WeChat Moment is a fundamental feature of the complex WeChat ecosystem. Users can share the “moments” in their lives by posting text, uploading up to nine images, as well as sharing videos or even long articles. For people who do not own WeChat, this feature is just like one’s Facebook Timeline or Twitter News Feed.
There are over 10 billion clicks on WeChat Moments every 24 hours. Tencent turned this into a lucrative opportunity by allowing ads on Moments. Brands can pay for advertising space and have their content appear on WeChat users’ Moments feed. A lot of businesses want to get in on these in-feed WeChat Moment ads, but what does a good Moment ad look like? In 2019, there are some brands that set the bar high.
Factors contributing to the popularity of WeChat Moment Ads
- Creativity and Interactivity: Content that stimulates an emotional response from the audience, and hence prompting them to interact with the ads
- Celebrity effect: Leveraging well-known stars or influencers in ad campaigns to increase the brand’s credibility
- Trending Festivals: Seizing the opportunity to promote brand products with discounts at important dates in China
Here are the top 10 WeChat Moment ad campaigns in 2019, we hope you could get inspired for your future WeChat marketing campaigns!
#1 – Mercedes-Benz
Ad highlight: High-end videos
The video was produced in high quality, and in cool color that successfully conveyed its brand values of perfection and fascination. The ad left a long-lasting impression as it matched the Chinese viewer’s perception of the brand.
#2 – Van Cleef & Arpels
Ad highlight: Interactive and creative content (tracing shooting star), trending festival (Qixi-Chinese Valentine’s Day)
This ad was creative to utilize the shooting star concept to prompt people to interact with the ad, by tracing and hence clicking on the video. The ad concept of admiring stars was also consistent with the custom of Qixi (Chinese Valentine’s Day).
#3 – Estée Lauder
Ad highlight: Celebrity effect, interactive content (tracing dotted line)
This is a combination of celebrity effects and interactive elements. Yang Mi is one of the most influential celebrities in China in 2019, which gains massive attention and traffic to the brand.
#4 – Shui Jing Fang (水井坊)
Ad highlight: Interactive and creative content (dots on eyes), trending festival (Chinese New Year)
The brand released the ad in good timing and also the creative matched the cultural aspect well. Visiting friends & families with gifts and drinking are 2 prevailing customs in China during CNY, hence the alcoholic drink brand caught the right timing. Also, Dragon and the gold color were in line with the Chinese view of “luck and fortune”. By adding a finishing touch (dots on eyes), it brought the dragon to life, thus good fortune came to the viewers.
#5 – Yili Group (伊利集團)
Ad highlight: Celebrity effect
Both the celebrity effect and festival trend contributed to the success of this ad. Apart from using Red color which is a symbolic festival color in China, the brand also leveraged celebrities from different fields. The selected actors/actress/singers all have fans from different age groups, hence expanding the brand’s exposure.
#6 – Buick
Ad highlight: Interactive and creative content (tracing dotted line V), high-end videos with unique storytelling
The high-quality video had an energetic vibe and a storyline that resonated with its target audience—millennials and young professionals. Instead of stereotypically emphasizing extravagance, this ad touched on young people’s dreams and ambitions, making the brand more appealing to its target group.
#7 – Dyson
Ad highlight: Offering discounts during trending festivals (JD.com ‘618’)
Dyson’s ad was e-commerce driven and offered a discount on JD.com, the second-largest online B2C platform in China. The campaign’s success was also mainly due to the brilliant timing. Dyson launched the ads during the platform’s highly anticipated annual shopping event (June 18), which easily gained immense exposure.
#8 – McDonald’s
Ad highlight: Celebrity effect, trending festival (Chinese New Year)
As McDonald’s is targeting a young audience, they collaborated with the teen idol Yang Chaoyue, a contestant in one of the hottest survival shows in 2019. In addition, the ad creative was also designed in the gold color to match the CNY theme of good luck.
#9 – Coca-Cola
Ad highlight: Celebrity effect, interactive and creative content (tracing hearts), trending festival (Valentine’s Day)
Coca-Cola partnered with a famous actor Zhu Yilong for their Valentine’s Day campaign. He was also one of the most influential celebrities in China in 2019, which skyrocketed the visibility of the already well-known brand in China. The ad itself was also interactive, which allowed viewers to trace a heart-shaped figure on their phones.
#10 – L’Oréal
Ad highlight: Celebrity effect, interactive and creative content (click and slide down)
Apart from the celebrity effect from Zhu Yilong, the video mixed interactive elements (click and slide down) with the actor’s movement. This created an interesting transition from the landscape to full-screen video, giving viewers a refreshing experience.
Tips to optimize WeChat Moment Ads
Ad Text Copy
Principle: Write it in the way your friends would for their WeChat Moments
- Present the selling point and value of the product/service in a clear way, so that customers can know right away the important information at a quick glance
- It should sound genuine and approachable as if you were talking to someone in person
- Provide expert views and turn complex ideas into short and simple sentences
- Avoid salesy captions that only mention the selling point of the products & services. Instead, integrate more storytelling elements to attract users to continue watching the ads
Ad Creative
Principle: Create ads that don’t look like an ad
- The layout of the ad should blend into users’ WeChat Moment feed
- The ad design should match the aesthetic standard of the users. For example, use less static images that are light and white color. China users prefer eye-catching elements such as GIF, colorful images or videos format
- When using a video, it’s important to select an attractive preview image to catch user attention
- Carry out A/B testing for ad creatives. For instance, video vs static image; cool-colored vs warm-colored; Text-heavy vs without text. Then, optimize the ads according to the results
Ad Targeting
Principle: The more precise the target group is, the better
- Depending on the ad campaign’s objective, change the parameters to narrow down the target audience, e.g. user interest such as Gaming, Fashion, Lifestyle, Automobile and more
- In WeChat Moment ads, Interest parameters have 3 levels of tags. This means that a person interested in the Automobile can be further broken down into Motorbikes, Electric cars, Supercars, etc. Utilize this feature and segment target audience into a finer group for accurate testing
