Mobile Friday Social with the insights of Nike on WeChat marketing

(15 Nov, 2013) On 23 October 2013, we held our Mobile Friday Social ‘Tapping into the WeChat Boom: Nike’s Own the Night’ at agnes b. le pain grille. 80+ brand marketers from different industries showed up at the event. Thanks again to our speaker Jade Lau, Brand Connection Manager, Nike Hong Kong for joining us and sharing her insights on WeChat marketing.

Tencent’s WeChat has been dominating in the social networking app arena, attracting an enviable 600 million users, reported in late October. With more and more attention being focused on WeChat, we held this event to help brand marketers understand the current WeChat marketing trend and share Nike’s campaign as a clear example of how to effectively maximize WeChat’s platform to attract and engage with a brand’s targeted consumer.

Main conclusions of this sharing session:

– The objective of Nike’s Own the Night WeChat Campaign is to create brand awareness among the youth and to inspire them to exercise at night during this summer for fitness and fun.

– For the fun engagement part, WeChat is the social media platform being used. Fans who follow the NikeHK WeChat account can get updates on the programme details in Hong Kong and register for the programme on WeChat directly. There is also a one to one chit chat session with users with automated reply based on keywords which help build deeper interaction with their young audience. They also have a more conversational and user-friendly tone so that it matches the tone used by their audience.

– Fans can upload their photos of the event, add special tailor-made effects and slogans, and have them posted on WeChat or printed as photo, poster or sticker at Nike’s selected retail stores. The aim of it is to drive fans from offline and online (O2O) effectively. The existing features of WeChat 5.0 are fully utilized by this campaign.

– The campaign was run for 2 months and it generated a lot of buzz through comments, messaging and likes. If each of the sports sticker Nike receive from WeChat means the user worked out for 30 minutes, and they got this number – 1659 NIGHTS of non stop exercising.

– Ad hoc events with low commitment are generally preferable among the younger audience.

– Comparing to other social media platforms or MIM (Mobile Instant Messaging), WeChat is a more effective instant communication platform that can help to bring your social CRM strategy to a new level as it leverages on a more direct and one to one communication.

– Having a well designed advertising plan and more exclusive content for the campaign could help in driving traffic to your social media channel.

– Marketing is a large umbrella, WeChat is without a doubt a core element in this campaign’s digital ecosystem as a tool for campaign activation. Ultimately, it is your whole marketing package that brings your potential customers and your business together.

– High service level, quality and speedy response performance are expected when your brand is on WeChat. You will need to consider the ongoing resource implications of monitoring and engaging in this platform before starting with it.

Photos from the event can be found at Mobile Friday Facebook Page