The Social Edition is a weekly special-focus Jing Daily newsletter, 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 addition, we deliver need-to-know news, updates, and best practices on navigating social media platforms in China within the luxury space.
The below is an excerpt from The Social Edition newsletter. For weekly coverage, subscribe to the full newsletter here. In this week’s edition, we looked at three campaigns: from Louis Vuitton's Escale campaign to Nike's limited drop on online food delivery app Eleme.
LOUIS VUITTON ESCALE CAMPAIGN#
BRAND#
Louis Vuitton
CATEGORY#
Luxury
PLATFORMS#
WeChat, Weibo, Little Red Book
MEDIUM#
Imagery, Livestream, Mini Program
OVERVIEW#
Louis Vuitton’s Escale collection focuses on a tie-dye design incorporated among a range of products, primarily handbags. To promote the collection to the Chinese market, the brand took a multi-pronged digital approach. Louis Vuitton was among the first batch of luxury brands launched on Little Red Book and has continued to hold a strong presence on the platform. For this collection, the brand rolled out the campaign through a livestream hosted by fashion KOL Yvonne Ching on March 26. In addition to reminding viewers where the new collection is available, the one-hour livestream included an interview with guest celebrity Zhong Chuxi, who shared her styling inspirations of the collection.
On April 7, the brand’s WeChat account pushed a soft sell post written by fashion KOL Gogoboi, sharing his styling work for the guest model Song Yan-fei, who is a Chinese actress owning a strong following on Little Red Book and Weibo. The activation was also featured on Weibo and featured Song’s outfits styled by Gogoboi.
FEATURED TALENT#
Gogoboi (9.9 M Followers) | Song Yan-fei (8.8M) | Yvonne Ching (5.9M) | Zhong Chuxi (5.3M)
NETIZEN REACTION#
The livestream on Little Red Book and the WeChat post garnered over 152,000 page views and 100,000 reads respectively. On Weibo, the campaign post also has seen active engagement, with 11,000 comments and 20,000 reposts. However, the livestream received negative reactions like “totally inconsistent with the brand’s image,” “I can’t believe the livestream is hosted by the brand,” and “the setting looks cheesy to me.”
VERDICT#
Louis Vuitton has become a veteran of social marketing and mastered the playbook of digital social platforms. The livestream on Little Red Book, however, turned out to be a controversial mistake. The house leveraged the star power of several influencers to promote the virtual event and bet big on this hyped format amid the COVID-19 crisis, yet the overall consumer response was negative. The promotional script and coarse setting of the livestream went against the luxury house’s brand identity. Both guests have removed the relevant posts from their page and the official playback of the livestream is untraceable. The snafu is a reminder that brands need to keep in mind brand consistency while also pushing toward experimentation.
LANCÔME CLARIFIQUE REFINING ENZYMATIC DUAL ESSENCE CAMPAIGN#
BRAND#
Lancôme
CATEGORY#
Beauty
PLATFORMS#
WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, Tmall
MEDIUM#
Short Video, Imagery, Music
OVERVIEW#
To promote the new Clarifique Refining Enzymatic Dual Essence, Lancôme gave the product a Chinese nickname “Aurora Essence,” kicking off the campaign on WeChat and Douyin as well as rolling out presales on Tmall since late February. On April 8, the brand announced its collaboration with Asia-Pacific Brand Ambassador Kris Wu, launching “Aurora” as the first single of the music talent’s upcoming EP.
FEATURED TALENT#
Kris Wu (50.5 M followers)
NETIZEN REACTION#
The short video on Lancôme Douyin account featuring Kris Wu has gained 305,000 views. The single “Aurora” hit the top 1 on QQ Music Charts, garnering over 1.8 million engagements on the drop day. With over 740 million views in total, the relevant Weibo hashtags like “Kris Wu Aurora” and “Aurora Essense” have driven incredible online traffic and thus contributed to conversions — 7,800 sets of the limited edition gift box has almost sold out on Tmall. Consumers frequently mentioned Wu’s endorsement on their product reviews.
VERDICT#
Lancôme’s collaboration with Kris Wu — one of the top tier Chinese idols — since last year has indicated the brand is eyeing the younger generation consumers in China’s market. Earlier this year, the brand’s CNY and Valentine’s Day campaigns featuring Wu were well-received by netizens. The newly launched single under the same name of the product presents an innovative approach to leverage celebrity endorsement, which thus generates higher quality of UGC (user-generated contents). While Wu’s ambassadorship is undoubtedly coming at a high price tag, it is ultimately paying off for the brand.
LIMITED DROP OF NIKE AIR MAX 90 CITY PACK SHANGHAI EDITION BY DOE SHANGHAI X ELEME#
BRAND#
Nike, DOE
CATEGORY#
Streetwear
PLATFORMS#
WeChat, Weibo, Eleme
MEDIUM#
Online Pop-up
OVERVIEW#
Nike’s Air Max 90 City Pack series pays tribute to the hard-working professionals who commute around their respective cities wearing the iconic swoosh. The Shanghai edition focuses on food delivery people in the city, who are facing an especially difficult time during the COVID-19 pandemic. The design of the sneaker features elements of food delivery services, such as receipts and five-star ratings. The limited edition was dropped on the local streetwear retailer DOE’s online pop-up shop, through the food delivery service provider Eleme that is owned by Alibaba Group. Consumers can get the sneakers delivered within two hours.
NETIZEN REACTION#
Sneaker shoppers are impressed by the idea of an online pop-up on a food delivery platform. Yet many of them complained about system bugs of the e-shop and the delivery service was limited to certain areas of Shanghai.
VERDICT#
The collaboration resonates with a young generation of food delivery fanatics in China, while also playing tribute to the front line works amid the city lockdown. It is not the first attempt to launch an online pop-up on food delivery platforms — home-grown fashion brand Peacebird has launched collaborations with Eleme and made them available on the platform in the past. Elsewhere, beauty retailers like Sephora have been working with the two local food service giants Eleme and Meituan. The innovative model in many ways presents a new normal for brands in China, where it is becoming necessary to team up with local tech companies to tap into local consumption culture.
This is an excerpt from The Social Edition newsletter. For full weekly coverage, subscribe to the newsletter here.