Originally published by Ebrun (亿邦动力), this article covered the 2021 Ebrun Cross-Border E-commerce Conference – Brand Globalization Summit, where William Ren, Founder & CEO of GS Media (now GlobalStar), was invited as a guest speaker to deliver a keynote titled “How Global Brands Can Leverage Overseas KOLs to Break Through.”
At the summit, William shared GlobalStar’s insights on overseas creator marketing, platform strategy, and the emerging opportunity presented by TikTok.
Why Creator Marketing Matters for Global Brands
As Google, Facebook, and Amazon advertising costs continued to rise, brands expanding overseas were looking for new sources of growth.
William argued that overseas creator marketing is essential for Chinese brands seeking to break through internationally, helping them build:
- Brand awareness through creators’ trusted audiences and storytelling
- Product trust through authentic third-party endorsement
- Traffic and conversions through localized content and real-world use cases
“Creator marketing can help brands quickly build awareness, reputation, product trust, and ultimately drive conversion in overseas markets.”
The Overseas Market Was Several Years Behind China
One of William’s key observations was that overseas short-form video and livestream commerce were still 2–3 years behind China in development.
While China had already entered a highly mature livestream commerce era, overseas social media was still largely centered around video and visual content.
For brands entering international markets, this created an opportunity to learn from China’s development path and invest ahead of the curve.
William’s recommendation was straightforward:
Video first, visual content second—and start preparing early for livestream commerce.
Choosing the Right Platform
William highlighted different strengths across the three major platforms:
YouTube
With a large 25–54 audience, YouTube was particularly suitable for high-AOV products and brands targeting consumers aged 25+. Longer-form content also allowed creators to explain complex or premium products in greater depth.
Instagram
With a strong 18–34 audience, Instagram was particularly relevant for fashion, beauty, jewelry, and other visually driven categories. William recommended increasingly incorporating Reels and Stories as engagement on traditional image posts declined.
TikTok
William identified TikTok as the platform with the greatest emerging potential.
With a predominantly young audience, TikTok had captured the Gen Z consumer segment that would shape the next generation of global consumption.
TikTok: The Next Major Growth Opportunity
William compared TikTok’s development at the time to the early growth stage of Douyin in China.
As traditional digital advertising became increasingly expensive, TikTok offered brands two major advantages:
1. Lower traffic costs
TikTok was still in a significant growth phase, allowing brands to reach international audiences at a lower cost than more mature platforms.
2. Strong product discovery and brand seeding
High-quality content could generate millions of views while building brand awareness and consideration among Gen Z consumers.
William believed the emergence of TikTok represented a new media and distribution channel capable of creating opportunities for an entirely new generation of global brands.
Case Study: ShopCider
William highlighted ShopCider as a strong example of leveraging TikTok to reach Gen Z.
Positioned as a fashion brand for young women, ShopCider made TikTok one of its primary overseas marketing channels because the platform’s audience closely matched its target consumers.
The brand worked extensively with mid-tier creators and KOCs, using TikTok’s relatively low traffic costs to build awareness among Gen Z at scale.
GlobalStar’s North American team supported ShopCider in creator partnerships and negotiations. In one example, a creator with 6M followers initially quoted $25,000, while GlobalStar negotiated the rate down to $15,000, significantly reducing the brand’s acquisition cost.
Case Study: Florasis
William also shared GlobalStar’s 2020 collaboration with Florasis (花西子).
For a makeup gift set, GlobalStar’s North American team identified a promising TikTok beauty creator with a relatively small following but strong category relevance.
The resulting video generated 4.9M views.
The campaign cost just $1,350, achieving a reported $0.29 CPM—demonstrating the potential of TikTok creator marketing to generate outsized reach at a relatively low cost.
The Opportunity Ahead
William also highlighted broader challenges in overseas creator marketing, including opaque pricing, inconsistent industry standards, creator negotiations, and seasonal planning, particularly during the Q4 peak marketing period.
His conclusion was clear:
“For Chinese brands seeking to build global brands, overseas creator marketing is essential.”
Creator marketing can accelerate brand awareness, reputation, consumer trust, and conversion, while TikTok’s emergence creates a powerful opportunity for brands to gain an early-mover advantage.
“The rise of TikTok and this new media channel will create opportunities for a new generation of brands—and give them a chance to overtake established players.”
William closed by reaffirming GlobalStar’s mission: to help more outstanding Chinese brands go global and build lasting international influence.
