A new playbook by Gusto Luxe, Asia’s leading integrated consulting, digital and marketing agency, outlines how brands can drive sales traffic across China’s digital eco-system through creative crossovers and localised collaborations.
Download the playbook for free here.
The playbook aims to guide global luxury brands through the unique world of next-gen digital media on which Chinese consumers connect, browse, livestream and buy.
For case studies and platform tips, download the playbook.
This introduction from the report looks at maximising influencer collaborations and making product posts stand out:
RED and Douyin thrive in their immediacy of engagement. Compared to the other digital platforms in China’s unique eco-system – which still have enormous capabilities of their own – they are more nimble, more instantly reactive to social trends. They excel in allowing users and followers to ‘get involved’ and to either directly interact with the post or create their own version which can go viral in its own right.
We have identified key strategies to help brands maximise their RED and Douyin activities across:
- Influencer collaborations
- Product communications
- User-generated content
- Cultural moments
- Male beauty
- Social commerce
Maximising influencer collaborations
Detailing product focus and efficacy recording:
YSL collaborated with beauty KOL是阿束啊 (shi a shu a)（744K followers on RED）She posted videos using YSL’s Night Reboot Serum for 28 days, emphasising and recording the gradual skin change during this time – as well as explaining her own tips of how to get the most out of the product. The video has 8,046 likes, 1,998 saves and 887 comments.
Representing street cred and authenticity:
Fashion KOL 其寺Mar (qi si Mar) (111K followers on RED) posted street fashion photoshoots tutorial on RED, featuring Chinese beauty brand Colorkey’s (珂拉琪) lipstick #R601. The pictures were re-shared by the brand’s official RED account. The post has 1,651 likes, 1,469 saves and 32 comments.
Placing products:
Douyin influencer 叶公子 (ye gong zi) created a sitcom-style video and inserted Korean beauty brand LANEIGE’s Cica Sleeping Mask in it, which included details and even tips about using it. The video included a hyperlink of this product,and got 1.8 million likes, 23,000 comments, and 39,551 retweets.
Working with the biggest stars:
Austin Lin (李佳琪), one of China’s biggest bloggers, cooperated with local Chinese beauty brand Huaxizi (花西子) in a short video. He put lipsticks that are known to be difficult to remove on his hand – and removed all of them easily with the brand’s remover. The visual impact was popular with his fans, gaining 1.8 million likes, 34,000 comments and 14,000 retweets.
Making product posts stand out
Switching between spokespeople depending on audiences:
Estée Lauder differentiates content depending on the skincare focus of different age groups. The brand worked with Chinese actress Song Zuer (宋祖儿), who is in her early twenties, to introduce the effects of the Micro Essence series, and Yang Mi (杨幂), also an actress, but in her early thirties, to speak to a more mature audience about the benefits of Advanced Night Repair.
Welcoming new users with tips and tricks
As UKISS (悠珂思), a Chinese beauty brand, focuses mainly on younger customers, it provides regular series of tutorials tailored for an age-group that is starting to learn more about make up. The tutorials range from advice on matching products with skin tones and wider looks and styles.
Showing, not telling
Kiehl’s created a video showing a 24-hour antioxidation experiment, by using an apple. The brand’s 12.5% Powerful Strength Line Reduction Concentrate was applied to half of the apple, and later compared to the other half.
Comparing value and efficacy
OSM (欧诗漫), a Chinese pearl-based cosmetics brand, openly declared that its skin-brightening product not only has the same ingredient as luxury skincare brands, yet also includes further ingredients for a better function. It boasted a similar quality, but at a lower cost.
Download: How Beauty Brands Can Sell to Chinese Gen Z via Social Commerce
