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: from Peacebird & Feiyue’s collaboration to Fendi's Double 11 celebration.
Local Brands Peacebird & Feiyue Team Up On Native Youth Culture Collab#
BRAND#
Peacebird
CATEGORY
Fashion
PLATFORMS
WeChat, Weibo
MEDIUM#
Short Video, Imagery
OVERVIEW#
Chinese fashion powerhouse Peacebird and homegrown sportswear label Feiyue launched a collaborative collection on November 3. The campaign, named Peacebird Nationwide Campaign, is part of the brand’s Peacebird SuperChina initiative, celebrating both the Peacebird’s 20th anniversary and its 2020 womenswear presentation. The campaign video — starring a Beijing-based girl practicing Peking opera, the owner of a noodle house in Xi'an, a young delivery woman from Wuhan, and a local rap crew in Chongqing — explores indigenous sports spirits in five representative cities through the lens of ordinary city residents.
NETIZEN REACTION#
The campaign hashtag #PeacebirdNationwideCampaign has garnered over 5 million views on Weibo within one week. The campaign video, which has been posted by fashion KOLs such as @Regardez and @Elephant Kingdom as well as regional lifestyle Weibo accounts like Beijing and Xi’an, has received 1.12 million views in total. Netizens commented that the narrative and visual presentation of the campaign represented the chosen local young communities well.
VERDICT#
Local fashion brands are leading the content marketing trend in China’s digital landscape since they are agile enough to tailor it to targeted consumers as these trends form. In Peacebird’s case, the brand identified the cultural differences in various regions of China and approached them through personal narratives. And although it tapped into the popular categories of sportswear and streetwear, Peacebird presented a multifaceted definition of Chinese street culture through specialties like dialect hip-hop, graffiti, and Peking Opera, rather than simply regurgitating stereotypical cultural symbols.
Fendi Celebrates Double 11 with Omnichannel Content Marketing#
BRAND#
Fendi
CATEGORY
Luxury
PLATFORMS
WeChat, Weibo
MEDIUM#
Livestream, Short Video, Imagery, Mini Program
FEATURED TALENTS#
Zhao Wei (85M Weibo Followers) | Zhang Han (36M) | Xu Weizhou (13M) | Zeng Keni (4M) | Zhang Zhehan (11M) | Liu Lingzi (4M) | Tan Zhuo (8M) | Jia Fan (1M) | Wu Yuheng (815K) | Fanguangjing Band (451K)
OVERVIEW#
Fendi celebrated the Double 11 shopping festival with an offline party at the Shanghai TX Huaihai shopping mall and a livestreaming event on Weibo on November 11. The Fendi Pack Collection, launched online on November 10, was introduced via the livestream session. In addition to the product debut, the livestream invited over ten celebrities such as brand ambassador Zhao Wei and Xu Weizhou, as well as fashion KOLs like Mr. Jiliang to share their personal takes on the products.
NETIZEN REACTION#
Fendi’s campaign hashtag “FendiRomaParty” has hit over 72.54 million views in one day and the livestream has received over 11.2 million viewers in three hours. Online traffic was predominantly driven by the featured celebrities: Xu Weizhou, Zeng Keni, and Zhang Han. The moderators included Linda and Fu Peng, who was top livestreamer Li Jiaqi’s assistant, also contributed to the online and offline engagement throughout the event.
VERDICT#
The Fendi Pack Collection is part of the house’s Fall/Winter 2020 collection, with prices in the 6,000 RMB ($900) to 16,500 RMB ($2,490) range. Given that the series is more affordable than other signature Fendi handbags, the campaign is expected to attract more prospects that are new to the brand. Through leveraging offline and online activities simultaneously, Fendi hopes to drive a more inclusive and interactive engagement. Meanwhile, featuring a wide range of celebrities that cover various target audiences from Gen Z to millennials and music and film, the event strengthened the brand’s influence in various micro-communities and helped it develop a wider reach in segmented markets.
Lacoste Campaign Finds Success By Advocating For Wildlife Protection#
BRAND#
Lacoste
CATEGORY
Fashion
PLATFORMS
WeChat, Weibo
MEDIUM#
Livestream, Short Video, Imagery, Offline Pop-up Shop
FEATURED TALENTS#
Huang Zitao (59M Weibo Followers) | Liao Bo (2M)
OVERVIEW#
On November 11, Lacoste, in tandem with National Geographic, launched a limited-edition clothing line printed with the skin patterns of endangered wildlife on its WeChat online shop. On the official day of Singles’ Day, the brand hosted a livestream featuring Lacoste’s Greater China CEO, Eric Tosello, introducing the inspiration and motivation behind this collaboration, ecologist Li Cheng discussing his personal engagement with environment protection, and stylist Brian showing how to style the new products. And, on November 13, Lacoste’s Asia Pacific brand ambassador Huang Zitao will be invited to livestream on the brand’s Mini Program, where he will call for maintaining species diversity.
NETIZEN REACTION#
The livesteam teaser announcing Huang Zitao’s participation drove over 2,700 engagements — including comments, reposts, and likes — within two hours. Huang’s fans commented below the Weibo post, which has received over 170 million views thus far, to confirm their reservations for the upcoming livestream with the tag #LacosteFirstAsiaPacificBrandAmbassadorHuangZitao. Despite not having gone live yet, the livestream has collected over 30,000 likes as of publication.
VERDICT#
Livestream has become an essential medium for fashion brands wanting to communicate with customers and drive sales in China, especially during the Double 11 online shopping carnival. Smart luxury players not only consider livestream as a useful tactic for fueling online sales but also as a tool for delivering brand values and initiatives through brand ambassadors and other talents. In Lacoste’s case, the brand invited its CEO, an ecologist, and a wildlife photographer to help promote the company’s social responsibility through this campaign.