WeChat: How The Royal Edinburg Military Tattoo is planning to attract more Chinese tourists ?

July 18, 2017

The Royal Edinburg Military Tattoo is a much awaited global gathering that showcases the talents of musicians and performers across the world. The Scottish tourism highlight is often attended by members of the British Royal family too. The Tattoo is also frequented by many Chinese tourists in Scotland. Every year, performers from over 48 countries take part in the Tattoo, and around 30 per cent of the 220,000 audience each year are from overseas.

With the increase of Chinese guests at the Edinburg Tattoo, the Tattoo has decided to introduce the support of WeChat mobile payments platform for its guests in 2018. WeChat has one of the fastest growing user base in China and is one of the most popular and easy ways to facilitate payments in China. The introduction of WeChat at the Edinburg Military Tattoo is said to help Chinese visitors seamlessly pay for tickets, services and merchandise at the tattoo.

The decision to enable WeChat Pay is predicted to increase the number of tickets purchased by Chinese visitors which increased 89% between 2015 and 2016.

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5,000 followers on WeChat in 48h with no media nor influencers, how Groz-Beckert & KRDS did it?

June 29, 2017

Launching a new brand on WeChat is serious challenge. Specially when your client is strong B2B player but with little awareness in the general public eye.

So on June 6th, Groz-Beckert launched its official account. 48 hours later, they recruited over 5,000 followers without using any media, KOL, events or third-parties promotion.

How KRDS helped Groz-Beckert achieve such results?

Identify and rely on your strength

The short answer to this question is that Groz-Beckert was able to achieve this feat by relying on the people they trust best – Groz-Beckert staff and sales teams.

Before looking outwards for KOL or media solutions, brands must remember that WeChat is a customer servicing platform first that can be turn into an excellent and effective marketing tool. Therefore, to be successful on WeChat, you must ensure you are actually recruiting your clients first. The rest will come much easier, as your clients have the most authority spreading your brand message among their community.

So, the questions is, who better than your on-site sales people and staff that can successfully interact with your clients and welcome them on WeChat? No one.

Will they do it out of the blue? No. Sales people are busy and if you do not create the right tool and incentive to push them to promote your company they will not do it. Period.

Build the right tool and campaign

To answer this challenge, we created a WeChat connected APP where every Groz-Beckert staff could log in easily to generate a unique personal QR code.

This unique QR code was connected with each staff which enabled us to live-track how many followers they recruited individually making sure they are unique users.

To spice up the competition, a penalty was also given if the user unfollowed the account later.

Using this simple mechanism, the staff were able to recruit followers and the competitive spirit made them want to recruit more number of followers.

To aid this, a leaderboard was created that displayed the individual performance, and the top staff on the leaderboard will walk away with big rewards and recognition from Groz-Beckert.

Segment and collect data about your community

Furthermore, the structure allowed us to understand how followers were recruited through different staff departments and provided us more insight into the client’s interests,

This mecanism helped Groz-Beckert and KRDS to compartment and target specific audience to push relevant content to them in the future.

If you have been following KRDS closely, you would know that we shared the same success story with BNP Paribas a few months ago with a similar approach.

So the only question pending is when you will get in touch with us to help you implement a similar winning strategy for your brand on WeChat!

ABOUT GROZ-BECKERT

Groz-Beckert is the world’s leading provider of industrial machine needles, precision parts and fine tools, as well as systems and services for the production and joining of textile fabrics. All around the world, the products and services support the textile processes of knitting and warp knitting, weaving, felting, tufting, carding and sewing.

The company, founded in 1852, employs around 7,700 people and turned over about 665 million euro in 2016.

All of the threads come together at the headquarters in Albstadt, Germany. The family-owned company also disposes of other production sites in Germany, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Portugal, USA, India, China and Vietnam. Scores of sales affiliates and sales partners top off the international presence.

Groz-Beckert offers its customers a comprehensive partnership – without boundaries and on site in over 150 countries.

ABOUT KRDS

Incorporated in 2013, KRDS Shanghai, the social and mobile agency has been ideating and producing digital content and social media campaigns, on Weibo and WeChat, for many local and international clients, to name few Club Med, Louis Vuitton, Air France, BNP Paribas, Biotherm …

ABOUT AURELIEN FERRIE:

In China since 2010, Aurelien FERRIE joined KRDS in 2013 as General Manager – Greater China.

With KRDS, he is helping international clients (Air France, Club Med, Louis Vuitton) to grow their visibility on Chinese social media platforms.

With a strong experience in sales and marketing, Aurelien quickly became an expert of Chinese social media platforms, especially WeChat, that he consider to be one of the most innovative platform in the world. His ambition is to keep growing his digital expertise and experience to keep offering the most innovative online solutions to brands in China and in the world.

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Why WeChat Pay is a game changer for brands in China?

June 5, 2017

Mobile payments have shaped the way consumers spend online in the Chinese market. It has opened a new window to seamless and reliable payment methods and the technology improvements have greatly facilitated the consumer’s spending habits online. With the launch of WeChat Pay, there has been significant competition in the world of online payments with Alipay possessing just 54% of the market share as oppossed to a strong 80% share before 2015. By staying ahead of the mobile landscape and social experiences WeChat has emerged as the next big thing in mobile payments with WeChat Pay.

With WeChat’s increasing wins and an exponential rise in user base there are now multiple opportunities for brands to leverage WeChat Pay.

 

Stay in touch with your customer and collect relevant data 

One of the best advantages of opening a mobile payment portal is the connect you establish with customers during a purchase. The user automatically is added as a follower of the WeChat account once the purchase is made and is broadcasted latest news and developments directly. This is also great for brands to establish effective targeting for customers and bring them customized product recommendations. This will be great for the overall brand recall and will boost sales.

 

Drive recurring purchases directly in WeChat 

A simple and effecting user interface is key to driving sales in this era. To heighten the experience of the consumer, brands must be able to provide them the right user experience and flow which will in turn help in seamless online transactions in a matter of a few clicks. A great way would be to integrate the WeChat Pay into it’s WeChat store for better optimisation and convenience for the customers. A customer that is comfortable and happy navigating through the interface, is more likely to make a purchase.

 

Increase your online revenue 

WeChat Pay has opened a new door for brands to enhance their digital presence and offer their consumers a more reliable and simple way to indulge in online transactions in the comfort of their favourite mobile applications that they use every day. WeChat is growing its user base exponentially and the addition of the WeChat Pay and the integration of this in the WeChat stores of the brands is expected to boost sales rapidly for brands.

 

It is imperative that brands must leverage this opportunity and provide the best consumer experience to their audience in the WeChat application across China.

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Search, the WeChat way!

May 25, 2017

In order to understand how much positive energy is prevalent in the country, China watchers tracked the term “transmitting positive energy to society”  and the number of times it was mentioned in the chinese newspapers, especially People’s Daily the country’s top print.

 

This exploration was headed by David Bandurski, a researcher with the China Media Project at the University of Hong Kong. He found that the term was taken into importance after it was mentioned by Chinese president Xi Jinping during a 2012 meeting with former US president Jimmy Carter, calling for more positive energy in the China-US relationship. He also used the term “transmit positive energy” when he toured state-controlled news outlets last year.

However the usage happen to decline from a peak in 2014 has resurfaced in the international stage resulting in the term appearing in 111 People’s Daily articles so far this year.

 

When exploring such research it brings us to understand how easy it is to find and track such content today in the digital world. Tencent recently launched a new feature ‘WeChat Search’ that will allow us to search content within WeChat (Moments, Articles and Official accounts). This feature has surely made WeChat a great threat to Baidu, the internet company that provides search engine services.

 

Baidu has been predominantly used for checking company’s background and reputation, while WeChat allows users to see the engagement of other users, the articles and the social comments in turn establishing the performance of the brand and its influence real time. With Tencent purchasing a 36.5% stake Sogou, the pioneer of search engine that is able to index WeChat content on their special section bringing the much need integration for WeChat.

 

Baidu’s slow growing revenue is no match to Tencent’s profits and revenues shooting upto 50% growth each year. The more the merrier can be the motto for the search engine industry, striving on mere existence of data, more of which enables better output upon the results. The popularity of WeChat brings in users, more users leading to more data which again leads to more users and it goes on.

 

WeChat has created quite the buzz in the digital space and it is surely taking the lead among its competition in the country.

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Wechat: Kitchens specialist FRANKE chooses KRDS Shanghai as its agency on record

May 22, 2017

FRANKE, the world leader in comprehensive systems for domestic kitchens and for professional applications in food service that promises to bring confidence, convenience and comfort into people’s lives through innovation and quality service. Headquartered in Aarburg, Switzerland, the Group employs around 9’000 people at 68 subsidiaries on 4 continents, and exports to over 100 countries. Having made a decision to enter social media to reach out to their followers better, they had their official WeChat account launched in 2015.

 

WeChat being one of the frontrunner in China’s social media environment and a platform service where brands create a unique relationship with followers, content has to echo users’ daily concerns and bring value to them.

 

This is why FRANKE chose KRDS Shanghai as its social media agency on record for the year 2017-2018.

 

FRANKE appreciated the high quality of the proposal which reflected KRDS Shanghai’s deep knowledge of chinese netizen habits, its ability to react rapidly and make sure the brand stays on top of social media trends.

 

“We felt very confident when we met KRDS team, we trust their expertise and we value the fact that they listen to us. We feel we are a priority for them” – Pansy ZHANG, Marketing Director, Franke China

 

Aurélien FERRIE, General Manager Greater China at KRDS added “We are very proud of welcoming FRANKE as a new client. Being in charge of their social media and digital strategy and its execution, is great responsibility and one more opportunity for us to keep demonstrating our expertise and the value of our proposition“

 

Besides being a social agency, KRDS Shanghai is also capable of producing designs matching FRANKE’s Swiss premium brand standards thanks to its award-winning studio. These designs will include animations such as gifs, cinemagraphs aimed at increasing engagement among the brand’s followers.

 

Incorporated in 2013, KRDS Shanghai, the social and mobile agency has been ideating and producing digital content and social media campaigns, on Weibo and WeChat, for many local and international clients, to name few Club Med, Louis Vuitton, Air France, BNP Paribas, Biotherm and the French International Soccer Team.

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How brands can leverage WeChat Index to measure their popularity on WeChat ?

May 17, 2017

Apart from brands having their own official WeChat accounts (which provides them with direct feedback from their consumers), the application has recently released a new feature called “WeChat Index” (微信指数) – to access this tool, simply type the previous Chinese keywords in the WeChat search bar.

 

WeChat Index is a trend projector showing the popularity of a brand upon searching the relevant keywords on the tool. The tool enables the brand to identify and understand their performance, once entering the keyword on to the tool the number of times the keyword mentioned in any of the articles within the app for the last 7, 30 or 90 days hits the screen in a trend graph.

 

The service is based out to be on big data analysis and mobile indexing, where it understands user behaviour patterns and other data aspects and characteristics to project the brand’s popularity and performance among the 898 million WeChat users in turn helping the brand to build and evolve with real time feedback from its consumers.

 

With WeChat Index as a listening tool, the app also had various ways of marketing for brand such as content promotion through articles on product reviews and information, advertising via moments and account ads. Linking the brand’s online website portal to their official account along with strategic partnership emphasizing the use of WeChat wallet are other ways of marketing on WeChat.

 

WeChat is much more just another instant messaging app, it has replaced the wallet for users in China. With the recent report by Tencent projecting 93% adoption rate to using WeChat Pay (in cities) majority of them reasoning it as to not carrying cash at the time of purchase. Addressing the change in consumer behaviour, WeChat enables their users to book hotels and restaurants, buy movie tickets and handle all viable transactions through the app. A clear shift or transition towards a cashless society is being welcomed by the country.

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KRDS promotes French tourism on WeChat with Atout France

May 12, 2017

KRDS is glad to welcome Atout France as a new client ! We appreciate their trust in our vision and approach to increase France visibility on WeChat.

Atout France (France.fr) is the unique official French government agency in charge of promoting the first touristic destination in the world for 25 years: France. The agency helps 1,200 tourism professionnals in their international development and over 2,800 promotion campaigns are organized every year.

KRDS’ scope of work includes strategic consulting, on-going content creation , content moderation, campaigns and activations with media buying and KOL collaboration.

KRDS experience with travel and tourism clients on WeChat was much appreciated by Atout France.

Stay tuned and follow Atout France on WeChat !

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Russia blocks WeChat

May 9, 2017

China’s most popular social media app WeChat developed by Tencent Holdings gets listed among the prohibited websites in Russia. An official statement by Russian internet watchdog body Roskomnadzor confirmed the news as WeChat failed to fulfil Russia’s internet regulations. According to Roskomnadzor’s spokesperson, WeChat was blocked over not providing contact details for Russia’s register of “organizers of information distribution on the internet.”

 

Tencent having launched its app in 2011 haven’t been able to popularize in Russia, however this move may affect Chinese tourists and Russians doing business with China.

 

WeChat is not the first social media app prohibited in Russia, earlier this week Roskomnadzor listed Blackberry Messenger and Line to be banned as well. All this started after a law passed in 2014 required all foreign social media, search engine and messaging services to store the gathered personal information of Russian users within the country’s boundaries.

 

Tencent responded to the block stating “We’re experiencing a block and we’re deeply sorry,” on the company’s microblog,“Russian regulations say online service providers have to register with the government but WeChat doesn’t have the same understanding (of the rules),” the official also added that the company is communicating with Russian authorities on the issue.

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WeChat Pay chasing Alipay with 1.2 Trillion of USD in 2016

May 5, 2017

China has taken the lead at an astonishing rate in adapting online platforms as a common mode of payment compared to the rest of the world. In a period of five years (2010-2015) the percentage of digital payments, mostly mobile in the country has increased from 3.5% to 17% for all retail transactions.

 

The total amount processed through such payment portals in the year 2016 has been 3 trillion USD, with WeChat Pay chasing Alipay with 1.2 trillion USD. This demand for mobile payments became visible after the establishment of these two services, which combined owns 63% of the market share in digital payments today. With 800 million new WeChat Pay users to Alipay’s 450 million, WeChat Pay takes the lead while Alipay leads in payment volumes.

 

According to the data published in the Tencent Penguin Intelligence Survey, WeChat pay is the primary payment method for offline purchases with 93% adoption rate across tier 1 and tier 2 cities which includes Beijing and Shanghai. Cash comes in second place (39 percent), while debit and credit cards are third.

 

With respect to the competition, both WeChat Pay and Alipay are directed towards a common goal of minimizing cash transactions in China and are doing their best in expanding overseas by collaborating with local partners and becoming easy and attractive to implement.

 

As a testament to the central stage mobile payments has taken in Chinese consumers lives, Ogilvy & Maher and Ipsos concluded in a survey of China’s mobile payment market that “[Chinese] mobile payment has permeated all aspects of life and changed basic, everyday habits.”

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WeChat Expert Wanted: we are recruiting a Business Development Manager in Shanghai

May 3, 2017

Job description

Your main responsibilities:

The Business Development Manager main goal will be to work with KRDS local and international teams, to ensure the sales and proper delivery of social media and mobile campaigns including studio work, community management, applications and game-based campaigns to advertisers and agencies in Shanghai.

KRDS is especially looking for someone with ideally a previous experience in China, a strong leadership and sales mindset and experience, someone autonomous, ready to move fast and to grab a great opportunity in a booming company.

Based in our downtown office in Shanghai, you will be:

  • Managing and coordinating KRDS teams (Sales, Production, Admin …)
  • Leading all business development activities including proposals and pitches with the goal of winning new business
  • Contacting companies and advertising agencies that might be interested in social media marketing
  • When meeting potential customers, finding out what their goals are, explaining why and how to meet them
  • Ideating campaigns that might suit the client’s strategy
  • After a meeting, writing a compelling and well-illustrated powerpoint proposal
  • Answering potential customers’ questions
  • Negotiating the terms of an agreement & closing sales.
  • Briefing KRDS Project Managers about what needs to be developed, keeping track of the developments to make sure what is done is what was planned and sold
  • Managing the customer relationship from first contact to payment and upselling
  • Going to networking events within the industry
  • Keeping an up-to-date knowledge in local social media marketing
  • Reporting to the Country Manager and KRDS HQ

Your profile:

  • At least 2 years in a Business Development role with a proven track record
  • Eloquence (both when speaking and writing) and persuasion (strong commercial skills)
  • Outstanding sales & pitching skills
  • Deep interest for and knowledge of Sina Weibo and WeChat
  • Strong knowledge of the Chinese market, especially in terms of consumers’ habits and social media usage would be a real plus
  • Autonomy
  • Ability to develop and present digital strategies
  • Ability to work under pressure and manage crisis
  • Ability to speak and write in English – Chinese is a plus

APPLY HERE

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