China's Coronavirus Brand Blueprint Goes Global
Plus: Prada's Tmall debut, Kuaishou takes control, and pop-ups enter the cloud.
Recent weeks have seen the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) explode beyond China’s borders to become a truly global pandemic, surpassing 182,000 cases worldwide and seeing countries close their borders and order citizens into self-quarantine for the remainder of March at the very least.
Now, following in the footsteps of what we have seen in China since the initial outbreak in Wuhan, we are entering a new period of worldwide uncertainty for brands and consumers. With governments imploring (or, in many cases, ordering) citizens to stay indoors, audiences are isolated from the physical experiences that many companies have emphasized in recent years, and brands are scrambling to adapt.
This means that now, more than ever, the new content commerce models that have rapidly evolved in China may become the new normal around the world, at least in the first half of 2020. Despite signs that new infections may be slowing in China, the country is not out of the weeds just yet, and as such, we continue to see “cloud living,” livestreaming, e-commerce-enabled short video, and virtual events become the content and marketing norm, with far-reaching implications.
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In this newsletter: Burberry, Calvin Klein, Chando, Chanel, Disney, Douyin, Fendi, Giorgio Armani, Kuaishou, MAC, Prada, Taobao Live, Tencent Mobile, Tmall, Xiaohongshu
Fashion on the Short Video Catwalk…
While luxury brands are just recently starting to move onto Bytedance’s short-video app TikTok to fuel their international marketing efforts (and fight back against counterfeiters), on its Chinese counterpart Douyin, fashion labels have already established themselves as important players on the platform, and the connection goes both ways.
Douyin has shown an increased commitment to supporting fashion with a recent virtual event that brought together a dozen overseas brands, including Burberry, Chanel, Fendi, Giorgio Armani, and Prada.
“Dou Fashion Week” featured more than a dozen luxury fashion houses sharing content that included footage from fashion shows, interviews with models and celebrities, specially shot “magazine covers,” and behind-the-scenes coverage.
Users were invited to participate through the “fashion week 4 consecutive shots challenge” (时装周4连拍考验), through which they could pose as models for their own “magazine covers” with added help from Douyin’s filters and music selections.
...And Becoming More Digital By the Day
“We’re not asking you to go out, but we’re not asking you to be bored.” Calvin Klein partnered with Tmall’s loyalty club to open a “cloud” pop-up store with virtual experiences hosted by rapper Xiao Gui. Viewer are able to journey through a maze, browse various product lines and enjoy promotions during the pop-up’s five-day operation on Calvin Klein’s Tmall flagship store.
Prada officially launched its flagship store on Tmall, following a soft-launch period of several weeks, and marked the occasion with limited edition gift boxes available exclusively on the platform.
Kuaishou’s Commerce Plan and Restrictions
Douyin rival Kuaishou (previously on CCI) is expanding its e-commerce plan to invite partners from the electronics, media and business sectors to become major influencers on the platform. Partner brands will receive assistance from Kuaishou with setting up verified accounts, creating content, and drawing customers, and launching promotions. Participants will also have traffic directed to their accounts by Kuaishou, which sounds like a can’t-lose proposition.
But the platform also appears to be trying to assert control over who uses it to promote business. New rules aimed at creators will preclude them from working with brands to create commercial content without prior approval from Kuaishou.
Short Video Marketing Trends
A recent report from TechAlien delves into some additional differences between Douyin and Kuaishou and shares nine of the year’s key trends for brands working with short video, including:
Redefining the value of short video platforms and user traffic: Despite rapid user growth last year, neither Douyin nor Kuaishou have made major upgrades to their platforms since 2018, and they should be looking to improve the effectiveness of brand placements and celebrity endorsements.
Increased specialization of livestreaming: Data from January to October 2019 showed that the most popular categories of livestreamed influencer content are skits/comedy, beauty, and food/cooking — and those areas have held up well as more users flocked to the platforms amid the country’s coronavirus outbreak.
Increased celebrity participation in games and challenges: Sponsored games and challenges have been most popular among food and drink, beauty, and e-commerce brands. However, while 3C brands (computer, communications and consumer electronics) accounted for just a little over 3% of video challenges, they drew the highest numbers in terms of user activity and influencer engagement.
The costs of brand sponsorships are rising: At the same time, they are starting to occupy a dominant position in short video creating more original content (see highlights from the auto industry), and using private traffic for an added boost.
MAC and Tmall Join Forces for Celebrity-Filled Livestreaming Competition Show
The boundaries between platform types continue to blur in the Chinese market— as noted above, short video apps are active in livestreaming and e-commerce, while livestreaming e-commerce sites are beefing up their content to compete with programming more typically seen on TV or streaming sites.
Case in point: MAC and Tmall’s latest collaboration, “Misty Sky Team Challenge” (雾天团挑战赛), a cosmetics-focused competition show livestreaming on Taobao Live and timed to lead up to MAC’s Tmall Super Brand Day on March 24. (Watch a trailer here.)
The series is hosted by four top celebrities and influencers: Lay Zhang, MAC’s first brand spokesperson for the China region, leading beauty livestreamer Li Jiaqi, Li Wenhan from the popular boy band Unine, and MAC makeup artist Xu Jia. They advise the 16 MAC contestants over four rounds of competition that involve creating new makeup trends, with the winner appointed chief makeup artist for MAC TV and Shanghai Fashion Week (in collaboration with Tmall’s “cloud” broadcast).
The format is similar to China’s popular idol “survival” shows such as “Produce 101,” with viewers invited to vote for their favorites at the end of each program.
Viewers are invited to vote via Tmall’s official flagship store and support contestants on social media and on the e-commerce platform Xiaohongshu.
The campaign highlights MAC’s savvy in working with major platforms to leverage popular culture trends in entertainment. Last year, the brand’s lipstick collaboration with Tencent Mobile’s “Honor of Kings” game was one of the most-talked-about campaigns in China, serving as a global model for innovation in branding.
It also shows how Tmall is upping its content game. Last year Tmall created another branded livestreaming show, “Big Dream Home Bigger” (大梦想家Bigger) with a domestic furniture brand, but that series was on a smaller scale and more directly focused on sharing product information and advice.
Brand Film Pick: Beauty Brand Chando Celebrates Modern “Mulans” for Women’s Day
Interest in “Mulan” content and collaborations remains high despite Disney’s indefinite delay of the new film version’s release in China (and elsewhere — a bit of news celebrated by Chinese fans). The C-beauty brand Chando tapped into that anticipation — tempered with a focus on current realities — through its short animation for International Women’s Day on March 8.
Titled “Contemporary Mulan — Each One Is Very Beautiful” (当代木兰每一个都很美), the clip opens with a classic warrior figure that transforms into a series of modern-day heroines, including a medical worker and a soldier, fighting an animated coronavirus enemy in turn with swords. A series of related posters and a hashtag campaign on Weibo drew widespread attention ahead of Women’s Day, with the hashtag viewed 120 million times and the video drawing more than 9 million views and 107,000 reposts, thanks in part to a gift box giveaway for the top 10 users who shared it most widely.
Founded in 2001, Chando’s brand positioning emphasizes the quality of its natural and hyperlocal ingredients, and its marketing has sought to appeal to a broad spectrum of consumers who may be underserved by other brands. Its hugely popular 2019 Women’s Day campaign revolved around a series of videos featuring plus-size and older women speaking frankly about the biased comments they faced.
News in English
How WeChat and Douyin compare in terms of information flows and getting user attention. KrAsia
WeChat also supports livestreaming on its mini-programs, and here are nine examples of brand success in that format. China Internet Watch
More recently, luxury brands have turned to livestreaming to maintain links with consumers at home during the coronavirus epidemic. Business of Fashion
So far, the data shows that e-commerce clothing sales dropped sharply during the height of the outbreak, but online shopping for food and beverage and cosmetics suffered less. WalktheChat
And Women’s Day sales on Tmall and JD.com showed more reasons for optimism about an e-commerce-led consumer rebound. Azoya
In spite of economic uncertainty, Dentsu forecasts that ad spending in China will rise by 3.9% for 2020 thanks to mobile and digital. Campaign Asia
Luxury brands not only need to consider how to translate their formal names into Chinese, but must also grapple with the trend for “nicknames” for their labels and products. Vogue Business
“A blend of Instagram, Pinterest, and e-commerce,” or how to translate Xiaohongshu for Western brands. The Drum
WWD China is launching a six-week campaign to mark the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, and will include digital “fashion week” to highlight sustainable fashion from domestic and international brands. WWD
We’ve Got China Covered
China Film Insider: China’s Live Performances Go Virtual Amid Covid-19 Epidemic
Jing Daily: How Luxury Brands Can Win During a Crisis
Jing Travel: Mister Rogers Vibes and Chinese Folk Stars, TikTok and Douyin Success Stories
Thank you for reading! We will be back on Thursday with more news. Until then, please reach out with any feedback or story tips and follow us on Linkedin!