During the "Double 11" Shopping Festival, JD has done marketing in the e-commerce field by cooperating with web stars who have a huge fan base. We call it webstar marketing.
In early September, JD, in partnership with Weibo, launched a marketing campaign titled "Who is the Daihuo King" by cooperating with Weibo. The goal was to create a super IP based on flash-sale products (provided by sellers to attract consumers with ultra-low prices). This campaign invited all kinds of popular online celebrities to join in on Weibo. They posted videos and pictures with exclusive product links and directed their fans to the "JD flash-sale page". In addition to the title of "Daihuo King", the webstar, whose “product” had made the most purchases, will receive 100 years of JD Plus membership and 1 million JD e-card rewards.
“Daihuo” refers to the use and preference by celebrities, web stars or public figures of a particular product that causes their fans to buy the same product and increase the sale of the product.
According to the information provided, by midnight on September 9th, the campaign had attracted more than 200,000 webstars to participate. Exposure and topic number on the whole network exceeded 1.3 billion and 300 million respectively, and the video footage reached 46 million.
The "social networks + e-commerce" model is successful in brand building and sales promotion. (Pinduoduo is the most successful example of this business model.) The campaign of JD's webstar marketing has shown the huge potential of social e-commerce and webstar e-commerce.
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The Social Media Fever in China
Webstar economy is becoming an important phenomenon of the new-media economy in China
Undoubtedly, the webstar economy is becoming an important phenomenon of the new-media economy. Webstars are increasingly influencing brand and sales marketing. In 2017, the number of fans of webstars in China reached 470 million, representing a growth of more than 20 percent over the previous year. The key opinion leaders in certain industries have a bigger influence on young people's consumption decisions than the super stars. Both in terms of scope and trend, the webs-tar economy is gradually being accepted by businesses and Internet platforms.
As early as the "618 Quality Carnival" in 2016, JD Fresh held the "Cooking Big Lobster Live Show" competition with Douyu TV, a livestreaming platform. With more than 50 anchors participating in the show, the final order quantity on JD Fresh increased by more than fivefold over the same period. At this years’ webstart event, the best performed product links posted by webstars attracted 50,000 to 60,000 followers for purchase.
E-commerce + social network+ webstar model has benefited multiple parties
There are currently three main issues that need to be addressed urgently in the traditional Chinese marketing model. The marketing models for each e-commerce platforms are becoming more homogenous. The channels through which consumers can access information are becoming fragmented. The return on investment of marketing campaigns is lower.
The campaign jointly launched by JD and Weibo solves these problems well and sets the direction for future marketing.
JD's marketing campaign benefited multiple parties, including JD, social platforms and webstars.
For JD, the external resources are utilised to efficiently manage external traffic. In the current digital advertising environment, external advertising causes high traffic costs and is difficult to arouse people’s desire to buy. However, webstars can not only bring their fans to the platform, but also encourage them to buy through their recommendation, thus improving the order conversion effect of marketing campaigns.
For the social platforms such as Weibo and WeChat, cross-border combination with e-commerce businesses can increase the monetisation of traffic. In particular, the competitive activities that rely on webstars not only enable the connection between the sales campaign and reaching consumers, but also increase the consumer interest in participating in the event.
For the webstars, e-commerce and Weibo can help them to achieve both fans and profits. Feedback from backend data shows that more fan interactions have been enabled, which affirms the business value of webstars, as the fan traffic is converted directly into orders.
From social e-commerce marketing to unbounded marketing
"Unbounded marketing" is a marketing concept that JD has constantly emphasised in recent years.
The "Who is the Daihuo King" campaign is a new attempt by JD the social e-commerce area. It focuses on working with new media talents to bring more and more consumer traffic to the online stores. It is not only a successful independent marketing event, but also a demonstration of the marketing strategy of JD's webstar and social e-commerce business.
For overseas brands that have set up official flagship stores on JD.com and work together in various campaigns with local webstars and new media talents, or exclusive time-limited discount promotion for fans, for example, will be a way to drive marketing and increase sales in the Chinese market.
