How Guerlain Exemplifies the Art of Audience Engagement

In an age in which brands make serious investments to curry customers’ attention, traditional forms of advertisement are no longer enough to stand out in the media landscape. Marketers today are expected to invent new ways to capture customers’ attention in a shorter amount of time and keep them engaged longer. In our latest WeChat case study column, we analyzed a gamification WeChat campaign by French luxury cosmetics brand Guerlain that exemplifies the art of audience engagement. To celebrate its latest lipstick, the KissKiss Matte collection, Guerlain partnered with a major player in duty-free shopping, Sunrise Duty Free, to create a gamification WeChat campaign. Within 10 days of its launch, the campaign attracted 18,582 page views and 10,000 players. In total, Guerlain has selected more than 300 winners. Here is how it worked: With unlimited attempts to go through multiple levels of difficulty, players have the chance to win a lipstick as long as they score over 5,000 points. At the end of the game, they are asked to submit personal information, such as name and phone number, to enter a lottery. Takeaways: Target small and know your audience The campaign is created with a clear purpose: to raise awareness among travelers. Guerlain’s reason for picking Sunrise to promote its lipstick is to attract a specific demographic: fashion and trendy customers who are keen on getting first-hand information about the latest products. Therefore, the offering of a free give-away lipstick is a perfect introduction to an entirely new collection. This specific group of Chinese travelers is likely to be the target of Guerlain's travel retail initiative on a bigger scale in the near future, "We are constantly striving to digitally engage our customers in China in unique ways and we are starting to look at expanding our social and digital communication into travel retail," said Jessica Lau, Guerlain travel retail area China manager. Make it fun and keep your audience engaged and invested However, a highly targeted campaign will have limited exposure. Guerlain makes up for this by improving the entertainment aspect of the campaign. The campaign was designed as a highly addictive tetris game. Additionally, since the lipstick element frequently appears throughout the game, customers can be totally immersed in the product narrative created by Guerlain that makes consumers invest their time to learn more. Winner takes all, collect valuable data Guerlain asked players to fill in their personal information in exchange for a free gift. This gives Guerlain valuable customer data and can help the company target future campaigns and products at this specific demographic. However, the quality of customer data could be less than ideal because of the inclusion of a free giveaway. A promotion like this can attract the wrong customer demographic, those consumer only interested in a free prize and with little interest in buying in the future. To learn more about successful WeChat campaigns and how brands can use WeChat marketing to optimize their sales in China, click here to download our latest WeChat report.

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How Guerlain Exemplifies the Art of Audience Engagement