Wechat Introduced us to Gesture Recognition During Qixi Festival

In celebration of the Chinese Valentine’s Day Qixi, Wechat has released a new feature that pushes interactive social ad format to a new level.

The Qixi festival: The Chinese Valentine’s Day

Today like every year, on the seventh day of the seventh month on the Chinese lunisolar calendar, the Qixi Festival (七夕节) also called the Double Seventh Festival is celebrated.

A holiday almost equivalent to Western Valentine’s Day, it has been celebrated in China since the time of the Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD). Its legend tells of two stars: Altair and Vega. Altair is said to be Niu Lang (a poor but hard-working shepherd), and Vega, Zhi Nü (the seventh daughter of the lord of the skies), it is a romantic love story, where due to the will of the Goddess of the sky, the two are forced to see each other only once a year: the seventh day of the lunar month, precisely.

Nowadays, young Chinese celebrate the Qixi Festival according to the usual commercial habits with which Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the West, giving themselves more banally flowers and chocolates, but also more important gifts such as jewelry, clothes, accessories, cosmetics and so on.

Therefore, in China, for some years now, people have been thinking about the economic repercussions that such a romantic festival can bring. By now the brands have focused on promotions, engagement activities, offline and online campaigns, and the engagement of celebrities and KOLs during this festival to increase their sales.

Why is the Qixi festival important for brands?

Chinese consumers usually spend most of their time shopping online during this festival. Chinese users spend countless hours on Chinese platforms to purchase products at affordable prices. The Chinese e-commerce market offers numerous opportunities and festivals in China are a good opportunity for foreign brands to increase sales and increase their popularity in the competitive Chinese market.

However, due to stiff competition, it can be difficult for new entrants to break into. In addition to highlighting and attracting users’ attention, it is necessary to launch very creative and ingenious promotions and campaigns.

Foreign companies should study festivals in China well because detailed marketing strategies allow them to reach valuable consumers.

Read as well: 12 Key Dates for your e-Commerce & Marketing campaigns in China

How to maximize sales on e-commerce platforms during the Qixi festival?

To maximize sales, brands should focus on:

• Branding (In China a good Branding strategy will lead your company to build a prestigious and highly qualitative image which can help you overtake local brands and gain a competitive edge over foreign competitors),
• Chinese Platforms Account Management (From social media to a Chinese website, from Q&A platforms to forums, these are all necessary to reach Chinese consumers. GMA can help create accounts and manage Chinese platforms such as Wechat, Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Zhihu, etc.)
• Baidu SEO & SEM (A brand should create a Chinese website on Baidu, the most used Chinese search engine. The website should also be hosted on local servers because it is extremely important for your SEO ranking. Baidu SEM is also the first choice for an advertising campaign to reach Chinese consumers)
• Advertising (The key to running a successful advertising campaign is localizing. The internet landscape is completely different in China and most of the marketing tools you routinely use won’t work in China)
• KOL partnership (Key opinion leaders are well trusted by the internet user and a partnership with a KOL that fit the brand’s products and values could mean an immediate gain of popularity and peoples starting to get interested in your brand.

For example, the French luxury house Celine has made a foray into China’s social marketing arena for the first time this Chinese Valentine’s Day. In fact, its campaign has achieved much higher engagement than the brand’s previous social posts on Weibo and WeChat, partly because it collaborated with famous young female celebrities and idols, like Meng Meiqi, Esther Yu, and Guan Xiaotong).

Famous brands’ marketing strategies during the Qixi festival in 2020

To preserve the tradition, remember the event, and in a certain sense market the holiday, many of the big brands have made ad hoc campaigns for Chinese Valentine’s Day. Especially luxury brands have been running campaigns centered around this lucrative marketing opportunity since late July.

For example:

• Dior launched the #Dioramour hashtag on Weibo, which reached more than 520 million views in 10 days
• Gucci launched the hashtag #GucciQixi on Xiaohongshu, which has reached 126,000 views
• Yves Saint Laurent with his hashtag #NameYourLove on Weibo has obtained more than 210 million views

Use of Wechat by brands for the Qixi Festival

Wechat is a Super App that brands should focus on during Chinese festivals. WeChat is an incredible place for you to share interesting content about your brand and your products, you can share videos, audio, photos, and messages.

It is the most popular mobile app in the country, on which the Chinese spend hours every day. The app enables companies to create an “official account” to promote their brand. This is the best way for a brand to create a community, gain followers, and be actively engaged with them.

In addition, you can also sell your products on Wechat, which is very convenient for the user to directly purchase something on your Wechat account.

Many brands have launched mini-programs on Wechat to celebrate the Qixi Festival:

• Prada released its “Modern Love Stories” campaign. By using an evocative and modern retelling of the Qixi legend, the campaign film follows the journey of a couple as they move through their respective worlds to achieve an emotional reunion.
• Gucci introduced the GG apple print collection on July 30 for Chinese Valentine’s Day. The collection is inspired by the phrase “apple of my eye,” meaning a person one cherishes above all others.
• Featuring the “NameYourLove” (卫 爱 之 名) theme, the Yves Saint Laurent Qixi Festival campaign allows customers to print English and Chinese names on its faded pink logo hoodie.
• Fendi collaborated with British artist and illustrator Sam Cox, commonly known as Mr. Doodle, to launch a limited Qixi Festival capsule collection on July 24.

What is gesture recognition?

Gesture recognition is a topic in computer science and language technology with the goal of interpreting human gestures via mathematical algorithms. Gestures can originate from any bodily motion or state but commonly originate from the face or hand. Thanks to this function, users can use simple gestures to control or interact with devices without physically touching them.

Gesture recognition can be seen as a way for computers to begin to understand human body language, thus building a richer bridge between machines and humans than primitive text user interfaces or even GUIs (graphical user interfaces).

Read more about AI in China

Wechat gesture recognition for the Chinese valentine’s day

Wechat Gesture Recognition is based on the new generation of human-computer interaction technology launched by Tencent Audio and Video Laboratory, including:

• static gesture recognition,
• key point recognition,
• fingertip recognition,
• gesture recognition
• other functions.

It provides high-performance and highly available gesture recognition services for developers and enterprises. It can be used in interactive entertainment, smart home, VR/AR, smart cars, smart supermarkets, industrial quality inspection, and other industries.

Through gesture recognition, you can unlock new ways of human-computer interaction, which leads to a richer and more natural experience of human-computer interaction and supports more personalized gestures.

WeChat introduced gesture recognition such as key interaction and CTA after a user clicks on an ad. Wechat gesture recognition for Chinese Valentine’s Day was developed to create interactive entertainment through:

• Combining the user’s gestures (such as “to like” 点赞, “to form a hand heart using one’s thumb and forefinger (or by using both hands)” 比心, “wish sb. a Happy New Year” 拜年),
• Add corresponding stickers or special effects in real-time
• apply special effects at your fingertips.

As you can see in the previous image you can use the 比心 gesture recognition, it is a popular way in China to show love and appreciation.

How does the Wechat gesture recognition work?

Once a user clicks on the ad via Wechat Moments, they can use their phone’s camera to scan the heart gesture, resulting in multiple brand interactions, including branded red pocket vouchers, gift collection pages, or customized easter-egg widgets.

The feature is also implemented organically within Wechat when the user calls the scan feature, which doesn’t cost any credit.

This gesture will help brands, even more, to create interactivity with their community in a unique and personalized way. One more reason to use Wechat for your campaign for the Qixi festival and other Chinese festivals.

GMA can help you to create and manage your Wechat account

We have a wealth of experience with many successful projects under our collective belt, our success is due to our passion for great work and marketing. We take care of:

• Branding

WeChat is an incredible place for you to share interesting content about your brand and your products. You can share videos, audio, photos, and messages. We can help you to share the right content at the right time. Content is crucial.

• Visibility

You are probably wondering how to get your brand or company on WeChat. Let us take care of that for you. Our Agency specializes in promoting brands and companies through Wechat Tools, Chinese social media, forums, etc., so that they can have exposure worldwide!

• E-commerce

Would you like to drive sales through the roof by setting up an official WeChat Store? Contact us today and let’s get started. Our team will show you how easy it is!

• Loyalty

Wechat is a super-efficient tool to make your customer loyal. Why? Customer loyalty is all about providing your customers with useful information and helping them connect to other consumers and Wechat through its various features allows you to do just that.

• Customer service

We set up a communication campaign on Wechat: An advertising campaign on Wechat moments or on popular posts.

• Analysis

Every month, you’ll get a report on the different running campaigns, so you know what is going on and how your money is invested.

Contact us to discuss it further!

Read also:

• FIVE ADVANTAGES OF WECHAT MINI-PROGRAM
• PERFECT DIARY’S SUCCESSFUL STRATEGY ON WeChat
• WeChat E-COMMERCE GUIDE