Brands looking to win in China are often told that they need to look to new luxury tastes from a consumerbase that defines their own understanding of what luxury means – just as is explained in this report on 2020s luxury.
What wouldn’t work elsewhere can thrive in China – from McDonald’s and fashion to more – here are six creative collaborations across luxury in China:
1. Loewe X The Beast
May the 20th is an important calendar day for any brand in China, as the pronunciation of 520 in Mandarin is similar to that of ‘I love you’. Brands across diverse sectors bring out special offers, editions and campaigns for 520 – one being Loewe cooperating with The Beast to launch a one-off gift box: a medium sized Soft Barcelona handbag and Beast flower box. 520 isn’t the real ‘Chinese Valentine’s Day’, which is the Qixi Festival that falls in Summer, depending on the lunar calendar.
2. Valentino X GQ House+GQ Lab
Savvy brands were proactive in moving their messaging on to a more emotional and empathetic tone when the pandemic started in China. Valentino co-operated with GQ House and GQ Lab to a series of human stories that shoed people finding different forms of happiness in their daily lives.
3. Tencent x M.A.C
Showing that luxury in China is without boundaries – and that games and gamification have strong value – M.A.C cooperated with Honor of Kings, the game developed by Tencent, to launch its new limited edition lipstick. The launch began in the brand’s WeChat mini program with a digital ‘pop-up store’ and were fully sold out within an hour.
4. MAOGEPIN x Forbidden City
Maogepin is a Chinese cosmetic brand founded in 2001 by a local make-up artist of the same name. Maogepin collaborated with The Forbidden City to launch the first co-branded make-up product line in early 2019, with the second range being released atthe end of the year.
The collaboration collection won ‘The Most Beautiful Makeup in a National Style Series’in the Chinese version of ELLE magazine’s Beauty Star Awards 2019. Not only are the series designed by taking in inspiration from patterns of the Forbidden City, each product is named in a creative way that defers to traditional wording.
5. Gucci x Tencent short films “Gucci Inspiration Map”
Gucci partnered with Tencent Video to air four short films collectively known as the Gucci Inspiration Map. Released on a weekly basis, the first film featured singer-actress Chris Lee, who has 123.6 million followers on Weibo, and showed the star visiting some of the places in China that the brand supposedly draws inspiration from.
6. LV x Bilibili LOL augmented reality (AR) filter
Bilibili is an app for watching TV, films and live-streams. Users on the video platform were able to use a new filter on their uploaded photos that made it appear as though they were wearing the crown and accessories of a character from the League of Legends game. Louis Vuitton also designed an exclusive trophy case for the 2019 League of Legends World Championship as part of its partnership with the online game.
