Strategy, platform deep-dives, and lessons from real campaigns in China.
🌸 A bag costs several hundred dollars. A flower charm made from the same material costs almost nothing to try. That is the whole idea behind the newest FREITAG campaign in China, and it is worth every foreign brand’s attention this week. FREITAG is the Swiss label famous for turning old truck tarpaulins into bags. […]
🎨 A tea brand just turned its cup sleeve into a tiny art gallery, and Chinese social media cannot stop talking about it. This week’s case comes from SocialBeta, the marketing case library I check every Monday morning to see what is actually working in China, not what agencies claim is working. The brand is […]
☕ This summer, Starbucks China turned five iced drinks into a playlist you can taste. Each cup carries a lyric, a flavor, and a mood pulled straight from a Jay Chou song. That is the short version of one of the hottest marketing cases in China right now, and it holds real lessons for any […]
☕ Every week I look at what is winning on Chinese marketing platforms, and this week one story beat everything else, including campaigns with real budgets. A pancake shop next to a Luckin Coffee outlet posted a seven second video. Luckin answered with a short film. Chinese netizens are calling it the best PR move […]
🍃 Chinese brands are shrinking their ad budgets, and it is working better than the loud campaigns did. A trend piece from 广告门 (Adquan), one of China’s top marketing trade sites, calls it brands “going light” (品牌开始变「轻」). Instead of hiring a celebrity face and buying every screen in the subway, brands are handing out five-cent […]
🧠 A goofy AI personality quiz took over Chinese social media this spring, and the brands that moved fastest turned a meme into free advertising almost overnight. Within about a day of the test going viral, Luckin Coffee, Starbucks and Duolingo had each built and launched their own branded version of it. If you sell […]
A trade fair in China is not a place to show up and hand out business cards. It is a short, expensive window to meet buyers you would otherwise spend months chasing by email. Get the preparation wrong and you walk the floor for four days with a stack of cards nobody follows up on. […]
Douyin is the Chinese short video app owned by ByteDance. It is not the same product as TikTok: different app, different servers, different rules, and in 2026 a different scale entirely. In March 2026, Douyin passed 1 billion monthly active users inside China alone, the first short video platform in the country to cross that […]
Baidu’s verification process for ads is known for its complexity, even when you speak fluent Chinese and have a Chinese business license in hand. If your website was rejected on the first application, you are not alone. In 2026, we see more rejections than five years ago, not fewer. Baidu has tightened almost every layer […]
Why China still matters for machinery companies Olivier Verot is the founder and CEO of GMA, based in Shanghai since 2012. He has spent over a decade helping foreign industrial and machinery brands find distributors and buyers in China. China is still the largest producer, consumer, and importer of machine tools in the world. Demand […]
If you run a small tourism business, a boutique hotel, a family-owned tour operator, a regional destination board, and you keep hearing that Chinese tourists are worth chasing, this article is for you. Ten concrete tips, no jargon, no budget for a big agency required. Olivier Verot has run GMA from Shanghai since 2012, working […]
Discover how to enter the China olive oil market with expert tips on sales channels, branding, e-commerce, and consumer trends.
