Cartier uses forum, micromovie to gain 28,000 weibo fans in a few hours

To tap the booming bridal market in China, the 165-year-old French luxury brand, which has been active in China for more than 15 years, wants to retell its story to Chinese consumers, riding on French romance as its marketing proposition.

The campaign aims to promote the new Cartier Destinée engagement ring, which will be available in Cartier boutiques in February. 

Different from Cartier’s past media buys, the brand wants to use a more emotional form of storytelling to connect with digitally savvy young Chinese consumers. 

Digitas and Starcom are the agency partners behind this new online campaign.

The micromovie features a well-known Taiwanese celebrity, Michelle Chen, who appeared on an online Weichat hosted on the Cartier site on Sina Weibo, hosted by Chinese fashion blogger Peter Xu.

"We are the first brand to do this WeiTalk activation hosted on our own site, as brands usually use the Sina Weibo WeiTalk platform," Judy Chang, marketing and communications director of Cartier China, told Campaign Asia-Pacific. 

The microfilm is meant to express romanticism in a Parisian way and were filmed in Paris by Italian film director Luca Guadagnino, known for the film “Melissa" and the Oscar-winning “Amore”.