iClick's "iAudience" Identifies Three New Categories of Chinese Overseas Travelers

White Paper findings encourage marketers to move beyond cliches and deploy more granularity to reach the highest spending segments of rapidly evolving group

HONG KONG, Nov. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- iClick Interactive Asia Group Limited ("iClick") (Nasdaq: ICLK), a leading independent online marketing technology platform in China, today released data in a White Paper entitled, "The Chinese Outbound Travel Shopper", which leverages the company's proprietary "iAudience" market intelligence platform to reveal trends about this highly sought after consumer segment.

The paper challenges the market segmentation that has been used traditionally and identifies three diverse and distinct groups of Chinese Overseas Travelers. The analysis also identifies some future trends, as well as discusses the implications for marketers of related industries.

The three segments that are identified in the new report are:

• The Dark Horse. Consists of travelers from the new first tier cities of Xi'an, Wuxi, Taiyuan, Wuhan, Hefei, Chengdu, Nanjing, Harbin and Kunming. The growth in outbound travel in 2017 surpassed that from the traditional first tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou.
• The Walking Wallet. This grouping is made up primarily of upper-middle-class females with a high spending power, who are interested in high-end fashion.
• The Awakened Generation. The third segment is made up of travelers born in the 90s, who are characterized by the "ME" culture.

Jointly issued with The Moodie Davitt Report, one of the world's most successful multi-media business-to-business publishers and information providers, the White Paper draws its research from iClick's proprietary market intelligence platform,  iAudience, which boasts 750+ million internet users anonymously profiled and reviewed in China each month. The data, which is never linked to a name or personal details, includes which websites the individuals typically visit to shop for certain products and services, the articles they read online, and the content they consume and share with their friends via social media.

The paper identifies how spending volumes from Chinese travelers, a group that attracts a lot of attention due to the size of the collective wallet, continues to grow and evolve. It also suggests that a conventional strategy of market segmentation by generational demographics, such as "Millennials", may not prove successful given that it will not target the actual profiles of this particular segment accurately enough.

"The traditional style of market segmentation is not compatible with the current Chinese landscape. Based on iClick's experience in the travel retail segment and our proprietary market intelligence platform, iAudience, we believe marketers need a more granular approach to effectively target this group," said iClick CEO Sammy Hsieh. "The findings from this report also demonstrate the powerful and extraordinary capabilities of our data, which can be leveraged by marketers from all sectors to generate insights specific to their industries."

"We're proud to have been chosen by iClick to publish this compelling thought leadership document," said Martin Moodie, Founder & Chairman, The Moodie Davitt Report. "This White Paper attempts to explore beyond the cliches, to consider not just the tourism and spending numbers and projections but to examine consumer dynamics, varying customer profiles, and key behavioural components, including travel and shopping trends."

As well as suggesting what the potential implications of these findings are for marketers, the White Paper delves into the trends that are likely to affect this market in the period ahead. iClick's future predictions of Chinese Overseas Travelers includes a continued spike in numbers within this group, but seeing them prefer more diverse destinations, as well as a shift towards spending on more expensive products and a move from "landmark based travel" to "experiential travel." The Paper also predicts that business travelers will represent a growing proportion of this segment due to The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which is generating economic opportunities throughout the region.

This White Paper is yet another example of how iClick is helping marketers in the international travel and hospitality sectors reach the right audience in China. Earlier this year, iClick launched its data-driven business intelligence solutions platform to enable its customers to collate information to develop a more sophisticated understanding of their customer journey.

Visit www.i-click.com/download/chinatravelshopperwhitepaper/ to view the White Paper.

About iClick Interactive Asia Limited

iClick Interactive Asia Group Limited (Nasdaq:ICLK) is an independent online marketing technology platform that connects worldwide marketers with audiences in China. Built on cutting-edge technologies, our proprietary platform possesses omni-channel marketing capabilities and fulfills various marketing objectives in a data-driven and automated manner, helping both international and domestic marketers reach their target audiences in China. Headquartered in Hong Kong, iClick Interactive was established in 2009, currently operating in eight locations worldwide including Asia and London.

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