Successful Strategies to Navigate the Chinaverse

EXCLUSIVE INSIGHTS

How to Harness the Power of Digital Collectibles in China

China kicked off the year by launching its own digital asset trading platform “Digital Collection Home” to facilitate transactions. And now, digital collectibles are providing a unique way for brands to connect with Chinese consumers by creating personalized and exclusive products that align with local tastes and preferences. These innovative collectibles offer an additional touchpoint for brands to engage with their target audience and can be leveraged in the following ways:

Hype Building: Brands can create digital collectibles to generate excitement and anticipation around a new product launch. Collectibles can be given as exclusive rewards for early adopters or as part of pre-order packages, creating buzz and driving engagement.
Gift with Purchase: Digital collectibles can also be given as a gift with purchase, providing customers with an added incentive to buy from a particular brand. This can enhance customer loyalty and increase the likelihood of repeat purchases.
Holiday Campaigns: Collectibles can be released during major holidays and shopping events, such as the Lunar New Year, Double 11, or the Mid-Autumn Festival, to tap into Chinese consumers’ spending power during these peak shopping periods.
Artist Collaborations: Collaborating with popular artists or influencers to create unique and limited-edition digital collectibles can attract a new audience to the brand and foster a sense of exclusivity and collectibility. Brands can also leverage the artist’s fanbase to promote the campaign and create buzz.
Brand Positioning: Creating digital collectibles demonstrates a brand’s willingness to innovate and embrace new technologies. This can position the brand as forward-thinking and appeal to younger, tech-savvy consumers who are more likely to engage with digital collectibles.

By creating personalized and exclusive products that tap into local tastes and preferences, brands can use digital collectibles as valuable touchpoints to engage consumers in unique ways, stand out against competitors, and make an impact in the Chinese market. Ready to launch a digital collectible that will resonate with Chinese consumers? Book a strategy session with us and trust in CLA’s experience and expertise to guide you every step of the way.

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NEWS ROUNDUP

Digital Collectibles Drop
How Western Brands Can Master The Chinaverse

Web3 buzzwords like “metaverse” are gradually being replaced by others like “artificial intelligence” as big tech organizations like Meta and Alphabet scale back on their metaverse-focused projects and shift their priorities.

But this doesn’t mean that development of the virtual realm has stopped. Businesses still need to be prepared as transitions happen over the next decade. In April 2022, Citibank estimated that the metaverse is on its way to becoming a $13 trillion market by 2030, making it clear that this isn’t a sector to ignore.

China will play a colossal part in the evolution of the digital space.

Unlike many countries in the West, China has clear government-directed policies and goals for the metaverse set out in its most recent five-year plan, with many predicting that it will have the first interconnected, functional national metaverse as a result.

It also has a government-supported national digital asset exchange to allow the purchase of digital collectibles (the term NFT is still avoided due to strict policies on the trading of online assets) without the use of banned cryptocurrency.

China launched its first national-level secondary trading platform for digital assets on the first day of 2023, aiming to support trade of intellectual property, digital copyrights and digital collections.

As the country’s digital economy has witnessed rapid development in recent years, digital assets have emerged, backed by information technology including blockchain as well as Web 3.0. The newly established platform will enhance regulation of virtual trade, and aims to boost digital innovation as well as promote the healthy development of the digital trade market, experts said.

Using the “China Cultural Protection Chain” as the only credible depository service platform for tradable digital assets, the platform will provide institutions and individual users with digital asset registration, verification, depository, rights monitoring and copyright protection services.

In addition, the platform will work together with the “Digital Collection Home,” the first metaverse digital collection credit evaluation and aggregation platform in China, developed by Zhongrong Global Holdings Co, to provide users with services bringing valuable information, data and content related to the metaverse and digital collectibles.

Chinese e-commerce giant Tmall has kicked off its spring campaign “My New Spring Flowers in Bloom” by joining hands with five renowned brands including Huggies, Decorté, Vans, iQOO and L’Oréal. In celebration of its annual membership day, the campaign offers exclusive gifts for members from big-name brands as the spring flowers come into bloom.

In honour of the event, Tmall rolled out limited-edition digital collectable series of virtual flowers for each of the five brands. The design concept of the eternal flowers stems from the brand’s new products of the month and creatively ties each brand to the spring theme.

Online, the e-commerce giant held raffles in which winners could win exclusive gifts. Not only were brand members able to obtain digital collectables for free but they were also able to earn exclusive member rights related to the corresponding brand products. Meanwhile, on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, the hashtags “My New Spring Flowers in Bloom” and “Annual member day on Tmall” garnered a whopping 140 million and 6.57 billion views respectively.

Digital Collections Illustrate the Spirit of Exploration
The North Face China Launches Digital Collectable Campaign via Mccann Shanghai

The North Face has partnered with McCann Shanghai, to launch three NFTs on Tmall as an innovative brand asset that brings consumers a unique brand experience, it said.

“Many people think that NFTs are just a simple product designed for display. But in fact, every single touch point can become a platform for brands to engage with consumers,” said How Chu, Executive Creative Director of McCann Shanghai.

The McCann Shanghai team designed three NFTs based on the relevant product functions, product history, weather and terrain conditions corresponding to each product.

Balenciaga, the Parisian fashion label, has recently launched an innovative campaign to promote its 520 limited edition collection. The brand has employed augmented reality (AR) technology in a mini-game featured on its official WeChat account. In the game, players enter a virtual world as farmers wearing items from the 520 collection and learn about regenerative agriculture to complete tasks, earning them limited edition stickers, wallpapers, and wish cards.

This move showcases Balenciaga’s attempt to bolster its reputation and harness next-generation tech trends like AR to build its virtual identity and propel it into the mainland’s spotlight. While the label looked to the past for its Fall 2023 physical collection, it has embraced the power of technology to differentiate itself from its competitors.

Using China’s holiday seasons to unlock the spending power of local consumers is not a new strategy. Brands and retailers have been trying to capitalize on this trend for years. To differentiate themselves from their competitors, some labels are opting to launch their campaigns via the Chinaverse and other digital avenues.

Successful Strategies to Navigate the Chinaverse