A pink landslide is taking over Chinese social media, including Xiaohongshu. When you open the equivalent of Instagram in China, your feed is flooded by pink ice creams and pink stores. This is not the pink of Barbie. This is the pink of Valentino that is taking over Xiaohongshu these days. A new marketing campaign in China by Valentino, through their new collaboration with the Italian chocolate brand Venchi.
The two Italian brands are joining in a cross-categories collab to present the “Pink PP Dragon Fruit Sorbet”. A unique taste with pink packaging for a refreshing summer. A smart marketing campaign that is mixing all the local cultural codes to make the activation viral.
Let’s go over it together.
Valentino x Venchi Pink PP Campaign
For Summer, Valentino proposed a sweet twist to promote its iconic color Pink PP.
The Italian luxury brand partnered with another Italian brand from a different product category: food. The chocolate brand collaborated with the luxury brand to offer a unique experience to Chinese consumers. From August to early September 2023, Chinese people can enjoy a unique Pink PP ice cream. It is made of pink dragon fruit and is available in the selected 42 stores of the brand in China. They can discover this unique taste and use the specific hashtag to get a chance to win a unique event prize.
The brand launched the specific hashtag “甜蜜V联盟” (Sweet V Collab) for the occasion to gather more views. The hashtag reached 162,000 views on Weibo and 60,000 views on Xiaohongshu.
According to the media Jing Daily, “Valentino bets on the pink cult in China via food collaboration”.
Why it Worked: AB ADVISORY Takeaways
The collab reached significant organic traffic on Chinese social media. They cut the regular advertising budget to put more on brand collaborations. They build organic word-of-mouth with smooth online and offline marketing activation. This campaign was a success because it leveraged 5 cultural elements and consumption habits in China:
- Taste: They selected a unique taste matching the pink color and the Chinese taste with the local dragon fruit (a unique way to localize the traditional Pink PP with local Chinese fruits)
- Color: They launched the pink campaign at a time when Barbie and Dopamine styles are everywhere on social media platforms (the best time to target fashion consumers for Valentino with their marketing in China)
- Limited Edition: This sorbet is a limited edition available at Venchi stores only for a limited time (only 4 weeks to enjoy this unique pink universe in Summer)
- Location: The limited sorbet is available at the 42 Venchi stores across the country (a way for Valentino to cover a large part of China and for Venchi to highlight their store presence)
- Benefits: When Chinese consumers purchase the sorbet and post a picture with the hashtag 甜蜜V联盟, they can have a chance to be selected by Valentino to win a 69 yuan exclusive cup of ice cream and 100g Venchi chocolate (a playful moment to highlight the value of Italian gourmet food in China)
After Covid ended in China, local consumers are looking for offline activations.
Best Practices for Marketing in China
They want to feel the brand universe, learn about the brand’s history, and have fun in social gatherings. Instead of conducting a regular advertising campaign in China, Valentino and Venchi combined their culture (Italian lifestyle), their assets (42 offline stores in different cities and provinces), and their history (Pink PP iconic color history mixed with ice-cream know-how) in a unique creative campaign.
Chinese consumers are eager to discover Western brands in a more original and creative way.
And the key remains the same: get to know your local consumers.
Contact us for your next project in China.