COLOGNE – If you want to understand what future social commerce will be, go to China. That’s the advice of Havas Global MD Dominique Delport.
“I think that we are on the verge of a massive transformation in the way brands are trading with people directly,” Delport says during a break at the 2017 DMEXCO advertising and trade show.
He cites as an example a consumer packaged-goods company doing business in China, where the social platform WeChat was released by Internet services provider Tencent in 2011 and has become a way of life for many young people.
“The first thing they tell me is, ‘Oh by the way, we’re doing fifty percent of our business through social networks.’ WeChat is not only one of the most impressive social networks, it’s also a massive social commerce platform,” Delport says in this interview with Beet.TV.
“So if you want to understand what social commerce will be, go to China. They’re already there.”
Peer-to-peer recommendation “is stronger than top-down advertising,” Delport adds. The bottom line for brands: they need to understand influencer marketing, content marketing and social comments “because all of these three components are working together.” An “influencer” doesn’t have to be at the awareness level of a Kardashian.
“An influencer is someone like me. I’m talking about everyone who can publish a video and push advice or the test of a product or service. This the way people will buy,” says Delport.
Recent surveys show that 50% of “very young consumers” would love to buy things on social networks with just one click, according to Delport.
“We are in an organic world now that needs organic marketing. This is exactly what we preach. You need to invent the tools and the measurements for that world where owned assets, earned assets, shared assets and paid assets have to work altogether.”
“Welcome to the Vibrant Future,” a video series of thought leadership from DMEXCO 2017 presented by Criteo. For more videos please visit this page.
