Case Study: How Gucci Won Qixi
With COVID19 decimating the world economy, this year’s Qixi (七夕, Chinese Valentine’s Day) was one of the busiest ever as brands sought to leverage China’s quick recovery to make up lost earnings. Brands that never had never before joined the revelry tested the water this year, for example Belgian fine leather brand Delvaux.
When Gucci first launched its Qixi collection which is featured in apples, I thought who would buy such a thing? It doesn’t look good. But as Gucci’s Qixi campaign began to unfold, it grew on me, and I would go as far to say that Gucci had the best Qixi campaign of 2020. I know Qixi has long since past, but I think the learnings we can take from Gucci’s campaign are valuable at any time of the year.
Now first and foremost, I felt that Gucci demonstrated a lot of sincerity by creating a whole collection instead of just a few accessories or simply titling other collections as a Qixi collection. What’s more, the Qixi collection included a wide range of items from bags and clothes to accessories.
Why apple?
At first I found it very odd that Gucci chose an apple as the symbol for the collection as apples have no symbolic meaning of love in China and I felt like maybe Gucci was misinterpreting the holiday. However, Gucci did their homework and was aware that apples didn’t symbolize love in China, instead, Gucci designer Alessandro Michele, said he drew the inspiration from ancient Greek stories about Hera and Gaia. In this story, the apple does represent love.
What’s more, compared with a traditional heart shape and Balenciaga’s I Love You “我爱你” bags, Gucci’s apple design is low-key, and it is something that customers are able to use even it is not Valentine’s Day.
A 25-day Campaign to Drive Home the Apple Theme
To make sure that consumers understood the apple design, Gucci ran a 3-week campaign across all major Chinese social media platforms. Gucci also designed a slogan called “I Apple U”, meaning I love you to go along with the campaign.
On July 31, Gucci announced this collection on its official WeChat account. The article shows an animation of the apple turning from green to red and finally with the double G on it. The red color represents the passion in relationships, and the green color stands for youth, while the Double G makes the total look cuter. By the end of that day, the article had over 300k views. On its Weibo account, the video was posted and by the end of the same week, it had 700k views.
After the announcement, on August 10, Gucci published a series of 7 mini romantic movies starring six young idols (林彦俊 & 赵露思，胡一天 & 姜贞羽，丁禹兮 & 周洁琼). The films were set at a school campus, a library and a CD store. These places are nostalgic for most post-80s and post-90s consumers, and they are also places that as a student, you must have been to. Ny the end of the campaign, total video views surpassed 16.7 million.
Customizing Campaign Content for Each Social Channel
Gucci also customized its marketing tactics to fit each social media platform:
Weibo: Weibo is a platform that gathers lots of young idols and where fans find information about their idols. In the end of every romantic small video, Gucci gave viewers right to vote which ending would they like it to be. And on the next day, Gucci announced the result. This is getting viewers more involved and engaged in the campaign.
Douyin: Different from Weibo, Gucci didn’t post complete videos on the platform. Instead it shared behind-the-scene footage. They are very natural and fun. These entertaining scenes appeal to Douyin users a lot.
Xiaohongshu: Gucci opened a Qixi pop-up store on Xiaohongshu. Compared with other platforms, the brand’s Xiaohongshu content was more focused on product introduction and description. It also worked with Xiaohongshu top KOLs such as @大睿睿, aiming to show consumers how they could style this collection in their everyday lives.
Offline: Gucci also decked out its offline stores with the apple pattern which was very eye-catching and social media worthy.
Conclusion:
In summary, Gucci won Qixi by demonstrating a clear commitment to and understanding of Chinese consumers, creating a custom collection with a story behind it, employing celebrities popular among their target consumer base to bring the collection to life, and launching marketing campaigns thoughtfully customized to suit each social media platform.
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