When it comes to the season of love, brands always have interesting tricks up their sleeves – especially on social media.
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5 Interesting Valentine’s Day Campaigns on WeChat
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Over the last decade, collaborations between luxury brands and contemporary artists have gone beyond mere artistic partnerships towards a new kind of luxury branding.
PARIS – Art and fashion have always developed side by side, for fashion, like art, often gives visual expression to the cultural zeitgeist. During the 1920s, Salvador Dalí created dresses for Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiapparelli. In the 1930s, Ferragamo’s shoes commissioned designs for advertisements from Futurist painter Lucio Venna, while Gianni Versace commissioned works from artists such as Alighiero Boetti and Roy Lichtenstein for the launch of his collections. Yves Saint Laurent’s vast art collection, recently auctioned at Christie’s in Paris, testified to his great love of art and revealed the influence of a variety of artists on his own designs.
In the 1980s, relationships between luxury brands and artists were advanced when Alain Dominique Perrin created the Fondation Cartier. In the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, a book marking the foundation’s 20th anniversary, Perrin says he makes “a connection between all the different sorts of arts, and luxury goods are a kind of art. Luxury goods are handicrafts of art, applied art.”
The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemparain building in Paris
When it comes to the season of love, brands always have interesting tricks up their sleeves – especially on social media.
Some live for it, some hate it. But the allure of 14 February cannot be denied. Known as Valentine’s Day in modern society, it is said to have started as a fertility festival in ancient Rome before evolving to become the celebration of love it is today.
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Interestingly enough, a recent survey found that the Chinese are the biggest spenders in Asia Pacific when it comes to Valentine’s Day, with respondents divulging that they forked out an average of US $274 for the romantic holiday. Brands, of course, have leveraged on this fact and rolled out a whole host of Valentine’s Day campaigns in China – especially on the country’s largest social media network, WeChat.
Here are a few that caught our eye this Valentine’s Day.
Swarovski
Noting that true love is not about the grand, big gestures but the minute details in a relationship, Swarovski focused on that with its Valentine’s Day campaign on WeChat. Based on a play on the similar Chinese pronunciations of the word “details” and “to tie”, the campaign explored the concept of an invisible knot tying two individuals together, and how their love story is about the small things.
After an introductory video that illustrates the concept, users are prompted to either purchase items from the brand’s Valentine’s Day collection online, or proceed to create an e-card. This e-card can either be shared on WeChat Moments, or saved as an image and sent to a loved one. Six different designs of the e-card were made available.
Tiffany & Co.
Best known for its iconic engagement rings, Tiffany & Co. has built a reputation centred on love stories. This Valentine’s Day, the American jeweller further highlighted this with the launch of its WeChat campaign featuring the love stories of selected celebrity and influencer couples alike. Part of its international Valentine’s Day campaign, these included personalities such as Instagram fashion star Aimee Song (@songofstyle), Korean model Park Ji Hye and fashion designer Laura Vassar.
Users are encouraged to share their own love stories on WeChat as part of the social media activation of this campaign as well. This exercise has since ended, but selected users (up to 200) were gifted with a little something from Tiffany & Co.
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Fresh
Noting that the Chinese are not known to be the best at expressing their emotions in words, the choice of campaign mechanics by Fresh is interesting to say the least.
A user first selects the product he or she is interested in, and then seals it with a thumbprint before sending it to someone. The recipient will then be prompted to write a heartfelt note to the sender, before sealing it with a thumbprint as well. At the end of the exercise, the recipient can choose to either immediately purchase the selected gift for the sender (a no brainer, really), or share the entry on his or her WeChat Moments for a chance to win the selected gift set.
Folli Follie
Greek-based international jeweller Folli Follie introduced an interactive campaign on WeChat for Valentine’s Day this year that kicks off with a video that tells men that they are, well, basically doing it all wrong when it comes to confessing their love. After offering tips on the “right” things to do and say, users are prompted to up their “Confession Strength Meter” by playing a mini game.
This mini game sees Folli Follie boxes of different sizes falling from the top of the screen. Users have to tap on as many boxes as possible within 15 seconds – with the larger boxes offering more points. At the end of the game, users are offered different rewards based on their scores, ranging from passport covers to store vouchers. Get tapping, people.
Louis Vuitton
Opting for something light-hearted and fun, the French Maison pushed out a set of Valentine’s Day themed stickers on WeChat together with suggested gifts for Him and Her. The set of nine stickers are easily saved into a user’s sticker gallery (for those unfamiliar with this concept, stickers are basically gifs) for use in WeChat conversations. After all, pictures are worth a thousand words.
Cover image credit: Tiffany & Co.
Freelance Writer
Having spent several years working in China, Chun Pin has developed a deep interest and appreciation for the digital marketing strategies and tactics applied by brands in the Middle Kingdom. He writes on a freelance basis on topics that marry luxury and technology.
