This week was a big one for Levi’s® and our colleagues at H&K Beijing as the Coppers Fall Collection ’07/’08 Launch Campaign won the “Most Effective Use of PR” award at the Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards 2008!

I’m a big fan of this campaign, which targets the Chinese Youth “Online Oxygen Generation”, as well as companies like Levi’s who go that extra mile to create something out of the ordinary with the ability to entertain its target audience. You should familiarize yourselves with this campaign, as it’s a great example of how online media can be leveraged to engage and entertain audiences. 

The concept is simple and stays with the product (always a plus) 

• Levi’s® wanted to leverage the launch of Coppers Fall Collection to reinforce its leadership as a cool, fashionable brand and create awareness of the Coppers collection amongst the youth.
• A nationwide online contest searching for the “Coppers Cool Hunt for Stylish Guy and Girl” was designed, capitalizing on youth’s interest in interaction and aspirations in becoming a recognized style icon.  The contest integrated numerous online tools, such as webcasts, BBS (bulletin boards, most popular online tool in China), partnerships with web portals to drive traffic and blogs
• 1,000 consumers participated in the online contest. Your way to participate – Just Buy the new Levi’s Coppers and using the receipt number to be able to enter the contest online. Participants were then invited to create profiles and upload the stylish pictures of themselves wearing the new Levi’s copper jeans. The 1.3 million visitors that surf on the site during the two month campaign were then voting for the 6 most stylish guys and girls.
• The six selected finalists were given the amazing chance to fly to Hong Kong for fashion training and the final stages of the contest. Finally, judges from the fashion and entertainment industry selected our two most stylish winners.

Cool way to get discovered and get famous!

In addition to the consumer events and contest, the campaign included a media launch at Levi’s flagship store for top fashion media with interactive sessions that drove attention nationwide. By the end of campaign, sales had jumped by 58%. Wow!

I think the campaign worked on a number of levels – it taps into people’s creativity and is in tune with today’s obsession with instant celebrity aspirations. The campaign also infused good “M(ART)keting” in the Chinese online community and leveraged the “Tryversting” trends well online, where consumers can telling other consumers about their real, tried and true experiences of a product. Always keep in mind that “Word of mouth is the best medium of all”.

In a world where mass advertizing is dying, Levi’s created a more interesting way of igniting conversations and letting consumers becoming familiar with new Levi’s Coppers by actually trying them out.

Another good point and lesson from the campaign: It is not enough to help your customers improve their fashion skills, but also give them the chance to show them off.  Winners won a chance to be part of an exclusive partnership with Levi’s Coppers for one year as an ambassador of the brand in China, appearing in online ads and others events and giving them the possibility to show off their skills to improve their image.

Last but not least, by giving them prize worth 30,000 RMB, it fits with the desires of the Chinese generation for cash and gifts. It’s not like brands have a choice: consumers will no longer be satisfied with just thank you notes. Get ready to share reward your creative consumers with schemes and sumptuous gifts if you want to get them on board.

The “Almost famous” mentality will only continue to grow, so these competitions should continue to make more people’s dreams come true. Meanwhile, I am happy for Levi’s and our colleagues on their newly-found fame.

Fasionable Compassion

The first half of 2008 was marked by relentless tragedy. China was hit by the worst winter storms it had seen in 50 years, stranding millions during the busy Lunar New Year travel season and causing damages estimated at over Y100 billion. With hardly a moment’s respite, China once again found itself in the throes of catastrophe in the form of the May 12th 8.0-magnitude earthquake in Wenchuan, Sichuan Province. Almost 70,000 were killed, 5 million left homeless, and one of China’s poorest provinces was left to deal with a reconstruction effort with an estimated cost of over $75 billion. Rather than give in to despair in the face of such devastation, China responded with compassion and generosity, much of it coming from an unlikely source: the post-80s, so-called ‘Me’ generation.

For years, the post-80s (ba ling hou) have been ridiculed as being more concerned with fashion and indulgence than their obligation towards humanity. They are “the first generation in the world’s history in which a majority are single children,” notes TIME magazine, “a group whose solipsistic tendencies have been further encouraged by a growing obsession with consumerism, the Internet and video games.” Derisively referred to as ‘xiaohuangdi’ (little emperors) by older generations, they have rarely been looked to for social change.

This year’s tragedies, however, have produced a sea change in activism among China’s new youth. This tech-saavy population, soon to become the world’s largest online community, has been quick to spread information and equally quick to mobilize. Immediately following the quakes, more than 250,000 young volunteers descended upon Sichuan to aid in the recovery effort. Stories abounded of young professionals putting their jobs on hold, sometimes even quitting, to help those affected. This summer’s Olympic Games was an unabashed success in large part due to the army of over 1 million volunteers, 80% of whom were college students.

This newfound sense of social responsibility presents new challenges and opportunities for brands looking to attract young consumers in China. Up to this point, most people have marketed products to young Chinese consumers by appealing to their sense of style and individuality, but this dynamic is changing. “While the youth brands are most aware of the cool hunting and fun seeking inclination of the Chinese ‘post 80s’, it’s equally important to understand and recognize the ‘serious side’ of the Chinese youth and help them realize their dreams,” explains the China Youth Watch blog. By remembering that ‘I’ and ‘we’ are not mutually exclusive, messages of social responsibility can be branded as self-actualization, promoting activism while simultaneously satisfying the need to remain fashionable.

Companies are starting to realize, though, that Chinese youth activism is something of a double-edged sword. Failure to identify yourself as a supporter of a popular cause can cause swift and unexpected retaliation. McDonald’s, for example, found themselves the target of picketers following the quake for failing to discontinue an add campaign viewed as insensitive. On the flipside, when you do champion a popular cause, it’s important to understand how much is enough. In the aftermath of the quakes, Chinese netizens set up online donation trackers and were quick to pounce on companies deemed overly stingy, effectively forcing them to give more generously.

Brands should also be aware that the Western conception of social responsibility is not always the same as the Chinese perception. Chinese youths overwhelmingly support their government, viewing it as driving force behind China’s skyrocketing wealth. This growth in activism, thus, is wedded to an unbridled sentiment of patriotism. This can be a blessing for government initiatives, like the Sichuan relief effort and this summer’s anti-plastic bag green initiative, which find built in, highly receptive audiences. It remains to be seen whether this sense of national loyalty will eventually translate into broader global responsibility. Companies looking to import foreign causes may run into a knowledge gap that requires extensive educational campaigns to bridge.

What’s clear is that the needs of the post-80s are evolving and, in order to compete, brands must find ways to adapt. Identify what ways your brand taps into the desire for change. What socially responsible activities does your brand already undertake and how can you effectively communicate this to your customers? What additional steps can you take to better include customers in the future?

The central challenge is how to present yourself as an advocate of change and, by extension, how make your customers part of that change. “To befriend this group, brands need to stand for something,” reports Bergstrom Trends, a research group focusing on young Chinese. “Helping youth try out new ways to contribute to social issues can be a powerful way to connect with your audience and be remembered as a force for empowering China.”

If you want to know more about Dumplings, please click on My Dumplings  

In the past, nations creates brand, but since recntly there is a growing trend in which brands creates nations. Countries are branding themselves to attract tourists, increase trade and attract Foreign Direct Investment.  And brands are becoming nations credentials. I have detailed below the Interbrand 100 best global brands by country.

#1 United States – 52 (top brand: #1 Coca Cola)

#2 Germany – 9 (#11 Mercedes-Benz)

#3 France – 8 (#16 Louis Vuitton)

#4 Japan – 5 (#5 Toyota)

#4 Switzerland – 5 (#28 Nescafe)

#6 Italy – 4 (#45 Gucci)

#7 United Kingdom – 3 (#27 HSBC)

#7 Netherlands – 3 (#43 Philips)

#9 Republic of Korea – 2 (#21 Samsung)

#9 Sweden – 2 (#22 H&M)

#9 Canada – 2 (#44 Thomson Reteurs)

#12 Spain – 1 (#62 Zara)

#12 Finland – 1 (#5 Nokia)

“More and more, the offline world (a.k.a. the real world, meatspace or atomarena) is adjusting to and mirroring the increasingly dominant online world, from tone of voice to product development to business processes to customer relationships. Get ready to truly cater to an ONLINE OXYGEN generation even if you’re in ancient sectors like automotive and fast moving consumer goods.”

Implications
Can you ( as a marketer) use the online language in your next campaign?
 Can you promote a virtual experience into a real experience?

Here are the Trendwatching tips:
“Infuse your campaigns with the language of the onlineversed”.
“Incorporate online symbols into one of your next designs and communication campaigns”.
“Have customers design something from scratch online, then bring it into the real world.”

If we ( marketers) are now “better off” using the language of the online world in our next campaigns… i am wondering: is there any paper dictionary explaining the terms of the online world ( and its 5000 days history) that could help? ON=OFF and OFF=ON