Arnold Ma, digital Marketing professional, focusing on the Chinese market, technology enthusiast, writer, speaker, podcast host (link), producer of the Daoinsights, and entrepreneur.
Travels from London
CEO and founder of the first and largest Chinese digital creative agency in Europe, Qumin, founded in 2012, with the mission to “open the world to China”, specializing in marketing to China by truly understanding Chinese people and culture.
The unprecedented growth and unparalleled development of China’s economy over the last 30 years brought about important changes within the society. The adaptability and global awareness of China’s younger generation are way beyond those of their ancestors, for example.
Young people have a newly found desire to be different, to express themselves by not conforming to public perceptions. Common beliefs embedded in communist China are the reason why “quite rebellious and not popular movements”, as defined by Arnold, started to emerge. These movements are known as subcultures.
Arnold recommends that brands should always bear in mind that “changes in China happen at a fast pace, people latch on to subcultures really quickly, they rapidly move on to new things and adapt to upcoming trends”. This means that new subcultures can emerge but also die very quickly, creating a very risky and volatile youth market. Thus, brands must be extremely careful when micro-targeting specific trends or subcultures.
Arnold Ma’s agency has been working with a wide variety of larger companies including Harrods, Skyscanner, TikTok, London’s China town, Sony, Eurostar, Manchester United and many others.
In addition to being quoted in various media outlets including the Financial Times, Campaign, Reuters, McKinsey, The Drum, and more, Arnold is regularly invited to deliver keynote speeches on China, most recently at YMS London, FUTR Europe, NKF Fintech Summit in Germany and the Data and Analytics Summit.
Topics of talks include:
- A glimpse of the future from China
- Your Digital Analytics Future Is In China Today
- Deviant Youths: Chinese Subcultures
- Chinese Youths – how to build hyper-relevant campaigns to attract Chinese students.
- How Chinese youths are traveling the world
- Dethroning WeChat, how short-form vertical video is changing Social Media in China
Arnold Ma discusses the effect of the Tiktok deal for its users outside China (2020)
Some comments Arnold Ma received in 2019:
Arnold Ma was magic at YMS London. He crafted a coherent message that combined his & Qumin’s extensive industry expertise with our audiences’ immediate needs. Not an easy task to do with 1,200+ audience on our Headline Stage. By combining insights, case studies, and an informal but highly focused presentation he gave the audience immediately useful takeaways around the future consumer in China and how brands could & should engage this ever-changing market. True learning took place.
Simon Eder – Founder, YMS Events
Arnold is a charismatic and knowledge speaker, and his passion for and knowledge of all things Chinese marketing shine through. He always brings a fresh opinion and up-to-date industry developments, and my clients leave his talks with information they can apply to their own business strategies and plans.
Jack Porteous – China-Britain Business Council
Arnold was such a great speaker at our first Europe Influencer Summit. With his great personality and good sense of humour he was able to give our audience useful take-aways and a unique perspective about the digital marketing industry and its opportunities in China. His keynote was practical, personal and interesting. Arnold was a great value to our Europe Influencer Summit 2019, and we would love to welcome him again.
Fabian Ouwehand – Uplab / Europe Influencer Summit
Are you interested in more stories by Arnold Ma? Do check out this list.