For GEN Z, crush on a luxury brand is just a matter of watching Douyin.
According to the 2024 “Luxury Goods Worldwide Market Study” jointly released by Bain & Company and the Italian luxury goods manufacturers’ industry association, Altagamma, the global luxury market is projected to decline by 1% to 3% in the first quarter of 2024. Most regional markets are experiencing a slowdown in growth, prompting major luxury brands to adjust their business strategies by raising prices, exploring new opportunities, and transforming their approaches. The industry is at a pivotal point of divergent development.
In the first half of 2024, the GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) of luxury goods on Douyin surged by over 45%, highlighting Douyin’s emergence as a crucial business platform for luxury brands. However, success will depend on whether brands can leverage Douyin’s opportunities and effectively address these challenges.
The GEN Z gathered on Douyin are exactly the core competitiveness of future consumption that luxury brands are looking for. Douyin has reached the next level by letting GEN Z “get into” luxury brands in various ways.
According to industry data, GENZ (born between 1995 and 2009) is expected to contribute 100% of the incremental growth in China’s luxury market. They are undoubtedly the target audience that luxury brands are eager to retain. GENZ consumers have rapidly changing behavioural habits and preferences, and they demand higher content quality during fragmented time periods. This necessitates luxury brands to engage them with continuously innovative content formats.
Douyin’s super-detailed tag insight system includes more than 2.3 million refined tags such as crowd/product/content/touchpoint/industry dimensions. Through more scientific tagging logic and more refined crowd circle anchoring, brands can find the consumer groups they want. For example, in scenario-based segmentation, three refined audience groups gaining significant attention are subcultural enthusiasts, highly educated international students, and overseas travellers. These groups combine subcultures with mainstream styles to challenge conventions and play a key role in advancing freedom and diversity in fashion’s gender expression. They hail from economically advantaged backgrounds, often with international education, and seek a high-quality lifestyle. Additionally, their passion for overseas travel and curiosity about new cultures frequently lead them to make luxury purchases during their upscale travel experiences.
This year, Douyin’s innovative “OPUGC” (Occupationally Generated Content (OGC) – Professional Generated Content (PGC) – User Generated Content (UGC) ) interaction model has introduced new opportunities for luxury brands in content marketing. It deepens connections with users and transforms into an impactful marketing scene for luxury brands. Unlike traditional integrated marketing strategies, the “OPUGC” content integration approach focuses on content, enhancing its value through impact, coverage, and authenticity to drive consumer engagement and brand conversion.
Douyin offers IP-driven luxury marketing strategies, bolstering brand value through IP-generated momentum and creating authoritative OGC content. This content is combined with influencers across fashion, art, culture, and sports to produce engaging PGC content through formats such as themed challenges and AICG. This significantly increases luxury brand visibility, accurately targets the core audience, and enhances brand awareness. Encouraged by the OGC and PGC content, numerous Douyin users willingly share genuine UGC, leading to comprehensive brand influence, audience reach, and reputation.
With the help of platform IPs such as “DOU Lab”, professional teams that understand platform users better can combine with brand influence to customize high-quality content that is more suitable for dissemination on Douyin. For example, the Chinese women’s football blockbuster co-created by PRADA and “DOU Lab” has a total exposure of over 240 million on the entire network.
At Dior Fashion Week, the “DOU Content Lab (DOU来内容实验室)” segment “DOU Fashion Show (DOU来看秀)” marked its international collaboration debut with the brand by providing live-streaming technical support. It delivered a fashion show experience that consumers could fully immerse themselves in, from the opening of the show to backstage and guest interviews, all from the comfort of their homes. This format showcased and interpreted the inspiration behind the brand’s new season designs in a diverse manner. The panoramic online and offline show format allowed more consumers to experience the allure of fashion up close, enhancing the brand’s global influence.
In the first quarter of 2024, GUCCI collaborated with Douyin to launch the 2024 Spring/Summer colour trend—Ancora Red. GUCCI introduced Ancora Red through official Douyin content and engaged a celebrity network to generate buzz with the hashtag #AncoraRedSpreadingThroughoutTheEntertainmentIndustry. By leveraging influencers from various fields who visited Ancora Red spaces both online and offline, the campaign sparked spontaneous interactions from the public. The #AncoraRedCelebrityCityPhotoShootChallenge continuously generated a wealth of original and derivative content, resulting in a closely integrated online and offline brand trend-setting event.
On the other hand, as a catalyst for brand marketing, Douyin’s hot spot strategy can provide the ability to predict future hot spots, and create trend hot spots through the cooperation of expert content and platform-level voice. 21 billion views of spring and summer #dopamine, 14 billion views of autumn and winter #maillard, and the healing-themed “Spring is #mint mambo”, Douyin is now the birthplace of many GENZ fashion trends.
The content marketing ecosystem for luxury brands is continuously evolving, shifting from a focus on direct visual presentation and sensory impact to a more integrated approach that incorporates social scenarios and enhances the perceived value of luxury goods.
In the field of e-commerce, Douyin’s luxury e-commerce has always maintained a steady growth trend. The live broadcast room is no longer just a single “321 link”. After the continuous optimization and development of the live broadcast format and content, new business scenarios are constantly being created. The current Douyin live broadcast room, from Lancome and Armani’s 1.0 makeup show to share trend content, to HUGO’s 2.0 outfit show, with performances + interviews + shows with catwalk stars, to Ralph Lauren’s 3.0 variety show combined with the “class flavor” hot spot, multi-scene live broadcast rooms with topics and catwalks have brought Ralph Lauren a +306% GMV explosion.
The synergy between Douyin e-commerce and Douyin Local Services—both online and offline—has brought new omnichannel business opportunities for luxury brands. Additionally, Ocean Engine offers key scientific tools for verifying omnichannel marketing effectiveness through a holistic approach, helping luxury brands seize new opportunities.
With CRM integration, brands can drive fresh traffic by attracting new offline members through online channels. Seamless integration of the product pipeline allows the brand to achieve a full cycle from user targeting and precise guided interactions to driving store traffic. This creates a comprehensive luxury shopping experience for consumers, offering everything from new product delivery and physical displays to appointment services, while exploring more business opportunities across both online and offline.
Perhaps, with the help of Douyin, luxury brands and Gen Z will have a richer narrative in the future.
