Winning the Mindshare Game: Key Insights from Weibo's 2025 Business Partners Conference

1 Apr , 2025

AsiaPac Group's China Team representative Yoyo Zhu joined industry leaders at the 2025 Weibo Business Partners Conference, where the future of brand growth in China's competitive digital landscape took center stage.

Under the trending hashtag #可以买贵的但是不能买贵了# (It’s okay to buy expensive, but not okay to overpay), the event highlighted how today’s consumers demand transparency, value, and meaningful engagement from brands.

Three Pillars of Modern Brand Growth

1.  The Battle for Consumer Mindshare

Wu Mo, Vice President of Weibo Marketing, opened the conference with a compelling insight: “Brands are no longer competing on products alone—they’re competing for space in consumers’ minds.” He emphasized that modern shoppers prioritize smart spending, seeking brands that offer real differentiation rather than just flashy ads.

Brand equity isn’t just a slogan—it’s built through socially shareable, memorable content. To help brands navigate this, Weibo announced a joint white paper with Kantar, combining Weibo’s CIRCLE social data with Kantar’s MDS (Meaningful, Different, Salient) framework to decode consumer emotions.

Two standout case studies illustrated this shift:

• Xiaomi SU7 Ultra – Instead of generic car promotions, Xiaomi focused on real user pain points (like battery life and storage) and turned them into viral discussion points.
  

• General Motors’ GL8 – By tackling a common but overlooked issue—motion sickness—GM positioned its new model as a “4x Anti-Nausea Master Cabin”, sparking widespread engagement.

2.  Content Marketing: The New Growth Engine

Gu Jinfang, General Manager of Weibo’s Business Ecosystem, revealed that 2025 will be the year of content-driven marketing, urging agencies to shift from media buying to content creation. Brands must move beyond ads and embed themselves in cultural conversations—like the Paris Olympics, where Ili, Mengniu, and Anta leveraged real-time buzz to dominate social feeds.

One standout example was Bawang Tea Ji, a milk tea brand that transformed its “healthy lifestyle” positioning into a fan-driven movement. By engaging sports ambassadors (like Zheng Qinwen and Liu Xiang) and activating private communities, it turned users into brand advocates, proving that authentic content builds lasting loyalty.

3.  AI + Social: The Future of Engagement

With DeepSeek’s AI now integrated into Weibo’s search, brands can instantly detect consumer sentiment and optimize campaigns. Liu Zhi, Weibo’s Ads Product Lead, explained how AI-driven targeting reduces reliance on manual adjustments, making ads smarter and more efficient.

A panel discussion echoed this, with agency leaders like Wu Lei (Wuhan Zall Weibo) and Chen Gengtao (Shunfly Tech) highlighting Weibo’s unique interactive ecosystem, where hot searches can catapult brands into mainstream conversations.

AsiaPac Group's Winning Formula

As a top-performing Weibo partner, AsiaPac Group help brands implement these insights through:

• Cultural Strategy - Moving beyond generic ads to meaningful participation
  

• AI-Enhanced Planning - Leveraging Weibo's tools for predictive engagement

• Community Building - Developing authentic UGC ecosystems
  

For more information about our digital marketing solutions, feel free to contact us at:
Phone: +852 2771-7595
Email: info@asiapac.com.hk / info@adtechinno.com