In 2018, M•A•C sold 850,000 lipsticks on “Single’s Day”,an e-commerce day on TaoBao, making M•A•C the leading high-end makeup brand in China. After that, M•A•C has been facing intense competition in the lipsticks market due to product similarity and low customer loyalty in China. How to use the unique and distinct brand personality to reach the younger generation, to maintain the brand’s advantages, and to win the hearts of consumers are the questions M•A•C has to find answers to.

Big Idea:Kiss on, We Can Win

Two IPs Collaboration :M•A•C x “Rocket Girl 101” x Honor of Kings Limited Edition Lipsticks

Inspired by five female characters on Honor of Kings with diverse personalities and backgrounds, M•A•C introduced a series of limited-edition lipsticks in its classic collection. Five members in Rocket Girl 101 were assigned with a game character each, and with the customized makeup styles, they were able to present a real person interpretation of the characters’ personalities and their stories. With support from these characters’ invincible spirit, M•A•C wished consumers a prosperous new year!

Used “game”+“celebrity” joint promotion strategy to reach fans in multiple subculture groups, including gamers and fans of celebrities.

Accurate Targeting:

Utilized Tencent, the biggest social media network in China, to directly reach Honor of Kings players, and leveraged Weibo to target fans of celebrities.

Closed-loop Marketing:

A WeChat mini program pop-up store were used to harvest closed-loop sales and to direct the traffic from online to an offline pop-up store, which became a trending event in the hosting city.

Coordination regarding the IPs collaboration started one year in advance. At the same time, communication with the global office about customized production also started.

Discussions about media strategies and creative details were kicked off four months before the campaign launched.

After 2019 New Year, a prime promotion time for the beauty and cosmetics industry, this campaign was launched as scheduled. With this collaboration campaign, M•A•C successfully started a winning battle for the upcoming year.

Generated a M•A•C x Honor of Kinks phenomenon, this campaign was successful in both brand promotion and sales performance.

Sales Performance: Some popular characters’ M•A•C x Honor of Kings limited edition lipsticks were sold out one minute after launched on WeChat mini program. All products were sold out one hour after the launch.

Brand Promotion:

#M•A•C x Honor of Kings# hashtag generated over 300 million views and close to 20 million discussions.

#M•A•C x Honor of Kings#, #Kiss On, We Can Win# and other relevant topics are among top search keywords on social media.