Chinese online B2C enterprise Yihaodian made a Guinness World Record on March 18 in 2014. At 10 am sharp, “Imported Milk Flash Sale” began, 600,000 boxes of milk in 30 containers sold out in merely 52 mins 25 seconds! It became a new Guinness record of “selling out most milk in the shortest time”.
What’s the Story Behind Milk Flash Sale?
The marketing began early in March, posters were put out on metros; On March 13, posters came online in Yihaodian which drew caricatures of 30 containers and spread out by opinion leaders in WeChat Moment; On March 18, online flash sale went on with offline sales data live broadcasting; Caricature of the sales data was posted on Weibo after the flash sale ended.
The whole marketing campaign was carefully planned, from outdoor poster to friends social network WeChat, online sale to offline activities, then to social media Weibo. Yihaodian chose Chinese female movie star Yao Chen to be its spoksperson.
Precised advertising and “Let’s Create Guinness World Record Together” slogan, combined with fast selling goods and low price, attracted and motivated Chinese consumers immediately. Many consumers did not care about cheap milk already, they simply wanted a certification of Guinness World Record!
Marketing Strategies
First, Yihaodian successfully created strong sense of participation, the calling for creating world record and offering both paper and electronic certification stimulate consumers. Therefore, the advance publicity caused opinion leaders attention and helped reposting.
Second, advertising places were elaborately selected and very arousing, fans helped further promote the campaign.