The research found that Nike attracted the highest levels of consumer awareness on its micro blogging site, while Apple encouraged the highest amount of consumer participation.
Nike’s official website has so far attracted close to 60,000 followers on Sina alone. Sunny Chen, a consultant at R3 involved in the report, said the brand uses this fan base effectively to showcase its latest products and provide sports news, maintaining a high level of interest. However, the number of respondents that had participated in Nike brand activities was low relative to the level of awareness demonstrated by the number of followers.
Apple, despite having no official Weibo site, has benefited from the creation of an unofficial fan club on the platform, where members discuss new applications and products becoming available in the market.
“Apple’s success on Weibo is down to the fact that many users are Apple loyalists and download and access the tool daily - they go hand in hand,” explained Chen.
Li-Ning and Adidas also attracted a respectable following, but this was not matched by participation. At the lower end of the top ten scale, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s attracted fewer followers, but among those that did follow the brands, participation in activities was relatively high.
Chen noted that with Weibo’s popularity continuing to grow, a combination of local and multinational brands such as Yili, Mengniu, P&G and Samsung had also made “strong initiatives” to engage consumers, including competitions and CSR communications.
Looking forward, Chen pointed to the potential of so-called ‘Weibo stars’ for brands. Liu Xiang has attracted close to 15.6 million fans, while blogger Yao Chen has a following of nearly eight million.
“It will be interesting to see whether brands will start using these ‘Weibo stars’ [rather than more typically high-profile celebrities] to engage with their target audiences,” Chen said.
Weibo has around 140 million users and holds almost 60 per cent of China’s microblogging market.
