Why luxury in China must bridge digital and physical events like never before?

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

Why luxury in China must bridge digital and physical events like never before?

Takeaways:

  • In-person events must adapt to the demands of younger Chinese consumers, who increasingly demand immersive and engaging content from luxury brands.
  • Recent events held in Beijing and Shanghai offer successful on-and-offline marketing blueprints for the year ahead.
  • Today, it is critical for luxury brands to effectively incorporate both on- and offline touchpoints at physical events.

Over the course of the COVID pandemic, virtually any digital holdouts in the luxury industry have cast aside suspicion towards e-commerce and digital marketing, particularly in China. Yet an interesting phenomenon has emerged in China over the course of the COVID pandemic, by which offline events and physical retail have become arguably more important for luxury brands, both as a consumer touchpoint and a sales driver.

 

The example of Louis Vuitton’s strategy

 

In August 2020, Louis Vuitton was among the first luxury brands to hold a large-scale event, in its case, an outdoor runway show that bridged the gap between online and offline via a heavily publicized livestream and full-court social media press. The strategy worked. According to Louis Vuitton, the live stream of the event was viewed a total of 158 million times on Weibo, WeChat, Tencent Video, Douyin, Kuaishou, and OTT. Days later, Chinese-language media noted that the video of the show ultimately racked up more than 100 million views, while the Weibo hashtags #LV大秀# (Louis Vuitton big show) were used nearly one billion times in total.

 

The importance of offline events

 

The key for luxury brands in China is now to successfully hold offline events when they can’t hold them elsewhere. But as now the restrictions are lifted, audiences in China want also to attend luxury events in real life. This means brands now need to rethink what event success really means. Does it mean pre-event sales, long-tail video views, or envelope-pushing tech?

 

The answer will depend on the brand, its willingness to experiment and invest, and potential applications on the global level. Although China may be the fastest-moving luxury market, it’s only a matter of time before other key markets catch up and consumers have very similar demands from the brands they follow.

 

Read further as David Liu, Cegid Practice Manager at VISEO APJ and Chennan Zhang, Head of Business Development APAC at Cegid explore the luxury retail sector in China and the key trends and challenges emerging from this space.

 

Why luxury in China must bridge digital and physical events like never before?