The Social Edition is our weekly series which deep dives into luxury initiatives in China’s social media landscape. Every week, we highlight brand campaigns distributed on Chinese digital platforms — WeChat, Weibo, Tmall, Douyin, and beyond.
Our coverage spotlights global luxury brands, global 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 this week’s roundup, we look at three campaigns, including the Cartier Contemporary Art Foundation's newly unveiled exhibition "Trees," C-beauty brand INTO YOU's pop-up store, and Lemaire's installation project at Dover Street Market Beijing.
Cartier Touts Sustainability Via Art Exhibition#
BRAND#
Cartier
CATEGORY#
Luxury Jewelry
PLATFORMS#
Weibo, WeChat
MEDIUM#
Short-video, Livestream, Offline Exhibition
OVERVIEW#
The Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain is unveiling an exhibition titled "Trees" in collaboration with the Shanghai Power Station of Art, from July 9 to October 10. The show focuses on one of the oldest creatures in the world (trees, of course) to map out three narratives — scientific knowledge, aesthetics, and ecologic tragedy — and features over 200 multidisciplinary art pieces from 30 artists worldwide. At the opening event on July 8, a roundtable conversation was live-streamed via Cartier’s Weibo and WeChat accounts. Cartier also launched a WeChat Mini Program where visitors can buy tickets, explore the artists’ bios, and make reservations for public programs.
NETIZEN REACTION#
The campaign hashtags #MyTree and #TreeExhibition have garnered a combined 11 million views on Weibo thus far. And though the event hasn't driven exceptional traffic on Cartier’s social channels, the exhibition announcement posted by the Shanghai Power Station of Art did receive organic engagement among its followers. WeChat users commented on their expectations of the exhibition and its upcoming public education programs, such as lectures, screenings, and workshops.
VERDICT#
Thanks to the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain’s support of contemporary art, Cartier has been ingraining cultural integrity into its brand image. The newly launched exhibition, which takes a cultural approach to sustainability discourses, will educate visitors on many areas of environmental protection and how the brand is dedicated to supporting global art communities. Still, there is room for Cartier to improve awareness of the exhibition within China’s social arena.
C-beauty Brand INTO YOU Bolsters Its Offline Touchpoints#
BRAND#
INTO YOU
CATEGORY
Beauty
PLATFORMS
MEDIUM#
Image, Short-video, Offline Pop-up
FEATURED TALENTS#
Meng Jia (8M Weibo Followers)
OVERVIEW#
The C-beauty brand INTO YOU will open a new offline pop-up store called Flower Garden of Eden at Shang Raffles City shopping mall from July 10 to 20. Young female idol and brand ambassador Meng Jia will visit the store on July 13 to celebrate the opening. Decorated in white and light pink with exquisite floral elements, the store will present a full range of products, particularly focusing on the brand’s hero lip products.
NETIZEN REACTION#
INTO YOU has seen growing popularity among Chinese beauty shoppers, with over 10,000 relevant posts on Little Red Book. The pop-up store, which offers consumers a physical touchpoint to the brand that originates from e-commerce channels, will lure brand followers to the site, as will brand ambassador Meng Jia. The 15-second video teaser starring Meng has driven over 38,500 views on Weibo — a substantial number for an official account with only 36,803 followers.
VERDICT#
This emerging C-beauty label with a focus on lip products reported strong growth over the past year. During the 2020 618 shopping festival, its sales exceeded $5.41 million (35 million RMB), of which the sales of its popular lip mud products hit $3.09 million (20 million). Meanwhile, the brand completed an angel round of financing, jointly provided by Fosun Ruizheng Capital and Sands River Ventures, valued at $4.6 million (30 million RMB) during the first quarter of 2021. Is this financial injection, along with the brand's upcoming pop-up store, an indicator of further offline expansion?
Lemaire Partners With A Chinese Artist at Dover Street Market Beijing#
BRAND#
Lemaire
CATEGORY
Luxury Fashion
PLATFORMS
MEDIUM#
Pop-up Public Installation
OVERVIEW#
The French designer brand Lemaire has collaborated with Chinese artist Lin Yan to unveil an ephemeral public installation at Elephant Space in the Dover Street Market, in Beijing, on July 2. The project, “Lin Yan – LEMAIRE: Beijing Gateway,” draws inspiration from Lin’s investigation of Xuan paper (a kind of paper often used by practitioners of Chinese calligraphy and painting) and is in tune with the brand’s DNA and its AW21 Collection exploring the notions of second skin and clothing as a perfectly proportioned refuge.
NETIZEN REACTION#
Though Lemaire has not established official social channels in China, the brand has a decent awareness among local fashion enthusiasts, with over 10,000 posts on Little Red Book. The launch of the pop-up installation, announced by local media outlets such as NYLON_CHINA, NOWRE, and Bella Magazine, received positive reactions from netizens. Many commented that the layered textures and simplistic colors featured on the installation echoed greatly with the brand’s DNA.
VERDICT#
Lemaire’s partnership with Lin Yan is an indicator that the brand is further eyeing the Chinese market. Instead of tapping into China’s vast social scene, the brand opted to roll out a creative project at the popular Dover Street Market — the ultimate shopping destination known for its avant-garde visual merchandising. This nimble approach helps Lemaire maintain its brand awareness and relevancy to its major customers. And as a brand receiving growing recognition, from its runway presentations to hero products, Lemaire’s China expansion appears to be a promising start.