Kantar and Alibaba Promise Marketing 'At China Speed'

Kantar has announced a partnership with Chinese eCommerce giant Alibaba Group, aiming 'to redefine brand building in China' via an integrated 'insight to activation' platform for CMOs.

The platform promises senior marketers the ability to 'develop, measure and optimise their marketing activities at 'China Speed' - the partners say that marketers of 'Chinese and global brands alike' see their marketing strategies 'outpaced by the scale, scope and speed of China's consumer market and media transformation'.

To begin with, the partnership will bring together 'fragmented' brand metrics into one platform, to allow more agile decisions and action. Behind the scenes, Kantar has mapped and validated Alibaba's Marketing KPI 'Consumer Asset' framework to its own broader portfolio of marketing KPIs, and is to launch under its own brand a new set of three solutions:

• Brand Measurement & Diagnosis will spot real-time brand trend / signals, linking brand status to its underlying drivers in real time - sources include Kantar Millward Brown's Brand Health Tracking and Kantar Worldpanel's penetration data.
• Brand Activation Guidance & Planning, using Kantar's advanced analytics to act immediately on these insights and target the right audiences; and
• Performance Measurement & Optimisation toolkits, for use in dynamic creative optimisation, campaign impact and ROI measurement - making use of existing solutions such as MB's LINK and ABCS.

Kantar CEO Eric Salama (pictured) says of the launch: 'The Chinese market is one of the most difficult and rewarding places in the world to do business. Our partnership with Alibaba is unique in the market place today. The combination of our proven IP and insights and capabilities with Alibaba's deep understanding of their half-billion plus strong consumer base will be a 'positive disrupter' for the Chinese marketing landscape, making it up to four times quicker for brands to understand and respond to the fast moving and evolving Chinese consumer's needs, and up to 40% more cost effective'. Alibaba CMO Chris Tung adds: 'Together we are creating the most powerful and advanced framework to differentiate brands and build growth'.

Alibaba, which has previously struck partnerships with companies including Nielsen and Unilever, and invested in data firms such as PlaceIQ, Shiji and SenseTime, notes in its press releases that it aims to be 'a company that lasts 102 years'. Web sites are at www.alibaba.com and www.kantar.com .