2017's Top-10 WeChat Moments Ads as Voted By Consumers

Blogs

4 Mar

Advertising on WeChat Moments can get your brand into Chinese consumers' most personal of feeds, yet it is not cheap, with the CPM (cost per thousand impressions) north of $20 in bigger cities, with a 20% premium on short video ads.

With costs like that, brands really want to make sure their ads resonate with Chinese consumers to ensure they're not spending a whole lot of money on campaigns that return very little. In developing ads, it is important to understand one's target market's motivations and emotional buttons to push (China Skinny can assist), and to marry that up with learnings from the most popular ads.Last month, WeChat launched a poll asking users to vote for their ‘Your Favorite WeChat Moments Ad’ in 2017 - incentivising participants with random red envelopes. Below are the top ads as chosen by more than 600,000 WeChat users casting 1,378,948 votes.

Ads are listed in alphabetical order by Chinese name - click on the ad image to see the full video version:

Adidas Originals

#Original is never finishedLaunched on 15 August, using a short video with local and foreign celebrities including HK singer Eason Chan, Chinese visual artist Chen Man, and American model and TV personality Kendall Jenner. The ad linked to a longer video with the celebs explaining how they pushed themselves to keep original. Viewers were invited to follow the account at the conclusion of the video.

Tourism Australia

Launched on 8 June, Tourism Australia was one of two winners who used a static image with accompanying text that translated to ‘Let’s explore the coastline in Australia'. Clicking on the ad took the user to a stunning a 30s video with a voiceover from Australian actor Chris Hemsworth, AKA Thor. Viewers were invited to follow the account.

BMW China

Launched on 29 August, the short video promoting the 2018 BMW X1 combined fun visuals of the car with strobe shots of beautiful scenery and outdoor activities. Clicking on the ad, viewers are shown a longer video and car features, with a link provided at the conclusion of the ad where viewers can link to the BMW website to make an appointment to test drive the X1.

Dior Beauty

Launched on 13 October, a short video used alluring pink hues and eye catching shots of lips with designs and letters drawn from the new Dior Addict lip tattoo, long-wear coloured tint. Viewers could click on a link in the ad to purchase the lipstick.

Dolce & Gabbana

Launched 28th Feb, an image showed the Millennial ‘models’ for Spring & Summary fashion photography with the ad linking to a WeChat post that explaining story behind each of the photos from famous Italian street photographer Franco Pagetti.

Jimmy Choo

Launched on 28 April, the ad was an image for a pair of fancy wedding shoes, leading to a WeChat post with embedded video introducing their customized wedding shoes for both bride and groom.

#Mission RedLaunched on 23 June, a high-action short video utilized Transformers to announce the Brand Day for Hasbro's Transformer toys on JD. Clicking on the ad, viewers were taken to a longer ad with embedded links to purchase toys with exclusive discounts.

Trip Advisor

Australia took out another of the top spots with this ad launching on 27 June. A short video showed that Trip Advisor takes you to view a different Australia with animal, coastal and undersea shots. Viewers who clicked on the ad were taken to a detailed video showing how the featured KOLs experience Australia differently. When the video concluded, viewers are encouraged to download the Trip Advisor app and visit Tourism Australia's 360-degree visual map.

Tencent Charity

#Love is everywhereLaunched on 7 September, a short video showed what makes the passengers travelling on metros look up, encouraging people to care about the world and discover the beautiful things around you. Clicking on the ad takes viewers to a longer video which educates viewers about the work Tencent charity is doing such as wildlife protection, poverty reduction and education. Following the ad, readers can find out how they can participate in upcoming charity events.

Montblanc

#Be aheadLaunched on the auspicious day of 8 August, a short video introduced Montblanc's Summit smart watch marking the exclusive WeChat launch. Clicking on the would provide viewers a link to order the watch, with the first 10 customers also receiving a special gift from the Montblanc.

Key themes and learnings from the top WeChat Moments ads:

Video resonates with WeChat users. Although it costs 20% more, it is much likely to be noticed and engaged. 7/10 of the top ads were short video, and nine of the ads linked to a longer video.
Recognisable brands are most likely to resonate on WeChat Moments feeds - other brands will need a stunningly creative campaign for breakthrough
The top brands all had beautiful imagery/video, which is a fortunate characteristic of the popular beauty, fashion and tourism categories
Call to action was varied: purchase, book/reserve, download the app or just follow the WeChat account.

WeChat Moment ads and other Tencent advertising is likely to continue to become ever more relevant for brands as the platform evolves. In Q3 last year, advertising revenue grew 63%. There's still plenty of room for growth when you consider Facebook makes 97% of its revenue from advertising versus just 17% at Tencent.

Late last year Tencent announced they would bring together their seven internal units such as WeChat, QQ, gaming and finance to offer smarter, more targeted advertising using better coordinated user data and profiling. This will only grow Moments advertising effectiveness for brands.

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