InsightsStrategy
Entering France: acceptance before scale
A foreign brand does not take hold in France by buying visibility. It takes hold by being adopted by a community, then by scaling. What we learned preparing MelGeek’s arrival and working with Asian publishers.
- 1,000+
- leads collected for MelGeek before launch
- 222,000
- visitors at Japan Expo 2026, approximately
Three workstreams, at the same time
The temptation is to proceed in order: adapt the product, then distribute it, then communicate. All three move forward together, ahead of commercial launch: the product, the brand’s desirability and its first French ecosystem. The product remains the brand’s business. We tell the brand what the French market expects of it (for MelGeek, an AZERTY layout) and we build its adoption.
For MelGeek, a Chinese gaming keyboard brand, that meant defining an AZERTY variant with the brand, designing a first drop, being present at Japan Expo, bringing creators together around the product and signing a collaboration with Sheshounet. The outcome of that phase: more than 1,000 leads collected and more than 40 creators brought together.
Start small, and show up in person
With Asian publishers, we almost always suggest starting with a first, focused campaign. It shows how we work, it limits coordination costs, and it establishes what is most lacking at a distance: trust.
Two habits help. First, we go there: we were in Shanghai and Shenzhen in summer 2026 to meet publishers and studios. Second, we rewrite briefs: an automatically translated brief produces ambiguities, which French creators then pay for in back-and-forth. We rephrase them for the local context before passing them on. Two of the campaigns detailed on the Influence page, Honkai: Star Rail and NTE, are games from Asian publishers.
The best dates go early
Japan Expo drew about 222,000 visitors in July 2026. A booth there is negotiated and built months ahead. Creators’ fourth-quarter slots fill up quickly: booking several integrations at once gives both sides predictability. A brand that turns up in autumn for Christmas often arrives too late for the best slots.
Direct or through an agency
A publisher can contact creators one by one. It will find that most of those it is targeting are represented, and that it is therefore talking to agencies anyway. In its position, we would pick a few trusted agencies per market rather than direct outreach: it also saves time.