＃集五福＃ campaign of Alipay, a successful case of social media marketing

     --Sun Li, 1155084271

Introduction

In January of 2017, Alipay launched a campaign called “集五福”. It can be considered as the updated version of the “集五福” campaign that launched in 2016. Alipay made some changes this time according to the result of last campaign, for example, it applied the VR technology which is more attractive. Also, it made more efforts of social media marketing this year, and finally the result comes to be extremely successful. This campaign became the hot discussion topic during the time period before Spring Festival.

Figure 1

We can see from the Figure 2 that the times of searching “福” through 360 search engine experienced a rapid increase in 18^th of January, when the campaign was launched online. It undoubtedly proved the success of campaign. There is no exaggeration to point out that you are outdated if unaware of the collecting “福”activity, as it became the hot discussion topic in many social platforms including Weibo and WeChat. Alipay spread this campaign in those social platforms and successfully achieve the goals: to increase the app downloads, to promote the social function of the app as well as to promote the “蚂蚁森林” project. Now let’s dig deep to explore how its social media marketing works.

Figure 2

Social Media Marketing Strategy of “集五福” Campaign

Step 1: Launching the song “五福到” through Weibo to warm up the campaign

    Before the campaign, Alipay published a song called “五福到” on the Weibo platform. The music MV was performed by the singer, Liu Wei, with the catchy tunes. It was forwarded by many well-known music bloggers such as #微博音乐# and #亚洲新歌榜# soon after the launch, which greatly improved the attention of online users on this song. Moreover, the launch time of the song is exactly fit for the occasion, as it is just on the beginning point of Spring Festival, therefore the warm song is well in line with the festive air. Besides, because of the “五福” that specifically in the lyrics, audiences might make a connection with the song and the “集五福” activity last year. In this way, consumers’ expectation of the new wave of collecting “福” is aroused, which successfully warming up the coming campaign.

Figure 3

Step 2: Connect with KOLs in Weibo to generate viruses-like spreading model online

    On 18^th of January, when the “集五福” campaign launched online, Alipay connected with KOLs in Weibo to promote relative messages and posts, and it soon generated the viruses-like spreading model online. Up to 35 KOLs published posts related to “集五福” activities, including #回忆专用小马甲# and #我的前任是极品#. Just in several hours, many topics about the campaign become the hot ones in Weibo. We can see from the Figure 4 that a post published by Alipay’s official account acquired more than 200,000 comments soon after the campaign launch. These figures proved the success of Alipay’s social media marketing strategy of utilizing the KOLs’ influence in Weibo.

Figure 4

Step 3: Actively interaction during the campaign

    Rather than only publishing posts in Weibo platform, connecting KOLs for wider spread, Alipay also actively interact with consumers during the campaign. Apart from the simple reply to the questions from users, it even initiated a vote online to ask for the users’ opinion. As the Figure 5 presents, Alipay originally planned to add the “顺手牵羊卡” that enables users to get the desired card from friends without permission. During the campaign, Alipay noticed some dissenting sound, thus it initiated a vote and then removed this card according to the vote result. This interaction in the social media not only promote the campaign, but also considerably improve the brand image.

Figure 5

Step 4: Cooperating with WeChat to further broaden the influence

    Beside of the Weibo, Alipay also cooperated with Wechat during this campaign. Wechat likewise become the primary channel of this social media marketing. User can publish the message just as the following image presents, to ask for the desired card from their friends (Figure 6). This cooperation undoubtedly further broadened the influence of the campaign. In the meanwhile, exchange behavior through users make them to be the friends of Alipay app, which improves the social function of Alipay.

Figure 6

Conclusion

Undeniably, through the strong social media marketing strategy, Alipay get a great success of this campaign, with more than 100 millions users participated in the “集五福” activity to share the red packet of 200 millions yuan. In general, the ultimate marketing goal of campaign, which I mentioned before, to increase the app downloads, to promote the social function of the app as well as to promote the “蚂蚁森林” project, was achieved to a certain degree, though the social part may still need more efforts.