Screenshots from the “Love is…” campaign on the Tiffany & Co. official WeChat account.
The Chinese New Year frenzy may have died down, but some luxury brands haven’t missed a beat when it comes to marketing in the weeks following the holiday. Lunar New Year ended with Valentine’s Day, a holiday that, while not as widely celebrated in China as Singles’ Day or Chinese Valentine’s Day, is one lucrative enough that brands like Tiffany & Co. embrace it. Since January, the jewelry company has been gathering opinions from Chinese followers on its WeChat account about the meaning of love as part of its international Valentine’s Day campaign that interprets the phrase made famous by that 1960’s comic strip, “Love Is…”
Tiffany & Co. posted three WeChat posts on its official account asking the question “What is love?” and all three received a number of comments from its Chinese audience. The first post includes a video with Chinese subtitles that features people pondering the meaning of love to kick things off. In the second, a poem precedes a prompt to probe parents and family members to give their wisdom on the topic. The brand’s most recent post includes colorful GIFs that juxtapose heartfelt messages with pictures of a diamond-encrusted watch, sketches of a bouquet of flowers, and silver rings. Users can share these or go on the website to share their own “love note” where they create messages about what love means to them.
Fan replies on WeChat varied from the thoughtful and insightful, to simple praise of the brand (i.e., “Love is Tiffany”). Here are some of their replies:
“Love is not being able to fall asleep, and checking my phone to look at my photo of you.”
– Molly
“Love is infinite trust and tolerance.”
– 菜菁菁
“Love is watching you eat.”
– cc公主
This campaign follows one Tiffany & Co. did in October that was created completely in Chinese and used Chinese supermodel Liu Wen and Taiwanese director and actress Sylvia Chang as campaign ambassadors. In this one, Tiffany & Co.’s key charm is the focus, with the tagline “unlock the possibilities,” which is paired with an interactive look at Chang and Wen’s lives and careers. Luxury Daily reported this campaign served to “remind female consumers that Tiffany Keys do not need to be a romantic gift and are not a ‘key to the heart,’ but are instead suitable for single, independent and working women.”
Studies suggest an increasing number of Chinese women and men will spend more on luxury diamonds in the coming years, and according to survey results from January’s Hurun Report, jewelry is the top gift for women in China, while Tiffany & Co. is a “star performer” in gifting by men, rising in position four places since last year to sit right behind Cartier in popularity.
Valentine’s Day may be over, but with these statistics at play, the message associated with the holiday means the campaign could keep on giving for Tiffany & Co., assuming gifting and love go hand-in-hand.
Campaign videos by: Columbine Goldsmith
