Marketing on Mobile Messenger Platform

Norman Tam

Head of Hong Kong Office, International Business

Tencent

Rise of Mobile Internet

Rise of Mobile Internet

It took Twitter 1400 days and Facebook 1600 days

to reach the 100M milestone. For WeChat, it took 433 days.

International Platform

– Hong Kong

– Taiwan

– Thailand

– Malaysia

– Singapore

– Indonesia

– India

– US

– Saudi Arabia

– South Africa

WeChatapp.com

• Supports 18 languages and phone number registration in over 220 countries

• Reached No.1 in Social Networking on iOS in 41 countries

• No.1 free social app on iOS in Hong Kong for a year

• No.3 overall in Google Play in Hong Kong

Brands on WeChat

Malls Fashion & Beauty Food & Beverage

Luxury Entertainment

Media

WeChatapp.com

Others

Artistes

Promotion

Commerce

Customer Service

Content

Interaction

What Brands can do on WeChat?

Add WeChat “mcdonaldshk” official account to

get a free upgrade of extra value meal

Case Study: McDonalds X WeChat

Case Study: McDonalds X WeChat

Promotion channels:• TVC• In-store tray mats• WeChat 香港站• McDonalds app• Website

Case Study: McDonalds X WeChat

WeChat 接財神

• received over 130K messages within an

hour

• gave out 188 財神 figure (prize) in 30

minutes

Case Study – WeChat 香港站

WeChat CNY Emoticon

• over 130K unique users engaged

• just spent 6 hours to reach 1 million

downloads

Case Study – WeChat 香港站

HKAMF ticket game

• received over 500K messages

• reached 300 messages per second

• all tickets gone in 30 seconds

Case Study – WeChat 香港站

Case Study – China Southern Airline

• Use WeChat to check-in, select seats and receive boarding pass (QR Code)

• Bind membership account with WeChat account

• Connect to existing mobile site platform to enable procedures

• Whole process completed within WeChat Official Account

Case Study – China Southern Airline

Results after launching for 5 days

• Over 2500 successful check in and boarding pass collection, average 500 per day

• Attracted 50000 fans, received around 52000 messages

• Widespread coverage in media and weibo

Case Study – Chang Beer

Online Campaigns

Events/ Press Con.

Merchandise

Roadshows

Co-sponsored Events

JP with Retail

Shops

/Restaurants

Emoticons

TVC

Case Study – Chang Beer

Interaction with WeChang Account

• Download emoticons

• Order delivery of drinking water through

• Focus on Interaction, not Broadcasting

• Personify your brand with auto reply and keyword match

• Content strategy – Quality, not Quantity

• Combine Service and Marketing

• Focus on Reaction and Conversion, not Fan Count and

Retweets

• Leverage Offline Presence and QR Code

Best Practices of WeChat Marketing

Coming soon: Build your App in WeChat

Digital Media Comparison

Existing Digital Media Limitation

Facebook Fan Page Overcrowded timeline

Newsfeeds only reach 16% of fans

100% instant reach

Facebook App Requires installation

Cannot extend to mobile

Virality cut down by FB policies

Instant participation

100% mobile

Open API for innovative and viral campaigns

Weibo Wall-feed one way thread

Reposts/comments declining

Interactive message with high reach to target audience

eDM Low successful delivery

Weak interaction

Interaction driven

Banner ads Eyeballs only

Low CTR and conversion

High CTR and conversion

Double-digit rate achievable

SMS Costly

Text-based

FREE

Rich media format

WeChatapp.com

The Future

Thank You!