20 Brilliant Weibo and WeChat marketing case studies to inspire your Chinese marketing success!

Michael Doyle

7 years ago

Top 10 Weibo Marketing Case Studies

Fendi
Coach
International Watch Co.
Tourism New Zealand
Dove Chocolate
Durex Condoms
Coca-Cola
Swarvoski
Shiseido
Dunkin’ Donuts

Top 10 WeChat Marketing case Studies

Starbucks
Uniqlo
Mulberry
Calvin Klein
Montblanc
Burberry
Coach
Mercedez-Benz
Nike
Pepsi

Top 10 Weibo Case Studies

1. Fendi

An Introduction:

Fendi is an Italian luxury fashion house whose specialities include fur, ready-to-wear, leather goods, shoes, fragrances, eyewear, timepieces and accessories. Founded in 1925 in Rome, Fendi is renowned for its fur and fur accessories. Fendi is also well known for its leather goods such as “Baguette”, 2jours, Peekaboo or Pequin handbags.

Fendi now owns over 200 stores worldwide
They have invested more than 2 million euros (approximately $2.7 million) to help restore the Trevi Fountain in Rome designed by Nicola Salvi in the 18th century.
From a social status symbol to a fashion phenomenon, this elegant staple changed under the successive guidance of Adele and Edoardo’s five daughters and Karl Lagerfeld since 1965.

Weibo Strategy For Success:

In 2013, the Italian luxury fashion brand Fendi recently launched an interactive campaign on Weibo, Fendi Play with Colors, featuring their latest handbag collection called “Crayons.” Fendi asked Weibo users to vote for their favorite color in the collection via the brand’s Weibo page. The campaign encouraged the brand’s followers to forward the campaign to their friends and to vote.

At the end of the campaign on Sept. 19, Fendi will give four participants a handbag from the new collection valued at RMB 1,500 ($245).
According to Fashionbi, a digital marketing optimization company, the post that asks followers their favorite color from the latest Fendi collection has generated 3,840 reposts and 1,495 comments in one week.
Another post during the campaign highlighted the color blue and generated 205 reposts and 66 comments, which reached 884,073 Weibo users.
Some of the campaign’s results indicate how important it is for Western brands to have a presence on Weibo and how simple it can be to start engaging. Since Fendi started its campaign on August 2, the brand’s activity increased by 44 percent.
What is most remarkable is that activity in terms of reposts increased by 536 percent—up to 4,547 reposts—in a little over three weeks.If you didn’t think the campaign was successful yet, let’s take a look at the number of followers: Fendi’s followers increased by 7,301 in just over three weeks, an increase of 255 percent. The average number of active followers was up 550 percent to 43 active followers per day.

2. Coach

An introduction:

Coach is a multinational luxury fashion company based in New York City. Founded in 1941 by Lillian and Miles Cahn, Coach has seen a steady growth, with a solid revenue of $4.24 billion as of 2016. With over a thousand stores and more than 17,200 employees, they have made impressive leaps in their industry and are not stopping anytime soon.

Coach is now a company valued at over $10 billion. Being one of the world’s leading fashion accessory brands, the company’s products target the affordable luxury business and include handbags, watches, footwear and apparel, among other things.
The company’s considered one of the pioneers of the luxury industry.

Weibo Strategy For Success:

Coach released a Weibo campaign in China called Coach Footprints back in 2013. The campaign encourages any of Coach’s Weibo page followers to provide their contact information for an opportunity to win a luggage tag, valued at RMB 500 ($82).

Coach randomly selected one lucky fan every day and posted the winners on the brand’s Weibo page.
Since the launch of the campaign in September to mid-September, reposts increased by over 13 percent and user comments by 50 percent.
Fashionbi’s analytics showed that the brand’s followers increased by 157 percent (7,358 followers) in just five days.
The campaign was not only a great way for the brand to connect with their fans and followers, but also provided the brand with a way to create their own customer relationship management (CRM) system in China.

3. International Watch Co. (IWC)

An Introduction:

International Watch Co., also known as IWC, is a luxury Swiss watch manufacturer located in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, and founded by American watchmaker Florentine Ariosto Jones in 1868.

They employ over 309 staff members.
Since 1997, IWC has been offering a unique horological item for on-line auction annually on its website. The proceeds are donated to the Ecole des Sables – Antoine de Saint Exupéry school in Mali. The school provides education for Tuareg children.
In 2007, the Company auctioned a platinum version of the Pilot’s Watch Automatic Edition Antoine de Saint Exupéry, Reference 3201. The watch was made as a tribute to the French author and aviation pioneer. It was auctioned together with an original copy of Exupery’s debut novel, Courrier Sud (Southern Mail), featuring a handwritten dedication by the author. In 2009 IWC introduced the Big Pilot Edition Antoine de Saint Exupéry in 1900 pieces. Only one of them will be in platinum and will be auctioned for charity.

Weibo Strategy For Success:

IWC has created an innovative Weibo campaign that focuses on China’s Mid-Autumn Festival. The campaign, The Most Stunning Moon, is encouraging participants and Weibo followers to follow the brand’s Weibo page and share a photo of the moon with a caption.

The campaign lasted until September 19 with IWC selecting three winners with the most beautiful photo and caption to win a Mid-Autumn Festival surprise gift.
The campaign was a clever way for IWC to show that they care about Chinese customers and that the brand is aware of the different festivals and events that take place inside of China.
So just how receptive and engaging have the followers been with this campaign? Since IWC’s first post in mid-August, the campaign has generated 137 reposts and 41 comments, which is quite strong considering the total number of Weibo followers on IWC’s page is 39,694. Though IWC’s Weibo page is still new, it’s growing, according to Fashionbi’s analysis.
These three brands have used creative and fun techniques to encourage engagement on Weibo. No matter what type of brand you are, there is an opportunity to create awareness in China.
There is no secret or recipe to success on Weibo, but it starts with activating a creative campaign that prompts users to engage with brands. Give Chinese consumers a reason to start engaging with your brand, even if you don’t have a presence in China, and chances are they will start to pay attention to your products.

4. Tourism New Zealand

An Introduction:

Tourism New Zealand is the national institution tasked with promoting New Zealand as a tourism destination internationally. It is the trading name of the New Zealand Tourism Board, a Crown entity established under the New Zealand Tourism Board Act 1991.

It is the marketing agency for New Zealand, whilst the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment; (previously the New Zealand Ministry of Tourism) is the government department tasked with policy and research.

Weibo Strategy For Success:

Lots of international companies have already tasted success on the most popular social network in China. In 2011, Tourism New Zealand signed up multi-award-winning Chinese actress Yao Chen as their brand ambassador in mainland China. At the time she had more than 40 million Weibo followers.

During a tour of New Zealand she sent out regular ‘tweets’ about the country to her social network.
They resulted in nearly half a million visits to a microsite that was the focal point of the campaign.
On its web pages were images of the actress, video messages, airfare packages and links to New Zealand tour operators.
The increased traffic led to almost 20,000 referrals. According to Tourism New Zealand, Yao Chen’s social media activity on their behalf raised the profile of New Zealand among Chinese people, encouraging them to book a visit.

In a similar fashion in the June of 2015, Tourism New Zealand together with Chinese actor, director, singer, screenwriter and university teacher Huang Lei teaming up together in a campaign to showcase New Zealand as a holiday destination for families and special occasions.

Huang Lei and his family spent eight days touring the top of the south island, supported by Destination Marlborough, Destination Kaikoura and Christchurch Canterbury Tourism.
The mega star made six posts to his Weibo social media account. His messages attracted more than 592,000 likes and a specially created hashtag “20 years of in love” had more than 1.6 million views.
News of the visit generated more than 530 media articles with an equivalent advertising value of more than 2.7 million dollars.
His posts about food attracted the most attention. A picture of Huang Lei cooking a lobster dinner in Kaikoura attracted 123,301 likes and 11,044 comments on his Weibo site. The picture was retweeted 9,232 times. Other highlights and locations featured in his posts included Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, Cloudy Bay and Hapuku Lodge at Kaikoura.

5. Dove Chocolate

An Introduction:

Dove (sold as Galaxy in the United Kingdom, Isle of Man, India, Indonesia, Ireland) is a brand of chocolate made and marketed by the Mars company.

Dove produces a wide range of chocolate, including dark chocolate, milk, caramel, fruit and nut varieties, truffle and chocolate pieces with a folded milk chocolate center.

Weibo Strategy For Success

Dove Chocolate scored a flashy online marketing coup with its viral campaign on Valentine’s Day, 2012. Dove engaged the savvy marketers at SapientNitro, a Shanghai-based agency, who came up with a way to promote Dove chocolate without any external costs.

To attract users’ attention, SapientNitro used the story of installation artist Ma Jin, who wanted to build a life-size fantasy carriage out of Dove’s distinctive heart-shaped tins.
In a concise but heartfelt webcam video, Ma explained his plan to surprise his sweetheart with his home-made gift made from chocolate boxes and asks fellow users to send him their empty boxes to help him complete his project.
SapientNitro’s idea paid off big time. The simple video engaged users’ emotions and asked them to engage with the consumer product, but in an elegant twist, didn’t specifically suggest buying anything.
With its simplicity, emotional appeal, and heartfelt call for users’ participation, the video was loaded with viral potential.
As noted on techinasia.ca, the resulting statistics proved SapientNitro’s social media brilliance: the video was reposted 47,000 times and attracted 34,000 comments. In the end, sales of Dove’s Valentine’s Day product increased 226%.

6. Durex Condoms

An Introduction:

Durex condoms are reputed as the number 1 condom brand in the world. Durex offers a variety of condom styles and types including the Durex Vibrations vibrating condom ring.

They offer online purchases and allow buyers to choose from Avanti, Performax Desensitizer, Extra Sensitive, Play Longer, Sensi, and much more.

Weibo Strategy For Success:

Sometimes companies hire cutting-edge agencies to handle their Weibo marketing. Other times, users give out brand image-building content for free. So it was with one popular Weibo user, who regularly produces humorous content for his 8,000 followers, during the large-scale flooding that Beijing experienced in 2011.

The Weibo user demonstrated an unorthodox use of condoms, stretching them over his sneakers to make for an impermeable layer that protected his feet from the floodwaters.
Durex had some quick-thinking Weibo guru, who, two minutes after the user published his original content, re-posted on the condom manufacturer`s weibo account to its 100,000 followers, and interacted with them live as they replied.
Durex’s move, a costless repost that relied only on social media vigilance and timely action, resulted in a further 40,000 reposts and 7,000 comments.
As a major natural event that caused more annoyance than destruction, the floods were a perfect example of a hot trending topic where smart marketers can jump in to remind users of a product with a humorous or playful post.

7. Coca-Cola

An Introduction:

The Coca-Cola Company is the world’s leading beverage company, refreshing consumers with more than 500 sparkling and still brands.

The company is best known for its flagship product Coca-Cola, invented in 1886 by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton in Columbus, Georgia.
The Company has the strongest portfolio of brands in the nonalcoholic beverage industry – now featuring 20 brands that generate more than $44 billion USD altogether in annual retail sales, including Fanta, Sprite, Schweppes, Powerade, Glacéau and of course, Coca-Cola itself.

Weibo Strategy For Success:

Coca-Cola launched its most recent global advertising campaign in early 2013 in Europe, where it sells bottles with names common in each major European country to boost sales.

In China, Coke has also altered its labels for the promotion but put short phrases like “beautiful girl” on the bottles, rather than common names.
Online, however, Coke recently took the customization one step further and allowed users to order personally customized bottles online through Weibo Wallet, Sina’s nascent social media payment service.
To sweeten the deal, Coke charged users only the shipping fees, 20 Yuan, to support its 5-day promotion. Coke also posted pictures of celebrities holding their personalized bottles, and buyers followed suit, posting pictures of themselves holding their personalized bottles to share with their friends and Weibo followers.
Methodical, logical, and successful, Coke’s flashy and expensive approach to Weibo marketing suits the stature of the multinational beverage corporation and is conducted in harmony with advertising in other forms of media.

With the combination of depicting celebrities holding personalized Cokes and enabling consumers to obtain them at a reasonable price, Coke generated significant Weibo buzz in the form of thousands of personalized images that reinforce the popularity of the brand and its status as a drink of choice for young people.
Although it invested heavily in its marketing push and sold hundreds of thousands of personalized bottles at a loss, Coke will definitely reap the benefit of such a unique online campaign.

8. Swarvoski

An Introduction:

Swarovski is an Austrian producer of cut lead glass, headquartered in Wattens, Austria. The company is split into three major industry areas: the Swarovski Crystal Business (crystal jewellery and accessories), Swarovski Optik (telescopes and binoculars) and Tyrolit, a supplier of tools and machines.

Nowadays, Swarovski Crystal Business is the highest grossing business unit with a global reach of approximately 2,680 stores in around 170 countries, more than 26,000 employees, and a revenue of about 2.6 billion euros (in 2016).

It’s creative studios are led since 2006 by Nathalie Colin, in charge of the international collections of jewellery, watches, accessories and crystal living.

Weibo Strategy For Success:

On July 13th, 2012, Swarovski began a campaign called Sparking Secrets at the Shanghai Exhibition Center, sharing its crystal-making process with the public in an exhibit that incorporated a behind-the-scene look at the brand with interactive experiences.

To announce the event, the brand held an opening ceremony for select press and celebrities that incorporated the reveal of the fall/winter 2012 collection and the ending of a brand film centered on the exhibit.
Starring Chinese actors Qin Lan and Zhang Lu Yi. It was directed by Chinese director Zero Lin and shot by Taiwanese photographer Shu Hao Chou.
The story in the film is the romance that is sparked with the brand’s Nirvana Ring. It debuted June 18 on Swarovski’s Chinese social media channels such as Sina Weibo and various other platforms, including many international social media channels like Facebook.
In addition to its social efforts, Swarovski is using mobile to reach consumers on-the-go and while they are at the exhibit.
The brand created a mobile site where consumers could view the opening ceremony, watch the video, find exhibit information and news, use interactive polling, RSVP to the exhibit and interact via Weibo.
Swarovski used Chinese mobile check-in app Jiepang to give select users free admission to the exhibit. Users that checked in at Swarovski boutiques can earn virtual badges and admission tickets.
At the exhibit, the brand used QR codes and a virtual fitting mirror to increase interactivity.
Visitors could get mobile-exclusive information about the stories within the exhibit by scanning QR codes with their smartphones.
The combination of mobile and social channels in its exhibit campaign helped greatly in the brand being able to reach its target audience.

9. Shiseido

An Introduction:

Shiseido is a Japanese multinational personal care company, that is a leader in skin care, hair care, cosmetics and fragrance products. It is one of the oldest cosmetics companies in the world.

Founded in 1872, it celebrated its 140th anniversary in 2012.
It is the largest cosmetic firm in Japan and the fifth largest cosmetics company in the world.
Shiseido is only available at cosmetic counters at selected department stores or pharmacists. The company owns numerous brands and subsidiaries worldwide, in addition to its founding label.

Weibo Strategy For Success:

Shiseido has launched a campaign on Weibo reflecting the sun protection and skin whitening craze that persists among Chinese consumers.

The brand invites its fans to follow its official Weibo page (＠SHISEIDO资生堂官方微博), answer what three Shiseido sun protection products are appropriate for three different situations, and refer the campaign post with the hashtag “encounter sunlight, awaken fair skin” (Chinese: #邂逅无隙阳光，唤醒肌肤白皮书#) to three friends.
Winning participants will be awarded products from Shiseido’s Urban Environment UV Protection line.

10. Dunkin’ Donuts

An Introduction:

Dunkin’ Donuts is an American global donut company and coffeehouse chain based in Canton, Massachusetts, in Greater Boston. It was founded in 1950 by William Rosenberg in Quincy, Massachusetts.

Since its founding, the company has grown to become one of the largest coffee and baked goods chains in the world, with more than 12,000 restaurants in 36 countries.
The chain’s products include donuts, bagels, other baked goods, and a wide variety of hot and iced beverages.

Weibo Strategy For Success:

During August 18 of 2013, Dunkin’ Donuts China invited its fans in Shaanxi area to participate in a Weibo campaign titled “take a photo of our ad for a free coffee”.

Participants who snap a picture of the Dunkin’ Donuts’s ad at the Clocktower underpass in Shaanxi, post the picture with the handle @陕西唐恩都乐, and refer it to three friends will be awarded a free cup of joe at Dunkin’ Donuts’ Luomashi Store.
The campaign lasted throughout the next several days, bringing in footfall (number of people entering a shop or shopping area at a given time) and increasing brand awareness on China’s social media community.
Twenty cups of Americano were to be given away each day.

Top 10 Wechat Case Studies

1. How Starbucks used 26 emoticons to get 130,000 followers

An introduction:

Starbucks is the premier roaster, marketer and retailer of speciality coffee in the world, operating in 68 countries. With approximately 24,000 Starbucks stores worldwide and 60 million customers daily, generating more than $20 billion in revenue annually, it has become one of the most renowned players in their industry.

Their objective is to maintain Starbucks standing as one of the most recognized and respected brands in the world.
To achieve this, they are continuing the disciplined expansion of their global store base, adding stores in both existing, developed markets such as the U.S., and in newer, higher growth markets such as China, as well as optimizing the mix of company-operated and licensed stores in each market.

WeChat Strategy For Success:

Back in 2012, Starbucks launched a new product by the name of Refresha, made from green coffee bean extract. To introduce the new drink on a large scale to their Chinese consumers, Starbucks launched a social media platform campaign that was both fun and memorable and also effectively persuaded their fans to actively participate.

Using WeChat as the platform to spark off Refresha among their customers, Starbucks started the campaign by placing QR codes in their stores on cup sleeves and posters so that users could scan and add the coffee chain as a friend on WeChat. The coffee chain then created a playlist of 26 songs to engage with their customers.
Their fans were then invited to send in any of WeChat’s 26 emoticons to express their mood or feelings. In turn, Starbucks would respond with an appropriate song to correspond to that mood.
Over the course of 4 weeks, Starbucks gained approximately 130,000 WeChat friends, and most surprisingly of all the sales volume for Refresha hit RMB 7.5 million in a mere 3 weeks. All of this was accomplished on a budget of just RMB 250,000. In addition to this, the brand’s Sina Weibo account gained a 9% increase in fans and generated over 57,000 reposts and comments.
This campaign shows that WeChat can be an incredibly efficient and effective tool in social media marketing in China. It also suggests that consumers in China use many different social media platforms and that, by successfully using one, you can strengthen your standing on another.

2. Uniqlo uses “Style Your Life” campaign to more than double their WeChat followers

An introduction:

Uniqlo Co. Ltd is a Japanese clothing manufacturer and retailer that delves in casual wear clothing. Founded in 1949 and based in Ube, Yamaguchi, Japan, Uniqlo operates now world-wide, totalling of around 1400 branches globally; with more than 700 in Japan.

The company indeed reached a tremendous height of success as it continues to produce trendy clothing to supply the demand of the newer generation. It captured the approval of the clothing industry and became known for its competitive prices and quality.
They also collaborated with other labels and brand for the purpose of effective advertising and created and joined some projects and events for the company’s further expansion and success.

WeChat Strategy For Success:

UNIQLO opened its first store in mainland China in Shanghai in September 2002. Having established a firm framework for personnel training and store development, UNIQLO China has embarked on a period of dramatic development and mass store openings with 91 new stores opened for business in fiscal 2015 alone.

Making an impact on that scale is one that relies heavily, of course, on marketing. But what makes Uniqlo unique is their relatively small paid-for-media footprint for a brand on that scale.

Uniqlo understood quickly that China was a mobile dominated environment and having very strong physical presence in the country with their numerous stores, allowed then to launch their “Style your life” campaign back in 2014.
This campaign worked via monitors in-store where people tried on outfits and then stood in front of the monitors equipped with cameras to take pictures of themselves in front of various featured backgrounds, such as New York, Tokyo or London just to name a few. The machine would then send the photo to their WeChat account where one-third of people shared it on their Moments.
Cleverly integrating on and offline elements with key trends – selfies, international tourism and online sharing – gave Uniqlo a winning formula. Adopted zealously by the Chinese audience, the brand’s followers grew from 400,000 in mid-2014 to 1 million at close six-months later. Uniqlo’s WeChat audience currently tops 2 million and Uniqlo state they saw a 30% increase in sales of key items during the campaign.

3. Mulberry captures the hearts of Chinese during China’s 2015 Valentine/Qixi Festival

An Introduction:

The British luxury leather brand Mulberry is one of the most celebrated luxury leather specialists in the world. With a history spanning just over 45 years, it is a relative newcomer compared to established leather brands such as Bally, Loewe and Louis Vuitton, which have lineage dating back centuries.

Mulberry’s expert team of craftsmen has increased from a staff of one in 1971 to over 600 employees in 2016.
With more than 50% of its creations being produced in the UK, the brand is listed as one of the largest luxury goods manufacturers in the country.

Mulberry is constantly expanding its collection of handbags, but however wide the range becomes, customers can be assured that each piece is expertly finished by a team of artisans who ensure each leather creation is as perfect as the very first Mulberry piece.

WeChat Strategy For Success:

In today’s mobile-led era, the importance for relatively newer businesses to make a digital impact is all the more important. Mulberry understanding this, took forward with their marketing campaign for Qixi Festival, or Chinese Valentine’s Day in August 2015. Called “Mulberry Love Letters,” the Online to Offline campaign allows Chinese people based all over the world to send heartfelt messages over WeChat that, with the help of digital marketing firm Hot Pot Digital, Mulberry transforms into a custom image for the recipient.

Then to bring people into their stores, Mulberry promised a selected number of recipients the opportunity to take their digital love letter into one of the participating shops in Shanghai, Beijing, London, Paris, New York, and Toronto to receive a handcrafted leather bracelet that could be personalized.
Companies marketing during Qixi the past few years have attracted criticism over whether their campaign strategies traded Chinese tradition for Western-charged Valentine’s Day romance. It seems, though, that Mulberry has stuck with the Qixi legend on this one, wherein the mythology surrounding the festival, every year on the seventh night of the seventh moon on the Chinese lunar calendar, two lovers who have been banished to either side of a river are able to reunite with the help of magpies who form a bridge across the water. Mulberry’s WeChat campaign may as well be those magpies, aiming to connect Chinese people separated by miles of land and ocean through social media.
“Given the global nature of today’s Chinese community, we felt it was important to recognize our Chinese customers in the UK, US, mainland Europe, and beyond,” said Mulberry Brand Director Anne-Marie Verdin. “We love the fact that Mulberry is helping our fans to reconnect with a little romance on this important day in the Chinese calendar.”

4. Calvin Klein – Using WeChat as an e-commerce platform

An Introduction:

Calvin Klein is a global lifestyle brand that exemplifies bold, progressive ideals and a seductive, and often minimal, aesthetic. With a vision to thrill and inspire their audience while using provocative imagery and striking designs to ignite the senses, Calvin Klein continues to be a cultural catalyst across the globe after nearly 50 years by embracing tension, sparking ideas and creating unforeseen realities.

Founded in 1968 by Calvin Klein and his business partner Barry Schwartz
Calvin Klein’s reputation as a leader in American fashion is preceded only by their sales figures, with global retail sales of their products exceeding $8 billion in 2015.

WeChat Strategy For Success:

Calvin Klein takes WeChat very seriously and has turned it into some kind of a little in-app website. Sending out the posts about new collections helps their followers find what they want and buy it directly on WeChat. A menu in the bottom of a cellphone screen allows consumers to log into their CK account. However, the integration of WeChat into the brand does not stop there.

Last year, Calvin Klein drove a 50% increase in sales volume during a campaign for Chinese Valentine’s Day, carried out in August last year by matching up WeChat with outdoor screens.

The campaign used interactive screens to encourage pedestrians to scan a QR code and share a picture of themselves with friends on WeChat. Users were then rewarded with a potential free gift and even a chance to be shown on the big screen themselves.
Marci Wu, business director for Kinetic China, the agency behind the campaign, said the idea tapped into the young target audience’s show off tendencies. “Chinese Millennials and Gen Z love to show off. Here, CK gave young consumers the opportunity to literally upload their photo on the Mega LED, becoming themselves the main attraction for passersby and making more people want to get their photos up on the screen too,” explained Wu

Turning this into footfall (number of people entering a shop or shopping area at a given time) is another matter, however, and Benjamin Bourinat, global director of social media at Kinetic said the success of this campaign could be replicated via other mobile tools but that the key was knowing where the end journey needed to be.
In the case of WeChat, which is what we call a ‘Super App,’ as it integrates a variety of social functions (Facebook, WhatsApp, Tinder, Instagram, Snapchat altogether), we used the platform to bridge the gap between online and offline. After uploading the photo and message on WeChat, passersby got a prize to redeem in nearby CK stores, increasing footfall and sales,” he said.
According to Kinetic, after one hour 808 people scanned the code and 504 people took a photo, with 76 photos shown on the LED screen. The campaign also increased nearby store’s traffic and sales, with one of the nearby stores seeing a 50% sales volume increase compared to the same day one year prior.

5. Montblanc

An Introduction:

Montblanc is a luxury Swiss brand that was founded in 1906. Though many know the company for their luxury pens, Montblanc has developed quite a reputation for quality and craftsmanship in their watches — the first of which debuted in 1977.

Many of today’s Montblanc watches are crafted in the Swiss village of Le Locle, in the Jura Mountains, which has been making timepieces since 1705, long before the first Montblanc watch debuted.
Montblanc also deals in many other products, including:
The company’s classic fountain pen and other high-end writing implements have long been a tradition among those who appreciate such rites of luxury and in fact, some of the world’s greatest treaties have been signed with Montblanc pens.

In addition to pens and watches, the company also markets a growing portion of desk accessories, leather bags, jewellery, eyewear, and fragrances. Montblanc products are sold through selected retailers, jewellers, and through about 360 Montblanc Boutiques worldwide. It has been concentrating on maintaining a strong presence in China, where is operates more than 90 boutiques.

WeChat Strategy For Success:

In 2015, Montblanc launched the ‘Mystic Moon Phase Campaign’ in order to promote their new Bohème and Heritage luxury watch collection.

Although with many luxury watch brands promoting a ‘moon phase’ feature, it has been increasingly difficult for Montblanc to find a unique point of differentiation and attract consumers with the same feature.
However, by using the fact that WeChat had nearly 400 million monthly active users at the time (with the majority of users based in China) to connect with their Chinese audience’s interest in the lunar cycle, Montblanc was able to overcome this issue.

The campaign launched in November 2014, combining both moon phase complications and lunar shifts in real-time. It included a creative and stunning WeChat QR code feature of the lunar cycle. Upon scanning, consumers were asked to enter their gender and date of birth. The campaign then automatically generates a report on how the user’s birth moon cycle resonates with their personality, interrelationships, hobbies, and career. The application also allowed consumers to share with their circle of friends, one’s personal moon phase report.

The hashtag created for the campaign reached over 10 million exposure hits on Weibo, a Chinese microblogging platform, and obtained international acclaim.
The well-rounded and multidimensional nature of WeChat, in conjunction with WeChat’s large Chinese customer base, led to the great success of the campaign. Since the lunar cycle is so important and prevailing amongst Chinese culture, MontBlanc tapped directly into the wants, interests, and relevance of Chinese consumers. MontBlanc provided more to Chinese consumers than simply a marketing campaign, but an enjoyable and educational digital experience.

6. Burberry

An Introduction:

Burberry is a British luxury fashion house, headquartered in London, England. Its main fashion house focuses on and distributes ready-to-wear outerwear, fashion accessories, fragrances, sunglasses, and cosmetics.

Burberry operates in more than 500 stores in over 50 countries and boasts a staff roster of nearly 2000 employees.
Established in 1856 by Thomas Burberry, originally focusing on the development of outdoor attire, the fashion house has moved on to the high fashion market developing pattern-based scarves, trench coats, and other fashion accessories.
The fashion house has dressed notable actors, world leaders, musicians, and athletes and in 2015, Burberry ranked 73rd in Interbrand’s Best Global Brands report, ahead of Ralph Lauren and Hugo Boss.

WeChat Strategy For Success:

Burberry is widely recognized as the most digitally savvy fashion house. With its digital partnerships including Snapchat Discover, Apple Music, Instagram, they are without argument one of the leading fashion players in the Western social media scene, and now with WeChat it is likely that they will move on to dominate Chinese online communities too.

Burberry uses WeChat to keep consumers informed about new arrivals, trending products, and further link them back to Burberry’s official website and they have also carved out a section in its official WeChat account to present classic styles and recap its events in order to create a sense of nostalgia.

Similarly to brands from our previously mentioned case studies, Burberry has also run a few WeChat campaigns tied to local festivals. Last year, from the 6th of January to the 19th, Burberry curated a collection of gifts for Chinese New Year on Feb. 8.

Known for its significant investment in WeChat’s most high-tech marketing features, Burberry is highlighting a selection of men’s and women’s gifts in a new interactive campaign for the upcoming Chinese New Year holiday (February 8).
The British label’s “A Lunar New Year” gift campaign allows users to tap, swipe, and shake to digitally “unwrap” gifts from the brand. Once their gift is “unwrapped,” they have the opportunity to send a personalized e-card to contacts on WeChat.
In addition, users will be entered for a chance to win limited-edition Burberry Lunar New Year envelopes when they unlock their “gift” on the app. These limited-edition envelopes were made to be available for in-store pickup, thereby driving footfall up and consequently increasing traffic and sales.

7. Coach

An Introduction:

As already mentioned earlier, Coach is a multinational luxury fashion company with over a thousand stores and more than 17,200 employees.

WeChat Strategy For Success:

Where Burberry uses WeChat mainly for content marketing and customer service, Coach makes a big play in product promotions and loyalty programs.

Once a user follows Coach’s main WeChat account, the brand pushes the user to become a member by entering their Chinese mobile number with a chance to win a Coach handbag. Meanwhile, Coach has a dedicated section for its members, where they can manage their membership cards and unlock exclusive offers.

Coach has also smartly linked WeChat and Weibo with the company website. For example, to celebrate Mother’s Day in 2015, Coach ran a campaign called “#MyFirstCoach” to address how mothers were their daughters’ first coach. Weibo users who uploaded photos of themselves and their mothers had an opportunity to be featured on Coach’s homepage and win a Coach wristlet.

The brand also purchased WeChat Moments ads (minimal entry price for one Moment ad is around $30,380) to promote “#MyFirstCoach.”
The campaign increased Coach’s WeChat followers by 35,000, as well as received more than 5,000 submissions and 2 million impressions in three weeks.

8. Mercedez-Benz

An Introduction:

Mercedes Benz is a well-known brand name company that originated in German and it’s specialized in producing automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks and is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG. Mercedes as a brand is equivalent with quality and elegance, and also it considers as one of the oldest automotive brand still exists until today.

Mercedes-Benz is a German automotive company ranked 12th on ‘best-global-brands 2011″ same rank it got the previous year 2010, with the current brand value of 27,445 million dollars.
The slogan for the brand is “the best or nothing” and Mercedes-Benz was one of the top growing brands in 2014 with 18% growth.

WeChat Strategy For Success:

In 2010, Tencent conducted a campaign with Mercedes-Benz around their Smart Car line. A limited edition version was made available only through WeChat. They pioneered a new flash-sales technique called ‘snap-up’. The sales event was scheduled one month ahead, and a limited number of products were sold at a discount. Then one month before the sale, interested parties are asked to register, and in the following weeks, a small deposit was requested.

Participants are then usually assigned a time slot during which a limited number of products are on offer to compete for.
Impressively, 338 Smart cars were sold within three minutes of the flash sale. This represented a staggering return on investment for Mercedes-Benz, while it also showcased how flexible WeChat could be in delivering marketing campaigns.
More than 600,000 users followed the launch, while 6,677 qualified sales leads were generated. More than 1,751 people paid a deposit on a Smart car through the app itself.
At the same time, this campaign demonstrates that using social as a channel has to be based on getting the entire customer journey right. The brand and offering have to provide a great fit with the customer’s experience and expectations.
Without this fit being right, marketing campaigns will not provide the appropriate response and return on investment. By listening to their customers, brands and marketers can judge whether it is right to use social as a full sales conversion tool, or for its ability to raise awareness and push potential customers to other marketing content.

9. Nike

An Introduction:

Founded on January 25, 1964, Nike’s ‘swoosh’ has turned into one of the world’s most identifiable logos and, in just over 50 years, Nike has grown to be the industry’s largest sports and fitness company. With their unparalleled success and branding in their industry, Nike remains the most dominant presence in footwear, apparel, equipment and sporting accessories.

Revenue for Nike in the financial year 2005 was $13.7 billion and over 10 years has risen to $30.601 billion as reported in 2015.
Nike directly employs approximately 24,300 people and Nike’s suppliers, shippers, retailers and service providers employ close to one million people on six continents.

Nike sponsors many high-profile athletes and sports teams around the world, with the highly recognized trademarks of “Just Do It” and the Swoosh logo.

WeChat Strategy For Success:

Nike, another star of Chinese social media was fast to jump on the WeChat wagon. At the annual 2013 Nike Sports Festival in Shanghai, Nike introduced a game where attendees could scan various Nike WeChat QR Codes scattered around the arena to partake in a badge-collecting game.

Scanning codes gave users Nike+ fuel points and the opportunity to play hidden missions.
WeChat’s voice messaging function was also used to guide participants, creating an immersive experience
By combining WeChat with movement tracking technology, this provided fans with a fun and interactive way to win prizes, meet sports stars and access rich exclusive content on the Nike WeChat page.
The number of registered users grew from 1,256 on day 1 to a whopping 11,999 on day 4 as word spread and engaged a total of 22,000 consumers over the course of the festival.

10. Pepsi

An Introduction:

PepsiCo is a world leader in convenient snacks, foods, and beverages. They are a leading food and beverage company that manufactures and distributes its products in more than 200 countries.

The company has achieved revenues of over $43 billion and employs over 260,000 employees.
PepsiCo consists of Pepsi-Cola brands, Frito-Lay Brands, Tropicana Brands, Quaker Brands, and Gatorade Brands.

WeChat Strategy For Success:

In 2014, for the Lunar New Year festival, Pepsi released an in-app technology that allowed WeChat users to send audio greetings to their family and friends in the form of a remixed customised version of the “Pepsi Delivering Happiness” theme song. Users could then share their soundtrack with friends and families.

WeChat has a heavy focus on audio messages as many Chinese people prefer that to texting because typing in characters is time-consuming.
As a result, users could record an audio message on the Pepsi ad that would get mixed in with a soundtrack of the well-known “Bring Happiness Home” theme song.
The audio message could also be altered to include in effects like the sound of a train. Another sound offer was a horse’s gallop, to coincide with the Year of the Horse.
The campaign was an overall success giving Pepsi a massive increase in social awareness during the festive season, with viewership for the integrated campaign was over 870 million across all videos, websites and applications (WeChat, Tmall, CCTV, Pepsi China official website).

We hope you have learned from this compilation of Weibo and WeChat case studies. Every brand is different, and what works for one brand might not work for yours.

Source: Luxion

Learn more about online marketing from the experts, contact the Top4 Marketing Team for your business. Top4 can help find new customers, create awareness, generate leads for your business and retain your existing customers Australia wide. As your marketing agency, we have the experience and platform to make your phone ring and your website hit hard.