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Social media and big data have ‘fundamentally changed’ our society and will continue to do so as online platforms evolve. Businesses must adapt quickly to survive in the new internet environment or risk being left behind by competitors. A case in point is the Asian restaurant giant, Haidilao Hotpot.

Compared to what it is now, China’s restaurant business was still rather traditional in 2011. It made an effort to provide high-quality goods and allowed customers to spread the word about them. At that time, Haidilao Hot Pot made the decision to set itself apart from its rivals and provide the greatest customer service and communication possible. ‘Consumer is God’. For example, 24-hour service and free nail and hand care in the waiting area while queuing. Haidilao has shortened the emotional distance between itself and its customers through its comprehensive service and sincere attitude, increasing their loyalty and stickiness to Haidilao.

In such an environment, a post on Weibo about the feelings of Haidilao employees became popular. The author elaborated on the experience of feeling happy by providing the best service to customers at Haidilao, and the comment section was flooded with comments from satisfied customers.

A form of co-creation has resulted from the Internet’s decentralised nature and interactive features, increasing citizen involvement and participation in what appears to be a silent “revolution.” The popularity, reach, and simplicity of Weibo in the realm of economics are sufficient to bring about a revolution in marketing. Weibo’s open platform will provide Haidilao access to various revenue streams and assist Haidilao in keeping tabs on the price of its online advertising. The attention and opinions of the fans will help draw more attention to the business and immediately attract potential clients. Haidilao has had great success harnessing the beneficial effects of the internet to generate constant buzz in terms of word-of-mouth marketing.

However, the secret to Haidilao’s sustained success in recent years has been the UGC effect. Freedman makes the argument in one of his essays that the new economy brought on by the internet has made it possible for businesses to benefit off the unpaid labour of users, sometimes known as “user-generated content” (UGC). User-generated content (UGC) indicates a more collaborative form of creation while also being incredibly cost-effective as a way to produce free material, aiding advertisers and marketers in more precisely identifying and targeting their target market.

On the internet, Haidilao has cast a UGC “marketing net.” More devoted Haidilao fans are offering their advice on the Chinese social media sites Xiaohongshu and tiktok with postings like “Haidilao tiktok eating,” “Haidilao money-saving methods,” and others as a result of the variety of the restaurant’s cuisine and sauces. Even more, TIKTOK introduced a Haidilao money-saving competition, which inspired users in China to create impromptu videos and attracted over 100 million viewers worldwide.

While Haidilao has utilised this “huge net” to increase visibility and reap practical advantages, it has also provided TIKTOK with a wealth of information and content. Overall, it’s a win-win situation.

Users are delighted to contribute their cost-cutting advice, the media platform keeps reaping rewards for its content. And Haidilao hotpot restaurants, which operate like technology companies, still continue to widen their marketing net. According to Freedman, this is not a case of Orwellian “group mentality,” but rather a chance to use technology to tap into the creativity and ideas of millions of regular people.

Each brand today depends on attracting customers’ attention with the growth of technology and the many potential distractors that comes with it. Clients juggle multiple channels making it challenging for brands to keep an active audience. Therefore, branded content is the appropriate course to keep a brand’s customers engaged. Branded content means integrating media content and the advertiser’s brand to create awareness about the brand by infusing the brand and content that shares and informs about its values. Such is the story about the BBC StoryWorks, which works with branded content to facilitate international advertising for the BBC’s clients. BBC delivers branded content through innovative digital means and beautiful films for an attention-holding impact. Such a branded campaign is the BBC StoryWorks campaign from 2019 that encompasses how technology has changed our lives to promote Volkswagen Touareg. Volkswagen sponsored the content. It began with an outline of how technology has changed people’s lives, outlining how smartphones, comfort homes, to Volkswagen’s comfortable ride promote the idea that technology is a necessity and not a luxury.

The BBC StoryWorks’ “necessary perspectives” is branded content that illustrates how the media blends in with advertising. The content flows seamlessly from beginning to end to promote a brand through a story that resonates with the brand’s values. The advertiser, Volkswagen, sponsored the content so that BBC StoryWorks could build customer awareness about its new exclusive ride, Volkswagen. The “necessary perspectives” topic is essential in introducing the consumers to brand awareness in a subtle manner that does not draw their defense against promoted content. The story starts by faulting the initial technological stages when the digital transformation was expensive and people could not afford smartphones. The content also promotes the benefits of technology, including safety, comfort, and luxury, while introducing the concept of branding by mentioning cars, houses, and art spaces.

BBC StoryWorks has shown that brand sponsorship is a powerful awareness-creation tool. The consumers become aware of the advertiser’s product and are engaged in a dialogue about the ‘necessity’ and ‘value’ of a brand. The branded content exposes the consumers to brand enlightenment and stages when the digital transformation was expensive and people could not afford smartphones. The content also promotes the benefits of technology, including safety, quality, luxury, and living experiences. However, BBC StoryWorks introduces the concept of branding by mentioning cars, houses, and art spaces. The consumers get an awareness of the features of Volkswagen Touareg and why they need the luxury car model. The content creates a “necessity” concept where technology has become ubiquitous. It advances the claim that technological solutions are something that “everyone wants.” The detail in the content about the brand helps the consumers to build an emotional connection with it. Words such as Savona’s leather seats and sleek appearance gives the brand awareness that Volkswagen needed to sell its new product.

Brand sponsorship has enhanced the creation of branded content where advertisers can pay media companies to create a story that resonates with their products. The BBC StoryWorks is a powerful content creation BBC studio that integrates advertising and media’s innovative content through digitally available platforms. Brand sponsorship enables the creation of quality content that reflects the brand value, such as consumer awareness, quality, exclusive product offerings, and unique value systems. The “necessary perspectives” narrative offered by BBC StoryWorks is a culmination of editorial content that embeds brand ideals to create market value for Volkswagen. Every consumer relish a brand that tells a great story, explaining why content branding is here to stay.

The media industry has been caught up by the feminism wave. Banet-Weiser refers to this trend as popular feminism where every song, advertisement, or social media post aims to solve the challenges women face on the individual level. Feminism is a cultural and political concept awakening society to the struggles of a woman and the need to see that women’s challenges are visible in mainstream and alternative media. Interestingly, adverting media companies, including television networks, magazines, and the news media prefer the feminist agenda to push their commercial interests. Distinguishing the neoliberalist capital structure in media consumption and the push for reforms and change in advancing women’s rights has become cumbersome. Channel 4 is one of the greatest media firms in the United Kingdom. Its #LastLonelyMenopause campaign through its Diversity in Advertising, TENA,  offers a great opportunity to judge between commercial interests and feminism as a cultural and value concept.  

Channel 4 is a media company that supports diversity and inclusion because it is a public firm that does not major in the economic benefits of its commercial projects. The company relishes the opportunity to represent the voices of the unheard and observe the diversity within the UK. Channel 4 uses its strong brand presence and broad consumer reach to advance socially-benefiting messages. In its annual report 2021, Channel 4 indicated that it elevates unheard voices “from diverse communities, emerging writers and producers, to those who have different points of view or experiences.” The statement alludes to inclusivity, a value system, and the belief that feminism seeks the protection of women’s rights and amplifies their voices. Feminism disowns the media misogyny that dehumanizes women and advances hatred against them. However, the media competes with neoliberal power structures that benefit media owners and profit seekers.

The TENA’s#LastLonelyMenopause speaks to discrimination and isolation of women during menopause. The campaign raises the voice of women and rebukes the society that forgets women when they need them most and adjudicates its responsibility to accommodate the emotions of women at their most vulnerable moment. The advert advances the “coming of age” concerns for the anger and confusion that comes with menopause. Society does not seem to understand women undergoing menopause, a fact that #LastLonelyMenopause illuminates vividly and emphasizes that women’s experiences count. Women undergo many painful experiences during menopause which go unnoticed due to shame and indifference that society and media tolerate. Neoliberal capitalism has led feminism into a collision path with the profit motives of media companies. The #LastLonelyMenopaus is a call to end the plight of women facing trauma due to menopause, citing the challenges of mood changes and loneliness because no one seems to empathize with their condition. Although the campaign was well-intended and of good timing, we cannot be sure that Channel 4 did not use TENA as a production unit for its commercial interests.

In my view, Channel 4 had a genuine intention when distributing TENA’s production, #LastLonelyMenopaus. Looking at their commercial interests, Channel 4 reinvests all their profits into furnishing the British public with entertainment to transform their lives. Their profit-making projects and advertisement campaigns generate revenues that pay for the Broadcast news and film production meant for public entertainment and positive impact. I believe that its commercial interests do not mainly emanate from neoliberal capitalism that uses feminist campaigns to its advantage but uses profit gains from media consumption to fund projects that promote the public good. Channel 4 is a social enterprise that feminism needs to drive its message on women’s inclusivity and campaign for an end to menopause trauma.

China’s media industry consists of film, television, news media, sports, gaming, and music. The industry has strict regulations prohibiting foreign investors across almost all media sectors. Foreign film firms can, however, enter the Chinese media industry through co-productions. Even then, only two firms, China Film Group and Huaxia Film can directly import foreign films into China. The number of foreign films that can be bought or co-produced with foreign companies is under a quota of around 54 films, including the big productions by Hollywood. China does not seem to embrace free market principles in its media industry, given the direct media control by the state under strict communism principles that render the media industry a socialist venture.

The groups that possess material power control media’s ‘meaning-making’ and determine what ideologies circulate within society. According to Marx and Engels, the ruling class control the means of production, and the material and intellectual resources used by the rest of society. This is particularly the case in China, where those in powerful leadership positions determine media production and content consumed by the citizens. Socialism plays a significant part in influencing media content. According to Luo, the media channels such as CCTV television have to portray “the mainstream value of socialism” by balancing the expectations of the government, the ruling party, and the values of the Chinese people. Ming Hang and his co-authors established that Chinese media is also highly concentrated. The government regulates media content and broadcasting and strongly influences media ownership. State-owned enterprises like China Mobile and China Telecom control wireline and wireless telecommunication. The new media attracts private ownership. For example, Baidu and Sina.com are private entities. The media industry in China must advance a ‘true’ representation of The People’s Republic of China and its government to promote a positive image at any given opportunity.

The Chinese media industries are yet to gain their independence from censorship and the strong arm of the government. However, emerging trends point towards attempted democratization. According to McChesney, democracy exists when individuals express their political freedom and free speech. The Chinese citizens and the media companies are engaged in a never-ending battle of seeking freedom of expression and maintaining the censorship rules. The media users try to dodge the strict censorship rules by using synonyms and puns to overcome the expression of free speech and political opinions. Social media has become a leeway through which citizens can overcome the draconian regulations on media and communication.

The recent examples show an attempt by the Chinese citizens to fight to form their democratic space. For example, the #MeToo hashtag was banned in China in 2018 when the world was standing against sexual violence. The social media in China censored the campaign but internet users had a way to support the campaign by evading the censorship rules. People used Weibo to transmit messages that the social media companies like Weibo could not be held liable under censorship rules. The internet users adopted rice and bunny characters to craft a clever “mí”  “tù” to participate in the political debate and express their freedom of speech. Recently, Weibo also enabled Chinese internet users to send the message, “Wake up, sleeping people of the Netherlands!” The campaign was directed at Henan, where the government had committed irregularities by freezing bank deposits.

Although still far-fetched, the democratic space in China could develop with more media companies like Weibo creating space for people to use satire and irony to express their views.

Chanel 4 is a social enterprise that uses commercially viable entertainment services and reinvests the gains in the British public content, on a free-to-air basis. The television network funds its programs like News and British Film from commercial programs like Factual Entertainment, a phenomenon known as cross-funding. The content is commissioned from independent producers in the UK, which has seen Chanel 4 work with over 315 production firms yearly. The content features TV, digital streaming, and film, which is 36% of Chanel 4 spending on independent production content. The content is reflective of the diversity within the UK, with Chanel 4 aimed at representing the voiceless, reinventing entertainment, and enriching the culture and experiences of the people of the UK. The content is educative, informative, and entertaining, delivered in various forms, including streaming, TV, broadcasting, and film. That may change if Chanel 4 becomes a commercial television network.

In commercial television networks, the content and its form of presentation are largely economically driven. The content will mostly feature commercial advertising where viewers are subjected to television ads while watching The Great British Bake off. I would not be surprised to find a “Pepsi” advert invoking health benefits and perfect taste like the cakes baked by the amateurs on the show. The content will be twisted to reflect the new reality of television advertisements concurrently with the film and news broadcasting, or feature a story, celebrity, or “brand ambassadors” that represent or tell the story of a brand within a film or entertainment program. The advertising fees are lucrative ventures for commercial television with shows like Good Morning Britain fetching from £3,500 to £4,500 on ITV. The public information will erode to give way to corporate speech because the commercial interests of the television network and the advertisers will come first. Chanel 4 currently offers trustworthy public information without interference from corporate bodies. Their commercialisation will alter the media politics and culture to reflect corporate interests.

Privatization will also enhance the development of streaming content and online media as a form of delivery. With the growth of online communities, The Great British Bake off will generate more online revenue streams through subscriber subscriptions or a pay-per-view model to enhance revenue collection. The content will also feature cultural and political modification to illustrate the preference of the media owners or advertising corporates. For example, a commercial television advert may reflect the politically and culturally correct position during the COVID-19 pandemic to advance commercially driven messages for advertising detergents and sympathising with people affected by the pandemic. Another example is the “Open” diversity and inclusion campaign by Apple to associate the brand with the current developments in the political and cultural space to remain relevant to the consumers so that the firm can generate more sales.