Theo Epstein
Two-Time World Series Champion Executive | MLB Advisor & Arctos Sports Partners Executive-in-Residence | Leadership, Team-Building & Organizational Excellence
Chris Baker
Founder, Totem | China & APAC Marketing Strategist | Brand Strategy & Social Digital Innovation | 20+ Years Connecting Global and China Ecosystems
Chris Baker is one of the world's leading authorities on marketing in China and the APAC region, and the founder of Totem, a brand strategy and social digital agency with offices across Asia, North America, and Europe. With more than 20 years connecting global and China ecosystems, he has helped Apple, Volkswagen, Starbucks, Nike, Virgin, and Disney build strategies that work in the world's most digitally advanced market.
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Chris Baker biography
Chris Baker is one of the world’s most experienced practitioners at the intersection of brand strategy, digital marketing, and the China-global ecosystem. Over a career of more than 20 years centered on greater China and the APAC region, he has helped some of the world’s most recognizable brands understand, enter, and grow in the most digitally sophisticated consumer market on earth — and has developed a framework for why what happens in China consistently previews what will happen to global marketing five to ten years later.
As a marketing speaker, Baker is the founder of Totem, a brand strategy and social digital agency with offices in Hong Kong, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Shanghai, and Lisbon. Totem works with brands in China, across APAC, and globally, helping clients develop growth strategies that draw on the most advanced digital marketing practices in the world. Baker’s research and white papers — on topics including China’s digital ecosystem, direct-to-consumer branding, AI in marketing, and social commerce — have been downloaded more than one million times, and his annual China marketing reports are widely used as reference documents by global brand and marketing teams.
Baker grew up in Canada and moved to Hong Kong in the late 1990s, arriving at precisely the moment when China’s digital economy was beginning to form. His early career included building Global Sources’ B2B digital platform before Alibaba came to dominate the space, followed by seven-plus years founding and growing Eight Partnership, a brand and content agency that did pioneering social and digital work with Nokia, Apple, and Virgin Atlantic in China. After exiting Eight in 2009, he built and invested in web startups in China and spent a period as Head of Digital at MediaCom China, building digital strategy for Volkswagen, Swatch Group, and Tmall before founding Totem in 2014.
China as a Window into the Future of Marketing
Baker’s core intellectual contribution to marketing thinking is a thesis he has developed, tested, and refined over two decades: that China is not simply a large emerging market but the world’s leading laboratory for what marketing will look like everywhere. The country’s compressed digital transformation has produced consumer behaviors, platform dynamics, and brand-building models that the rest of the world is only beginning to encounter. Super-apps, social commerce, live-stream selling, hyper-personalized content at scale, and the collapse of the distinction between content and commerce have all emerged first in China and are now reshaping global marketing. For brands and marketers trying to understand where the industry is going, Baker argues, China is the most reliable window available.
His client work has spanned Apple, Volkswagen, Starbucks, Nike and Converse, Virgin, Omega and Swatch Group, Tencent, New Balance, and Disney, among many others. As a speaker, Chris Baker translates that experience into keynotes that give global marketing leaders, brand strategists, and business executives a clear and practically grounded view of what China’s evolution means for their category, their channels, and their consumers. Contact Aurum Speakers Bureau to book Chris Baker for your next event.
Chris Baker Speaking Videos
Chris Baker Keynote Topics
Baker's signature keynote presents the central thesis he has built his career around: that China is not simply the world's largest consumer market but its most advanced marketing laboratory, and that the behaviors, platforms, and brand dynamics taking hold there today will define global marketing over the next five to ten years. He walks audiences through the specific innovations that have emerged first in China — super-apps, social commerce, live-stream selling, the collapse of the content-commerce boundary — explains the consumer psychology and platform economics that drove them, and draws a clear line from those developments to what global marketers should be preparing for now. A keynote for marketing leaders who want to understand the future of their field from the one place where it is already happening.
The linear funnel is dead. In the most sophisticated markets, the consumer journey is now fully embedded in social platforms: discovery, consideration, purchase, and advocacy happening in a single environment without leaving an app. Baker examines how this model emerged in China, what the data shows about conversion rates and customer lifetime value when social commerce is done well, and what the transition means for brand investment, content strategy, and retail architecture in global markets that are now following the same path. Practical and grounded in real campaign data from his work with leading global brands, this keynote gives marketers a specific framework for where to invest and what to stop doing.
After 20 years of helping global brands enter and grow in China, Baker has a clear picture of the most common and most costly mistakes: treating WeChat like Facebook, trying to run global campaign templates in a market that requires entirely different approaches to content, community, and conversion, and misunderstanding the relationship between platform and brand in an ecosystem where the platform often has more consumer trust than the brand does. In this keynote he presents the specific mental model shifts that allow global brand teams to operate effectively in China, the platform dynamics that matter most, and the data from Totem's research that explains why some of the world's best marketing organizations consistently underperform in the market that should matter most to them.
Baker has spent recent years applying AI tools to marketing research and brand strategy at a scale that most agencies have not yet attempted, including Totem's 2024 white paper covering 170 countries using AI-powered market research. In this keynote he examines what AI is actually changing about brand strategy work, where human judgment remains irreplaceable, and how the most sophisticated marketing organizations are building AI into their processes in ways that compound competitive advantage rather than simply reduce headcount. Grounded in direct experience rather than commentary, this session is particularly valuable for senior marketing leaders navigating AI adoption decisions.
Speaker topics
FAQs on Booking Chris Baker
Why Chris Baker?
Booking Chris Baker gives your marketing audience access to someone who has spent 20 years inside China's digital ecosystem building real campaigns for real brands, not studying it from the outside. He has watched the major platforms emerge and evolve in real time, helped Apple, Volkswagen, Nike, and Starbucks navigate them, and developed a body of research that has been downloaded more than a million times. His keynotes connect the China story directly to what global marketers are facing right now, and they do it with the specificity and credibility that only comes from two decades of practitioner experience. Contact Aurum Speakers Bureau to check availability and fees.
What is Totem and what does it do?
Totem is the brand strategy and social digital agency Baker founded in 2014. The agency has offices in Hong Kong, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Shanghai, and Lisbon, and works with global brands on strategies that connect the China, APAC, and global ecosystems. Totem is known for its research publications, including annual reports on the Chinese digital marketing landscape, white papers on social commerce, direct-to-consumer branding, and AI in marketing, which have collectively been downloaded more than one million times. The agency has worked with some of the world's most recognizable brands, including Apple, Volkswagen, Starbucks, Nike, Tencent, New Balance, and Disney.
Why does China matter for global marketing strategy?
Baker's argument is that China matters not only because of its scale — the largest consumer internet market in the world — but because it is several years ahead of the rest of the world in terms of how digital platforms, social commerce, and consumer behavior have evolved. Super-apps, live-stream commerce, social-first retail, and AI-driven personalization at scale all emerged and matured in China before appearing in meaningful form elsewhere. Brands and marketing organizations that understand what has happened in China have a significant advantage in anticipating what will happen in their own markets. Baker's 20 years of practitioner experience in China give him a uniquely grounded version of this argument, backed by real campaign data and real client outcomes.
What topics does marketing speaker Chris Baker cover?
Chris Baker speaks on China and APAC as a window into the future of global marketing, social commerce and the new consumer journey, digital marketing in China and how global brands can operate more effectively there, AI and data in brand strategy, and the evolution of brand-building in a social-first, commerce-integrated world. He speaks in English, presents to both marketing-specialist and general business audiences, and tailors his content to the specific industry context and market challenges of each audience. Aurum Speakers Bureau can advise on the right topic for your event and provide full details on Chris Baker's speaking fees and availability.
How to book Chris Baker as a keynote speaker?
Aurum Speakers Bureau can help you book Chris Baker as a speaker for your next event, conference, or board meeting. Simply fill out our contact form to inquire about Chris Baker's availability for a speaking engagement. One of our booking agents will respond to your request immediately and contact the speaker to let them know you want to hire them. We will assist you with obtaining speaking fees, booking information, and confirming availability for Chris Baker or any other top keynote speaker or celebrity of your choice.
How much is Chris Baker speaking fee?
Chris Baker speaking fees are determined by several factors, including the event's date, whether it's a virtual or in-person event, the duration, format, preparation required for their speech, and more. The same applies to the cost to hire any other top expert speakers and celebrities. The Speaker Fee Range listed on our website is simply a guideline and is subject to change without notice. If you would like to hire Chris Baker to deliver a keynote speech for your event, please fill out the contact form or email us at info@aurumbureau.com with as much detail as possible. One of our experienced agents will get in touch with you and let you know exactly how much it will cost to book Chris Baker.
How can I contact Chris Baker?
We only work with Chris Baker on paid speaking engagements. Aurum Speakers Bureau can assist you in booking Chris Baker and will handle all negotiations, contracts, and logistics associated with having Chris Baker speak at your event. We will be your sole point of contact throughout the process. Get in touch with Aurum Speakers Bureau today, and we will reach out to any motivational speaker or celebrity you want to enquire about speaking at your event. If you wish to contact Chris Baker for any other reason, we will be unable to assist you as we are not authorized to provide personal contact information.
Can I book Chris Baker for a virtual keynote?
Yes, Chris Baker is available for virtual keynotes and webinars. To book Chris Baker for a virtual event, please complete the contact form or send us an email to inquire about the special fees for virtual engagements.
