Feishu Shen Nuo Shen Chen Gang: On the new maritime route of going overseas, brand awareness is becoming measurable.

Ask AI · How does brand awareness quantification reshape the growth path for outbound companies?

Abandoning traffic narratives, how else can Chinese brands’ overseas stories be written?

This year, a consensus from the outbound industry is that the narrative logic of Chinese brands going abroad may undergo a more thorough reconstruction.

After bidding farewell to traffic shallow waters, growth is no longer the sole keyword. Instead, it is a comprehensive test of brand strength, product strength, organizational capability, and digital efficiency.

Meanwhile, the anxiety among outbound companies is also shifting.

In the past, high-frequency questions always revolved around the survival methodology from “0 to 1”: How to comply? How to create viral products? How to buy traffic? Now, the questions have shifted to “How to take root after establishing oneself? How to withdraw from price wars? How to compete with top-tier brands?”

Ultimately, all thoughts point to the same core: “What is my brand worth in the minds of overseas consumers?”

This is an era where “the more internationalized, the more localization is needed.” To take root and sprout in a strange cultural soil and cross cycles, one must break free from homogeneous fierce competition and occupy consumers’ minds long-term through quantifiable, decision-driven, manageable means.

As a leading marketing service provider that has served over 100k outbound companies, Feishu Shenno is undoubtedly a keen observer of this era, continuously sensing industry shifts on the front line of brand globalization over the past 12 years. Facing the current widespread dilemma of “more advertising spend but slower growth,” this company is also committed to helping more brands find breakthrough points for new outbound narratives.

By deconstructing the capability genes of the new generation of “outbound champions,” Feishu Shenno Group’s sub-brand BeyondClick, focused on e-commerce and brand outbound marketing, in collaboration with Ipsos, has built and iterated the D-MES capability model, aiming to cool industry anxiety from a rational investment and scientific management perspective.

To this end, 36Kr interviewed Shen Chenggang, founder and CEO of Feishu Shenno Group, to help outbound companies make fundamental reflections and strategic shifts regarding marketing investment before venturing into further unknown waters.

In the interview, Shen Chenggang emphasized that in this turbulent industry, Feishu Shenno “has always kept in sync with outbound companies,” and its value lies in “being at the forefront of outbound companies, serving as a pioneer, paving the way, and building foundational infrastructure.”

Founder and CEO of Feishu Shenno Group Shen Chenggang

And after the tide of traffic recedes, Feishu Shenno’s own evolution logic also becomes a true reflection of the changing demands of China’s outbound forces in their leap from “buying traffic, selling viral products” to “building global brands.”

Below is the transcript of the interview between 36Kr and Shen Chenggang, edited for clarity:

01 A new batch of sailors begins to say goodbye to the “old route”

36Kr: At the beginning of the year, Feishu Shenno released the list of the “Top 50 Emerging Chinese Consumer Brands Going Global by 2025” (MeetBrands). Compared to companies that succeeded in going abroad five to ten years ago, what are the differences in capabilities and growth paths among today’s emerging brands?

Shen Chenggang: Compared to early outbound companies, I think the new generation of brands on the list shows several notable features. First, the category distribution is more diverse. Now, our outbound companies have penetrated more into the growth markets of global consumption patterns, discovering and exploring more business opportunities. Second, the product innovation capability has significantly improved. For example, in the 3C sector, products like robotic vacuum cleaners have made obvious technological and experiential leaps compared to a few years ago.

Third, and very importantly, there is a substantial increase in awareness of brand building. Companies are no longer just focused on selling products but are beginning to think about how to establish sustainable competitive advantages. We observe some outbound brands appearing repeatedly in our Top 50 list, even “graduating early” to become top-tier brands. For instance, Insta360 initially relied mainly on product strength to break through in early stages, but in recent years, its brand strength has greatly increased.

Beyond external observable product and brand strength, the deeper difference lies in the level of internal digital application and organizational capability. How outbound companies manage overseas teams, how quickly they respond to and iterate on user needs—these underlying digital operational capabilities are becoming the foundation for brands to go further and longer, reflecting a shift from “opportunity-driven” to “capability-driven” outbound models.

36Kr: Recently, many outbound brands face common issues, such as increased advertising spend but slowing GMV growth. How do you view this phenomenon?

Shen Chenggang: This is a clear signal and inevitable result of intensified global competition. We see that cross-border digital transactions worldwide are growing, and many are rushing into the high-growth cross-border e-commerce track. However, traffic on global platforms is limited. The competition among global players exceeds the natural growth rate of platform traffic, causing traffic prices to rise.

But more critically, many companies are still using a “short-term ROI” logic to operate in markets that have entered a long-term competitive stage. They often confuse “sales investment” with “brand investment.” We need to separate these concepts: Are your investments aimed at short-term sales conversions, or at long-term brand awareness? Previously, everyone pursued ROI, like “spend one dollar on ads, earn three dollars back,” which is a sales-oriented advertising model. But if you still rely on this short-cycle return approach, you will hit a ceiling. When you treat “investment” as a long-term brand asset, its returns may only be reflected in overall sales after three months, six months, or even a year. Therefore, traffic inefficiency or slowing GMV growth is a key signal indicating that the stage of traffic monetization is passing, and companies need to fundamentally rethink their advertising strategies.

36Kr: In response to this signal, what fundamental adjustments do you think outbound companies need to make in their management approach?

Shen Chenggang: Transition from purely tactical traffic monetization to strategic user asset and brand value building. That is, shifting focus from short-term ROI to balancing short-term sales and long-term brand investment.

Although refined operations and technological means can improve efficiency and ease some growth pressures in the short term, they fundamentally address “how to use existing traffic more efficiently,” not “where does growth come from.” After traffic dividends fade, business owners need to think more about how to turn part of their investments into long-term brand and user mindshare assets. This is also what Feishu Shenno, as an outbound marketing consultant and technology service provider, has been helping clients do—finding a more reasonable investment structure between short-term conversions and long-term branding, and making better strategic decisions.

36Kr: Compared to top-tier international brands, where do emerging outbound brands mainly lag behind or have shortcomings?

Shen Chenggang: I believe the main gap compared to top-tier brands is in “the ability to continuously connect with consumers,” which still needs validation. We see many brands quickly achieve explosive sales of a single product in a market or country—an excellent start from “0 to 1”—but whether this success can be sustained is uncertain. Can you repeatedly replicate this success in the same market and among the same demographic? Is consumer recognition of your brand also steadily increasing? These questions test the overall evolution of product, marketing, organization, and digital capabilities. Currently, only a few leading outbound brands have validated this stage. For emerging brands, establishing a brand—whether it’s just a fleeting phenomenon or a sustainable competitive advantage—is the key.

A significant challenge for sustained competitiveness is that many emerging brands still have gaps in understanding and engaging with overseas consumers deeply. For example, domestic top brands’ success in China cannot be directly copied overseas. The real challenge is whether you truly understand users in different markets and are willing to redefine products for them. These are essentially localization challenges, which also drive product design and development. For instance, in the case of electric vehicles going abroad, understanding local user habits involves more than just whether the steering is on the left or right side; it also involves many localized perceptions.

The more internationalized, the more localization is needed. Currently, most emerging outbound brands have not yet faced these tests. Solving these localization issues has no textbook; it must be cultivated through practical experience by international brand teams. Therefore, we still have many battles ahead. Our advantage in outbound branding lies in continuous progress—those who can adapt and iterate faster when encountering problems will become the core differentiator for brands going global.

02 Crossing shallow waters, seeking the “deep sea” of brand strength

36Kr: Regarding the difficulty of quantifying brand capabilities, Feishu Shenno’s sub-brand BeyondClick, in collaboration with Ipsos, has proposed and upgraded the D-MES assessment system. How should outbound companies at different stages focus on these four capabilities?

Shen Chenggang: For outbound companies aiming to become global brands, the four dimensions of the D-MES model—digital intelligence capability, mental influence, product innovation, and commercial conversion—must be considered simultaneously, like a well-rounded development of “virtue, intelligence, physical education, aesthetics, and labor.” But in different lifecycle stages, the investment focus of brands is actually dynamic. In the early stage, the main issues are “can the product run smoothly” and “can conversions be achieved,” which is about validating from “0 to 1.” Once a single product succeeds, the growth logic shifts—what determines the ceiling is no longer just conversion efficiency but the brand’s position in users’ minds. At this point, the focus should be on brand influence on consumer cognition and how to leverage organizational digital capabilities to build sustainable core competitiveness. Feishu Shenno’s role is to help companies assess and analyze which stage they are in and identify their shortfalls. We provide industry benchmarks, allowing companies to clearly see their position in the industry, identify their strengths and weaknesses, and find the optimal resource investment balance for their current stage.

36Kr: Among these four capabilities, the investment in brand mental influence is probably the hardest to quantify. In a pragmatic business environment, how does Feishu Shenno help clients “calculate the brand account”?

Shen Chenggang: This is a very cutting-edge industry topic. From past experience, brand measurement has often been “more art than science,” relying heavily on subjective perceptions. But with digitalization and AI capabilities, the path is becoming clearer: previously, we could only look at sales feedback at different stages, but now we can access more granular data—search volume, social buzz, user reputation, and even conduct global online surveys. Based on these data, we can build a quantitative model to measure brand changes and relate it to sales and growth impacts, covering short-term sales as well as medium- and long-term effects.

Most brand investments do not immediately translate into direct conversions, but they gradually influence user goodwill, ultimately reflected in repurchase rates, conversion rates, and user reviews. However, industry-wide, quantifying brand mental influence is still in exploration, and true quantification requires more time for validation.

36Kr: From initially being a “traffic seller” to today becoming a full-chain brand marketing service provider, and experiencing different outbound cycles, do you think the current pain points of traffic are cyclical or irreversible?

Shen Chenggang: The shift from relying on traffic to building brands, and further to deepening digital capabilities, is an irreversible trend of the times. The development history of Feishu Shenno reflects the evolution of customer needs, and our service capabilities’ changes and leaps also confirm this.

In early stages, traffic dividends are obvious, and companies need rapid user acquisition, so we provide global media resources and placement capabilities. As competition intensifies, companies seek higher advertising efficiency, and we strengthen capabilities in ad operations and digital creativity. In recent years, client needs have changed significantly—they no longer just want “more accurate targeting,” but also “how to build localized brands and improve overall operational efficiency.” In this context, we have also invested early in underlying digital capabilities and integrated marketing systems.

Feishu Shenno has always positioned itself as a “paving road builder” and infrastructure provider for outbound companies. We aim to always “stay one or two steps ahead of clients,” investing early to address future challenges and counter irreversible industry trends. At this stage, only by advancing more decisively and quickly in branding and digitalization can we maintain long-term competitiveness.

36Kr: As a highly productized digital marketing platform, how does BeyondClick incorporate AI into industry practice? What role does AI play in integrated marketing chains?

Shen Chenggang: First, we need to clarify that in brand marketing, AI’s essence remains an efficiency tool—it’s not a miracle or “panacea.” In our service architecture, AI’s efficiency gains are mainly in two layers: execution efficiency and decision-making efficiency.

On the execution side, tasks like generating video and graphic ad creative materials are now largely replaced by AI, reducing repetitive manual labor. On the decision side, AI mainly addresses “what is right to do.” For example, what kind of creative can improve ad effectiveness and conversions? If the decision is wrong, no matter how fast the execution, the results will be half as effective. Therefore, we leverage over ten years of accumulated massive data to train AI, enabling it to judge which creative strategies work better in specific industries and scenarios, and then guide subsequent actions. The results are validated and learned through continuous trial, error, and reinforcement learning, forming a cycle.

Based on this logic, we decompose marketing processes into strategic insights, digital creativity, media placement, ad optimization, integrated marketing, and user operations. In each segment, AI currently acts as an intelligent assistant to experts; connecting these intelligent agents creates a full-chain intelligent service. During this process, AI gradually takes over repetitive tasks and collaborates with experts on higher-level judgments, forming a “expert experience + AI system” deep human-machine synergy to improve operational efficiency and effectiveness.

03 The next station: becoming global infrastructure

36Kr: How do you view the recent emergence of Agentic Workflow (intelligent agent work flows) exemplified by OpenClaw and the concept of GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), and whether they will disrupt current advertising and marketing services in the short term?

Shen Chenggang: I believe the core value of OpenClaw lies in the evolution of intelligent agents in execution efficiency and user demand exploration, rather than a complete revolution. Regarding advertising forms, whether it’s the emerging GEO or other future forms, the fundamental logic of brand marketing remains: explore, understand, and match user needs. GEO can be seen as SEO in the AI era—traditional search is passive, waiting for users to input keywords; AI recommendations or conversational AI actively explore users’ deeper intentions during communication, with higher matching accuracy and proactive recommendations.

For example, if a user asks AI “What are the best noise-canceling headphones,” how does AI judge what “best” means? Is it noise cancellation, sound quality, or appearance? Its judgment is based on aggregated data from the entire web, but compared to traditional search, it continuously refines and narrows down user needs through dialogue—asking about usage scenarios, music preferences, budget, etc. Therefore, brands need to discover and understand AI’s judgment standards and feed relevant product information—reviews, technical patents, awards, brand scale—that meet these standards.

But fundamentally, marketing still hinges on insight and judgment of user needs, based on understanding and matching. The rise of intelligent agents and GEO indeed lowers the cost, increases efficiency, and improves accuracy of insights and matching for both brands and users, but it cannot create user needs out of thin air. It’s a technological evolution, not a revolutionary leap.

36Kr: If tomorrow a major AI company invests heavily in brand marketing services, what “moats” can Feishu Shenno’s “money and technology” not buy?

Shen Chenggang: I believe Feishu Shenno has three barriers that new entrants cannot replicate in the short term.

First, over 12 years of historical data accumulation, which is the key “fuel” for training AI. Without a rich history of business data, no vertical large model can operate from scratch or understand the complexities and nuances of brand marketing industry quickly.

Second, the expert experience and operational know-how accumulated through service interactions and co-creation with clients. Currently, Feishu Shenno manages tens of thousands of marketing activities daily, which not only outputs high-quality industry data but more importantly, captures experience and lessons. Deep understanding of these iterative business scenarios is core to transforming expert knowledge into AI capabilities.

Third, the capacity to deploy scenarios across tens of thousands of clients simultaneously. No new service provider can instantly replicate Feishu Shenno’s operational scale and extensive service network—this scale itself is a massive engineering and service barrier. We will also embed this into our AI capabilities, forming a new competitive advantage. Data, operational experience, and client scale constitute the moat that makes Feishu Shenno irreplaceable.

36Kr: For growth-stage companies, how can they embed the products and solutions provided by service providers like Feishu Shenno into their long-term organizational capabilities and management assets?

Shen Chenggang: We mainly help companies build internal long-term capabilities and assets through three steps.

First, help them establish a correct digital foundation. Key points are “building it” and “building it correctly.” Many companies, in early digitalization, go astray due to improper paths—for example, they accumulate many users but lack effective tagging and segmentation; when scaling up, they find the foundation lacking, making them vulnerable to competitors. Our role is to guide companies onto the right digital construction path early on, laying a solid internal framework.

Second, through SaaS, we “rent out” our platform capabilities, helping clients quickly internalize understanding of digital marketing management processes. Clients don’t need to build their own systems; they can iterate directly on our platform. For small and medium enterprises, building their own digital capabilities can be cost-ineffective; our system, serving tens of thousands of clients, can amortize costs and provide proven organizational management experience from top-tier companies.

Third, on top of our layered AI models, we offer industry-specific foundational models. For example, we have a model tailored for the US market of 3C products, trained on extensive data. High-demand companies can build their own private models or intelligent agents based on this, adding their proprietary data to develop more personalized competitive advantages.

36Kr: In the future, what role do you hope Feishu Shenno will play in the outbound industry?

Shen Chenggang: First, we see ourselves as a provider of marketing digital infrastructure—not only helping clients pave the way but also building “gas stations” and “dining zones” along the route, offering comprehensive capability bases at various stages. Next, we will further help clients develop more localized capabilities. Through our overseas offices, we assist clients in consolidating local knowledge, data, and capabilities. The core mission of Feishu Shenno remains unchanged: to support enterprise clients’ globalization by doing groundwork, paving roads, and enhancing operational efficiency. In the future, we will continue to serve Chinese outbound companies well and also help more local brands go global, because the marketing capabilities and technical support networks for globalization are reusable—this aligns with our long-term vision.

On the other hand, Feishu Shenno uses marketing as a core node to provide digital services via a platform connecting internal and external capabilities. To offer more comprehensive support, we also aim to root in various industry ecosystems, connecting more partners to jointly help outbound companies achieve global business success.