HKRI Taikoo Hui, Shanghai, China: Dare to Vibe: 2023 Winter Campaign ft. Jean-Michel Basquiat

Essay of up to 525 words

Total 525 words used.

GENESIS

HKRI Taikoo Hui opened in 2017 and soon became one of Shanghai’s most popular and profitable malls; from mid 2023, it began a series of improvements that could affect performances & appeal. 

Against such backdrop, it launched a major Jean-Michel Basquiat collaboration (Dec 15, 2023 – Feb 15, 2024), turning challenging situations into immersive experiences promoting brand engagements & affinity with long-lasting effects.

GOALS

1. Exposure: to maintain positive brand image –to double last year’s exposure by increasing paid media.
    
2. Experience: to maintain & enhance in-store experiences despite ongoing upgrades – to avoid traffic loss
    
3. Engagements: to mitigate offline inconveniences and strengthen the brand’s bond with TA online – to double social media impressions & engagements 
    
4. Brand affinity: to increase customer’s loyalty through engaging experiences, measured by loyalty program members’ spending – to increase the percentage of CRM-captured sales

DEVELOPMENT

15m-tall Jean-Michel Basquiat main activation, the largest in the world, full of ‘shareable’ features: Pez the dinosaur, giant scaffoldings, 35 neon graffiti displays, viewing platform, light/sound dual sensory experience, interactive mechanism, plus more ways of engagements:

• Exhibition: 33 Basquiat-themed art pieces along 300m walkway
   
• Mall-wide decorations: 1,000 Basquiat-themed decorations, later converted to shopping gifts
   
• Entertainment: Lighting Party, flash mob concerts, live performances, Christmas parade, photo with Santa, Chinese New Year make-over
   
• Shopping activities: pop-up store featuring a collection of limited-edition Basquiat collectibles covering 60 SKUs, including 16 bespoke items and 6 brands; plus 3 festive markets featuring independent designers, tenant collaboration events (TASCHEN, alice + olivia, Popmart)
   
• Musical challenge game: embedded in WeChat (China’s No 1 social app), in which shoppers would control the character to ‘dance’ along upbeat music, echoing with the main activation
   
• Media & communications: integrated owned, paid, and earned media by focusing on their intersections, gaining viral exposure & WoM from paid & earned media efforts and converting into traffic & growth on owned accounts, achieving long-term growth beyond event period from short-term exposure

RESULTS

1. Exposure: total paid exposure 41.8 million, 14.4x of last winter campaign, 12.4 times over target:

- 3 TVCs on WeChat Moments ads had 21.9m impressions & 11.6m engagements, CTR = 53%;

- 19.9m from an in-depth media partnership with RED including splash ad, event hashtag listed as RED’s trending topic, and influencer campaign.

Plus 1,637 PR/earned media buzz, up by 12.3% YoY, including 158 stories from 77 pitched media, generating PR value of USD899,790.22, up by 20.2% YoY.

1. Experience: traffic went up by 52.2% YoY.
    
2. Engagements: owned social accounts published 50 posts with a full Basquiat visual takeover (which was still in use after the event, reinforcing the brand’s association with modern art) – gained 1.5m total impressions & 100,258 engagements, up by 101.2% and 124.9% respectively, exceeding its ambitious target to double both; recruited 41,277 new followers, up by 51.4%, from the same campaign period in 2022.
    
3. Affinity: 72.16% of total sales was captured by CRM, up by 50.8% YoY; besides, 22,038 new shoppers signed up as loyalty program members, up by 56.1% YoY, generating enormous post-event impact with increased brand affinity.