Long-awaited overseas expansion creates new opportunity for communicators, but will test the fitness of global and local agency models alike.

Five years ago, few analysts in the Western hemisphere bet that the aspirationally named Build Your Dreams (BYD) would soon overtake Tesla as the world's top electric vehicle (EV) maker. Last year, it sold 2.26 million battery-electric cars, handily beating Tesla's 1.63 million. 

BYD's rise, as well as the expansion of other EV brands like Nio, platform companies like Tencent, ByteDance and Shein, and hardware producers such as Xiaomi and DJI (a drone maker that has captured over 70% of the global consumer market), highlight that the 'Chinese brands going global' narrative is at last becoming reality.

It has happened despite an ongoing trade war with the US, restricted access to advanced technology, and generally weak worldwide economic momentum. The domestic market's slide since the pandemic has been a catalyst. For emerging sectors such as EV, mobile technology and renewable energy, "going global is a must", says Qu Hong, Greater China president at DJE Holdings, which houses Edelman and Zeno China Consulting.

For the beleaguered international agencies largely dependent on inbound multinational clients, this offers a potential lifeline. China's economic recovery in 2026 looks muted rather than dynamic, with a record-low GDP growth target of 4.5 to 5%.

 The market is adjusting to what Shawn Jiang Xiaofeng of the consultancy China Advocate calls "disciplined resilience". This mood was evident among other PR industry observers who spoke to Earned First: the dark days of 2025 may have passed, but consumers have emerged significantly more value conscious. Even as marketing and communications budgets start to return, so are businesses.   

US-based multinational PR investment, which all but dried up in 2025, is likely to remain extremely cautious, even at a time when it seems more necessary than ever. This climate has led international agencies to deliberately increase their ratio of Chinese clients, says Elan Shou, head of Asia and Greater China at Ruder Finn.

On the positive side, further pullback from US-based companies looks unlikely. One agency leader sees a softening of relations between China and the US, with the "most unpredictable period" in the past. Additionally, interest in China is growing from markets beyond the US including Latin America, Europe and the Middle East.

The wariness from many MNCs likely comes from the realisation that the days when 'international' status automatically conveyed premium quality are gone.

"People are tired of seeing the same big brands," says Shou. In the sports segment, for example, rather than automatically putting faith in the most expensive products, people are looking at newcomers and taking the time to understand their functions, she says. The same trend is evident in the beauty category, while in luxury the focus is shifting from conspicuous brand names to jewellery as a marker of status.

Success in tier-one markets no longer augurs success lower down. "Every market [within China] is different, so you have to build a close relationship with all the tiers of customers," Shou says, adding: "Chinese customers are confident that they know best."

Chinese businesses reflect this sentiment too. As multinational confidence sinks, Chinese confidence continues to rise, driven by the belief that the country is now an agile trailblazer. In consumer electronics, where multinationals can take a year to improve a product, domestic companies develop new ones in "one or two months", says Shou.

Until recently, Chinese companies tended to follow America's lead, notes Lydia Lee of Name Maker Consulting. "Now China is the innovator, with no template" to refer to. This is arguably where the market's biggest opportunity for the communications industry lies.

Shou says many Chinese companies started seriously looking beyond China post-Covid. Observing this trend, she launched a dedicated practice within the agency to support Chinese brands with global ambitions. Its revenue has grown fivefold in four years, with Southeast Asia and Europe a "huge focus" for clients.

"They want quick results before committing" - Shawn Jiang Xiaofeng, China Advocate

As they start to make good on their promises to challenge established multinationals, the relative strengths and weaknesses of local and international PR consultancies come into sharper focus. 

With 'going global' such a long time in the making, businesses now want to see fast results. "Chinese clients are ROI-driven and impatient," says Jiang. He sees demand centred on PR that drives revenue, as well as reputation management and crisis capabilities. In particular, "they want quick results before committing to multi-year contracts." 

This is something that international agencies are not always set up to deliver. Taking a Chinese brand global is about more than having a network with offices in the target markets. The pace and notoriously 'always on' working culture of Chinese companies can come as a shock to the system. It can mean thinking in terms of hours rather than days or weeks when it comes to deliverables.

The complexity, compliance requirements and multiple P&Ls typical of large networks can slow things down, as can infrastructural differences in areas like IT between China and other markets.

"The way international agencies are structured and how they define revenue limits the possibilities to drive sales," says Lee. Offering services based on an hourly rate can turn Chinese clients off. By contrast, Chinese agencies are more open to "creative" accounting and packaging of services and are willing to risk long timelines for payment — even though there are cases of firms going bankrupt in the process. Lee likens them to 7-Eleven convenience stores, willing to do and sell anything without sleeping.

That might be an exaggeration, but Chinese consultancies' flexibility combined with an apparent desire to build long-term relationships with often punishing clients pits them as serious competitors to global agency brands.

How can Chinese agencies take a brand global without a global network, you might wonder. It's a work in progress that can involve partnerships with local agencies in target markets, hiring individuals on the ground, or posting Chinese staff overseas. The big advantage is that they are used to Chinese companies and their way of doing things.

Lee cites BlueFocus as an example. To support a client's entry to Latin America, it reassigned two staff members from China to the market and made local hires. In other cases, she sees Chinese EV clients engaging local agencies in markets like the UK where staff have cross-cultural backgrounds and experience working with Chinese companies.

"No one wants to talk about time sheets, just budget and deliverables" - Elan Shou, Ruder Finn

Some international agencies are rethinking the way they operate to work with Chinese brands. Ruder Finn's Chinese Brands Going Abroad (CBGA) practice employs a 'building blocks' model comprising a China team, teams in local markets such as Germany, and a Singapore team that acts as a bridge between them to mitigate cultural clashes. It has a single P&L and claims to offer 24/7 coverage with added flexibility for staff in a bid to maintain reasonable working parameters.

"The German and Chinese teams don't understand each other," says Shou. "The team in Singapore understands the Chinese way of working. They can sense when a problem is coming."

She affirms that "Chinese clients are very demanding. No one wants to talk about timesheets, just budget and deliverables". She argues that although the willingness of local companies to accommodate all client demands could be seen as a positive thing, ultimately they "compromise too much". When an agency does that, "your profit margin is going to be low and you're not going to be able to hire very expensive people. That determines the service you can do." 

Lee sees the same issue. "When you become too tactical, the only thing you're competing on is price," she says. "When an agency can't make it up on strategic thinking, they make it up with the number of people on the team." Discounting only goes so far; even for restless Chinese clients, she expects creative strategy and execution, and the ability to build brand equity, to become a stronger differentiator between agencies.

This thinking will be vital for Chinese clients themselves to move up the value chain and be respected not for low prices but as premium brands, says Qu. "They need to focus on strategy, content and quality." Currently, this is where international networks still have the upper hand — but that could change. The ideal agency model is one that combines those elements with speed and the clear ability to grow a client's business, and achieving that is still anyone's game.

For most Chinese companies with global ambition, the journey is just beginning. Encouragingly, amid ever present geopolitical wrangling, much of the world, especially the Global South, is open to what they have to offer, with limited preconceptions around the 'Made in China' label. The international endeavours of Chinese brands could well lead to stronger Chinese agencies, which also have yet to go upstream.

The great "inbound-outbound swap" in the China market "will give Chinese agencies the push to be global as well", Jiang thinks. Until very recently, there was no market for such a proposition. "This is an opportunity for local agencies to shine."

By David Blecken ，Additional reporting by Arun Sudhaman