Showtime for Shopping: E-Commerce Platforms Offer a Side of TV Entertainment
Plus: A livestreaming crackdown, "Sisters" make it rain, and the CCI Report Corner.
This year’s 618 Shopping Festival stood out not only for its attention to livestreaming sales broadcasts, but also for the splashy televised gala shows that e-commerce platforms produced in partnership with major satellite TV networks.
Since 2015, Alibaba has used televised entertainment to promote the November 11 Singles’ Day sales, staging increasingly lavish productions featuring international celebrities such as Mariah Carey and Taylor Swift. In 2019, Suning challenged Alibaba with its own Singles’ Day show on Hunan Satellite TV, focusing more on top domestic stars.
This year’s 618 Shopping Festival added another name to the mix, with three big online retailers competing to draw viewers with long lists of Chinese celebrities who, in turn, sought to drive sales with entertaining promotional activities. Below, we take a look at this year’s crop of shows to see how each platform fared.
Tmall
“Tmall 618 Super Night” (天猫618超级晚), broadcast on June 16
Network: Jiangsu Satellite TV
Content highlights: During the 618 Shopping Festival period, Alibaba’s Taobao Live recruited more than 300 celebrities to host livestreaming sales, and its Tmall gala show aimed to dazzle viewers with a comparable display of star power. Among the dozens of big names appearing were Li Yuchun, Liu Mintao, Nicholas Tse, and R1SE. The show also included the final appearance of Rocket Girls 101 before the popular girl group was disbanded, and an exclusive show by 172 Girls, a “pop-up” band made up of finalists from the recently concluded season of “Youth With You.” In an interactive feature, celebrity guests drew prizes for viewers from a gashapon machine.
Featured brands: Vivo, Red Star Macalline, Paperang
Pinduoduo
“Super Surprise Night” (618超拼夜晚), broadcast on June 17
Network: Hunan Satellite TV
Content highlights: Using the theme of “Fighting for You,” discount e-commerce platform Pinduoduo brought together top stars such as Kris Wu, Huang Zitao, and Li Ronghao, along with performances from two C-pop groups that came out of previous seasons of “Youth With You,” The9 and Unine. The show incorporated elements of e-commerce livestreaming with celebrities engaging in a friendly competition to see who could sell out goods priced at RMB 9.9 ($1.40) the fastest. Hunan TV has long been a leader in content production, and Pinduoduo’s show drew the highest ratings of the three 618 galas with a 2.78% share, or more than double what a typical episode of a popular reality show draws.
Featured brands: SK-II, Estée Lauder, Huawei Honor
Suning
“618 Super Show” (618超级秀), broadcast on June 17
Network: Dragon TV
Content highlights: Suning borrowed from variety and game show formats to produce a “Super Buying Livestream Room” (超级买手直播间) that offered a shoppable entertainment experience. Short sketches were aired throughout the program, which incorporated products and highlighted their features. The show also included clips of celebrities visiting stores to share their firsthand experiences using various products. Although Suning’s show included popular draws such as Lay Zhang, Zhang Jie, Next, and top contestants from the current season of “Produce Camp 2020,” it drew the smallest audience of the three shows, in part due to its head-to-head competition with Pinduoduo’s broadcast.
Featured brands: Nintendo Switch, TCL
- by Ginger Ooi, CCI Team
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Mentioned in today’s newsletter: Apple, Bilibili, Estée Lauder, Huawei Honor, L'Oréal, Netease Youdao, Nintendo, SK-II, TCL, Tencent, Thanmelin, Vipshop, Vivo.
A New Crackdown on Livestreaming Content
On Tuesday, the Cyberspace Administration of China named ten livestreaming platforms for disseminating “vulgar content” and directed local authorities to take punitive action against them, including freezing content uploads, suspending the registration of new users, and blacklisting offending livestream hosts.
Among those specifically named for infractions were video streaming platform Bilibili, the gaming platforms Douyu and Huya, and Bytedance’s Xigua Video.
In a notice, the CAC said it had reviewed the 31 major livestreaming platforms and found them to be sorely lacking in content supervision. Among the problems cited were vulgar language, scantily clad female hosts, poor management of user comments by the platforms, and the spread of “unhealthy” values. E-commerce livestreaming practices were not specifically mentioned, but are the subject of other ongoing regulatory efforts.
Internet regulators have sought to tackle these issues before. After amateur entertainment-oriented livestreaming took off in the mid-2010s, a lengthy campaign that ran from 2016 to 2017 sought to impose strict controls on the freewheeling sector. Dozens of platforms were shut down and thousands of livestream hosts were banned or sanctioned.
This time around, the targets are bigger companies that already have sophisticated content-moderation mechanisms in place, so it should be easier for them to fall in line.
More recently, Douyu and Huya, both of which are controlled by Tencent, came under fire for inserting gaming ads in their online education channels. Both platforms have now suspended content updates on their main channels following the CAC’s notice.
Idol Competition Show “Sisters” Makes Waves for Brands
Following the massive success of the first episode of “Sisters Who Make Waves” (乘风破浪的姐姐) — a new take on the idol competition format that features “older” female celebrities between the ages of 30 and 52 — the series is now projected to bring as much as RMB 1 billion ($140 million) in revenue to streaming platform Mango TV.
Paid subscriptions are forecast to reach nearly RMB 2.8 billion ($395 million) this year, representing an increase of RMB 1.1 billion ($156 million) from 2019, while advertising revenues from “Sisters” should end up in the range of RMB 364 million ($51 million) to RMB 546 million ($77 million). The show’s stars and brand sponsors are also seeing the benefits of participation.
On June 19, Mango TV announced that Douyin will be the official platform for “Sisters” livestreaming content, with weekly broadcasts hosted by various contestants airing after each new episode. The cross-platform model involves both the creation and marketing of content, and amplifies the exposure for all parties, including brand sponsors. effectively giving both the program and Douyin more exposure.
C-beauty brand Thanmelin nabbed the title sponsorship, and its products are featured being used by contestants on the show. The day after “Sisters” premiered, the brand saw a marked peak in Baidu searches, reaching the highest level in six months.
Contestants have also been appearing in commercials for sponsors such as Vivo and Vipshop, further extending brand reach among their fans.
Sponsor Vipshop is selling clothing and accessories worn by contestants on the show, which has been drawing more shoppers to the platform. Consumers are also seeking out similar styles from enterprising sellers on Taobao, even without an official affiliation with the show.
Shortly after the debut of “Sisters,” contestant Zhang Yuqi hosted a livestream sale on Kuaishou, the short video platform for which she is a celebrity ambassador. The 4.5-hour broadcast drew 25 million viewers and sold RMB 223 million ($31 million) worth of goods, with many fans from “Sisters” tuning in to share comments on her performance on the talent competition.
Mango TV will leverage the popularity of “Sisters” with additional content offerings that will offer more opportunities for brand involvement. Once the winners of “Sisters” are selected and the resulting girl group is formed, Mango will produce a spin-off reality series to follow the members as they record their first album and go on tour. Mango TV also has a sequel to “Sisters” in the works with another twist: the contestants will be male celebrities over the age of 30, and fans are already excitedly awaiting more details of the production.
Brand Film Pick: Netease Youdao’s Childbirth Experience
“What if children had the right to choose whether to be born?” That is the question posed at the start of Netease Youdao’s latest brand film, which was released as part of the educational brand’s 618 marketing campaign to promote its high-tech Chinese-English dictionary pen.
A woman labors to give birth as her partner recites a list of their qualifications for parenthood: he has put in long hours at his career, doesn’t drink or smoke, and rushes home after work; she gave up milk tea for a year. He shows off the certificates they’ve obtained in child-rearing and cooking, and their award for going two years without arguing. The father appears to be making progress in persuading the child to come out — until he dives into his ambitious plans for the child’s education from the age of three, and labor stalls as the unborn child apparently reconsiders its future.
A doctor advises that he tone down the academic pressure, and out comes the Youdao dictionary pen, another persuasive tool in the father’s arsenal.
It’s another creative take from Netease, which has developed a reputation for offbeat and comedic marketing. One of China’s internet pioneers, Netease has increased its focus on the fast-growing educational technology sector through Youdao, one of China’s largest online teaching providers. Its dictionary pen was launched in 2019 as the brand’s first hardware product with an equally entertaining brand film.
Report Corner
International beauty brands dominated 618 sales. A report on the recent shopping festival from Sytun found that L'Oréal came out on top of the skincare category.
The latest consumer survey from McKinsey looks at how attitudes towards discretionary spending on mobile phones and home appliances have changed in the post-coronavirus period.
Young professional women are the driving force behind livestreaming consumption. Entdata’s latest study finds that 60% of livestreaming shoppers are under the age of 30, and 64% are female.
Sales from e-commerce livestreaming are projected to reach RMB 961 billion ($136 billion) in 2020, more than double 2019 levels, according to a report on the sector from GroupM.
News in English
Alibaba has made a surprisingly successful foray into gaming, with its “Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Strategy Edition” now the sixth most profitable game worldwide, even though it is only available in the Chinese market. SCMP
Meanwhile, Apple will remove thousands of games from its Chinese App Store that have not been officially approved by the government. The Verge
The crackdown on fun continues: Coronavirus-related restrictions on how much time can be spent at karaoke parlors and internet cafes has young Chinese fuming. What’s on Weibo
Kuaishou will invest more than $420 million to build an e-commerce livestreaming facility in Chengdu that will serve as a hub for brands, influencers, and the agencies that act as go-betweens. Caixin
The effective use of Chinese characters has been a challenge for Western fashion brands, but examples from Prada and Kering offer hope. Vogue Business
Brand lessons from Michael Jordan’s eight-year trademark battle through the Chinese legal system. Business of Fashion
Reviews for the first virtual edition of the Canton Fair were mixed, with some participants complaining that the format was not conducive to dealmaking. SCMP
C-beauty brands have been adept at incorporating China’s cultural heritage into trendy new products. Cosmetics Design Asia
We’ve Got China Covered
China Film Insider: 2020’s Film Industry Begins With First International Film Festival?
Jing Daily: Gucci, Prada And More Struggle On Douyin
Jing Travel: How TeamLab Shanghai Incentivizes Visits
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- Avery Booker, Sky Canaves, Ginger Ooi and the rest of the CCI Team