In China, ride-hailing is less a lifestyle choice than it is a daily reality. The result is an industry teeming with discounts and competition, and commuters willing to spend a little more to avoid heaving peak-time underground trains.
Ride-hailing giant Didi (滴滴出行) – often dubbed ‘the Uber of China’ – is currently pushing its discount message with a strong, attention-grabbing ad campaign. At the core of the campaign is brand ambassador Tan Jianci (檀健次). Tan is unmissable. He waves the universal hand signal for OK – but this is not your run-of-the-mill celebrity billboard advertising.
The copy has Tan drawing attention off himself and onto slashed prices. Lines like: ‘Don’t look at me, look at the hand gesture: 70% off, OK,’ and ‘I don’t care if the weather is OK or not – 70% off must be OK,’ put the focus solely on discount, with Tan speaking directly to consumers. They’ve put these posters up in commuter areas where potential customers are probably thinking a quiet cab ride would be preferable to battling rush hour with the public.
There are clever cultural elements at play too. The universal OK hand gesture leaves three fingers raised. In China, discount is expressed as how much of the price you will have left to pay (in this case, 30%). But what’s most revealing is Didi’s choice of localisation.
This campaign didn’t hit big, tier-one, cities like Beijing or Shanghai, but Lanzhou, Handan, Yueyang, and Luoyang – high-frequency, ride-hailing cities where price sensitivity remains acute and daily trips dominate. With that knowledge, the campaign looks less like a play for brand equity, and more like a hard push for scale and conversion.
We’ve been writing about the importance of localisation in the Chinese market in many forms for many moons. Brands all too often think that they can take on China with a one-size-fits-all playbook. Didi has shown that winning China’s mass market often comes down to reading context rather than projecting ambition. In a category where usage is habitual and margins are thin, the smartest move is not to shout louder, but to be clearer.
