Bonding With Consumers During a Crisis
And...is Livestreaming a Lifeline?
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Now on to our second installment!
Bonding with Consumers During the Crisis
The coronavirus epidemic has created a surge in demand for entertainment, which gives brands the opportunity to offer support for their customers via content that resonates with their concerns.
Harbin Brewery, China’s fourth-largest beer company and a subsidiary of Anheuser–Busch InBev, developed a humorous campaign around the prospect of returning to work after the extended Spring Festival holiday.
Using the hashtag “protect yourself well while going back to work, be happy together in the future” (#返工保护好自己, 未来一起happy#), Harbin Brewery created a series of semi-comic posters and gifs to serve as a “guide” for employees, bosses, parents, and others. “If you don’t wear a mask for brainstorm sessions, this may just be your final meeting,” reads one.
The imagery employed hearkens back to an earlier era of Chinese propaganda posters, giving them a nostalgic flavor. The posters were circulated across a variety of platforms, including Weibo, Tencent News, and Jinri Toutiao, accumulating upwards of 13 million views.
Harbin Brewery has a strategic partnership with League of Legends, and the two hosted a livestreaming event for the Lantern Festival on game-streaming platform Douyu, with three popular streaming hosts encouraging viewers to join them in a “cloud” toast with Harbin Beer. That event drew more than 1.5 million viewers.
Harbin parent ABI also donated RMB 10 million ($1.4 million) to support the fight against the coronavirus, allowing Harbin Brewery to focus more on practical communication efforts for its brand.
Is Livestreaming a Lifeline?
China’s auto industry was already struggling before the coronavirus brought the economy to a standstill, with a reported drop in passenger vehicle sales of 7.5% in 2019 compared to the previous year. During the first two weeks of February, new car sales were just 5% of 2019 levels.
For many brands, online platforms have become the only way to connect with consumers who have been waiting out the epidemic in their homes. Livestreaming via short video or e-commerce apps has been the most popular route for reaching consumers. Tesla was a fast-mover in this space, using Douyin to stream video from its stores around the country.
However, during the coronavirus epidemic, livestreaming has not seen as big a boost among audiences as other forms of entertainment, such as long- and short-form video or gaming, and recreational shopping has taken a backseat to other needs. Hosts must also walk a fine line to avoid an inappropriately hyped-up tone while hawking goods.
BMW’s Taobao livestream on February 10 highlights some of these shortcomings. Broadcast from the automaker’s Shanghai Experience Center, two hosts wearing surgical masks showcased the BMW X1, discussing its configuration and interior features and answering questions from viewers. It drew a modest audience of fewer than 10,000 viewers in the first hour, a relatively small share of the BMW Taobao flagship store’s 642,000 followers.
In addition, prospective car buyers typically seek to test-drive vehicles and may be understandably hesitant to make a major purchase online, so livestreams for big-ticket items would be better focused on providing information and customer support rather than emphasizing sales.
Case Study: The powerful IP of “iPartment”
Often compared to a Chinese version of “Friends,” the beloved sitcom “iPartment” (爱情公寓) recently wrapped up its fifth and final season on iQiyi and consistently topped the ratings during its broadcast. The series featured a number of brands woven into the background and storyline, with somewhat more subtle integration than in many other shows.
Retailer Suning’s shops were often featured in the background of the neighborhood shopping plaza where the cast congregated, and in scenes where Suning workers delivered packages to the characters.
Kitchen appliance maker Vatti’s products feature in the main kitchen set at the center of the series, and the brand was further linked with themes of family life and maturity when the character of Lu Ziqiao, once a ladies’ man, buys a Vatti dishwasher to help ease his expecting wife’s workload, a detail that ties into his transformation from a player into a responsible father. The long run of the series (more than 10 years) means that many Gen Z and millennial viewers grew up watching the show and feel emotionally attached to the characters and their ideal homes.
Bottled water brand Nongfu Spring had the show’s hydration needs covered, with characters drinking from its signature red-labeled bottles throughout the season.
In another nod to the youthful viewership of “iPartment,” the series brought on an exclusive gaming partner, Netease’s “Justice Online” (逆水寒) and included the game in a humorous and lengthy integration. In one episode, scenes from the game were shown onscreen as livestreaming personality Curry Jiang prepared for a sound effects competition, with the others attempting to help her create the required sounds. Extensive footage from “Justice Online” was played on three separate instances over the course of the episode, highlighting the game’s visual elements and its theme song. Netease reportedly paid a significant sum for the partnership.
Among the apps playing supporting roles in the story were Bole (job search and recruiting), Zhenai (dating) and Xiaohongshu (shopping).
Brand Film Pick: Blued’s “My Life Is My Answer”
We’ve been seeing an uptick in brand content in China showing acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community. For the international day against homophobia in May, Coca-Cola unveiled a Weibo campaign with the hashtag “don’t fear difference, rainbows are everywhere,” and a recent Lunar New Year commercial for Tmall was lauded for featuring a same-sex couple at a traditional family reunion dinner for the holiday.
The Chinese gay dating app Blued went a step further with its three-minute Spring Festival film, “My Life Is My Answer” (只用生活来回应), produced with creative agency Karma. It tackles head-on many of the difficult questions faced by Chinese who don’t conform to heterosexual norms: “Aren’t you afraid of letting your mom down?,” “Don’t you want to be normal?,” “Aren’t you afraid of being isolated?” and ends with uplifting scenes, including another family dinner.
Blued also released a series of stories from members of its LGBTQ+ community on its official blog to coincide with the film’s release.
Report Corner
QuestMobile released a special report on media consumption during the two-week Spring Festival holiday, noting that short-video apps added nearly 150 million daily active users during this period. Users spent more than 17% of their total time online watching short videos.
GroupM analyzed the Spring Festival gala shows and found a 200% increase in engagement with this year’s sponsors of the main show on CCTV, Kuaishou and Taobao, compared to Baidu’s results from last year.
Kantar conducted a nationwide survey of Chinese consumers that included nominations of most-favored brands during the coronavirus outbreak. Service providers such as Alibaba and JD.com were among those frequently mentioned, along with consumer brands such as Midea, Mengniu, and Xiaomi.
Taobao’s latest economic report says that 30,000 new stores have been opened every day in February on the platform, with more than 20% of the total coming from offline stores that are closed or struggling to do business during the epidemic.
News in English
China’s Zhihu is like Quora, except it also helps sell products through its own portal and via tie-ups with e-commerce platforms such as JD.com, Taobao, and now Pinduoduo. KrAsia
While many major esports tournaments scheduled in China have been either postponed or relocated outside the country, the King Pro League’s Global Tour for Tencent’s Honor of Kings is going online. Abacus
Clubbing is also moving into the cloud, with popular nightclubs livestreaming DJ sets via platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou and Bilibili and fundraising for charity in the process. Vice
Amid numerous cancellations by other Chinese brands at this year’s London Fashion Week, outdoor label Bosideng turned its show into a celebration of national pride. Vogue
Western Union launched a global campaign, “Behind every mask there is a heart,” to raise money for coronavirus aid, with $1 million in matching funds. Branding in Asia
Alibaba’s productivity app Dingding offered a creative meme-filled video in response to complaints from students being forced to use the platform to keep up with their studies while schools remain closed. Campaign Asia
We’ve Got China Covered
China Film Insider: Film Crew Documents Life in Wuhan Amid Covid-19 Epidemic
Jing Daily: Consumer Sentiment Will Define a Post-Coronavirus China
Jing Travel: Art Institute of Chicago’s China-Ready Push
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