Reshaping Overseas Marketing with AI, Chinese Brands Are Shedding the "Low-Price" Label | The Frontline
Author | Huang Nan
Editor | Yuan Silai
Recently, the iPX 2025 China Overseas Marketing Summit hosted by impact.com was held in Shanghai. The event gathered over 600 industry representatives to discuss new paths for Chinese brands to go global around the AI technological transformation and the new global market landscape.
In the past two decades, from breakthroughs in AI technology to the rise of high - end manufacturing, from the innovation of smart hardware to the building of global brands, Chinese brands have been constantly reshaping their ecological niches. Jennifer Zhang, the Managing Director of impact.com Greater China, pointed out that the underlying logic driving this change is partnerships.
Currently, the effectiveness of the traditional customer acquisition model centered on traffic investment is weakening. On the contrary, partner marketing shows obvious advantages, establishing a differentiated competitive edge through lower customer acquisition costs, longer customer lifecycles, stronger brand equity, and the establishment of "brand identity". Especially for Generation Z and emerging consumer groups, partner marketing driven by communities and creators has become the key entry point to enter the target circles and build brand trust.
Jennifer Zhang, Managing Director of impact.com Greater China
With breakthroughs made by enterprises such as DeepSeek in the field of AI technology and the wide - spread application of generative AI tools like ChatGPT across various industries, the increasingly complex market competition situation and the diversified trend of consumer demand are jointly pushing marketing into the AI intelligent era.
Min Yong, the Chief Expert and Business Leader of CRM Cloud Solutions at SAP Greater China, pointed out that AI - supported refined user operations and DTC transformation can help brands shift from being "transaction - centered" to being "user - interaction - centered", building a "customer flywheel" to improve repurchase and lifecycle value.
Against this background, impact.com has also upgraded its products, focusing on four major aspects to improve the efficiency of partner marketing with AI and automation technologies.
Frank Kochenash, Head of Retail Media Business at impact.com
Firstly, the front - end of the platform has been comprehensively redesigned, which can enhance the user operation experience through a more intuitive interface and charts. Secondly, the intelligent assistant "Ask Impact" has been launched, which can provide partner recommendations, industry answers, and data insights, and embed AI capabilities into content creation and intelligent search. It can understand user intentions through natural language, improving matching efficiency and personalization.
Meanwhile, impact.com has introduced an intelligent agent framework to handle automated repetitive tasks, such as the process of recruiting partners, and upgraded the creator management tool, supporting sentiment analysis, geographical screening, and AI - generated task sheets to improve campaign effectiveness and brand safety.
In addition, the platform has also launched the "Product Boost" retail media solution, extending partner marketing to retail platforms. Brands can promote the preferential promotion of specific products through commission incentives to explore new growth channels.
The scene of the iPX 2025 China Summit
Many participating guests emphasized that Chinese brands are at a critical stage of transformation from "Made in China" to "Created in China". They need to get rid of the low - price label and reshape their international image based on product innovation, design ability, and quality. Facing mature markets such as the United States, where the user decision - making path is complex, enterprises need to build a multi - touchpoint partner matrix and pay attention to local communication to conduct in - depth cultural context construction so as to truly integrate into the local market.