1’H 2017 BOMODA CHINA KEY OPINION LEADER INDEX UNDERSTANDING CELEBRITY INFLUENCE TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 INTRODUCTION 4 WHAT DIFFERENTIATES OUR REPORT 7 METHODOLOGY 10 INDEX SECTION 1 – KOL PERFORMANCE OVERIEW 10 TOP KOL BY SOCIAL INFLUENCE 12 TOP KOL BY COMMERCIAL INFLUENCE 14 TOP KOL BY INDUSTRY 20 INDEX SECTION 2 – KOL SELECTIONS FOR SPECIFIC BUSINESS NEEDS 20 TOP KOL BY IMAGE 25 KOLS WITH HIGH POTENTIAL 34 KOLS WITH LOW BRAND/PRODUCT IMPACT 38 TOP KOL IN SAMPLE USE CASES 45 ABOUT US 46 APPENDIX 2 INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND Since Bomoda’s inception as a China-focused business, China’s consumer marketplace has undergone a meteoric rise from a once regional power to arguably the most significant global consumer arena existing today. By leveraging our enhanced understanding of China’s market and its corresponding market-drivers, Bomoda has uniquely positioned itself to meaningfully engage in conversations with global brands who are looking to establish an ROI on their marketing, communications and strategic spend in Mainland China. Bomoda makes sense of the varying statistics generated by China’s many digital platforms, the drivers of such statistics, the business implications generated by such data, and the recommendations necessary for a brand to improve performance. Our sole goal is to ensure that our clients build meaningful brand equity, communicate effectively with their optimal consumer base, and unlock their true value potential. This is what drives us every day. THIS REPORT This report is a sample exploration into the Celebrity/Key Opinion Leader (“KOL”) market in China as it presently stands. The purpose of the exercise is to provide a high-level overview of how to discern the value of different celebrities/KOLs; and, moreover, which of these celebrities/KOLs might be best for a particular brand. Underlying this report is a vast archive comprised of numerous data-points generated from China’s leading digital platforms which is updated daily to ensure accuracy and timeliness. Should you find the following interesting, we would be happy to discuss how the full weight of our tools can be brought to bear to add value to your brand’s efforts. 3 WHAT DIFFERENTIATES OUR REPORT? This report offers quantitative analysis, in-depth qualitative analysis and curated takes based on a comprehensive set of social data . TYPICAL MARKET REPORT THIS BOMODA REPORT We developed in-depth qualitative analysis and curated analysis for specific business needs: • Quantitative • Qualitative Analysis • Curated Analysis • Quantitative Analysis Analysis • Awareness Analysis • KOL-related Image • KOL with High Potential • Engagement • Awareness • KOL-related Topic • KOL with Low • Engagement Brand/Product Impact • Sample Use Case We collected a comprehensive set of social data points: • Weibo Mentions • Weibo Mentions • Weibo Mention/Engagement • Weibo Mention/Engagement • Weibo Impressions Data Points • Weibo Reposts Sentiment Content Quality • Weibo Reposts • Weibo Impressions • Weibo Mention/Engagement • Weibo/WeChat Content Type • Weibo Comments • Weibo Comments Purchase Intent (Daigou/promotional, Non- • WeChat Mentions • WeChat Mentions • WeChat Sentiment Daigou/promotional) • WeChat Reads • WeChat Reads • Weibo/WeChat Content • WeChat Likes • WeChat Likes Theme (Topic, Image) 4 WHAT DIFFERENTIATES OUR REPORT? SECTION 1 KOL PERFORMANCE OVERIEW Brands frequently focus on general rankings; that is, who are the top Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) in China? In doing so, brands often overlook the nuances which separate, and frequently serve as an advantage, of each specific KOL. For example, while some KOLs are powerful in generating social buzz and are able to build brand awareness, others are more effective in shaping consumer perception of those same brands. Still others are noted for their ability to spur purchase intent within a given consumer base. In view of these many attributes, we initiated this analysis through two meta lenses: 1) Social influence, and 2) Commercial influence. Top Stars by Industry: We next set out to determine how different Social KOLs meet the needs of particular industries. With few exceptions, Influence KOLs do not fit a “one size fits all’ celebrity. As a result, our analysis provides samples for five distinct industries: Commercial Influence (1) Activewear; (2) Consumer Electronics; Industry (3) Food & Beverage; Relevance (4) High Street Fashion; and (5) Luxury Fashion. The second part of Section 1 includes KOL rankings for the five aforementioned verticals. * All KOLs listed in this report are not necessarily content creators, but were nonetheless mentioned within the content captured for the analysis 5 WHAT DIFFERENTIATES OUR REPORT? SECTION 2 KOL SELECTION FOR SPECIFIC BUSINESS NEEDS Practically speaking, most brands have specified goals and defined budgets for which to execute campaigns. In Section 2, we illustrate a path to answering such examples commonly associated with a brand’s KOL campaign in China. These include: • Is a KOL’s image a fit for my brand? As a brand looks to find an appropriate KOL, it often faces the question of whether a KOL will either burnish a brand’s image or diminish it. • What are the names that have “high potential” and can help my brand, yet KOL are not currently on ‘everyone’s’ radar? This applies to both small brands KOL Topic Image with limited budgets as well as large brands who want to leverage a KOL different tier of KOL. Effectiveness • In partnership with a KOL, will fans likely be talking about my brand and KOL products, or merely their love for the KOL I have contracted? With a large Cost sum of money invested, brands routinely want to know if a KOL is an KOL Fan effective promoter of the brand or merely an effective promoter of himself. Quality • In addition, via proprietary data analytics, we also presented three particular use cases to help brands understand the possibilities of combining some of these questions. * All KOLs listed in this report are not necessarily content creators, but were nonetheless mentioned within the content captured for the analysis 6 METHODOLOGY SCOPE Selected Industries Activewear Our goal was to provide KOL rankings, primarily celebrities, associated with brand Nike, Adidas, Anta, etc. content on social media platforms that could help inform any brand using or Consumer Electronics invested in KOLs. Beats, Oppo, Huawei, etc. Food & Beverage In order to achieve this, we aimed to compare the performance of KOLs mentioned Coca-Cola, KFC, Starbucks, etc. along with leading brands across five industries, including both foreign brands and High Street Fashion Chinese brands. The KOLs included herein had the highest degree of impact on Topshop, Vetements, Mo & Co, etc. Chinese consumers and the most active investments in KOL collaborations. Luxury Fashion Burberry, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, etc. DATA COLLECTION Total Conversations on Weibo and WeChat Analyzed The report looks at content from Weibo and WeChat, the two most popular and largest social platforms in China, within the same time period, during the first half 51,967,238 3,448,497 of 2017. Content includes posts or articles published by brand official accounts, WEIBO POSTS KOLs, Weibo users, as well as WeChat public accounts during the time period. WECHAT ARTICLES In total, we examined over 51 million Weibo posts, 2.3 billion related reposts 2,338,525,691 and comments, and over 3.4 million WeChat articles. REPOSTS & WEIBO COMMENTS 7 METHODOLOGY ALGORITHM SELECTION Analysis Funnel Initial screening: We used named-entity recognition technology (NER) to identify all KOL names discussed on social media platforms associated with the selected brands and pared the total down to the 40,000 most mentioned KOLs for initial screening. A comprehensive list of 40,000 KOLs mentioned on Weibo and/or WeChat during Jan – April 2017 with the We then applied additional filters to compile a final list of 400. highest number of mentions Algorithm: NER, outlier and counterfeit Bomoda Analysis: management • Sentiment: Sentiment was evaluated using natural language processing (NLP) techniques, text analysis and computational linguistics. • Purchase Intent: Purchase intent was calculated by learning user expression of A selected list of 400 intent to purchase, including generic terms and trending internet vocabularies, KOLs with the highest levels of awareness and as well as machine-learning techniques. engagement • Qualitative analysis: Qualitative analysis, such as KOL-related images and Algorithm: Brand filters topics, was evaluated via machine learning techniques applied to KOL-focused user conversations. Various Outlier Management: We ran a model to identify and excise content that contained rankings brand name or KOL name characters but but did not discuss the actual brand or KOL and analysis to account for outliers. Algorithm: Multiple filters Counterfeit Management: We ran a model to identify content that promoted imitations to account for counterfeit products . 8 METHODOLOGY INDEX SCORING SYSTEM For each analysis, we developed an independent index model to measure a KOL’s performance. Each KOL subsequently received a score that was normalized on a scale from 0 to 100 to allow for direct comparison. DIMENSIONS SOCIAL INFLUENCE COMMERCIAL INFLUENCE INDUSTRY RELEVANCE IMAGE RELEVANCE TOPIC RELEVANCE DEFINITION The amount of awareness Extent to which purchase Degree to which the KOL The distinct personality or The most engaged theme and engagement a KOL intent is driven by the KOL is associated with an characteristics