Douyin makes it easier for Gen Z to become a fan of luxury brands

With the luxury sector undergoing a period of significant change and hurdles, Douyin has emerged as an indispensable platform for luxury brands, thanks to its distinctive marketing strategy and vast user community. The latest “2024 Global Luxury Market Mid-Year Update” report reveals that despite a 1% to 3% sales slump in the worldwide luxury market during the first quarter of 2024, transactions for luxury items on Douyin bucked the downward trend, soaring by more than 45% year-over-year, underscoring its vast potential in the luxury promotional landscape.

To help luxury brands resolving the stalemate, Ocean Engine hosted the “Spark Creativity, Endless Exploration—2024 Douyin Luxury Industry Summit” on August 20th. The summit showcased Douyin’s comprehensive solutions for luxury brands, covering aspects from precise audience targeting and scientific content production to full-chain brand metrics. These solutions are designed to help luxury brands connect with emerging consumer needs, capture new marketing trends, and accelerate the enhancement of omnichannel experiences.

Leveraging Precise Audience Targeting: Deciphering the New Code of Luxury Consumption

With a user base of over 600 million daily active users, Douyin has cultivated a rich and varied creative community as well as a broad, inter-generational audience that represents substantial consumption power. For luxury brands, the challenge lies in differentiating their high-net-worth, culturally aware, and quality-conscious targets from the vast sea of user data. This happens to be one of the pivotal challenges in luxury marketing at present. By 2024, Ocean Engine Yun Tu had provided over 2.3 million distinct audience profiles. Leveraging the targeting of core, potential, and interest-oriented luxury consumer groups, it allows for detailed audience segmentation across various contexts, aiding luxury brands in quickly and effectively narrowing down to their desired customer pools and accomplishing efficient dialogue and conversion.

Once the perfect audience segment is identified, the next objective is to hold on to those consumers. Data from the field indicates that the GENZ group, encompassing individuals born between 1995 and 2009, is poised to account for all the added growth in China’s luxury sector. They clearly represent the demographic that high-end brands are keen to keep. Members of GENZ exhibit swiftly evolving consumption patterns and likes, expecting higher caliber content even while their attention is divided. To connect with this audience, luxury marketers must therefore provide fresh and creative content iterations consistently.

GEN Z’s life is inseparable from high-tech production tools and digital social networking. They are positive about all new technologies and are riding the wind and waves in the AI era.

They are willing to share their attention span, which is only 8 seconds shorter than that of a goldfish, with a higher-dimensional technology experience, so that technology can empower life. For example, Douyin’s accurate facial capture and newly upgraded AR/VR technology allow users to easily be in the same frame with Van Gogh across the ages. Precise touch simulation technology can make advertisements “active”, form tactile interactions with users, and convey brand information more vividly.

Therefore, for luxury brands, with the above set of combined moves, cooperating with the Douyin platform is undoubtedly the best way to occupy the mind of GENZ and achieve brand-effect integration.

Douyin is the premier platform for diverse content formats

Douyin is the leading platform that supports a wide range of content types such as hot topics, widely-shared posts, serial shorts, mini-dramas, interactive innovation, etc. Additionally, it provides cutting-edge technological features like accurate facial recognition, improved AR/VR, and precise haptic feedback to closely connect with users. This enables brands to actively involve and grow their desired clientele, enhancing swift contact and loyalty.

‘OPUGC’ Unlocks New Horizons for Luxury Marketing

This year, Douyin’s innovative “OPUGC” (Occupationally Generated Content (OGC) – Professional Generated Content (PGC) – User Generated Content (UGC) ) interaction model has introduced new opportunities for luxury brands in content marketing.

Specifically, Douyin provides the IP to create unique luxury marketing solutions, enhancing brand value with IP momentum and generating authoritative OGC content. This is then linked with influencers from the fashion, art, culture, and sports sectors, using formats and methods like topic challenges and AICG to produce engaging PGC content. This approach boosts the luxury brand’s exposure, reaches the core audience precisely, and deepens brand recognition. A large number of users, influenced by the OGC and PGC content, spontaneously share authentic UGC content on Douyin, achieving triple coverage of brand influence, reach, and reputation.

From the perspective of the brand, Douyin maximizes the efficiency of conventional brand content assets with the help of innovative brand advertising co-creation. The interactive advertising method makes brand content full of vitality and significantly enhances the influence of communication. In addition, Douyin has successfully created an exclusive courtesy node, making it a must-have for luxury brands’ advertising traffic. During the holiday season, when users’ attention to new products reaches a peak, it uses large exposure to attract users’ attention and then converts users into brand crowd assets.

In Q1 2024, Gucci partnered with Douyin to unveil the 2024 Spring/Summer color trend: Ancora Red. Gucci showcased Ancora Red via Douyin’s official channel and ignited excitement through a celebrity network using the hashtag #AncoraRedSweepingTheEntertainmentWorld. By engaging influencers across different domains to experience Ancora Red in both digital and physical spaces, the initiative prompted widespread public engagement. The #AncoraRedCelebrityCityPhotoShoot Challenge sustained a flow of fresh and inspired content, crafting an immersive online-offline brand trend experience.

At Dior Fashion Week, the “DOU Content Lab (DOU来内容实验室)” segment “DOU Fashion Show (DOU来看秀)” marked its international collaboration debut with the brand by providing live-streaming technical support. It delivered a fashion show experience that consumers could fully immerse themselves in, from the opening of the show to backstage and guest interviews, all from the comfort of their homes. This format showcased and interpreted the inspiration behind the brand’s new season designs in a diverse manner. The panoramic online and offline show format allowed more consumers to experience the allure of fashion up close, enhancing the brand’s global influence.

By reimagining brand content and social scenarios, luxury brands are building and reshaping their marketing environments.

Enhancing Omnichannel Business Potential via Online and Offline Integration

In the face of the demand for more offline scenarios for luxury goods, Douyin has opened up through the CRM membership system, attracted new members for the brand through the online entrance, and introduced more accurate people for the business based on LBS recommendations. In 24 years, the “OPC” matrix has created a new grass-planting model. It is expected to attract offline stores through SA content, provide a one-stop service experience of new product delivery/physical display/reservation service, and complete more accurate “shopping guide” content conversion in the future.

At the same time, the new linkage of brand-owned groups and the efficiency tracking of third-party platforms will highlight Douyin’s ability to help brands achieve precision marketing.

Conclusion

Amid the paradigm shift ushered in by the pandemic’s aftermath, the luxury sector endures a period of significant upheaval and difficulty. Yet, by capitalizing on its distinct platform capabilities and pioneering marketing approaches, Douyin has propelled luxury labels through transformative revivals.