Collaborating with celebrities and key opinion leaders (KOLs) is a well-liked method for Chinese and international manufacturers to leverage huge fan bases, attain new audiences, and in the end spur income. This is especially true when a model faucets a celeb or KOL who’s related to a particular area of interest — be it sports activities, wellness, cosmetics, or fragrances. “Fan-focused” collaborations are a tried-and-tested strategy in China.
While manufacturers have signed Chinese model ambassadors and spokespeople for many years, collaborations during which the movie star takes a extra energetic function akin to a co-creative director and basically “co-brands” a product or assortment have solely gained floor over the previous a number of years.
Although the ever-changing dynamic of the Chinese shopper market makes it not possible to foretell the outcomes of a collaboration between a model and KOL, listed here are 5 tips — which we discover in better element in our upcoming report “Big in China: Brand Collaborations” — that may assist enhance the chance of success. (Email us to pre-order your copy as we speak.)
1. Limited-edition capsule collections are king
Whether within the vein of Givenchy’s 2019 collaboration with the favored Chinese purse blogger Mr. Bags (Tao Liang) on an unique pink Mini Horizon purse that offered out in simply 12 minutes or the unisex Palm Angels x Team Wang attire assortment, KOL-driven capsule collections and limited-edition gadgets ooze shortage and entice probably the most rabid Chinese Culture Consumers (CCCs) focused on constructing their collections.
2. Take cues from native manufacturers
Chinese manufacturers are arguably collaborating with KOLs to the best impact, using a wave of name nationalism that has swept the nation in recent times and leveraging big-name collaborations to face out in a cut-throat retail market.
One home model that has made KOL collaborations a cornerstone of its advertising efforts is the lingerie and way of life model Neiwai. In April 2022, Neiwai introduced a partnership with the Chinese style KOL @SavisLook on its Weibo account with the launch of a trip capsule assortment that includes clothes, lingerie, and equipment. The 15-second marketing campaign teaser video launched by Neiwai, together with an extended version posted on @SavisLook’s Weibo, respectively racked up 14,700 and 61,000 views inside someday.
The model has additionally launched loungewear collaborations with singer Faye Wong after asserting the 52-year-old pop legend as its international model ambassador in 2020. Neiwai has developed a optimistic popularity amongst customers in China for its inclusive sizing and casting of fashions of all ages and shapes in nationwide advertising campaigns.
3. Beware of collaboration fatigue
Typically, one-time collaborations between manufacturers and KOLs or celebrities in China — even profitable ones — generate short-lived and restricted affect. This makes it crucial for manufacturers to formulate complete advertising plans round a collaboration that may point out shortage and urgency amongst goal customers, embody on- and offline activations that preserve the engagement going after the discharge date, and in the end contribute to model constructing.
However, as Olivia Plotnick of Wai Social factors out, “Extremes can be counterproductive, and a large number of KOL collaborations may lead to fatigue among consumers and lower their acceptance, resulting in resistance.”
4. Keep in thoughts: Consumers in China nonetheless rely closely on celebrities and KOLs
In markets like North America, many manufacturers are reluctant to work with higher-profile celebrities or influencers — whether or not as a result of price or a mismatch between the supposed shopper viewers and the influencers’ attain or popularity. But manufacturers have much less to fret about with regard to the impact of movie star or KOL collaborations on model popularity or shopper sentiment.
As Jeff Staple, founding father of streetwear label Staple, notes, “I don’t like doing [KOL collaborations] because it feels very pay for play, but in China, it’s very much more accepted. So the youth listens to that message, so we happily use that tactic in order to break through the noise and get to the consumer that we want.”
5. Yet manufacturers have to be extra cautious than ever when partnering with a KOL or movie star
Despite the plain advantages of working with a KOL or movie star who boasts widespread title recognition all through China and might immediately attain — and, extra importantly, promote to — an enormous viewers, dangers stay. For starters, attitudes towards these people amongst customers and Chinese authorities regulators can change on the drop of a hat, particularly in China’s tightly regulated media and advertising setting.
Perhaps the most important concern for manufacturers is celebrities and KOLs endangering a collaboration by making statements thought-about controversial amongst Chinese authorities or falling afoul of presidency regulators for offenses resembling tax evasion. (A frequent incidence because the crackdown on movie star and fan tradition gained tempo in spring and summer season 2021.)
On June 3, 2022, one such scandal enveloped so-called “lipstick king” livestreamer Austin Li (Li Jiaqi). During a gross sales livestream that passed off across the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, Li’s broadcast was abruptly lower off after a visitor held a cake within the form of a tank in an obvious (but presumably unintentional) reference to the occasion. Although Li blamed the sudden ending of his broadcast on technical difficulties, most observers understood it to be the work of presidency censors. In the next days and weeks, Li’s usually energetic Weibo account — which constantly revealed 5 to 6 posts per day — went uncharacteristically silent, with no new posts since.
The offending cake that launched a significant scandal for livestreamer Li Jiaqi. Photo: Weibo
The muzzling of Li — arguably China’s strongest and high-profile way of life KOL — signifies the potential hazard of name collaborations with high influencers within the more and more delicate, tightly regulated China market. A product collaboration which will have taken months or years to return to fruition will be scuppered or positioned on indefinite hiatus if the movie star or influencer fronting the marketing campaign falls afoul of Beijing censors — whether or not for an actual or, extra probably, perceived transgression of ever-changing laws.
Email us to pre-order your copy of “Big in China: Brand Collaborations.”
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