Festivals Archives

What is 11/11 Singles’ Day and how this Retail Festival Changed in Recent Years?

November 11, 2022

We all have heard of Valentine’s Day or “Lovers’ Day,” but have you heard of “Singles’ Day” aka 11/11 or Double Eleven? Interesting right? It is celebrated in China, and it is one of the biggest retail festivals here. A huge event in the marketing calendar of many retailers. And, if you are targeting a Chinese audience, then this is an amazing opportunity to make huge sales.

Let’s learn more about this singles’ day and understand ways to capture an audience in this highly competitive market.

What is “11/11” and how did the craze take over China in the last couple of years?

The festival started when the students of China’s Nanjing University celebrated “Bachelor’s Day” as a sort of anti-Valentine’s Day around 1993. Why November 11th? Numerology is very popular in China. November 11 looks like four lonely sticks when written, and hence, Singles’ festival was born. This celebration started spreading among other universities. Men and women started celebrating it. So, eventually, 11/11 got the name “Singles’ Day.” People celebrate this occasion by treating themselves to gifts and presents, making Double 11 a huge retail festival in China.

In 2021, around 900 million shoppers purchased luxury items from Gucci, Burberry, Coach, and other luxury brands. China’s two tech giants, Alibaba and JD.com, together they set a new world record by earning around $139 billion. Due to this huge craze, there is a lot of competition as well among brands. To survive the competition, campaigns must be well-prepared. Brands collaborate with KOLs and online advertisements to promote their product and get better awareness among consumers.

Tmall was the one which initiated the Singles’ Day Shopping Festival in 2009. It has grown over time into a shopping phenomenon and greatly impacted the global retail sector. In November 2011, the one-day sales of Singles’ Day surpassed the sales of Cyber Monday in the United States. It has become a massive internet shopping festival.

Every year, Tmall organizes a massive shopping extravaganza that features unending live-streaming sessions, amazing discounts, and celebrity appearances. Other shopping giants like JD.com and Pinduoduo also joined this heated competition.

Why Double 11 sales are going down?

However, Tmall’s sales have dropped dramatically in recent years. Not only Tmall but also Alibaba and JD.com saw a drop in sales in 2020. Some of the reasons for this downfall are

Singles’ Day has been around for more than a decade and customers are not as excited as before. Today they are also much more familiar with the tactics and campaigns done by the brands.
Starting the sales window way too early. People purchase in the initial sales and this makes the actual day or week revenues much lower.
Livestream e-commerce is a huge hit among consumers but live-streaming features are available on all social media platforms nowadays. This makes the e-commerce houses like Tmall hard to grab the audience’s attention through their live streams.
With numerous promotions and campaigns all around the year, Singles’ Day stands out less. This makes the Single’s day sales feel less special and results in low sales. Check the list of other e-commerce festivals in China and you’ll see that Chinese consumers have multiple occasions to hunt for deals.
People are getting more aware of consumerism. Many have started becoming more conscious of the products they buy, from whom they buy, and shopping sustainably.

Brand practices and consumers’ reaction

During these festive sales, the competition gets fiercer. Brands also join e-commerce platforms to get more sales. With offers and discounts available in online stores, offline stores, and live streaming channels, people are finding it difficult to purchase products at the lowest price.

Even big brands got under fire due to false advertising with L’Oreal among them. Though they topped Weibo’s list of the hottest searches, they got a huge backlash for misleading the consumers. As the issue continued to bubble, the hashtag #L’Oréalaccusedoffalseadvertising trended on Weibo, reaching 150 million views.

Consumers have recently stated that they would rather purchase goods at regular prices when needing them. As opposed to comparing numerous coupons and discounts to find the best deal.

Post-COVID reality

Post-Covid, many users have become more cautious about spending money. Consumerism is getting more criticism, along with the crazy amount of excessive and unsustainable packaging that 11/11 creates. Chinese consumers are aware of the effects of global warming and have experienced its impact. People are becoming more aware of the situation and want to take the essential steps to avoid consumerism.

This has forced brands and e-commerce giants to adopt sustainability. This year’s 11.11 shopping festival coincides with the 27th United Nations Conference on Climate Change, also known as COP27. Over the course of the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, Alibaba Group is promoting sustainable consumption throughout its ecosystem. Alibaba has partnered with brands and merchants to provide Chinese consumers with more sustainable products at a time when they are looking to live more sustainably.

The biggest stars of last year Double 11 in trouble

Note that live-streaming e-commerce started booming in China during the pandemic. In 2021, more than 320 million customers in China will make at least one purchase from a live-stream session. We also covered quite extensively live-streaming tactics for WeChat Channels.

Viya and Li Jiaqi, China’s two famous live streamers, were the biggest winners of Alibaba’s Singles’ Day in 2021. The power duo generated GMV worth $3.1 billion (20 billion yuan) during their October 20 live stream session, which is close to 10% of the entire 2020 Singles’ Day event. Li Jiaqi pre-sold $1.9 billion (12 billion yuan) in products ranging from Shiseido creams to Apple AirPods. Viya also registered a smashing success, selling about 1.2 billion (8 billion yuan) in goods during a 14-hour live stream. Li Jiaqi, also known as Austin Li, was one of China’s biggest internet celebrities, with 64 million followers on Taobao. He once sold 15,000 lipsticks within 5 minutes in a sales competition against Alibaba.

But the superstar has gone silent after his show was abruptly cut last year due to connotations with political events. There is a long silence from Li’s side, which is very uncommon for him. He isn’t the only internet star to vanish from social media in China in recent months. Shortly after her successful 11/11 appearance, Huang Wei, also known as Viya, was fined $210 million for tax evasion. Huang had millions of followers on China’s major social media and shopping platforms, but her accounts were removed in December. She has not appeared online since then.

The sudden rise and fall of China’s most well-known influencers serve as a reminder. Brands should keep in mind how risky it is for brands to invest only in KOL marketing. This can have a huge impact on this year’s Singles’ Day sales.

New Singles’ Day strategies

Loyalty program

Brands have slowly started to realize that when it comes to building a strong, long-term relationship with shoppers, there is more to success than just offering deep discounts. The 14th edition of Alibaba’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival in China features over 290,000 brands. It has provided retailers with tools and solutions for expanding their brand loyalty membership programs and introducing new products this year.

Membership has become a high priority for brands on Tmall because it allows them to interact with consumers most directly and, for some, provides a higher level of certainty over sales during 11/11. To date, over 40 brands on Tmall have loyalty membership programs with over ten million members, and 600 brands have loyalty membership programs with over one million members.

Alibaba is one e-commerce platform that has made strong progress from a GMV focus to a loyalty focus. “Alibaba is relatively ahead of the curve by serving these high-quality consumers,” said Ralph Wu, an associate partner at Bain & Co.

As of June 30, Alibaba also had 25 million members of its 88VIP loyalty program, with each member spending more than 57,000 yuan per year with the Hangzhou-based company. 88VIP is a mechanism designed to help participating brands and merchants increase stickiness and deepen consumer engagement across Alibaba’s ecosystem.

Brand storytelling

Claire Sun, Marketing Director of Royal Canin, a pet food brand with 1 million members and a decade-long presence on Tmall, talked about the brand’s 11.11 preparations and the benefits they’ve gotten from Alibaba’s platforms.

Royal Canin’s 11.11 preparations took a different turn this year. The company started early and collaborated with Tmall to host its first-ever Super Brand Day in the pet category.

This enabled the brand to amass a wealth of consumer insights and customer assets in advance of 11.11.

Bilibili joins 11/11

A new player is joining this year’s “Double 11” e-commerce battle: Bilibili (also known as B Station). The video-sharing site officially launched a live-streaming shopping function ahead of China’s biggest shopping bonanza.

At present, Bilibili’s live broadcast rooms offer products from its self-operated stores and those from Alibaba’s Taobao and JD.com.

To grow its livestream army, Bilibili has lowered the threshold for video uploaders to host their own live broadcast rooms. They must be at least 18 years old and have at least 1,000 fans. On top of that, they need to possess broadcast records from the past four years.

Overall, there is still a long way to go before B Station can pull ahead in the live-streaming race. It will be tantalizing to see how the video-sharing site will fare during the Double 11 shopping festival.

Conclusion

Chinese e-commerce behemoths created online shopping festivals like Double 11 to boost sales through discounts. Double 11 remains an important event for increasing brand and product exposure. However, brands should prioritize positive relationships with end consumers over skyrocketing GMV.

If you want to know more about retail festivals in China and e-commerce, please contact our team. We use our knowledge and expertise to help businesses build meaningful partnerships and develop their networks among Chinese customers. For additional information, please contact us at contact@thewechatagency.com

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What is the Mid-Autumn Festival and How do Brands Approach It?

September 7, 2022

First of all, happy mid-autumn festival from the WeChat Agency team!

China has a very distinct cultural history, traditions, and holidays. Such days continue to be essential marketing touchpoints. In recent times they have evolved into shopping plans for the average consumer.

The second most important festival after Chinese New Year is the Mid-Autumn Festival. This year it falls on September 10.

So for all the businesses out there, this is a fantastic chance for you to draw Chinese customers in with relevant advertising and merchandise!

And without further ado, let’s learn about the Mid-Autumn Festival and how your company can benefit from it.

Mid-Autumn Festival

This holiday which celebrates the end of the harvest season is typically marked by family get-togethers, lantern festivals, and mooncake celebrations, yummy right!
It is celebrated in many other Asian nations as well, such as Singapore, Vietnam, Korea, and Malaysia, and as said earlier, it is the second-most significant festival after Chinese New Year.

When: The Mid-Autumn Festival occurs on the fifteenth day of the Chinese calendar’s eighth month.
Significance: It’s a significant festival in Chinese culture and very comparable to the Western Thanksgiving holiday.
How do people in China celebrate? Friends, family, and delectable food are all that matter, with the mooncake taking center stage.

As the full moon shines brightly in the sky, people also celebrate by lighting decorative lanterns. Mooncakes and other items with festive themes are frequently given as gifts to friends and family.

What ways can brands celebrate?

Moon cakes

Mooncakes are like the life source of this celebration. In fact, the Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as the Mooncake Festival!
Mooncakes can be a fantastic opportunity for brands to use and take full advantage of the festive spirit.

In fact, according to a recent analysis by iiMedia, the size of the Chinese mooncake gift box industry quadrupled between 2016 and 2021, rising from $1.7 billion (11.6 billion RMB) to $2.5 billion (16.9 billion RMB). As a result of this demand, there are now an increasing number of mooncake businesses in China, 40,478 as of July 2022, making it even more important to stand out creatively.

With their purchases, several brands give customers gift boxes of mooncakes to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival.
This can be easily accomplished by collaborating with a nearby eatery or food company so that their customers can use a voucher to purchase a gift-boxed mooncake.

Some brands have also put their own spin on the delicacy.

They opt for an experimental mixture rather than the traditional red bean or lotus seed paste. Mooncakes are a significant means by which businesses can show that they are aware of regional customs.

Starbucks, for instance, joined the competition with its own coffee-flavored mooncake! Each was stamped with the Starbucks logo and the promotional Facebook post won over 20,000 engagements.

For the Mid-Autumn Festival, companies can include the moon in their products. In order to maintain the festive atmosphere, Alexander McQueen used traditional ink on a jewel box with festive theme elements that represented the moon and moonlight.

WeChat greetings

WeChat is a popular platform for friends and family to exchange holiday greetings. The Chinese usually send greetings to one another via WeChat. In WeChat, people also post images of themselves participating in the festival by lighting lanterns and eating mooncakes. Stickers, GIFs are the most popular ways to do that.

Tencent developed “Moonments,” a mixed reality campaign intended to represent the potent force of Chinese culture.

People had to focus on the moon from their current location to create it, and once they did, they were told to choose a location on the Great Wall of China. They will get a view of the moon and the Great Wall of China. They can now choose from a list of traditional Chinese poems about the moon. Finally, you’ll have a poster to share on WeChat Moments with your Moon Festival greeting.

Other brands can also create something special, like Moonments, to engage consumers on special occasions and celebrate Chinese culture.

On September 8th, Ayayi started working for Alibaba as the proprietor of Tmall Super Brand. She had her own ID card and launched the first NFT digital mooncake for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Gaming

The Mid-Autumn Festival is also a great time to gamify your website or app by providing some sort of competition, gaming experience or scoring, or perks because Chinese people love digital trends, games, and other interactive oddities.

For instance, Kate Spade used WeChat to launch a flight game that spread lovely festival lanterns filled with congratulations across the screen. This made it possible for everyone to spread good vibes and well wishes while sharing the branded lantern with family and friends.

The well-known smartphone app game Angry Birds also celebrated the holiday by switching out its standard golden eggs for lovely golden mooncakes and adding 34 levels with an oriental theme.

Cool campaigns for Mid-Autumn festival

Mooncakes and holiday-related items are the main presents that are given and received. However, young people enjoy shopping particularly, and many companies advertise specialty mooncakes or limited-edition holiday-themed goods.

Let’s take a look at some interesting campaigns that took place in recent years:

Mooncakes from Fendi

Fendi adopted a novel method for designing containers. The brand chose a highly functional cylinder shape that could transform into a lantern because lanterns are a prominent aspect of the Mid-Autumn Festival. A small, vertical set of drawers containing mooncakes is revealed when the cylinder is opened. Each mooncake bears the FF stamp of the company.

The protective film covering a tiny battery on the tube’s side can be removed after the drawers have been taken out and the container has been shut. This activates internal LED lighting that projects light through star-shaped holes onto nearby walls to simulate a starry night. It also rotates.

Their messaging was charming as well. In association with Chinese artist Oscar Wang, they unveiled a 15-second animation featuring Fendidi the Panda. The company’s social media accounts like Weibo, WeChat, and RED, all showed the campaign. Additionally, it was available globally on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It featured adorable depictions of a full moon, an astronaut, and the panda, China’s national animal.

They also ran a mooncake distribution campaign. The company covered a wide range of topics in novel and enjoyable ways.

Perfect Diary: Beauty Products with Mid-Autumn Festival Theme

Some companies choose to use other products that draw inspiration from the holiday rather than traditional offerings like mooncakes. Perfect Diary, a domestic Chinese beauty brand that has been capitalizing on the guochao trend and a strong marketing strategy in the country, released a Mid-Autumn Festival-themed eyeshadow palette.

They collaborated with the Guochao incubator on Tmall and co-branded the palette with China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, or NASA in China. Chang’E and Jade Rabbit are two examples of characters from Mid-Autumn Festival fables who reside on the moon that have been given names for China’s lunar probes.

Their Mid-Autumn palette also complimented a line of shadows with an animal theme that the company had started in 2019. The brand ambassador for the “Explorer Eyeshadow Palette 11, Rabbit” was Luo Yunxi, and the campaign included beauty KOLs who posted makeup tutorials using the palette on social media.

The company additionally unveiled a computer-generated campaign video with the moon, other planets, a fictitious model, and an enigmatic rabbit. Over 110 million people have viewed the Weibo hashtag #PerfectDiaryRabbitPalette, and over a million people have watched the video. The young followers of the brand loved it.

HeyTea: Serving young thirsty people

HeyTea took advantage of the opportunity to introduce a special holiday beverage and limited-edition goods. The brand created a special custardy, creamy, yellow bubble tea with a picture of the fabled Jade Rabbit, who resides on the moon, in celebration of the holiday.

In its giveaway promotion, it also provided limited-edition lanterns, stickers, and coupons as prizes. Anyone who interacted with the brand’s accounts on Douyin, Weibo, Xiaohongshu, or Bilibili had a chance to win.

Fans left thousands of comments, reposts, and likes on a Weibo post promoting this unique bubble tea.

Tory Burch: Heartfelt family tales strike the right emotional chord

The American clothing company, Tory Burch, did not introduce any unique mooncakes or packaging. They didn’t try to appeal to Gen Z or create a CGI animation. They chose an approach that was less complicated and got right to the point of the holiday. It all came down to family for them.

The company requested that users share touching family stories on Weibo in exchange for a special gift from the company. They demonstrated their understanding of the holiday and provided a platform for people to express their gratitude by choosing such a meaningful topic with such strong connections to the holiday.

This raised admiration for the brand and raised consumer awareness of it. The brand collaborated with local artisanal businesses to design exquisite packaging for gifts for VIPs and prize winners.

🧧 Check out how other Chinese festivals can be leveraged by brands

Conclusion

Mooncakes, lanterns, friends, and family are the main components of the mid-autumn festival. If you are trying to leverage this festival for sales in the Chinese market, you need to be very creative and innovative in including these in your strategy.

However, Mid-Autumn Festival offerings don’t always have to revolve around mooncakes, lovely jars, or lanterns. Brands can also introduce a limited edition of their usual products and connect it with the holiday through its color, flavor, design, or in other ways.

If you wish to know more about marketing techniques in China, please contact our team. We use our knowledge and expertise to help businesses build meaningful partnerships and develop their networks among Chinese customers. For additional information, please contact us at contact@thewechatagency.com.

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Why should brands include Qixi, the Chinese Valentine’s Day, in their marketing strategies?

August 2, 2022

The Qixi Festival is one of the major Chinese holidays that drives sales outside of the Chinese New Year. At this Qixi festival, one would buy flowers or chocolates for their partners, plan a fancy dinner, and share/create some amazing memories together.

According to 2019 data from China Daily, sales in some categories even increased by almost 120% for the Qixi festival. In 2018, Tmall saw the one-day sale of hundreds of thousands of handbags.

When it comes to the Chinese market, the Qixi Festival is a big deal.

If you haven’t heard of it, read on to learn more about it and its significance for brands.

🧐 What are the most important e-commerce festival? Check here and update your brand calendar

What is Qixi Festival

The Qixi Festival also called the Double Seventh Festival or Chinese Valentine’s Day is a long-standing tradition that originated in the Han dynasty 2,000 years ago. Contrary to the 520 falling on the 20th of May (520) which is homophonic to ‘I love you’ in Chinese or Western Valentine’s Day on February 14, Qixi is a traditional Chinese festival.

Like all great love tales, the legend of the Qixi Festival centers on two star-crossed lovers:

Zhinhu, a weaver’s daughter and a powerful goddess, represented by the star Vega, and
Niulang, a lowly cowherd, is represented by the star Altair.

The story goes like this…

Niulang and Zhinhu – Fell in love and got married, and eventually had a boy and a girl.

However, when Zhinhu’s mother learned that her daughter had wed a mere mortal, she brought her back to heaven and created the Milky Way, a river that divides heaven from earth, to keep the lovers apart.

The earthly magpies, on the other hand, were sympathetic to the lovers’ plight. So, to help them with the lover’s plight, they fly up once a year to the heavens and create a bridge over the Milky Way. This way, Niulang, and Zhinhu could spend one night together on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.

This seventh day of the seventh lunar month became the Qixi Festival or Chinese Valentine’s Day.

Chinese people celebrate it by sharing gifts and spending time together with their loved ones. This year, the Qixi Festival falls on the 4th of August.

Why is the Qixi Festival important for brands?

A week before Qixi, one of China’s most important traditional holidays, vendors doing business in the romance economy have an increase in their turnover. Days before the Qixi Festival, it’s common for well-known restaurants to be completely booked.

A popular Chinese handmade chocolate and ice cream company reported that on the day of the Qixi Festival, one of their stores in Beijing recorded sales of over 20,000 yuan. That is twice what they would normally earn on the weekends.

The owner of a flower shop in Hebei Province, North China, told the Global Times that during the weeks leading up to the Qixi Festival, the shop received at least 150 orders daily, as opposed to the 10 to 15 orders it receives on typical days. That’s a 10x growth in sales!

Ahead of this year’s Qixi, sales of homemade goods, outdoor and luxury goods, as well as chocolate and candies, have already increased by 20 to 30% YoY, according to China Internet Watch. It’s an excellent event for clothing, jewelry, and cosmetics in particular.

Major e-commerce platforms’ data reveals that weeks before the festival even starts, online sales of gifts soars. For instance, a week before, sales of romantic gifts on Alibaba’s two main e-commerce platforms, Tmall and Taobao, reached their peak. It’s obvious that the festival is growing in popularity each year.

Romantic gifts – trends

Domestically produced goods were the most in demand, with sales of traditional Han clothing increasing by a staggering 184%. Chinese Rouge, an antique-style blush, saw a 37% increase in sales over the previous year.

Additionally, the Qixi Festival encourages consumers to eat more Chinese food. Meituan, an online food delivery service, reported that 7% more Chinese food was consumed on Qixi in 2018 than on Valentine’s Day in the West during the same year.

Couples celebrating Qixi also enjoyed purchasing trips to theme parks, international vacations, and dining at upscale restaurants, portraits, and flowers.

The Qixi Festival is becoming more and more well-known, as evidenced by the participation of more brands and influencers and the sharp increase in sales.
This signifies a fantastic opportunity for businesses of all kinds. They can ideally reach more customers and take inspiration from the various success stories of global and local brands during the Qixi Festival.

Qixi Festival marketing tips for brands:

For those looking to develop a successful Qixi Festival marketing campaign for China, here are a few pointers:

Encourage user-generated content: As Gucci’s campaign has demonstrated, a campaign that rewards user-generated content, perhaps by offering a chance to win a prize or a small discount, can significantly help drive impressions and raise awareness on social media.
Set up a WeChat mini-program or shop: As the virus is still being controlled and life slowly returns to normal in China, offline activities are once again on the agenda, but many shoppers still choose to stay at home and shop online.
Produce limited-edition items: Chinese consumers are very responsive to specialized, one-of-a-kind items that have been created for Qixi.
Work with KOLs: With so many brands competing for consumers’ attention at the moment, partnering with KOLs can be a good way to stand out from the crowd and connect with customers.

Interesting campaigns for Qixi

The Qixi festival is an excellent opportunity to promote clothing, jewelry, and cosmetics. Marketing campaigns for cutting-edge beauty products, high-end clothing, and statement accessories emphasize romantic themes or heart-shaped patterns.

Luxury companies launch limited-edition products or run special Qixi campaigns. Recent participants include Dolce & Gabbana, Balenciaga, Gucci, Dior, Prada, Michael Kors, and Burberry. These campaigns are typically distinguished by major celebrity endorsements or the launch of a limited-edition or capsule collection exclusively for Qixi to give it some exclusivity.

With millions of views and engagements, Qixi promotions generate a ton of social media activity. Some marketing campaigns generate their own hashtags and controversy to increase brand buzz even more.

Chinese consumers are becoming more fascinated by Qixi-related products as a result of the contemporary celebration of this ancient folktale. Also, they are responding favorably to innovative marketing campaigns centered on the occasion.

Conclusion

The Qixi Festival is a significant event on the Chinese calendar, and brands should also make it a priority. It offers a fantastic chance to raise brand awareness, develop relationships with customers, and increase conversions/sales.

Well, it’s time for a little romance. We wish you all a Happy Chinese Valentine’s Day.

Learn about other festival-related marketing strategies on our blog.

If you wish to know more, please contact our team. We use our knowledge and expertise to help businesses build meaningful partnerships and develop their networks among Chinese customers. For additional information, please contact us at contact@thewechatagency.com.

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How To Engage Audiences During Chinese New Year on WeChat?

January 28, 2022

On February 1, the Chinese New Year will be upon us, and it is historically a time of celebration, full of feasts, fashion, and, may we say, financial festivities.

With the New Year in mind, businesses are focusing their advertising strategy on the year’s most important holiday. The way companies approach the holiday season can teach marketers how to use consumer insights to build culturally relevant advertising.

Because China’s consumer market, which is predicted to rise to $8.4 trillion by 2022, is seen as a crucial development potential for luxury brands aiming to recover from a difficult year in 2020.

Moreover, simply put, the Chinese market and the festivals fascinate brands. However, understanding the cultural nuances around the occasion might make the difference between a successful campaign and one that fails.

Firstly, a campaign will take off when brands make the effort to discover what customers actually value and the cultural significance of the holiday they’re celebrating. Secondly, even if Chinese New Year isn’t on your marketing calendar, there’s a lot to learn from some of these brands that we at KRDS worked with, to create innovative WeChat CNY campaigns.

Lastly, types of activities and campaigns for Chinese New Year are unlimited. From static or GIF greeting cards to elaborated mini-site campaigns, you name it. Don’t forget the latest craze – branded WeChat red packets with lucky money.

What is a Hongbao, Red Packet?

This year, at KRDS / The WeChat Agency, we created our own WeChat Red Packet cover.

Hongbao Red Packet WeChat

Click here to discover how to create yours! Creating Your Own Red Packet Cover On WeChat—The Ultimate Guide

Chinese new year campaign for Montagut

To celebrate the Chinese New Year with Montagut fans and promote a new collection, we created a mini-site for customers to discover the perfect look for Chinese New Year celebrations.

The outfit suggestions were made based on the weather forecasts in their hometowns (geolocation) and the user’s personal preferences.

Montagut Campaign WeChat

Greetings Poster

Wechat holiday greetings for Procter & Gamble

CNY Poster WeChat

Greeting cards creation for BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas WeChat

Are you curious how other brands in China celebrate other festivals? Check out our previous post on China’s Christmas: How It Has Evolved Over the Years.

If you require further support with setting up your WeChat account or assistance with customizing your Chinese new year greetings/campaign, please contact our team. We use our knowledge and expertise to help businesses build meaningful partnerships and develop their network among Chinese customers. For additional information, please contact us by phone – Shanghai or Hong Kong

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Creating Your Own Red Packet Cover On WeChat—The Ultimate Guide

January 13, 2022

It is a widespread custom for adults to gift red packets containing monetary gifts to children during Chinese New Year. However, in recent years, the habit of presenting friends and coworkers has transferred to China’s super-app, WeChat. As a result, the opportunity for brand visibility and interaction arose thanks to this behavioral change. Last week, we covered different ways in which brands can engage with their audiences during the Chinese New Year, today we will dig more into how to create your own red envelope on WeChat.

What is a WeChat Red Envelope?

Tencent’s WeChat red envelope (or WeChat red packet cover – 红包封面) is a WeChat-based feature that was developed in China. But the concept itself is not new. In fact, it’s based on the Chinese tradition of hongbao (red envelope, or red packet), in which money is presented as a gift to relatives and friends.

Tencent released the function in January 2014, and it has since grown in popularity, with Tencent reporting 2.3 billion transactions on the first day of 2016.

Users can give monetary presents to other users within a private conversation or group chat in the form of virtual ‘credits.‘ A user’s WeChat Pay account gets credited with funds that can be utilized to make purchases.

WeChat offers two sorts of ‘red envelopes’: pairwise red packets, which send money from a private chat between two users, and group red packets, which distribute money in a group chat. After posting the ‘grouped’ red envelope to a group chat, the app assigns the amount in each envelope to each receiver at random. Fights for the biggest win of an envelope is a common and fun sight at the annual dinners across China.

Why Do Businesses Require Red Packets?

Moreover, there are other motivations for mobile payment companies to compete during this period, aside from the red packets being a cornerstone of WeChat’s development history. Because the Lunar New Year is the most important Chinese celebration of the year, there are more transactions than at any other time of the year.

Thus a number of other brands, such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Versace, Burberry, and many more have incorporated the red envelope concept into their Chinese New Year’s marketing strategies. This year with more and more hype around red packets, payees are especially encouraged by brands to transfer ‘lucky money to a friend, thereby assisting the brand in expanding its brand awareness. Sometimes, like in the came of Gucci, users need to book their slot to receive the cover they can use via a mini-program to make it more exclusive.

On the other hand, consumers may also receive a red envelope with a surprise discount after purchasing something in-store using WeChat Pay. These companies are often FMCG brands because a discount signals value and are generally not an incentive that luxury brands want to be associated with.

Step by Step Guide on Customisation Process of The Red Envelope

Step 1: Registered account and Required materials

Chinese mainland WeChat official account is open to everyone for registration: http://cover.weixin.qq.com

Red Packet Cover On WeChat

Step 2: Submission for review

Check the official WeChat page for design requirements and specifics.

Format: PNG / JPG / jpeg
Width and height: 957 * 1278 pixels
Size: ≤ 500kb

Red Packet Cover On WeChat

After you’ve finished customizing the red envelope, send it to the WeChat team for review.

Audit Cycle: The audit cycle is generally 1 working day.

Audit Result: The results will be published on your official WeChat account and sent over by mail after the audit is completed (WeChat envelopes). You can also check the status of the audit in my “seal” at the same time.

Red Packet Cover On WeChat

Step 3: Payment and refund

Select the number of users of the red envelope cover after approval and pay the payment item to create an order.

Price: The red envelope cover costs one yuan per piece.

Payment method: Payments can be made via Wechat, internet banking, or an offline transfer or remittance.

Refund: Only when the red envelope cover is removed from the shelf due to infringement, and there is a red envelope that is still within the distribution validity period and has not been successfully received by any user.

You will get a return for unused red envelopes at a rate of 1 yuan per piece.

Red Packet Cover On WeChat

Final Step

Step 4: Release cover

The cover can be distributed to the selected user after it has been properly purchased. It will expire after six months. Users will not be able to receive it after it has expired.

Distribution methods include:

QR code
Serial code
Link

According to the activity scenario, user group, collection rules, other factors, the customization party can choose the best distribution strategy.

Red Packet Cover On WeChat

Step 5: Trial cover

After each red envelope cover’s approval, ten trial covers for ten Wechat accounts can be obtained.

The cover is effective for two hours after scanning the code and can be used an unlimited number of times. The trial run expires after two hours have passed.

Red Packet Cover On WeChat

Step 6: User to use

Users can use the cover up to 3 months after they receive it as many times as they want. The received cover will automatically become invalid after the expiration date and cannot be used again.

The red envelope display, which has been sent, will not be affected.

Red Packet Cover On WeChat

Step 7: Data analysis

Following the distribution of the cover, you can view real-time distribution data. You can also check data from the previous day, and cumulative statistics on the site. It includes:

covers purchased,
covers received,
red envelopes issued,
red envelopes opened,
how many times users accessed the red envelope details page,
how many times the users view the cover story,
and the number of times the viewers skipped the cover story.

Red Packet Cover On WeChat

Conclusion

Way to carry on traditions change these days. The one thing that has remained constant is the desire to enjoy the company of loved ones during this special time of year.

Also, around this time of year, the red envelope is a great way to attract a wide spectrum of customers and build your customer base. As a result, any company seeking to build a business relationship with the Chinese market should consider taking advantage of these prospects.

If you require further assistance with customizing your red envelope, please contact our team. We use our knowledge and expertise to help businesses build meaningful partnerships and develop their network among Chinese customers. For additional information, please contact us by phone – Shanghai or Hong Kong

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China’s Christmas: How It Has Evolved Over the Years

December 21, 2021

Christmas in China

Christmas has grown in popularity in Mainland China in recent years, despite the fact that it is not a national holiday. Its “celebrations” have little to do with religion, but that hasn’t stopped it from becoming a huge annual event in China’s main cities.

Chinese people saw it as a new form of entertainment, with decorated Christmas trees, Santa Claus, and reindeers adorning the streets and businesses. It’s fair to say that many young Chinese millennials and Gen Z see Christmas as another “Valentine’s Day.” It is the time of the year when men prepare heartfelt winter gifts to win over their partners, while girls dress up in a variety of fresh outfits.

Christmas in China is more of a fun day to spend with friends shopping, ice skating, or going to Christmas pop up markets and movie theatres than it is a day to go to church and spend time with family.

Various promotional events are held during this season at shops and shopping malls to increase sales. On Christmas Eve, restaurants serve Christmas meals. Intriguingly, one of the Chinese Christmas traditions is to send apples as gifts to friends on Christmas Eve.

What brands can do:

As a result, this is an ideal opportunity for brands to leverage on China’s buying spree. Retailers and businesses can also start off the winter shopping frenzy and sales season because of the festival’s proximity to the Chinese New Year. Domestic brands, on the other hand, can seize the opportunity to develop a successful brand positioning plan that elicits positive emotional responses and builds a cool global brand image.

Here are a few pointers for brands looking to attract Chinese customers during the holiday season:

Concentrate on China’s major cities.
Make use of a variety of digital marketing channels
Targeted online advertising
Make campaigns finite
Customize messages and GIF’s for the audience
Use a nice static or GIF greeting card to make festive posts
Create stickers for people to use in their chat sessions
Create large-scale campaigns

Some previously done festive campaigns by KRDS

1. KRDS X Montagut Full-scale campaign
Montagut wanted to spend Christmas with their Chinese fans. The key objective was to engage the audience throughout the holiday season in order to promote the new FW 2020 collection and attract a larger set of younger consumers. They intended to debut new collections in order to announce the arrival of new items and trends before the end of the year.

Our solution for elegantly displaying both the new collection and the festive spirit was an H5 WeChat game set in a French winter paradise. Because of its customised and dreamy graphics mixed with a captivating tapping gaming mechanism, this game was an instant hit with Montagut’s existing fans as well as approximately 10,000 new fans.

Read more about the campaign – Montagut in Collaboration With KRDS Invited Fans To Winter Wonderland

2. KRDS x Montagut – Interactive Post
This year, together with Montagut we wanted to leverage new possibilities within the WeChat article and created this interactive, creative post – fans can engage with the post elements by clicking, swiping or double-tapping different parts of the Christmas card to open new functions and more.

Please visit Montagut’s official WeChat account and see the full post here – Montagut Interactive Christmas post

3. KRDS x BNP PARIBAS – Christmas Voice Card Campaign
During the festive season, we created and delivered a unique WeChat Christmas card that BNP Paribas’ team, their clients, and partners could share with their loved ones to wish them a happy holiday season.

The solution proposed by KRDS was an H5-based Christmas wishes voice card. The card’s lovely design and voice feature made it a simple but incredibly personal Christmas card that everyone could send to their contacts on WeChat.

Christmas Campaign for BNP Paribas – PostChristmas Campaign for BNP Paribas – Greeting Card Mechanism

WeChat Stickers Creation for BNP Paribas

4. KRDS x Procter and Gamble – WeChat Article Greeting

5. KRDS x AkzoNobel – WeChat Article Greeting6. Other Clients
KRDS have also worked with other clients like Vivo, Hong Kong Disneyland, Meiji, BreadTalk, Toast Box, Volkswagen, AIA, Unilever, Sony, WWF & Grand Hyatt.

If you’re looking for a brand collaboration or need any further assistance please contact our team. We use our knowledge and expertise to help businesses develop meaningful campaigns and develop their network among Chinese customers. For additional information, please contact us by phone – Shanghai or Hong Kong

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Montagut in Collaboration With KRDS Invited Fans To Winter Wonderland

December 17, 2021

The Christmas Wonderland campaign was one of several campaign collaborations with Montagut on the Chinese market in the last 3 years thanks to a continuous retainer partnership.

Christmas in Mainland China

Mainland China has not been very big on Christmas in the past. It is not a national holiday and it has nothing to do with religion. It’s more of a novelty day, similar to Valentine’s Day than a religious holiday.

Don’t be fooled by the past, though: Christmas is becoming a more important occasion in most Mainland companies’ marketing calendars, and standing out above all the festive fever is becoming increasingly difficult.

The objective of the Campaign

But Christmas wasn’t the sole reason that Montagut wanted to celebrate with their fans in China. The main objective was to engage the audience during the Christmas season in order to introduce the new FW 2020 collection and to attract a bigger target group of younger consumers. They wanted to premiere new collections, with the purpose of communicating the advent of new clothing and trends before the end of 2019.

KRDS’s Solution

An H5 WeChat game set in a French winter wonderland was our solution for tastefully presenting both the new collection and the holiday spirit. This game was in instant popularity with Montagut’s existing fans as well as almost 10,000 new fans thanks to its bespoke and dreamy graphics paired with a compelling tapping gaming mechanism.

“This campaign was very fun and engaging. Beyond generating buzz and page views, KRDS was smart to find the right mechanism to attract a very high number of new fans” According to Candice Meyer, Montagut’s Head of Brand Image & Communications Asia.

Miriam Dabrowa, China Head of Strategy at KRDS Greater China, said: “With the new opportunities coming this year, and especially Montagut’s 140th Anniversary, we truly can’t wait to create new exciting content together”.

WeChat Campaign for Montagut – Post

WeChat Campaign for Montagut – Game Flow

WeChat Campaign for Montagut – Media Ads

Christmas Campaign for Montagut

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What Are the Most Important E-commerce Festivals in China?

September 28, 2021

China is not just the world’s most populous country, but it also has the most internet users. And with about one billion online shoppers, the country has the world’s largest and fastest-growing e-commerce market.

The Chinese e-commerce business has evolved significantly over the years, revolutionizing the traditional system for both customers and sellers. Needless to say, the e-commerce market exploded in 2020 as a result of COVID-19, particularly in China, causing an increasing number of firms to want to start selling online.

And one of the market’s driving forces is the China shopping festivals, which is a massive retail event where firms slash prices in honor of Chinese culture, history, and plain old consumerism. Therefore, all international firms looking to grow their sales in 2021 and beyond should learn about China’s biggest and most important e-commerce festivals.

Here at the top 5 e-commerce festivals in China:

National Day/Golden Week

Golden Week, which commemorates the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, begins on October 1st with National Day and lasts until October 7th. It is China’s longest public holiday, and it generates huge business for international brands.

The total sales for overseas brands on Tmall increased by about 80% last year and several international cross-border e-commerce platforms also reported a significant rise in sales. Luxury brands in particular perform well during this time, with several companies reporting a 60% boost in sales in 2020.

Double 11 Shopping festival

The Double 11 shopping festival, also known as Singles Day, is the king of all global retail events. During the festival periods in November 2020, Alibaba and JD earned $155 billion in sales.

With more than 250,000 brands and 800 million consumers participating, last year’s sales were recorded as more than RMB 372.3 billion (US$56 billion).

12.12 Shopping Festival

Alibaba introduced the 12.12 or Double 12 Shopping Festival on November 12th in 2010 for customers who were still looking for good deals after Singles Day. The Double 12 shopping festival is one of the largest in the South Asian online buying marketplace and it is that time of year when careful planning and organisation can pay off handsomely for a seller.

Due to rising customer interest, the event resulted in a 4-5 fold increase in online traffic, 60% unique visitors, and a 2 second average order rate. Last year, 18,000 orders were placed in a single day, with an average spend of 125 SGD per customer.

Nian Huo Festival

The Spring Festival, also known as Nian Huo, commemorates the Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls in the month of Jan-Feb

Since Chinese New Year is such a popular festival, discounts are available across a variety of platforms, though market giants like Alibaba and JD tend to attract significant crowds. This famous holiday brought in more than $155 million in retail sales in 2019, and sales of imported goods climbed by 2.3 percent year over year in 2020.

International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day, observed on March 8th, has become a lucrative shopping festival in China for female-oriented brands in China.

According to the Chinese Research Centre for E-commerce, 70% of Chinese women prefer to shop online rather than offline. As a result, this is an important e-commerce festival to participate in. Last year, Tmall’s “Own Yourself, Love Yourself” campaign aided female empowerment, garnering more than 600 million hashtag views on Weibo and 2.12 million comments.

Conclusion

Online shopping is an accepted part of life in China. Everything from fresh produce and seafood to appliances and automobiles are being purchased online.

Due to the high demand in the market, e-commerce platforms work hard to encourage online shoppers, resulting in China’s numerous shopping festivals. If you want to increase your brands e-commerce sales, you need to be aware of the major e-shopping festivals and plan your marketing strategy accordingly. This is why selling on Chinese e-commerce platforms is the most efficient way to increase sales among the Chinese audience.

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Payment on WeChat, the Chinese new year Hong Bao success story

March 26, 2018

2018 is the ‘Year of the Dog’ according to the Chinese calendar and it was celebrated with grandeur. Families get together to celebrate New Year and tradition involves exchange of red envelopes with ‘lucky money’ along with positive wishes. With the modernization and technology advancements, this tradition is now also practiced via digital medium. It was in 2014, when WeChat, the mobile instant messaging service introduced the ability to send virtual red envelopes of money to your phone contacts via its mobile payment platform.

This year, WeChat witnessed a 15% surge in the number of people using the service as compared to last year. Close to 688 million people used the service on February 15th ( Eve of Chinese New Year) with Beijing, Chengdu and Chongqing accounting for the majority of the users. In a country where 95% of the population access internet through their mobile phones, more and more people prefer using WeChat to send red envelopes because of speed and convenience.

At the stroke of midnight on Chinese New Year, a shower of red envelopes or ‘WeChat Red Packets’ filled the mobile screens across China. Data shows that the highest number of red packets were exchanged amongst the post-80’s generation who accounted for close to 32%. Following them, were the post-90’s and post-70’s comprising of 27% and 22% generation respectively. These users were referred to as the ‘Red Packet Army’.

What’s more? WeChat was also able to track the fastest single user and the most generous user of the red packet. Apart from this, the time spent by users during their purchase was also tracked and the most active segments for WeChat pay were retail stores, dining and public transport.

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