WeChat has been an essential marketing channel for Christmas

Christmas is something of a shopping festival in China, just as it is elsewhere, and many luxury brands co-opt the tradition to promote their offerings. WeChat has been an essential marketing channel in the lead up to the holiday, with brands offering their followers creative digital experiences such as well-crafted stories, games, quizzes, and more.

Which Christmas WeChat campaigns stood out and which failed to engage their audience? We picked out the three nicest and the three naughtiest of 2017.

Burberry 

British fashion label Burberry captured the attention of its followers with a well-designed game. The game’s assets are the brand’s products available this Christmas. Many users have commented that the aesthetics of the game are high appealing, and the gameplay is genuinely enjoyable. Players are encouraged to share their scores with their contacts to compete against their friends and garner the campaign more attention.

Why it works: Engagement. Offering an interesting game followers can interact with better engages with them on WeChat than a post with text and photos.

Stella McCartney

Stella McCartney’s Christmas WeChat campaign is taking its followers back to the ’80s and ’90s with a vintage selfie contest. In a post introducing the contest, followers can click on any image to open a web page where they can take a selfie or upload one from their library. The next step is to customize the selfie with Stella McCartney-themed effects and stickers. Once they’re done, users can choose to save the photo and share it on WeChat’s Moments or directly with friends. The brand also encourages participants to send their selfies directly, with the best five winning gifts from the brand.

Why it works: Stella McCartney has smartly tapped into selfie mania in China. In this contest, followers get a new visual language for one of their favorite subjects—themselves.

Furla 

Italian affordable luxury brand Furla is offering a quiz for Chinese women to deduce the most charming aspect of their personality—their confidence, passion, mystery or elegance. In a series of multiple-choice questions, players arrive at a final answer, and a product recommendation to suit.

Why it works: Furla’s quiz offers readers some takeaways they can share and discuss with their friends. The quiz also makes the final product recommendation feel somewhat more convincing and personalized.