Welcome to the Jing Daily WeChat Edition

Dear WeChaters,
Be prepared for tons of WeChat case studies in this week’s newsletter. For the Campaign of the Week, we cover two companies (Saks Fifth Avenue and Cirque Du Soleil) that cashed in on the booming WeChat economy — one is to drive interest to shop overseas, the other is to attend local shows. Also, could Mini Programs, the app within the app, be the future of luxury social e-commerce in China? Quite possibly, considering the vast number of beauty and fashion brands that have dabbled in the program. Enjoy. 

—What's New—

The latest WeChat news gathered from top sources

Copycat

It looks like Snapchat is the latest Western app to take a page out of WeChat’s playbook. Last Thursday, Los Angeles-based Snap Inc. rolled out its Snap Games platform that lets users play real-time, multiplayer games within the company’s flagship messaging app. Without additional downloads or installations, players can access these games through Snapchat’s chat feature and invite their friends to join.
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Wechat pay

The e-wallet scene in Southeast Asia is crowded. So how does WeChat Pay stand out? “We put a lot of attention on social payments for WeChat Pay, that's our advantage. We have the platform (WeChat), social graphs, data –– building a different ecosystem, and one involving social is the strategy,” shares Poshu Yeung, Tencent's VP of International Business
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key to the heart

WeChat mini-stores may hold the key for smaller brands and retailers: WeChat now makes it feasible for brands to both push content and at the same time sell products, thus creating a closed loop of customer interactions that can be completed within the WeChat ecosystem. Mini Program stores are more visual and accessible, given their 10-megabyte size limit, making it easy for customers to share engaging promotions with one another.
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wechat poltics

Recent state elections show that the widespread adoption of WeChat by Chinese-Australians has led to a much higher level of political participation. We’ve also seen that this community is as divided politically as English-speaking Australians. But whose information and opinions do Mandarin-speaking voters trust? And who is more likely to influence how they vote?
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—The Campaign—

Recent noteworthy WeChat campaigns & case studies

shop haven

How US-based retailer Saks Fifth Avenue attracts Chinese outbound travelers
Facts: How can an overseas business attract the attention of outbound Chinese travelers? U.S. retailer Saks Fifth Avenue, which is not very well known in China, set an example by launching a WeChat account last year, and has been on a quest to (A) attract more followers and (B) drive in-store transactions.
Features: 

• Parametric QR codes deployed in all store locations across the U.S. and Canada. 
• Discount coupon at the in-store event delivered via WeChat driving follower acquisition.
• Broadcast to all followers about the offer and delivery of single-use coupons.

The Result: Within 2 weeks of the campaign — over 300% growth in followers on the official account from campaigns through both offline initiatives and sharing online. Over 20% of people redeemed the discount, which is significantly higher than any other in-store campaign. After the success of this campaign, Saks has rolled out in-store campaigns on a quarterly basis.
Agency: TMG Worldwide
Our Take: The acquisition of new followers was mainly driven by the discount coupon promotion, which was a great way to attract initial interest. But how sustainable is this approach?
Rating: 4 out of 5

circus fun

Cirque Du Soleil introduces itself to Chinese locals
Facts: A decade after Cirque du Soleil debuted in China, the Canadian entertainment company is returning with a much more ambitious plan: to bring the touring show to the country every year. This is in addition to a resident show to be unveiled in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, next year. The decision to do so was made after Fosun Group acquired a 25 percent stake in the entertainment company in 2015. Since the investment, Fosun has worked closely with Cirque du Soleil, utilizing its knowledge and resources to help the Canadian trophy brand better understand the local Chinese market. One of their efforts is creating campaigns on WeChat, using KOLs, and precise targeting.
Features:

• The referral contest e-card. This was promoted on the official account as well as through KOL posts driving viral follower growth.
• For increasing exposure for the KOOZA show, KOLs from Shanghai and Beijing were used based on the target audience in entertainment and fun events.
• Paid media campaign via WeChat Moments & banner ads.

The Result: KOOZA KOL articles got over 200k+ views, 1,000+ likes, and over 1,900 new followers to the official account. Organic and paid media campaigns have resulted in increasing the follower count to over 75K during the one-week of the promotional timeline.
Agency: TMG Worldwide
Rating: 4 out of 5

—Deep Dive—

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

BACK TO THE FUTURE

WeChat leads the future of luxury social e-commerce with Mini Programs
Mini Programs have undergone astonishing growth ever since its release in January 2017. Since then, a total of $830 million (RMB 5.6 billion) in funding has been raised for e-commerce Mini Programs, according to “The WeChat Mini Program Playbook for E-commerce,” which is the latest report from Shenzhen-based e-commerce company Azoya Consulting. In total, there are 2.3 million Mini Programs today, with Daily Active Users (DAUs) at approximately 230 million — roughly half the number of Instagram’s DAUs in 2019. And users have quickly gotten hooked on Mini Programs: An average user opens a Mini Program four times a day, even though the apps have only existed for two years. Should luxury brands jump on this opportunity? And how can they use it to sell effectively? Here, we summarize the key points of Azoya’s report:
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—System Update—

Stay on top of WeChat's evolution

sharing is caring

WeChat adds more social sharing capabilities to advertising
WeChat has now fully released a feature that was in beta since last year — the ability to tag friends on ads appearing in the WeChat Moments feed. After tagging a friend, they will receive a notification and will be able to interact with the ad by either liking it or leaving a comment. This feature adds more social sharing capabilities to WeChat advertisements, bringing more value not only to users, but also advertisers, who are now able to get more interaction and exposure, raising the effectiveness of their advertising efforts on WeChat.
Read More (in Chinese)