Western Brands Leveraging Singles’ Day to Gain Market Share

Charles Tidswell, Vice President JAPAC, Socialbakers, “While Singles’ Day has its roots firmly in Chinese culture, we see more and more Western brands leveraging the event to reach and engage their audience in China and across the world. When it comes to the Western platforms, marketers are focusing their efforts on Instagram as it’s the most engaging platform, especially for e-commerce, fashion and beauty brands.

One good example of a Western brand jumping into the Singles’ Day buzz is the German car manufacturer, BMW. Using the number 1 to represent the “single”, BMW garnered high levels of engagement with their post of a picture of a lone 1 Series, the perfect match for any single. Plus, global beauty brands like Toofaced and Fenty Beauty used the opportunity to reach the Singles’ Day shopper with eye-catching content tagged #SinglesDay.

While Black Friday has long been the key e-commerce event for Western brands, Singles’ Day is now the largest e-commerce shopping day in the world. It’s pretty clear that e-commerce brands who aren’t engaging with the event across their social channels are choosing to leave engagement and money on the table.”