Acorn establishes KOL division to strengthen Chinese influencer offerings

Chinese marketing and branding company Acorn has launched a local Chinese influencer facilitator business A-KOL (Acorn Key Opinion Leader) to support Acorn's broader business elements. Tapping into the growth of the KOL economy in China - which refers to all activities relating to the monetisation of influencers and their impact on fans - Acorn is positioning A-KOL as a facilitator for the development of local China influencers. Ideally, the tool will optimise the ability to convert Acorn's content and product sales, which is distinct from Acorn's core social media management business. Various parts of Acorn frequently engage KOLs as part of its business growth, running in line with Acorn's business model of combining social media management, content creation and sales of its own as well as third-party brands through e-commerce. However, after establishing A-KOL, Acorn can now develop its own KOLs to support its business. Sections of the business that will be affected by A-Kol include Acorn Streaming, which monetises digital content, and Acorn Products, which houses Acorn's e-commerce business. "Acorn is bringing the lessons and experience from our prior dominance in direct-to-consumer marketing in TV media in China to direct-to-consumer via digital media. In the digital media and social media space, KOLs represent one of the most relevant and new types of media for conversion to product sales, and we believe they will play an important part in our business going forward," said Jacob A. Fisch, CEO and president of Acorn.