For years now, a collaborative current has run through the Chinese brand landscape, reshaping consumer experiences and heightening brand awareness. The past year alone has seen a growing number of fashion and lifestyle names embark on partnerships that have boosted their online and offline profiles, spawned innovative products and experiences, and cultivated audience engagement. Cases in point: adidas’ team-up with Hey Tea to produce an exclusive and much-hyped ZX model sneaker, and Perfect Diary’s collaborations with cultural organizations from National Geographic to the Met.
In large part, these partnerships are orchestrated to meet the demands of Gen Z and Millennial consumers, who, increasingly, pursue novel and unique products to up their social caches. The tastes of these young consumers for cultural products (wenchuang) with an emphasis on national identity have further defined the scope and style of these collaborative items.
“Brand collaborations are no longer a ‘nice to have’ part of marketing in China,” says Sky Canaves, Editorial Director of Content Commerce Insider, “but have come to be expected as a way of showing off a brand’s creative spirit — a key to success with the critical Gen Z and Millennial demographics.”
This flourishing of brand collaborations was just one trend Jing Group examined in Tracking the Trends 2021 — a four-part content series produced in partnership with cross-cultural agency TONG — and will form the focus of “How Collaborations Are Defining Experiences in China,” a live webinar on January 26.
Jointly presented by Jing Group and TONG, the webinar will explore how collaborations have proliferated and resonated in China, adding value to the consumer experience and the brands involved. Panelists and speakers — including TONG co-founder Adam Knight, Sky Canaves, and more — will delve into the importance of collaborations in Chinese marketing strategies and how the trend is bound to evolve in 2021. After all, as Canaves notes, “Collaborations continue to highlight the seemingly boundless potential for expansion into previously uncharted territory in ways that can delight and entertain consumers.”
Click here to register for “Tracking the Trends for 2021: How Collaborations Are Defining Experiences in China.” All registrants will receive a digital copy of the joint Jing Group and TONG white paper at the webinar’s conclusion.
