So, you remember that Ogilvy ad for Tiffany back in February that got lots of headlines for featuring a same-sex marriage proposal. It was super schmaltzy as expected, but it was also more compelling than the animated stuff.
For an alternate look, here’s a campaign promoting the company in China by Wieden + Kennedy’s Shanghai office. It stars Liu Wen, who became the first model of East Asian descent to walk in a Victoria’s Secret show back in 2010.
This campaign (obviously) doesn’t include any same-sex couples. But it’s kind of interesting as a glance at marketing a very American brand to an emerging demographic: well-to-do Chinese women. In the first ad, Wen is just basically talking about how awesome she is over a twinkly piano track. And she’s in New York!
So that’s about what we expected.
The theme is similar to that of the office’s recent work for Jordan: Chinese consumers tend to be a little shy, and campaigns for completely unrelated brands are all about getting them to be more confident.
As the release puts it, “For years, luxury and jewelry brands in China were always talking about status, legacy and being stunning. But obviously, Tiffany took a totally different approach.”
Well, sort of. It’s basically like the Ogilvy work without the relationships. In another, very similar spot, actress/singer/producer/director Sylvia Chang talks about finding inspiration and how every moment is unique. You see where this is going.
That’s one way to sell overpriced jewelry.
These ads aren’t groundbreaking or anything, and the soft focus was kind of driving us crazy after a while. But they’re W+K promoting a very American brand in China…and according to this Weibo screenshot, they’re pretty effective. (These are probably bots, but still.)
