The editors of Jing Daily picked the winners and losers of last week’s luxury and premium fashion campaigns on WeChat. We selected our choices based on pageviews (those with the most and the least), originality, and the level of engagement.
A WeChat account can be categorized as either a service account or a subscription account. A service account allows the brand to publish four times per month and to focus more on customer service, whereas a subscription account focuses on providing content and allows the brand to publish once a day. Because each brand may have more than one WeChat account, in this series we specify the type of account on which the campaign was published.
In the post for each one, we’ve included what we learned from the leaders and what valuable lessons could be learned from those campaigns that performed less well, in the hopes of offering some insights to guide luxury brands in creating a successful WeChat campaign.
We derived our data on pageviews from the WeChat industry monitoring software Curio Eye*, which monitors over 1,000 accounts in 15 different industries. Our pageviews report is based exclusively on data from this monitoring tool.
In the comments section below, tell us what you think were the best and worst campaigns of the week.
Winners of the Week:#
1. LV x Supreme use exclusivity to their extreme benefit#
Pageviews: 59,175
Account Type: Service account
When Supreme and LV products are made available in China, it's big news for the brand’s loyal fans. So when they collaborated on a pop-up shop, it was sure to be a hit. The shop was launched on June 30 (and was scheduled to be up through July 14) at a gallery in Beijing's 798 Art Zone. But the shop was so popular, it was forced to change its game plan within three days due to the difficulty in managing the crowds. LV and Supreme's creative solution won the day on WeChat. They published a lottery on LV's official WeChat account, and allowed a limited amount of fans to sign up each day for a chance to gain entry to the shop.
Considering that Supreme doesn’t have a presence on Chinese social media, LV’s WeChat is one of the few channels for them to keep their consumers updated. Leveraging social media for sought-after sale is the reason this this post achieved one of the highest pageviews among luxury brands last week. This is a win-win situation for both brands, according to Kim Leitzes, CEO of China KOL platform Parklu. 47 influencers have mentioned Louis Vuitton x Supreme in 63 posts, generating social media value of 6 million RMB (roughly USD882,000).
2. Gucci builds a new e-commerce platform made to fit the Chinese shopper#
Pageviews: 55,143
Account Type: Service account
“Offering you the shopping experience with no limitation of time or space.” So read a statement on Gucci's WeChat campaign page. Announcing the e-commerce news, Gucci did two posts, the first one made detailed accounts of how the new e-commerce platform is “made for China,” noting the local delivery service, online payment options, and customer service. The second post gives a list of gift recommendations with call to action buttons directly on the images to take readers to the specific product without delay. The two campaigns are both informative and visually rich, seamlessly inheriting Gucci’s distinct style, this is a can’t miss top performing WeChat campaign.
3. Dior puts the ‘celebrity effect’ to good use in promoting its Paris couture show#
Page view: 54,868
Account Type: Subscription account
Dior published 8 posts in total for its’ 2017-18 Fall/ Winter Haute Couture show, generating a cumulative pageview tally of roughly 300,000. Following up on the recent successes with live-streaming their fashion shows, Dior continued to offer first-hand streaming for fans during the Paris Haute couture show to experience the event up close. The live streaming, which lasted about 40 minutes, featured a host who conducted interviews with Chinese A-list stars including Liu Jialing, Zhang Ziyi, and brand ambassadors Angelababy and Huang Xuan.
We gave the weekly winner award to Dior not only for its original efforts but also for the brand's bold move in sweeping away the stereotypes of luxury couture. Needless to say, the live effect, showcasing celebrities in their Dior outfits, speaks much louder than pictures and promotional videos.
Losers of the Week:#
1. Roger Vivier's iconic brand ambassador Ines de la Fressange is a mystery to the Chinese#
Pageviews: 3647
Account Type: Service account
Roger Vivier’s nifty 7-day campaign with blogger Mr. Bags was a textbook WeChat campaign success, but we have to say we are a bit disappointed by the French fashion brand’s recent WeChat posts. The brand’s global ambassador, French style icon Ines de la Fressange, was the main focus for several posts, one of which featured Fressange in the classic Roger Vivier shoe. But while the foreign aristocrat may be a perfect face for the brand in France, where she's more of a known quantity, the foreign name didn’t resonate with local Chinese WeChat readers. It would have been advisable for Roger Vivier to give a bit more context and background on Fressange to incite the readers' interest, especially considering Roger Vivier has had success in telling the stories of local stars. One past campaign that gave readers 25 hours with Chinese fashion blogger Linda achieved more than 11,000 pageviews.
2. Givenchy's red carpet moment didn't get any steam from its star#
Pageviews: 1404
Account Type: Subscription account
Speaking of the star effect, another
anti-textbook example is Givenchy#
. We praise the brand’s initiative to do a monthly column featuring stars wearing Givenchy at different events. But the majority of the selected stars are household names in the West. The star effect lost its charm and instead created a divide with its Chinese consumers. The lesson? Always keep in mind of cultural context of your consumers.
3. Armani's video with Tang Wei was a bit too subtle to stand out on WeChat#
Pageviews: 2414
Account Type: Subscription account
To promote its 2017 Fall/ Winter Haute
Couture Show#
,
Armani#
made a memorable video featuring brand ambassador Tang Wei, who offered her first-person narrative while she was getting ready for the show. Tang Wei’s low voice, accompanied by violin and cello music embodied the essence of the brand, as Mr. Giorgio Armani put it himself: “Elegance is not about being noticed, it’s about being remembered.” The side effect? This hidden gem was so subtle that it got lost in the social media sea, and generated lower pageviews on WeChat than most of last week's other star-studded WeChat campaigns by luxury brands.
*While some brands have multiple accounts on Curio Eye, not all of them may currently be monitored.