WELCOME TO THE JING DAILY WECHAT EDITION

Our weekly briefing on all things WeChat, featuring the latest news, campaigns, reports, case studies & events. 

—What's New—

The latest WeChat news gathered from top sources

Red flag

Tencent Holdings Ltd. is planning to clear out about 10 percent of its existing managers to make room for younger executives as China’s largest gaming and social media company confronts a slowdown in growth, according to people familiar with the matter. The social media giant is scheduled to report earnings Thursday with analysts forecasting a 16 percent drop in net income in the fourth quarter of last year. That would be the largest decline in at least a decade.
Read More

mAke it rain

Chinese e-commerce and social media platform Xiaohongshu, known as RED, is reportedly working on a social e-commerce mini-program on WeChat. The application, Xiao Hong Dian, has a product catalog of only 11 food items, including Sichuan-style rice noodles and dried bean curd. Group buyers will receive discounts for regularly priced items rather than cash rewards, which are offered on other platforms including Pinduoduo, after sharing with WeChat friends. The invitation-only beta version is currently being tested, and the company did not specify a timeline for the launch.
Read More

duty free

The Shilla Duty Free, South Korea’s top Duty Free shot, has made it possible for customers to purchase goods directly via its official WeChat account, saying it is the first Korean travel retailer to do so. “With this new service, The Shilla Duty Free is able to provide a one-stop shopping experience for its Chinese customers, [with] membership sign-up to product purchases within the WeChat app. In addition, the login status will remain active if logged in from The Shilla Duty Free’s WeChat official account, eliminating the need to log in each time customers visit.”
Read More

a day in wechat

In the West, WeChat is still a new concept for most brands and retailers, many of whom have barely used it. To fully understand the multitude of ways Chinese professionals are using WeChat in their daily lives, we interviewed three WeChat users — the Shanghai-based fashion blogger Yuwei Zhangzhou (AKA, Yuyu), Chinese consumer trend writer Jiaqi Luo in Paris, and Chengdu-based co-founder and managing director of China Channel Matthew Brennan — about how they spend their time on the super-app.
Read More

—The Campaign—

Recent noteworthy WeChat campaigns & case studies

ticket to ride

Burberry’s latest drop takes a trip down memory lane
Facts: While dropping a new collection on WeChat is common practice, Burberry was one of the first luxury fashion brands to consistently do so. Every month, the brand is scheduled to drop an item, which begs the question: how much excitement can this sales model consistently generate?
Features: Users on social media have become fixated on Burberry’s latest monthly drop, on March 17th, as the product offered — a keyring — wasn’t considered typical of the brand. While previous product drops featured basic Burberry styles, the keychain wallet was designed to look like a one-way train ticket to London, with Burberry in large text, making it appear like the departure station.
The Result: This small accessory came with a big price tag, about £250 (about RMB 2,900), but sold out during the 24-hour flash sale.
Our Take: The key to sustaining the monthly drop hype, which Burberry has demonstrated with its keychain wallet, is the importance of crafting a meaningful story behind the product that connects with consumers each month. This month's story was based on designer Riccardo Tisci’s personal memory of his train journey from the south of France to London, in the 1990s, which, apparently, resonated very well with travel-minded Millennials.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Read More

pay it forward

Dunhill’s latest White Day campaign is all about influencing female fans
Facts: White Valentine’s Day (or White Day) is an occasion when women gift their male significant others, usually with white chocolate or marshmallows. Luxury brands have been quick to adopt this celebration to promote their men’s products.
Features: One marketing campaign that stood out was from British luxury fashion brand Dunhill. The brand worked with Chinese fashion blogger Mr. Bags, whose fans are mostly female, to promote a blue Chiltern drawstring backpack that retails for $980 (RMB 6,580).
The Result: The campaign launched on March 4th, with 200 bags being sold within 36 minutes via Mr. Bags’ WeChat mini-program, reaching a total sales value of $196,014 (RMB 1,316,000).
Our Take: The sale not only leveraged Mr. Bags’ influence among female fans, but also brought in celebrities. Mr. Bags featured several Chinese male celebrities modeling the bag in his WeChat post, and fans buzzed about how good it looked. It was a well-executed campaign that activated all kinds of influencers to win women’s hearts.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Read More

—System Update—

Stay on top of WeChat's evolution 

social experiment

WeChat changes the “Interesting” button at the end of articles to fight fatigue
WeChat fatigue is not new. According to the WeChat ranking platform Newark, public accounts’ average pageviews decreased 33 percent compared to 2018, marking two years of declining readership. Given this, WeChat is actively tweaking its functions to boost organic engagement. At the end of every WeChat article, users could click on the “Interesting" (好看, also known in the English version as 'WOW') button, but after the latest system update, it’s now called “Reading (在看).” This is more than a simple name change; it’s ultimately a social experiment. Why? Michele Mascolo, Marketing Manager at IT Consultis breaks it down for us:

• The “Interesting” button came out only a few weeks ago with WeChat version 7.0. By tapping this button, the article shows up in the “top stories” tab, visible to all your contacts. Some people have complained about this button being too intrusive. They were also reluctant to share articles they didn’t want everybody to see, and instead preferred to keep for themselves, or that they didn’t care that much about. Simply put, many people were not a fan of this feature. 
• The change from “Interesting” to “Reading” addresses this problem and “lowers the pressure”: you no longer “like” a specific article, rather, you are just showing that you have read it — you are less invested in it — and you can use this feature more freely.
• Also, this change prevents people from thinking you are too committed towards an article about crimes or natural disasters, so there is no room for misunderstandings (and even less pressure)

In addition, this is another change: people can now like articles shared on Top Stories via a heart-shaped button:

—Deep Dive—

Must-read, in-depth guides, tutorials & reports

wechat crm

How to Activate your WeChat followers?

In case you missed the webinar, "Identifying and engaging customers among your WeChat followers" last week from the WeChat agency Splio, you should give this insightful report a read. Below are some topical questions covered:

• We have an official account, WeChat payment, but where can we find customers?
• Unlike Facebook, where users names are identified, how can you build up a customer database with WeChat?
• We can’t track users across our different WeChat accounts, brands and markets.