Why Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Prada and other luxury brands were playing to win China’s 520 game
Louis Vuitton collaborated with Song Jia and Li Jiaqi and Gucci asked Chris Lee, Ni Ni and Lu Han to record love messages commemorating May 20, whose mandarin pronunciation resembles the words ‘I love you’
May 20 may not mean much for marketers outside China; however, its mandarin pronunciation resembles the words “I love you”, and the date has become yet another Chinese Valentine’s Day, in addition to the Qixi festival in August. As luxury in China becomes one of the first markets in the world to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, the industry’s major players are not wasting any time to capitalise on the special date by launching celebrity-driven digital campaigns to push 520-special capsule collections.
Luxury brands often create localised campaigns catering to Chinese customers – think Lunar New Year and Singles' Day offers – this year’s 520 activities seem even more competitive than usual as luxury brands are eager to capture every possible opportunity to entice customers out of quarantine and make up for the loss in the first quarter of the year. STYLE takes a look at the major players who are winning the 520 game.
How China’s luxury sector is engaging with customers from a social distance
Prada 520 Mathematics of Love featuring Cai Xukun
Prada partnered with singer/songwriter Cai Xukun in the 520 campaign. In a series of short video clips, Cai mumbles about mundane scenarios such as “11 outfits changed”, “eight cakes baked for you” and “twelve new songs written”, and in each video clip, the mentioned numbers always added up to “520” echoing the theme “520 Mathematics of Love”. Prada stated in a press release the campaign explores emotions in the context of the new normal due to the spread of coronavirus, both during and after social distancing.
Prada’s newly-launched WeChat video account hosts the campaign video clips. In addition to its selected brick-and-mortar stores in China, the 520 capsule collection is also available on its pop-up store via WeChat Mini Program.
Within one day of its release, the topic went viral on major Chinese social media platforms and reportedly generated 50 million views on Weibo.
Louis Vuitton bets on live streamer Li Jiaqi
