• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, December 14, 2011

The most buzzed-about brand by Chinese youths was Apple Computer. That's according a new report from GroupM China and social media research company CIC. For the first six months of 2011, Apple was the most buzzed-about brand by a factor of seven, per the research.

The findings were based on the activities of 2,000 users (born after 1980) of the Chinese social media platform Weibo, including 1.2 million tweets, 20,500 tags and the profiles of 44 million followers. 

Of the top-10 most buzzed-about brands, eight were American or European, including McDonald’s, Chanel, KFC, Nokia, BMW, LVMH and Nike. In addition, Tokyo-based Sony and HTC, the Taiwanese mobile phone marketer, made the cut. 

The most-followed brands on the Weibo site were also Western, including top-ranked UK condom maker Durex. The brand's humorous approach to messaging appealed to many followers, the report found. The quality most associated with second-ranked Starbucks was "warmth," while third-ranked sneaker marketer Adidas of Germany appealed to followers' sense of trendiness, per the findings.  

“With the evolution from social media to social business, it’s essential that brands understand this behavior and develop a social media strategy that engages this audience” stated Lucy Zhang, futures director, GroupM Knowledge China. “Brands that can skillfully participate in the online community to expand brand recognition and develop preference, loyalty and affinity can shorten the distance between themselves and their consumers.” Zhang added.

According to the report, areas of interest for Chinese young people are not that different from their Western counterparts, although No. 2-ranked astrology might be a differentiator. The top area of interest is music. Number three is “hanging out at home.” Movies and fashion round out the top five subject interests. 

While Western brands were buzzed about the most, in the celebrity category the most buzzworthy names hailed much closer to home. In fact, the top five most-mentioned celebrities were winners of talent competitions on Chinese television. Rounding out the top ten were other Chinese and Korean pop singers and film and TV stars.