ADMS Interview with Rand Han, MD of Resonance China:Creating very deep personal experiences

ADMS: Hi, Rand, thanks for accepting the interview! Please introduce yourself and your work in the digital marketing realm.

Rand: My name is Rand Han, and I work for Resonance China, actually I founded it in 2009, so, with Resonance we do a lot of social media marketing, community management, research strategy, lots of key opinion leader blog management and a lot of analytics and tracking. So, we worked with a lot of different fashion brands, fashion, luxury hotels, and spirits brands. And our core target is really focus on the Chinese high networking individuals and finding the brands that the high networking individuals will buy. Such as what do they wear? Where do they go out a party? You know, where do they travel? That’s the entire thing. And what we target those specific brands for the agencies, so as to give that holistic view in how to connect with all the audience in China.

ADMS: in your opinion, what are some of the most significant digital marketing tools or technology for digital marketers today？

Rand: The most significant tool is a difficult question, I mean in terms of tools we’ve got Weibo and Wechat, you know the usual suspects to meet the most important thing that marketers can do is really just understanding what their consumers are looking for, or where their customers are looking for, and then building campaigns around that. I think a lot of marketers, sometimes are go a little bit too far. I mean I think that brand is very important but also finding a point where that brand can connect with customers, I think that is the most important thing that they can do. The tools just enable it, and I think in terms of tools, for us, we use a lot of social media, you know, Weibo, Wechat, and we also use CIC quite a bit, they are a very good partner for us to do the data analysis and tracking, and we do use a couple of vendors here to get things going. But to me the most interesting thing and the thing that really led toward success was just a really big focus on understanding what the end consumer really wants and then building something around that.

ADMS: Do you think the current amount of digital marketing investment from brands is justified as digital marketing technologies in China continue to develop at a rapid pace? What do you think are some of the factors that contribute to this level of investment？

Rand: I think in terms of the current digital spend is justified, and I think it should grow in the future, but I think when we start looking at other places where money is being spent like traditional TV or on magazine, whatever you have. I think when you do a TV buy, it is simpler, you just buy a slot of space; but when you buy on digital, you know what you buying: you buying PBC, you buying SEO, banners, you buying this or that. So I think just like in terms of the spending on digital should increase, but I do not think brands totally know how to spend yet. Cos all the other channels are easier, but on digital it is a little bit more complex. I think in the future there should be a lot more spending on digital, but before that, we just need to figure out the best way to spends. You know, that best way of spending is not necessary the same for one brand versus another brand: FMCG versus luxury, or a coffee company versus a car company, may not be exactly the same way that you expend, versus that if you spend on outdoor, or on per rental TV, it could be somewhere similar in terms of how you spend, but versus on digital, it is a totally different game plan. So I think it is really about figuring out that first. In the future, I hope that does increase, I mean, that is you know for my own company, but I think in the future, taking that buyer’s way, I think it will increase naturally as well. People are spending more time on digital, though they may still spend a lot of time on other channels, I think digital is gonna take a larger part of their attentions.

ADMS: What do you think would help further drive spending from brand advertisers in digital in China？

Rand: I think, you know when you talk to a lot of the brands what they are looking for, it is kind of the way forward, you know, they do not really know exactly what to be doing, so they look at case studies for what other brands are doing, in kind of go along that line. I think the way that gets brands to spend more is just figuring out what is the best way to do that spending, or to prove that certain spending can really connect with the audience. I think it is like you know the audience is getting older, coz in the beginning digital is all for younger teenagers whatever, but now as audience are getting older, like in the next ten years or twenty years, you know, those you gonna like forty years old, people on the internet has been the big bulk of the internet, and then they also be on the internet more than they are looking at other channels, and on that point, I think digital spending will increase rapidly. I think right now, when you look at a lot of digital spending, brands can still reach their target audience, but not all brands can reach their targeted audiences. I think it is partly because brands own knowledge on how to spend, and on the other side, the consumers are becoming the population on the internet, and their savvy of being able to connect with the brand on that channel. So I think it is a time thing, and that still needs some time, but at the end of the day, it is gonna be in the favor of digital, I am sure.

ADMS: What do you think of the current application of social media or innovation with respect to digital marketing in China? Could you share some interesting case studies with us？

Rand: you know, there are a lot of different types of cases already there. Just from the luxury side, we have got Burberry has been doing a great job, coach is doing quite well too, adidas just launched a new app which helps them to connect with other runners in their community. So, I mean like when we start looking at some of these case studies, sometimes we see case studies that are really just getting the name out there, get the name ,get the awareness out there. It’s been about creating an experience where it’s inherently social and then the campaign or Apps whatever was created. It’s really there to facilitate people meeting with each other, and then those people having the experience and that experiences meeting each other and then going on to have another experience, this is really the branding. I won’t go on to any specific points. Just general speaking, when you go over everything, you got these big brands that are doing really beautiful branding campaigns. But the more interesting stuff is really just those that create very deep personal experiences in smaller group of people, but then skilling that to a large group of people looking for smaller and localized experiences.

ADMS: What are your expectations and wishes for the Asia Digital Marketing Summit in December this year？

I have a lot of hope that it will be something that stands out, something different from the other things that I have came before, a lot of conferences I think they are great but they don’t really engage people on a level that you really want them to be engaged at. So, hopefully would this conference we’ll see a lot of engagement, see a lot of people coming away with wild eyes and feeling the value that they will receive from it. I don’t think we should go toward super lofty goals, I think we should just go for training people on the most basic elements as well as just making sure that they got the tools to succeed in the future. in addition to give them a bright light to show where is the way forward, I think there are a lot of things that we can do, but I think the most important thing is just figuring out how to take out all those different things that we can do and categorize them and present them in such a way, that people definitely want to get in there, and once everything is put together, that people can talk to each other as well..