How to do Douyin Omnichannel Marketing in China? Cosmetics Case Studies

As one of the most influential short-video social platforms in China, Douyin ( the Chinese version of TikTok ) has brought unique marketing opportunities and value to cosmetic brands. Within Douyin's marketing ecosystem in China, the platform not only builds a tight link between content recommendation and product display scenarios within the platform, helping brands achieve efficient conversions, but also leverages its powerful external platform traffic-driving value to open a new chapter of omnichannel growth for cosmetic brands.

YSL

YSL achieved a deep integration from content recommendation to omnichannel sales through brand awareness positioning and a differentiated product strategy across all channels . This not only secured the top spot in the cosmetics category on Douyin e-commerce during the 2024 Double Eleven shopping festival, but also explored a marketing campaign model that synergistically resonates across multiple touchpoints, including live streaming and non-live streaming.

Brand-owned live streaming: Multi-account operation + differentiated product combination to create unique selling points in live streaming.

High-end product line account

Focusing on high-value brand items and best-selling products to attract loyal fans.

Gift Zone Account

Pushing high-value gift sets and new products to target consumers with gifting needs.

Influencer Live Streaming: Strategically structured influencer teams and promotional mechanisms to build a comprehensive influencer live streaming network and amplify business growth.

Recommending content from top influencers and boosting topic popularity .

The mid-tier segment focuses on the beauty vertical, leveraging professional and high-quality product reviews and sharing to drive sales. They attract consumers with product quality and unique advantages .

Influencer-exclusive best-selling product sets: These products are sold separately from those featured in brand-owned live streams, enhancing the user's sense of novelty in purchasing .

Exclusive benefits for influencers during major promotions: Enhance the appeal of influencer live streams and stimulate conversions .

Non-live streaming: Continuous exposure of products across all channels, creating long-term business expansion opportunities.

Adopting a discounted single-item strategy: By leveraging discounted single items that differentiate themselves from brand-owned live streams and influencer live streams, we can effectively drive paid and organic traffic across all channels and build a long-term conversion mechanism .

By leveraging celebrities and high-quality content, brands can showcase their premium image and stimulate organic traffic conversion for high-priced products .

Activity Results

1 on the overall makeup brand list during the 2024 Douyin Double Eleven shopping festival (October 8, 2024 - November 11, 2024).

Funny Elves

Funny Elves launches new products and upgrades to best-selling products at different stages, leveraging popular celebrities as the core, connecting multiple sales scenarios, harnessing fan power, and driving wave-like relay growth in brand awareness and sales, ultimately forming a virtuous business loop of continuous complementarity between "fan awareness - new product popularity - brand sales".

Phase 1 (May 2024)

Event Highlights

Celebrity Selection Strategy - Precisely Leveraging the First-Time Sales Bonus of Celebrities

Choosing popular celebrities from hit reality shows as product ambassadors can stimulate strong fan interaction and pave the way for high-engagement conversions later on.

Omnichannel engagement – covering multiple touchpoints, closely building momentum, and igniting fan emotions.

Both on and off the platform, the campaign generated buzz through various channels, including official announcements on social media accounts, and simultaneously linked marketing accounts and topic pages, giving fans ample opportunity to participate and anticipate the event.

Efficient conversion of fan economy - scenario-based live streaming quickly breaks through the cold start

Customized "celebrity-themed live streaming rooms" and refined operations such as celebrity merchandise and live streaming scripts were used to help new products quickly break through the initial cold start and successfully achieve daily sales of over one million.

Phase 2 (October 2024)

Event Highlights

Celebrity pre-show return - deepening the emotional connection with fans

During the pre-sale period, the official flagship store's live stream focused on limited-edition upgrades of best-selling products, featuring celebrity comebacks and giving away limited-edition gifts and celebrity-themed stickers to quickly warm up the relationship with fans.

Omnichannel traffic acquisition – a matrix of influencers in live streaming sessions continues to drive traffic, while non-live streaming sessions provide regular traffic generation.

With beauty influencers at the core, we activate high-selling influencers during the off-season and launch a strong pre-sale campaign with live streams reaching tens of millions or even millions of views .

We will continue to drive traffic through small-scale live streams by influencers at the bottom of the shelf, and combine this with product card placement and sample distribution in the shelf setting to extend the life cycle of best-selling products .

Activity Results

During the event, Funny Elves's total transaction volume saw a significant year-on-year increase, and the brand ranked 4th in the overall ranking of cosmetic brands during the 2024 Douyin Double Eleven e-commerce promotion . (October 8, 2024 - November 11, 2024)

Passional Lover

At the end of 2024, Passional Lover launched its "Winter Soft Texture Limited Edition" series, highlighting its "soft velvet texture," and made a dazzling debut on Douyin (TikTok's Chinese version). By planning new product launch events, collaborating with celebrities and influencers for comprehensive promotion, and cleverly leveraging the New Year's renewal period for marketing, Passional Lover deeply connected with users and built a closer emotional bridge.

Event Highlights

incorporating emotional resonance and a winter-themed narrative , the new product is visually striking and closely aligns with users' needs for comfort and healing, giving it a stronger memorability and emotional value. Combined with the warm and soft psychological associations of winter, it further enhances user engagement, allowing the product to resonate deeply with them.

Celebrity collaborations and influencer matrix strong recommendations

in December , featuring soft textures , the brand invited celebrities from a popular reality TV show to participate in a live stream, along with fan perks such as limited-edition celebrity postcards. This approach shortened the distance between the brand and consumers, significantly boosting live stream conversion rates.

By building a matrix of influencers and integrating them with everyday scenarios, the platform releases lighthearted short videos featuring "unboxing," "user experience," and "makeup effect reviews," gradually penetrating the recommended user base.

Pace control and combining with trending topics to boost popularity

By precisely targeting the key marketing opportunity of the New Year renewal, and aligning with the strong emotional atmosphere of the festival, the value and charm of gifts can be fully realized.

Activity Results

Passional Lover has successfully built an efficient path from brand recommendation to consumer conversion. The "Winter Soft Texture Limited Edition" series was launched (until December 31, 2024), and the average daily total transaction volume increased by more than 60% compared to the Double Eleven period.