Mindshare China Launches Virtual Huddle to Reset Brand Growth

On December 15th, 2022, Mindshare China launched its virtual Huddle, focused on resetting brand growth through innovative approaches across multiple levers - such as new consumers, channel synergy, content creation, and cultural relevance. The conference was broadcast live via livestream on WeChat channels and attracted nearly 15,400 viewers. In a series of presentations and panel discussions, Mindshare’s team of experts across disciplines, along with senior industry leaders from clients and partners, exchanged viewpoints and best practices for brands to prosper and grow in China, despite the ongoing uncertainties. 

Huddle’s opening had a special welcome from Linda Lin, Executive Chair of Mindshare Greater China, who addressed highlights in China’s 2022 economic and consumer trends followed by an introduction of Precisely Human Intelligence, Mindshare’s planning approach that grounds media and communications in Good Growth – allowing brands to precisely reach and positively impact audiences. 

In the day’s first session, “Winning in China via Agility and Innovation”, Unite’s Managing Director, Jacque He, deciphered the secrets behind the rapid growth of emerging local brands with vivid examples. In the panel that followed hosted by Jacque, Managing Director of L‘Atelier, Jimmy Kuo, and General Manager, Gary Tao, touched on agile growth strategies that mved the needle for international and homegrown brands.  

In the next session, “Emerging Consumer Segments: Interest-based Communities”, Managing Director, Carey Wang, and Associate Strategy Director, May Wu, closely examined the value and influence of emerging consumer groups to boost brand growth, revealing how brands can activate these audiences via Mindshare’s Culture Activation Framework. In the subsequent panel facilitated by Carey, YUM China’s Senior Media Director, Clare Zhang, RED’s Head of Marketing Center, Bao Ai Xuan, and Founder of Gravity, Josh Xu, had an insightful discussion on how marketers, platforms, and communities can work together to impact business growth and audiences.

The next session, “Beyond a Single Platform: Leveraging Cross-Channel Synergy”, saw General Manager, Vanilla Qian and Unite’s General Manager for Data and Outcome, Richard Jin, delve into the outlook of China’s complex platform economy, showcasing Mindshare’s capabilities in cross-channel synergy as the new growth mantra through relevant case studies. In-Neo’s CEO, Tony Sun, Alimama’s Head of Ecosystem Strategy, Muhua, and GroupM China’s Chief Investment Officer, Rycan Di expressed their views as panelists on data, measurement, and outlook on channel investments. 

Led by Content+ Managing Director, Bolin Wang, our next session, “Beyond a Single Moment: Building Long-term Relationships via Content” outlined exactly how brands can lean into content to build more sustainable consumer relationships and navigate uncertain markets with innovation. In the interview with Content+ General Manager Liu Yi, Head of Marketing at Lufthansa Group Greater China, Margaret Yu, and Unilever China’s Media Head, Flora Ma, gave exclusive takes on how different models of content development worked for their brands. 

During Huddle’s final session, “Winning with Citynality: A Hyper-localization Approach”, General Manager, Leon Gao, and Experience Director, Snow Li, illustrated how brands can seamlessly translate and adapt themselves to the unique local cultural demands across different regions in China with “Citynality”. Mindshare’s city localization framework. Managing Director, Tracy Ta, invited Yili’s Media Managers, Ye Tao and Zhang Cong, to speak on the winning recipes of some of their most prominent campaigns this year that focused on deep localization. 

Commenting on the day, Benjamin Condit, Chief Executive Officer of Mindshare China, said:” After a year as tumultuous as 2022, it is clear that driving success for the market and our client will require resetting our approach and mindsets when it comes to delivering good growth in 2023 and beyond. Thank you to all of our client partners and panelists for their continued trust as we navigate this new era together.” 

Executive Chair of Mindshare Greater China, Linda Lin, said:” Today is the day Mindshare China launched its first ever livestream on WeChat Channels. With the theme of ‘Resetting Growth’, this year’s Huddle successfully captured the attention of over fifteen thousand viewers. Here we would like to acknowledge the hard work of our colleagues, panelists and partners on-stage and behind-the-scenes as we host the livestream with passion to embrace more growth in 2023.” 

Chief Product Officer, Akanksha Jain added: “The Huddle is a showcase of some of our best work and thinking from the year. And continuing to deliver it this year despite extremely trying circumstances in the wake of the ongoing epidemic is a demonstration of our commitment towards providing inspiration, knowledge and learning for all! #GoodGrowth"

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