Asia-Pacific Power List 2022: Chris Tung, Alibaba

Chris Tung

Chief marketing officer
Alibaba Group
China
Member since 2018

A Power List member since 2018, Tung has been at the helm of marketing for Alibaba since 2016, playing a key role in growing the Alibaba brand not just in Asia Pacific, but also around the world. Today, Alibaba’s platforms serve nearly 1.3 billion global consumers and 290,000 brands—including 80% of the consumer brands among the top 100 most valuable global brands.

During the pandemic, the Chinese tech giant focused most of its efforts on helping businesses large and small navigate and adapt to a more digitised world. For Tung, with so many brands on Alibaba's platforms, he increasingly views his role as ‘a CMO for CMOs’, and over the past two years in particular has dedicated a lot of his time to helping brand partners rethink the way they talk to their consumers.

Another key focus for Tung in the past year has been to build the Alibaba brand internationally, for which being a worldwide Olympic partner presented a prime opportunity. 2021 was a critical year for the Olympic movement with two Olympics back-to-back under unprecedented circumstances. Tung's team seized the opportunity to use Alibaba's brand voice as a beacon of hope during tough times. Ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, they launched a campaign called ‘Let Hope Shine, Brighter Together’, an ode to humanity’s resilience and unity in overcoming Covid. For Tung, this not only embodied the spirit of the Olympic Games, but also symbolised Alibaba's responsibility as a platform—to empower consumers and partners and help them see the light at the end of the tunnel despite challenging times.

Tung is a big believer in marketing for good, that is using marketing tactics to create positive social impact. And sustainability, for Tung, is an important aspect of that. Alibaba currently has several initiatives to get consumers and brands to take concrete actions. For example, during last year’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, Tung's team put ‘green consumption’ front-and-centre by launching a dedicated eco-friendly vertical on their flagship ecommerce platform Tmall. The vertical featured more than 500,000 products with official Green Product Certification from more than 2,000 merchants and brands.

Tung is a firm believer that marketing can be a powerful tool in raising consumer awareness and encouraging other business partners to join in. As an industry leader, he is optimistic about the future and the impact Alibaba can play in driving positive changes and building a more sustainable future.