Top 10 Social Media Campaigns in China
WeChat has become the best friend for marketers to conduct social networking events in China. In this article, we’ll first look at the main features of WeChat and then dive into how brands use the platform to increase audiences and sales. WeChat marketing case study
What is WeChat?
If you’ve been living under a rock (or just outside of China) for the past five years, now is the time for you to have a crash course on the subject. WeChat was created in 2011 by Chinese technology giant Tencent (the creator of QQ) (Chinese version of MSN). It is a mobile app that is also a leading social network in China with more than 700 million active users.
Cost-Effective Agency
KPI and Results focused. We are the most visible Marketing Agency for China. Not because of huge spending but because of our SMART Strategies. Let us help you with: E-Commerce, Search Engine Optimization, Advertising, Weibo, WeChat, WeChat Store & PR.
It has a wide range of features:
Instant messaging, in this area, can be more popular in Western applications, such as WhatsApp and Snapchat. It is now the main mode of communication for the younger generation in China. The phone’s text feature is now dead.
Moments are the Facebook version of the WeChat timeline and walls. You can post from your profile and see it at the moment of the contact.
Official account and subscription. Maybe the favorite feature of marketers and content creators. It allows an organization (magazine, company, store, personality, etc.) to have a subscription-based account to share content with their audience. It’s a bit like a fan page on Facebook.
Micro-websites and applications within the application. You can run your own website or application inside the application. This opens up great possibilities for brands and online retailers.
WeChat Wallet offers users the opportunity to connect their platform to their bank. Therefore, they are allowed to use the app in many stores as a payment method.
You can also buy it online or on the WeChat Mobile Business Platform. Payments can be paid to other users simply by scanning QR codes or transferring them.
There are some additional and more subtle features available, but we focus on what matters most for marketing purposes. Now let’s see how foreign brands promote on the platform.
4 WeChat activities inspired
Western brands quickly discovered the potential of WeChat. Marketers need some time to understand the “running” strategy on the platform, but today we see quite a few very successful activities. Here are 4 of the ones we chose for you:
1 / UNIQLO, O2O success
Japanese clothing designer and manufacturer UNIQLO is very popular. They soon understood that China was a mobile-based environment. They have a very strong physical presence in this country and have a large number of stores that allow them to conduct large-scale 020 activities (from online to offline).
Consumers can try on their clothes in the store and stand in front of a camera-equipped monitor with different backgrounds, such as New York, Tokyo, or London. The pictures are then sent to their WeChat account and one in three people are shared at their moment. The event was a huge success with sales of specialty products up 30% from 400,000 to more than 1 million followers.
2 / DAMAC, Luxury Made in Dubai
DAMAC is obviously the kind of brand that needs a wallet to be interested. State-of-the-art real estate investment houses offer luxury homes to their clients. In fact, the real products offered by the group are the return on investment that these families can provide on the resale value.
Their goal in WeChat? Let Chinese investors dream about Dubai and its luxurious lifestyle. In order to do this, they spent little time talking about themselves and talking more about their destination. They’ve created a lot of content, especially articles about Dubai and its surroundings.
The Chinese know nothing about this tiny Gulf country. This “educational campaign” is indispensable in order to open up the interest of this Gulf country and achieve the goal of an investment.
One of the examples they talked about is the similarities between Dubai and China: the 22,500-square-meter indoor ski area in the center of the city. They are very good at creating content. KOL (leading opinion leaders) even share their content for free. Usually need to pay for something.
3 / Mulberry, the story behind the product
Mulberry is a clothing brand that opened a WeChat account in 2014. It is promoted through the mini platform on the platform, with exclusive content such as behind-the-scenes pictures and videos. They have developed effective storylines for their brands and products.
They also use it as a way of interacting with consumers, the Chinese market is still unfamiliar with leather luxury.
4 / Twist and drink
Austrian children’s fruit drink experts bring their society
I attach great importance to responsibility. Not only on quality, healthy products, but also 100% recyclable materials bottles placed on the ecological focus, they insist that the production process is free.
On WeChat, they created the whole group with the cutest activities. They created a vibrant and colorful world in the application (HTML5), their bottles becoming characters and directly facing Chinese mothers. Each bottle has its own personality according to its taste. Most importantly, there is a winning game to be won. 5 / Otte, shop to conquer the Chinese heart Ott is a New York-based women’s fashion boutique. Its structure is very small, but it is interesting in terms of e-commerce sites: 50% of all online sales come from Chinese, whether living in the United States or China itself.
This brand has invested in WeChat marketing, great content, and an attractive WeChat website. This prompted them to open their second store in Shanghai 16 years after New York’s first home. They can not compare with such a large group like the UNIQLO we talked about earlier, but they lack the actual digital portfolio.
Proven digital marketing is king. This example shows that even small structures can succeed in China. As long as they provide Chinese consumers with what they are looking for and see themselves through intelligent communication on the web. More info here 6 / Monaco Bistro where you can drink luxury Monaco Bistro is a luxury beer brand. Founded in 1905, today is still active.