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 two campaigns, including Tiffany’s launch of its Tiffany Knot collection in China, Valentino’s Valentine’s Day campaign, and Perfect Diary’s collaboration with local e-commerce giants.
Tiffany Unlocks Chinese Jewelry Market With Its Tiffany Knot Collection
BRAND Tiffany & Co.
CATEGORY Luxury
PLATFORMS Weibo, WeChat, Xiaohongshu
MEDIUM Image, Short-Video, Mini Program
FEATURED TALENTS Gong Jun (19.4M Weibo Followers) | Tong Yao (9.3M) | Song Yi (9.1M) | James Lee (2.4M)
OVERVIEW
On February 7, Tiffany kicked off its Valentine’s Day campaign in China featuring its latest Tiffany Knot collection. Symbolizing the bond between people, the collection includes necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and rings. In addition to posting the campaign video starring brand global ambassador Anya Taylor-Joy, the house also collaborated with Chinese celebrities to promote the collection via Weibo and Xiaohongshu.
NETIZEN REACTION
The campaign video featuring Anya received significant compliments from Chinese netizens, garnering 16.8 million views in two days. Meanwhile, many Weibo users also mentioned Olympian Eileen Gu, who sported Tiffany rings during her performance at the Winter Olympics, by showing their appreciation for the gold medal winner’s endorsement of Tiffany.
VERDICT
On February 8, tens of millions of people rushed online to celebrate teenage freeski sensation Eileen Gu winning her first gold medal. Given this, Tiffany racked up a huge amount of organic traffic overnight. Though the post of Gu wearing a piece from the Tiffany Knot collection hasn’t been published on Tiffany’s local social channels, it has spread widely throughout China via her Instagram account. Working with both Anya Taylor-Joy and Eileen Gu has been a boon for Tiffany’s, proving the brand’s foresight in discovering and working with emerging talent.
Valentino’s Valentine’s Day Campaign Sings a Lovely Song
BRAND Valentino
CATEGORY Luxury
PLATFORMS Weibo, WeChat, Xiaohongshu
MEDIUM Image, Short-Video, Mini Program
FEATURED TALENTS 11 band members from INTO1 (27.5M Weibo followers)
OVERVIEW
To celebrate the upcoming Valentine’s Day, Valentino collaborated with INTO1, the international male singing group, to introduce the house’s new Garavani Locò handbag. The campaign, which featured all 11 band members in short films, focused on various aspects of love. By casting an international male group with different cultural backgrounds, the campaign also celebrates diversity and individuality.
NETIZEN REACTION
The campaign received highly positive feedback from Chinese netizens. On Weibo, the campaign hashtag #ValentinoLoco and #ValentinoxINTO1 both hit 100 million views in one week — an impressive reach for a luxury brand campaign. In particular, team member Liu Yu’s posts drove the highest traffic on both Weibo and Xiaohongshu, garnering thousands of likes and comments from his loyal followers.
VERDICT
Coming on the heels of the Chinese New Year, Valentine’s Day (February 14) poses a challenge for luxury fashion brands to create and launch dedicated campaigns for both occasions. However, Valentino smoothly transitioned, releasing Valentine’s Day teasers during the Spring Festival holiday. Moreover, by partnering with the popular a Gen-Z male group, Valentino was able to create a modern, romantic vibe sure to lure in younger Chinese couples.
Perfect Diary Partners With Local JD, Poizon on Valentine’s Day Launch
BRAND Perfect Diary
CATEGORY Beauty
PLATFORMS Weibo, WeChat, Xiaohongshu, JD.com, Poizon
MEDIUM Image, Short-Video
FEATURED TALENTS Zhao Lusi (16.7M Weibo Followers)
OVERVIEW
Leading C-beauty player Perfect Diary rolled out teasers for this year’s Valentine’s Day campaign in mid-January. Though the brand has not released any new products for the celebration, it is launching special gift boxes that feature best-selling items. Meanwhile, the brand will collaborate with two e-commerce giants — JD.com and Poizon — to offer platform-exclusive values, including personalization services available on JD.com and dedicated packaging on Poizon.
NETIZEN REACTION
Perfect Diary has been well-known for its high user-stickiness thanks to private traffic on WeChat, which can also be found in this year’s Valentine’s Day campaign. Although the brand’s user engagement has been moderate on Weibo, its campaign post on WeChat received 96,900 views and hundreds of comments over two days — a high number for a brand-owned WeChat account.
VERDICT
The Yatsen-owned brand is a veteran of communicating with the younger generations of Chinese cosmetic consumers. In addition to tactics that encourage UGC content, Perfect Diary’s partnership with China’s e-commerce giants showcases its agility on retail channels. Featuring these exclusive platform services has led the Chinese label to better engage with varying consumer profiles with extreme precision.
