Digital is a necessary step for any company looking to build its reputation and develop its brand image in China. Thus the integration of digital among the Chinese has enabled the emergence of new forms of promotion for brands in the Middle Kingdom, such as through digital platforms. WeChat, for example, the largest social network in China alone, has more than 900 million users. An opportunity for brands to express themselves through this platform. In this article, we will present you the brands that have been successful in their digital communication strategy on the platform…
WeChat has built its own ecosystem
WeChat, created in 2011 by the Tencent company, is a free instant messaging mobile application with many features. This makes it a social network that is fully integrated into the Chinese environment as the application supports its user in their daily lives.
It is also nicknamed “The WeChat Times” because it is often used as a source of information in China.
WeChat is much more than a simple application, it is an entire ecosystem with significant growth and sales potential for any company looking to grow its business in China, as 5 Brands has done.
5 Successful Marketing Campaigns on WeChat
1. Givenchy
Givenchy has enlisted the services of one of the nation’s most important influencers, or Key Opinion Leader (KOL), to promote the limited edition handbag. That is, Tao Liang is known as Mr. Bags. With its large audience (1.2 million followers on WeChat), the brand has been able to reach a relevant, fashion-focused community.
The purpose of this association between the brand and KOL was to publish a post on Tao Liang’s WeChat account and thus promote 80 limited edition handbags sold for RMB 15,000 per bag.
Through this campaign, Givenchy was able to leverage digital and luxury codes to offer its consumers an offer suited to their consumption habits. Luxury effectively projects an image of prestige and exclusivity which can be found in the fact the limited edition is promoted. And given the digital trend of our society, using WeChat as a means of promotion is a relevant strategy for the company.
Another strong point of the campaign, the company began marketing these bags a few days before Valentine’s Day. However, we know that the Chinese attach great importance to gifts during important events. A choice of launch date was therefore prudent for the brand and a successful bet since in just 12 minutes, it managed to sell its entire collection. This positive buzz has also enabled it to strengthen consumers’ sense of belonging to the brand and increase its notoriety.
2. Montblanc
Montblanc once again relied on WeChat to promote its style collection. In the past, it had already used the platform as a means of communication to promote its Moon Phases collection, which was very successful.
This time, the marketing campaign was split into two parts:
The first was to convey the history of the brand, a tactic often used in the luxury sector. Storytelling, as it is called, makes it possible to trace and promote a brand’s knowledge, history, and products through a number of techniques.
For his campaign, Montblanc went through a well-known personality that is none other than Hugh Jackman to tell the story of his brand.
By logging into the app, users could see a letter in Chinese that read “Art may not change the world, but it can change the way people think – and people can change the world.”
The second part of the campaign focused on the ability to engage the consumer in the brand experience. Users had the possibility to personalize their Montblanc pen by choosing a color, then once a color was chosen, to share the results on WeChat.
3. Pepsi
Pepsi, for its part, chose Chinese New Year for its promotion. It was based on One Page and One H5 game. One allowed people around them to send off fireworks to wish them a happy new year and the other, to play a small game symbolizing the rooster, a Chinese symbol associated with the year 2017.
The creativity and simplicity of the campaign made it easy for users to share during the event. And since the Chinese are heavy consumers of video games, especially on mobile phones, creating a mini-game for Internet users was a relevant idea for the brand.
4. Brightness Properties
Damak Properties, formed in 2002, is a real estate development company based in the Middle East and Dubai. It is committed to offer its clients unparalleled living concepts and dream homes.
Its campaign, it, focused primarily on the presentation of the company. So DAMAC proposed a home page for their account on WeChat, using the brand’s code. She also designed content, elegant H5 pages to inform her customers.
The results for the company were very promising:
Average “Likes” of 1200+ and 80+ views
- 3,000 followers in the first 6 months;
- Prospecting for a large number of new investors;
- high conversion.
5. Twist and Drink
Twist & Drink is a brand of children’s drinks, founded in 1973 in Austria. It offers drinks made from natural mountain spring water, which include a wide range of fruit flavours. On the packaging side, its bottles are distinguished by their bright colors and original design.
Before entering the Chinese market, Twist & Drink had no prestige and notoriety in the country. So the brand started from scratch to build its implementation strategy, but gradually achieved the desired success. how? ‘ or ‘ what?
It has positioned itself on social networks such as WeChat to promote its products. She created a vibrant and colorful world there in terms of her products, where bottles had become mascots addressed directly to mothers in China. Each bottle has its own uniqueness and personality, allowing children to identify with one of the mascots and thus interact directly with the end consumer, the child, and their prescriber, their parents.
With regard to its marketing campaign, the brand first launched a game on WeChat. The game was based on different characters where users would compete to collect the most points in the “Twist and Drink Arena”.
Also in the application, the prescriber, i.e. the parent, can directly access the online store of the brand to buy the products. A contest was also introduced, allowing consumers to win prizes if the cork of the bottle was the winner.
In terms of results:
- 600 views average and 40+ “likes”;
- + 3600 followers in 6 month campaign;
- 250,000 participants in WeChat game;
- More than 20% of followers participated in a particular marketing campaign.
Conclusion
These various successful marketing campaigns show interest for foreign companies to promote their brands through digital platforms of the Middle Kingdom and more recently WeChat stores. It is a fact, digital really has its place in the country. It is therefore unthinkable to do without web marketing, especially through WeChat, which has become a central pillar of any digital strategy in China. (more info about wechat marketing here)
The Chinese ecosystem is completely different from the western countries, you will need to try and understand this quite impressive environment. If you are considering developing your strategy there, we can give you enough advice to partner with a local partner who understands the inner workings of the Chinese digital world.