Livestreaming Hits the Big Screen as China’s Box Office Booms
Plus: Coppolella's big growth plans, Max Mara highlights empowered women, and our News in China roundup.
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While the global outlook for the movie industry remains uncertain at best, the Chinese box office is nearly back to pre-Covid levels, with the recent eight-day National Day/Mid-Autumn holiday period raking in RMB 2.95 million ($581 million) in ticket sales, second only to 2019’s RMB 5 billion ($708 million) take. There were nearly 100 million visits to cinemas (which are still operating at 75% capacity) compared to 135 million last year, and China is poised to overtake North America as the world’s biggest movie market if current trends continue — year-to-date gross receipts surpassed $1.8 billion during the holiday, while the much more sluggish U.S. and Canada box office stood at $2.1 billion.
China’s top e-commerce livestreaming stars are so recognizably in the mainstream that they are now appearing in movies (having already conquered the smaller screens). The top-grossing film of the holiday period, “My People My Homeland” (我和我的家乡) was co-produced by Alibaba Pictures and featured five stories directed by top comedy directors with the overarching theme of poverty relief.
One of its shorts, “The Road Home” (回乡之路) showcases how e-commerce livestreaming boosted the economy in the Maowusu region in Shanxi Province, transforming a desert into an oasis. China’s top two e-commerce livestreamers, Viya and Li Jiaqi, both appear on screen from the perspective of app viewers, with “lipstick king” Li seen selling the beauty product that made his name. Audiences have noted that the appearances offered an uplifting tone to the film, showing “how times have truly improved” thanks to e-commerce capabilities that are accessible to all.
E-commerce takes on an even bigger role in the film “Coffee or Tea?” (一点就到家, literally “One Click Home”), a smaller-budget, youth-oriented comedy from Alibaba Pictures starring popular Gen Z actor Liu Haoran. Also covering the subject matter of alleviating poverty, the story follows three young men who return to their rural hometown in Yunnan Province to launch an online business centered around a fictional brand of trendy Pu’er coffee, in a region that is best known for its prized teas.
Li Jiaqi makes a cameo playing himself as the three protagonists visit his studio, where he promotes their brand with his typical rapid-fire delivery. Following the film’s release on October 4, Li Jiaqi’s appearance became a trending topic on Weibo, while sales of Pu’er coffee have been boosted by fans of the film, with vendors and brands thriving on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms.
Last year, Alibaba’s Tmall signed a strategic cooperation agreement with four localities in Yunnan Province (including Pu’er) to promote products from the region, and established a Yunnan coffee livestreaming center to promote sales via e-commerce broadcasts.
- by Ginger Ooi
Mentioned in today’s newsletter: Alibaba, Amer Sports, Arc’teryx, Browns, Canada Goose, Coppolella, Dior, Farfetch, Fendi, Geely, Harrods, Lotus, Max Mara, Miu Miu, Pepsi, Prada, Salomon, Tmall, Veilance, Volvo, Visa.
Will Ticking All the Right Boxes Help Streetwear Brand Coppolella Win in China?
by Avery Booker
Recently, CCI profiled the takeover of Finland-based Amer Sports by a consortium led by China’s Anta Sports and the replacement of the company’s CEO with a Chinese executive in charge of a significant portfolio of outdoor brands that includes Salomon, Arc’teryx, and Veilance. As we pointed out, acquisitions of big-ticket brands by Chinese investment or brand groups is often followed by a pivot to prioritize the China market, and the attendant marketing and e-commerce shift that comes along with that (which can be a drawn-out process when dealing with a European luxury brand with decades of history and heritage behind it).
But one recent Chinese acquisition in Europe is remarkable due to both the relatively young age of the acquired brand and the speed with which it is ticking all of the boxes needed to become a fully digitalized brand in 2020.
The Milan-based streetwear and skateboarding brand Coppolella was founded in 2016 and purchased earlier this year by the Peacebird Group, owner of domestic fast fashion brands Material Girl, Ledin, and the eponymous Peacebird. Now, it is in the midst of an ambitious and accelerated China-facing marketing effort that provides an interesting case study en route to an ambitious projection of €200 million ($237 million) in sales in China within the next five years.
Read the full article on Content Commerce Insider
On-Screen and Off, Brand Endorsements Speak to China’s Empowered Women
Presented by MaxMara for Jing Daily
Luxury brands have long built their ethos and designs around the question, “who is she?” Yet, corporate industry structures have traditionally been dominated by men. Recently, challenges to this standard have taken hold in the industry, as women take their seats at some of the fashion’s most exclusive corporate tables. They range from Judy Liu, who was appointed an executive board member at Farfetch, to Jean Liu, who joined the board of the international luxury group Kering as a director and the first-ever Asian board member.
These power moves are only the beginning of a much-needed change, though they signal that companies are starting to address the disconnect between their leadership and consumer demand. In China, particularly, gains in economic power have resulted in an overhaul of the country’s business landscape by a new generation of ambitious and trailblazing women.
A luxury brand operating in the market must adopt a two-fold level of awareness that empowers women within its company and speaks to a dialogue of empowerment with its consumer. Looking at the timeless womenswear brand Max Mara’s China strategy, their answer to the question “who is she” is a woman who’s professional, stylish, and empowered.
Yet, with heightened competition in the Chinese market, the challenge for a brand is identifying unique channels where it can connect with its audience. Regarding female empowerment, there has also been an uptick in female representation on Chinese television, which has presented a new and fortuitous opportunity for Max Mara to connect with its audience.
Read the full article on Content Commerce Insider
Will Luxury Players Embrace China’s DTC Revolution?
The emotional experiences associated with luxury purchases have traditionally best been conveyed through in-person retail — opulently appointed settings, personal attention, and perks such as glasses of champagne. But China’s tech-savvy generation of young consumers, coupled with the constraints created by the coronavirus outbreak, have forced more players in the luxury sphere to experiment with the direct-to-consumer (DTC) strategies that have been essential for digitally native brands such as Rothy’s.
In China, WeChat mini-programs have been the preferred route for premium brands to forge relationships with consumers, offering customizable and interactive experiences with high potential for sales conversion.
While e-commerce represents just 18% of mini-program content, total transactions in 2019 were worth more than RMB 800 billion ($115 billion), a 160% increase over the previous year. The average number of mini-program sessions per user also grew in 2019, by 45%, while the average number used nearly doubled, and retention rates increased by 14%.
Read the full story on Jing Daily
Brand Film Pick: Geely’s Patriotic Sentiments Win Fans
by Ginger Ooi
Homegrown Chinese brands are uniquely positioned to align themselves with official entities to produce feel-good, patriotic content that can be widely promoted to audiences in a merger of corporate-state propaganda that nevertheless resonates with a significant share of viewers.
In time for the National Day holiday, automaker Geely (owner of Volvo and Lotus) partnered with Xinhua News Agency to release a short film, “With Me” (有我), that pays tribute to workers across the country in a variety of professions, using data and numbers to connect the narrative.
The film opens at midnight in Wuhan (epicenter of China’s coronavirus outbreak) as a Meituan delivery driver overcomes a minor accident to get an order in on time, before turning to paramedics, street cleaners, teachers, livestreamers, mountaineers, and firefighters, among others, highlighting the challenges faced in each profession and the perseverance engendered. The film closes with individuals stating “With me” and the closing line, “With me, China is lucky” (有我 中国吉利) plays on Geely’s Chinese name (吉利, jili, which means lucky).
The film has been widely distributed on official social media channels, with its hashtag drawing more than 12 million views on Weibo, and largely positive feedback from viewers receptive to the patriotic messages.
News From China
Shanghai Fashion Week is in full swing (and in-person), with more than 90 runway shows planned over the span of 11 days, and hundreds more brands presenting their Spring/Summer 2021 collections at showrooms and trade events. And while the return to live shows has been hotly anticipated, digital remains a key part of the experience following the successful Tmall partnership with SFW to present the Autumn/Winter 2020 collections virtually back in March, with more than 150 designers participating.
SFW has renewed its cooperation with Tmall, and more brands are being encouraged to produce content for online audiences, from livestreams to filmed presentations that allow for greater creative license. Angel Chen, for example, will mark her return to SFW after six years to debut a collaboration with Canada Goose that will be broadcast via Chinese platforms as well as Instagram, for a wider global reach.
Due to ongoing Covid travel restrictions, international fashion brands have been largely shut out of SFW, forcing them to double down on digital engagement, with the recent examples from overseas fashion weeks offering a model for how to bring content to Chinese audiences in ways that drive engagement via the star power of celebrity ambassadors and other brand friends. Dior set a new record with its livestreamed event from a Shanghai museum that featured celebrity ambassadors discussing the Spring/Summer 2021 show, drawing a record 83 million-plus views across Chinese social media platforms, with luxury brands such as Prada, Miu Miu, and Fendi organizing similar events that combined in-person VIP events with fashion broadcasts from overseas.
As noted by Jing Daily, London retailers are one major exception with their involvement at SFW. Department store Harrods brought its Harrods Studio to connect with Chinese audiences on topics such as sustainable luxury, Chinese design, and emerging fashion trends; retailer Browns partnered with Farfetch to create a pop-up store in the fashionable Xintiandi shopping district; and concept store Machine-A partnered with Labelhood to showcase more than 20 of its top selling brands at the Chinese fashion incubator’s retail space.
Global brands from outside of the fashion industry are also leveraging SFW for marketing opportunities, with Pepsi releasing limited-edition SFW-themed cans in tandem with the launch of tote bags that promote recycling, while Visa partnered with Farfetch on a host a pop-up exhibition encouraging consumers to support local designers and to connect Chinese brands with global buyers.
Alibaba is kicking off the lead-up to the November 11 Singles’ Day shopping extravaganza with the unbeatable offer of 100 million products priced at just one yuan (15 cents) with free shipping via its discount-oriented Taobao Special Offer app, which was launched in March and aims to reclaim some of the bargain-hunting consumers that have gravitated towards rival Pinduoduo in recent years. The promotion runs until November 11 and involves some 500,000 participating factories.
Alibaba also just opened a physical one-yuan store under the Taobao Special Offer brand in Shanghai, the first of a planned 100-plus such stores it will roll out over the next three years as part of a broader C2M plan involving the new platform and 1.2 million businesses, all integrated with Alibaba’s B2B platform 1688.com.
As of August, Taobao Special Offer was reported to have 55 million monthly active users, while Alibaba counts some 742 million retail consumers in China across its platforms. And with more than 70% of Alibaba’s user growth coming from the so-called “submerged market” of lower-tier cities and rural areas (where consumers are more price-conscious), the potential for rapid adoption of its new discount platform appears enormous.
How do China’s top e-commerce livestreaming platforms and sellers stack up against each other? The September ranking of the top 50 livestreamers published jointly by Pangqiu Data, Tiaopi E-commerce and others provides some insights. Not surprisingly, Viya, with RMB 2.7 billion ($400 million) and Li Jiaqi, with RMB 1.34 billion ($200 million) occupied their usual top two spots, but beyond them, the competition across platforms is more intense.
Including Viya and Li, Taobao Live had 15 sellers in the top 50, accounting for 51.3% of the top 50 livestreamers’ sales with RMB 4.65 billion ($690 million), while Kuaishou’s 21 sellers accounted for 32.7% and Douyin’s 14 had 16%.
News in English
Brands that work with BTS moved quickly to distance themselves from the K-pop supergroup after its leader made comments about the Korean War that upset Chinese netizens. Reuters
Good news from Golden Week: Retail and restaurant consumption was up 4.9% during this year’s eight-day holiday period compared to last year’s seven-day holiday, signalling that overall retail sales could see a 3 to 4% year-on-year bump for the month of October. SCMP
Ctrip co-founder James Liang became a livestreaming star earlier this year thanks to his entertaining costumed broadcasts, and he sees livestreaming as a key sales and marketing channel even as the tourism sector recovers. SCMP
Alipay has joined WeChat as a potential target for a U.S. ban by the Trump administration, which could hit brands that depend on business from Chinese tourists and residents in the country. Campaign Asia
Baidu seeks to contend against Douyin and Kuaishou with Kankan, a new app focused on short video and livestreaming, but for now it has little original content and is focused largely on search. SCMP
Will Bytedance emerge as China’s next “Starbucks killer”? The tech giant has applied to register a trademark for “ByteCoffee” under food and catering classifications. Pandaily
Alibaba is becoming a global player in online trade shows, with 18 events either completed or underway in recent months, including the WeCosmoprof beauty fair. WWD
In another globally-oriented move, Alibaba is taking a stake in Swiss duty-free operator Dufry, and will form a joint venture to develop travel retail in China and “enhance Dufry’s digital transformation.” Reuters
China’s Android app stores take as much as 50% of app sales (compared to Apple’s 30%, but some smaller game developers have started to rebel. Bloomberg
Now you see it… A web browsing app backed by Chinese cybersecurity firm Qihoo 360 allowing users to bypass the Great Firewall surged in popularity before abruptly disappearing from app stores. CNBC
TikTok is making a push into global esports with a new deal to be the principal partner of the London-based Tundra team. Esports Insider
Major brand owners such as Procter & Gamble and Danone plan to continue working with TikTok in the United States for as long as they can. Reuters
Cheap Chinese fashion is finding a global teen audience thanks to Shein, a DTC brand with no stores and more than 13 million followers on Instagram. Business Insider
And Uniqlo now has more stores in China than in Japan, as the sluggish market in its home country has forced it to emphasize overseas expansion. Nikkei Asia
The NBA returned to China’s state broadcaster CCTV after being off the air for a year due to controversy over free speech and Hong Kong’s democracy protests, though with only a handful of games left in the finals for this season. Sixth Tone
China has become the source of the most trademark applications at the U.S. Patent and Trademark office, surpassing filings from American brand owners. World Trademark Review
Tom Ford is the latest global brand to go big on Chinese retail, opening its largest store in the world in Guangzhou, part of a broader strategy that has made it a top cosmetics and fragrance brand in the market. WWD
How to fake rich in China: an expose into a WeChat group for women in Shanghai who share luxury products and experiences for social media purposes has become a top trending topic. What’s on Weibo
We’ve Got China Covered