For classmates who don't know the context: Wechat is the hottest mobile IM app in China right now and it is amazingly widely used by Chinese people all over the world. It's similiar to Whatsapp but different in a way that it also has posting and sharing functions just like Facebook.
Brands are still trying to figure out how to leverage WeChat, the 3-year-old social app that changed the way Chinese consumers use their smartphones. Anyone looking for ideas might check out what Burberry, Pepsi and McDonald's are up to.
The British luxury brand just took WeChat fans behind the scenes at its London runway show, offering them audio commentary by the creative team and Chinese celebrities. When fans sent Burberry a text message, the brand instantly responded with a virtual plaque engraved with their name.
WeChat is good for such one-on-one interactions -- conversations between a consumer and a brand – because it's a pumped-up messaging app. Inspired by WhatsApp, it took the concept much further, blending in elements of Facebook and Instagram. WeChat's parent company, Tencent, just bought 20% of Dianping, China's Yelp. And WeChat is poised to make an e-commerce push, too.
The app, called Weixin in Chinese, had 272 million active monthly users when the latest figures were released in November, and its growing popularity in markets like Brazil gives it extra appeal for Burberry.
And yet many brands are still struggling with it: A Forrester Research report proclaimed that "WeChat is not a good marketing tool – yet."In part, Forrester said, that's because WeChat strictly limits how and how often brands can communicate with users. So brands have to make every message count.
WeChat says it's partnering with Burberry, a digital innovator that has worked with Apple, Google and Instagram, to develop content and improve storytelling. Both share the goal of "building word of mouth organically instead of pushing," said Sophia Ong, the Tencent executive who helps marketers navigate the internet giant's platforms.
She added: "Chinese consumers, especially those who were born after the 1980s and are looking at luxury brands, have a high demand for customized and personalized products and experiences."
So while WeChat offers up potential for innovating on personalization and social CRM, it's rewriting the rules for marketers accustomed to using Sina Weibo (the "Chinese Twitter") to push out viral content on a mass scale.
WeChat and its relative privacy are luring traffic away from Weibo, which is suffering because of a government crackdown on influential microbloggers. Many people also complain it's now overrun by brand messages, something WeChat is trying to avoid.
Weibo is "no longer driving the cultural and social agenda," said Bill Bishop, the publisher of Sinocism, an influential newsletter on China.
Marketers that have relied on Weibo to build brands, monitor public opinion and do crisis management "now have to figure out WeChat, a whole new, much more difficult-to-mine social media platform," he said. (Another tricky issue: Monitoring services can keep tabs on Weibo easily because it's so open, but since WeChat conversations are private, "your product can be trashed across group chats and nobody will have any idea," Mr. Bishop noted.)
Reference: http://adage.com/article/digital/mcdonald-s-pepsi-burberry-big-china-s-wechat/291918/
Brands are still trying to figure out how to leverage WeChat, the 3-year-old social app that changed the way Chinese consumers use their smartphones. Anyone looking for ideas might check out what Burberry, Pepsi and McDonald's are up to.
The British luxury brand just took WeChat fans behind the scenes at its London runway show, offering them audio commentary by the creative team and Chinese celebrities. When fans sent Burberry a text message, the brand instantly responded with a virtual plaque engraved with their name.
WeChat is good for such one-on-one interactions -- conversations between a consumer and a brand – because it's a pumped-up messaging app. Inspired by WhatsApp, it took the concept much further, blending in elements of Facebook and Instagram. WeChat's parent company, Tencent, just bought 20% of Dianping, China's Yelp. And WeChat is poised to make an e-commerce push, too.
The app, called Weixin in Chinese, had 272 million active monthly users when the latest figures were released in November, and its growing popularity in markets like Brazil gives it extra appeal for Burberry.
And yet many brands are still struggling with it: A Forrester Research report proclaimed that "WeChat is not a good marketing tool – yet."In part, Forrester said, that's because WeChat strictly limits how and how often brands can communicate with users. So brands have to make every message count.
WeChat says it's partnering with Burberry, a digital innovator that has worked with Apple, Google and Instagram, to develop content and improve storytelling. Both share the goal of "building word of mouth organically instead of pushing," said Sophia Ong, the Tencent executive who helps marketers navigate the internet giant's platforms.
She added: "Chinese consumers, especially those who were born after the 1980s and are looking at luxury brands, have a high demand for customized and personalized products and experiences."
So while WeChat offers up potential for innovating on personalization and social CRM, it's rewriting the rules for marketers accustomed to using Sina Weibo (the "Chinese Twitter") to push out viral content on a mass scale.
WeChat and its relative privacy are luring traffic away from Weibo, which is suffering because of a government crackdown on influential microbloggers. Many people also complain it's now overrun by brand messages, something WeChat is trying to avoid.
Weibo is "no longer driving the cultural and social agenda," said Bill Bishop, the publisher of Sinocism, an influential newsletter on China.
Marketers that have relied on Weibo to build brands, monitor public opinion and do crisis management "now have to figure out WeChat, a whole new, much more difficult-to-mine social media platform," he said. (Another tricky issue: Monitoring services can keep tabs on Weibo easily because it's so open, but since WeChat conversations are private, "your product can be trashed across group chats and nobody will have any idea," Mr. Bishop noted.)
Reference: http://adage.com/article/digital/mcdonald-s-pepsi-burberry-big-china-s-wechat/291918/
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