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Popular Blogger Han Han Advertised for VANCL

Online fashion business agency VANCL (凡客成品) increases its outdoor branding advertising by having Han Han -- popular micro-blogger -- as the new brand ambassador.

Han is an avid rally car driver and he writes a mega-popular blog that pokes fun at prominent cultural figures and incompetent officials. Han's first novel, based on his experience as a high school dropout in Shanghai, became a best seller in China and sparked a debate about the quality of the country's rigid education system.

Recently, Han was nominated in the list of the Most Influential Person of the Year 2010 poll by Time magazine. After the list was published, a heated discussion was ongoing among Chinese netizens on Han’s nomination.

It is reported that the launch will be a comprehensive coverage of Beijing and Shanghai's subway and bus system, putting in efforts to five times more than in the previous month.

"Love Network, love freedom, love staying up late, love the food stalls at night, love racing, also love 29 RMB's T-SHIRT, I am not a standard-bearer, not who's endorsement, I am Han Han, I represent myself. I'm like you. I'm Fan Ke( Chinese equivalent of "normal people", which is also the VANCL's Chinese brand name)".

-- Han Han's quote in his advertisement for VANCL in the bus-stops in Beijing

The industry is truly reacting to the increase in competition, as originally Internet-only brands are developing fullscale campaigns drawing from a range of offline media options. Major Online shopping agencies like Taobao (淘宝网) and  Jingdong(京东商城) have significantly increased the cost of brand promotion as more similar enterprises emerge in the market. First, Taobao and Hunan Television jointly invested 100 million RMB on a TV shopping program “More Fun, More Shopping”, which receives a large audience of avid online-shoppers. Later, Jingdong endorsed China Football Association Super League, hoping to enlarge its audience through sports marketing. VANCL's increase in outdoor media investment is necessary to complement the Internet competition at the time, and officials from VANCL believe that Han's interpretation of "civilian fashion" and the "mass fashion" line can attract a large number of potential users, mostly younger people between the age of 15-30.

In China, online companies selling apparels are mostly selling products from a multitude of existing brands and outlets. The agencies themselves seldom launch their own lines of clothing, nor do they have their own manufacturing factories; in many ways this gives them few facets from which to market and distinguish themselves. Therefore as a clothing company born of the Internet, the introduction of celebrity endorsement from VANCL indicates a new marketing model is on the rise. The digital celeb, Han, is also a cultural figure made popular by the internet (as a micro-blogger), and this teaming up with a digital online shop marks a truly online offering going offline. If such a celebrity endorsement strategy can succeed, it is possible that we will see a demonstrable effect, propelling the online shopping industry to use strategies more associated with traditional brands and branding efforts.

Related link:

http://www.vancl.com/news/1006071443.htm