Welcome To This Week's The Social Edition
Welcome to Jing Daily’s The Social Edition, previously The WeChat Edition. Our updated weekly newsletter has expanded its scope to go beyond WeChat and analyze brand initiatives across all of China's dynamic social media landscape. As China sets out on its road to recovery following the COVID-19 apex, brands must approach their digital strategies with awareness and care.
Every week, we will highlight brand campaigns distributed on Chinese digital platforms — WeChat, Weibo, Tmall, Douyin, and beyond. Our coverage focuses on global luxury brands, beauty brands, and local Chinese brands. The latter gives insight into some of China’s most successful campaigns, which often come from local players, and are outside of the beauty and fashion space.
In today’s edition, we look at three campaigns: from Dior's 520 campaign to homegrown fashion brand Peacebird's collaboration with astrology influencer. In our news section, be sure to review our article analyzing how fashion and beauty brands can use Bilibili.
THE JING DAILY TEAM
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CAMPAIGN
Dior 520 Campaign
BRAND Dior CATEGORY Luxury
PLATFORMS WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, Little Red Book
MEDIUM Imagery, Short Video, Mini Program
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OVERVIEW
Dior kicked off its 520 Chinese Valentine’s Day campaign at the end of April with limited edition releases of its Book Tote, J’Adior slingback pump, and Walk'n Dior sneaker adorned with Rosa Mutabilis embroidery, also known as China rose. One week later, the campaign continued with endorsement from celebrity couple Han Geng and Celina Jade, photographed in the brand’s limited Rosa Mutabilis products and latest Summer 2020 collection. On May 9, the brand’s WeChat account also rolled out a virtual boutique showcasing the house’s fine jewelry collections and timepieces.
As May 20 approached, Dior’s beauty line released a range of makeup, skincare, and fragrance gift boxes dedicated to Chinese Valentine’s Day on its WeChat Mini Program and Douyin e-boutique. Starring the brand’s China makeup ambassador Wang Ziwen, the beauty campaign “Love Confession Balloon” has been posted on the brand’s social accounts. Meanwhile, a campaign hashtag was launched with a special-effect filter on Douyin.
FEATURED TALENT
Han Geng (53.7M Weibo Followers) | Celine Jade (3.6M) | Wang Ziwen (20.5M)
NETIZEN REACTION
The campaign hashtag “520 Love Confession Balloon Challenge” on Douyin attracted 155,800 users to post their short videos with the campaign filter and garnered over 412 miilion views. The campaign post on Weibo featuring Wang Ziwen has seen over 38,900 total.
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VERDICT
Launched on Douyin in late 2018, Dior was the first luxury brand that tapped the short-video sharing platform and continuously tops Douyin’s luxury brand chart ranking. The house has not yet tapped e-commerce platforms like Tmall for either its fashion or beauty line, instead focusing on WeChat and Douyin systems. This strategy indicates that Dior is discerning in operating digital channels to maintain its brand identity.
To celebrate this year’s May 20 Day, Dior’s initiatives covered both the fashion and beauty sectors. The fashion campaign featuring a celebrity couple showcased the brands womenswear and menswear collections simultaneously, but also played into the Valentine’s Day theme. Whereas the fashion campaign promotion took a softer approach without leveraging strong social presence, Dior took to more tech-heavy integration for the beauty campaign. The special-effect beauty filter featuring red heart-shape balloons resonated well with Douyin’s young users. More importantly, the brand constructed a solid content-to-purchase loop with the launch of an e-beauty boutique inside the Douyin ecosystem.
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CAMPAIGN
Atelier Cologne Announced Brand Ambassador
BRAND Atelier Cologne CATEGORY Luxury Perfume
PLATFORMS WeChat, Weibo, Tmall
MEDIUM Short Film, Imagery
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OVERVIEW
French luxury perfume house Atelier Cologne under cosmetic conglomerate L'Oréal Group announced Taiwaniess actor Greg Hsu as its brand ambassador on May 1. The brand released a short film series “Citrus Dream” featuring Hsu to showcase its signature scents including Oolang Infini, Orange Sanguine, and Pomélo Paradisand. The announcement is also a warm-up for the brand’s 520 presale promotion on its Tmall flagship store. Additionally, the brand will launch a limited edition perfume set in collaboration with Hsu, consisting of a bottle of fragrance, a personalized leather case, and Hsu’s postcards.
FEATURED TALENT
Greg Hsu (4M Weibo Followers)
NETIZEN REACTION
Hsu’s endorsement resonates greatly with Chinese consumers though he is still an emerging actor with four million followers. He gained his recognition among Chinese audiences after his appearance in the Taiwaness drama “Someday Or One Day.” Weibo and WeChat users welcomed the campaign videos, with many saying Hsu’s personality perfectly matches the featured scents.
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VERDICT
While the dark side of China’s idol economy was unveiled when Xiao Zhan’s controversy embroiled by his irrational fans triggered boycotts on Xiao-promoted brands, celebrity endorsement plays a vital role in China’s digital marketing landscape, especially when it comes to driving online traffic and motivating social engagement. However, brands need to shift their idol selection to build up more diverse celebrity representation instead of solely eying young male idols. Atelier Cologne’s new ambassador does just that.
Similar to Acqua di Parma’s collaboration with Li Xian, Atelier Cologne appointed a male actor with a fresh and neutral look that can engage wider groups of consumers. Though Hsu’s social following numbers are relatively moderate compared to top tier celebrities, the parent company L'Oréal bets on his promising career in the near future, appointing him as brand ambassador for Kérastase and L'Oréal Men, in addition to Atelier Cologne.
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CAMPAIGN
Peacebird 520 Campaign
BRAND Peacebird CATEGORY Fashion
PLATFORMS WeChat, Weibo, Little Red Book, Tmall
MEDIUM Imagery
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OVERVIEW
Homegrown fashion label Peacebird partnered with self-operated social media astrology account Tongdao Dashu, also known as Uncle’s Friends (同道大叔), to launch a 520 limited T-shirt series featuring twelve zodiacs. The special edition is available on both Peacebird womenswear and menswear Tmall flagship stores.
FEATURED TALENT
Tongdao Dashu (18.5M Weibo Followers)
NETIZEN REACTION
The campaign post on Peacebird Men’s WeChat account has received 10,700 views. With over 18.5 million Weibo followers, Tongdao Dashu is one of the most successful astrology self-operated social accounts in China. Featuring cartoon illustrations and witty astrology analysis, Tongdao Dashu’s WeChat posts can garner over 100,000 views. Thus the collaboration resonates with millions of Chinese millennial and Gen Z astrology fanatics.
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VERDICT
As China’s younger generations show strong interest in exploring how astrology informs their lives, zodiac-related campaigns and products can be an effective sales hook. Gucci’s monthly zodiac column on WeChat has proven to be a successful campaign that connects astrology contents with products. In addition to zodiac, Peacebird has launched over thirty collaborations over the past year, from Disney’s animated character Mulan to world-famous music talent Billie Eilish. As many local brands have become veterans of initiating crossover collaborations, global players can learn lessons from their flexibility and sensitivity to China’s youth trends and culture to hit the right chord.
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PICK OF THE WEEK...
How Fashion and Beauty Brands Can Use Bilibili
JING DAILY
Dubbed the Chinese equivalent of You Tube, Bilibili is a local video-sharing website where users can submit and view real-time comments. Its initial vertical market focused on anime, comics, and games, but Bilibili is now expanding into a wider range of fields — a shift that signals potential collaborative opportunities for fashion and beauty companies trying to optimize their digital strategies in China’s market. — Read More
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