kaixin001 + magnum ::
Sunday, March 29th, 2009:: Kaixin001.com, the wildly popular Chinese social networking site, appears to have opened up its platform to full-on branded campaigns and mini-sites! Brands have always had a presence on Kaixin001 as part of the site’s casual games / applications (Parking Wars, Buy a House, Send a Gift, Buy / Sell Friends, etc.) but the site seems to have upped the anti with the release of a new game / application yesterday called “Special Treatment” (非常礼遇), which is presented almost entirely as a branded Magnum (Unilever product) ice cream-branded effort, see below:
I won’t get into the specifics of the game, but in short, it revolves around publicly “teasing” your friends on the site and a resulting individual ranking among all participants. The higher your rank, the more opportunities you get to tease your friends and the more ways you get to do it. All pretty straight forward and very much done-before stuff, but, what’s interesting is 1) how boldly with game / application is presented as Magnum-branded within the Kaixin001 ecosystem, and 2) that success in the game is linked to offline purchases of Magnum ice cream bars (novel!). Gaming codes can be found on the sticks of Magnum bars and redeemed directly on the site or via mobile phone for more “teasing” opportunities / methods, etc. I can’t recall seeing anything like this on other Chinese social networking sites; definitely a first for Kaixin011. See below:
As the campaign just came out, it’s too early to know if and how it will be successful, or if it will lead to more brands opening up shop within Kaixin001. But, it’s worth keeping an eye on as another way brands are trying to engage with target audiences online in China.
In the meantime, what I want to know is if the Kaixin001 team created the application and approached Magnum for brand involvement, or was it the other way around? If the latter, who’s behind the campaign for Magnum, does anyone know? I’m curious about the costs involved for Magnum, thoughts? It’s also interesting to note that the offline purchase element of the game seems to only be offered in Beijing and Shanghai – that seems like a massively missed opportunity, but I can understand the possible logistics issues involved. // AJS
[UPDATE: I've learned from Kaixin001 directly that the campaign at this stage is just an experiment and that the site is not openly cooperating with brands on this scale, not yet anyway. They want to see users' reaction first, then they may consider similar brand campaigns in the future. If the campaign goes over well with users, I can imagine Kaixin001 charging huge amounts of money for brands to do this kind fo stuff inside it's domain: some of the priciest real estate online in China.]
