Who are China’s top influencers and KOL by commercial value?

New report examines the effects of key opinion leaders to determine what makes for good, bad, and high potential celebrity-brand collaborations.

 

Are influencers and KOLs (key opinion leaders) effective promoters of brands or just of themselves? This is the question at the heart of a new study by Bomoda, a New York-based consumer intelligence company. In its 47-page report, “2017 Bomoda China Key Opinion Leader Index: Understanding Celebrity Influence”, it examines 400 Chinese celebrities active on various social media platforms in the first half of 2017, whittled down from a list of 40,000 of the most mentioned names on social media), to demystify the effect of KOLs and to try to determine what makes for good, bad, and high potential celebrity-brand collaborations.

 

“Ideally,” Bomoda CEO Brian Buchwald told Jing Daily in a phone interview, “a brand wants a celebrity who will have the positive effect of bringing their own direct audience with the added value of being highly photographed and picked up by third-party accounts”.

 

In today’s influencer-filled digital landscape, as brands see more success from working with self-made bloggers converting their own fan economy into influence with brands, the benchmark of commercial return has become higher, and many brands are reassessing their influencer strategy, wondering if costly traditional celebrity endorsements still work. And it’s not always easy to gauge the impact of celebrity endorsements. Some KOLs have a lot of buzz, according to Bomoda, but that doesn’t necessarily translate to brand awareness. On the other hand, some KOLs understand how to shape their fans’ perceptions of those brands.

 

Source: SCMP