WalkTheChat

[Interview] How to make your WeChat H5 campaign viral?

Tingyi Chen

You might have already seem these WeChat HTML5 (H5) campaigns shared on your WeChat Moment:


What do these WeChat H5 campaign have in common?

These WeChat H5 campaign are all made by the marketing agency: W.

W is a young agency, it has only been existing for 1 year. W is small, it has only 26 employees. But if you look at it’s works, W is a revolutionary creative agency. Here is the 15 works produced by W:

WeChat H5 campaign

Each WeChat H5 campaign is distinctive, new, and VIRAL.  For example, W is the first one to use the “incoming call” campaign, before this idea become an “industry standard” in making H5 campaign. The APPmixer campaign got a lot of second re-share.  “Love letter from Mr Shou Cao” campaign is still being used 1.5 years after its launch, while a normal H5 campaign’s life span of 2 days.

How did W do it?

Today, we interview the founder of W, Li Sanshui (李三水), to find out what made W so productive in creating viral WeChat H5 campaign.

WalktheChat (WTC): Can you introduce yourself?

Sanshui (W): Before W, I had a lot of entrepreneurship experience: I had 1 video production company, 2 advertising company, and I have been working in marketing agencies like W+K. I was in business with book store, restaurant, clothing factories, Chinese medicine factory…  

WTC: Why did you create W?

 W: After all these “detours” in entrepreneurship, W was created naturally. Advertising, among all other industries, is the one industry where you can really leverage creativity. You have to use your experience and judgement to do advertising. It’s like searching for solutions and methods used across industries and combining them.

WTC: Why do people call you guys Wild Dog (野狗)? 

W: Our nickname is W.  Wild dog represent a different spirit: creatures which survive outside of the civilized circle.  Unlike the domestic dogs, we do not want to be petted or ordered around by our clients, we want to think like the client. W is not defined by one set direction, rather we want to be “a company with the mindset of Party A (the client)”. 

WTC: Would this means a lot of compromise from the client’s side?

W: To give you an example, if a customer goes to a restaurant and order something that’s not on the menu: fried rice with eggs.  A good restaurant would make the fried rice, maybe with different combinations, different flavors. In the end, it will still be fried rice.

But when a customer goes into the “W” restaurant, we will not make the fried rice as we were asked to. We will not ask the client what do you want to order, rather: why do you want to eat? Why do you want to order fried rice with egg? Is it the right dish for you? What kind of flavors do you like the best? An we will serve them another dish that the customer really wants to eat.  

When we sit with a client, we do not sell them what they ask for.  Rather we will sit down with the senior decision makers to really understand their business model, strategy, and how do they make decisions.  The way we work is to talk about business and really try to understand the business, rather than just to making an advertising campaign.  

WTC: What is the difference between doing marketing campaign in China and in the western countries? 

W: The principle is the same: to promote product.  But the way to do it and the execution method is different, although the quality level is getting closer and closer. The biggest different is the advertising channel. In China it’s all about WeChat, in Western cultures, you cannot make a campaign viral just through WeChat. 

WTC: What is the culture of W? What is it that makes you guys so creative? 

W: When you look at our works, you might see a lot of diversity, something new and very artistic, you might think this is the culture of W. But in fact, it’s the opposite. We are very cautious (严谨), logical and focused on solving problems.  When you think of advertising companies, what they usually do is they are the executor.  They are given a problem, and they will package it beautifully and push to the market. Advertising companies follow orders.  What we are focused on is  solving problems. In W, we will make sure that everyone really understand the project, the strategy behind it and purpose of the WeChat H5 campaign.  You cannot measure creativity, but you can measure what is right and what is wrong. This way, we rarely get lost with ideas because we are always focused on solving problems. 

WTC: how do you train your employee?  

W: The motto of our company is “本能心、思无邪、当面说” (translated in English is: the heart follows instinct, the mind is pure, speak straight forwardly). And we like to sit in a group and have intense discussion focused on just one thing: solving problem. 

WTC: How do you judge if an idea will be viral on WeChat moments?

W: I don’t. I only make judgement to see if the idea fits the brand. It’s like singing.  When an artist sings a song, he/she ask whether or not people would like this song, because each person have different preferences, the 20 year olds will certainly like music that is different from what’s liked by the 40 year olds.  What the artist really thinks about is whether this song really matches him/her, if this song can convey meaning of this artist’s personal brand. Only if the song and the artist fit, then the song will get viral.  It’s the same with marketing, we are only focused on making WeChat H5 campaigns that truly fits the brands’ image or rather an image that the brand would like to become. 

(end of the interview)

What can you learn from W when running WeChat H5 campaign?

 Can you replicate what W has done and use it for your own company? It’s difficult to replicate the artworks, the creative content, and video production skills. What brands can do is: