to strengthen their contents. We hope that quality content can help generate a loyal viewership, which could then connect influencers with advertisers and monetize the whole business,” said Wong.

 

The advantage of instant interaction

Earlier on, VS Media partnered with some chambers of commerce in the “HK100” project, through which twenty Hong Kong enterprises were matched with 20 merchandizers from the Mainland to conduct livestreamed marketing. Within just two months’ time, the project drew over 1.03 million views and achieved impressive sales of RMB 600 million.

 

Wong reckoned that the new media system is bottom-up, highly interactive, and stays extremely close to trending topics comparing with traditional media such as TV and print – which offers top-down, unidirectional and passive advertising. The audience can respond instantly in the new mode of marketing. At the same time, program hosts can swiftly understand the latest market trends and what are popular. In other words, they can instantly make changes or optimize their contents and perform marketing adjustments. This is an area that the traditional media would find very hard to beat.

 

Hosts are advised to diversify

Wong specifically mentioned that hosts in livestreamed marketing programs of the Mainland are more concerned with comparing prices of big brands. They are mainly focused on profiting with sales in volumes. However, she does not consider the same would work for the Hong Kong market and suggests program hosts pay attention to product details, as well as offer practical information through product review.

 

Noting more and more content developers are riding on the bandwagon of livestreamed marketing, Wong recommends that young creative talents to try out both content development and livestreamed marketing, and gradually build and craft a platform with a strong signature. Uniqueness is a critical differentiator that could make them stand out from competitors.