Key takeaways:
- Louis Vuitton opens a pop-up space in Fotografiska Shanghai.
- With localised events, items and experiences, LV goes deep into the culture and lifestyle of Shanghai.
- The pop-up comes after LV’s Shanghai-centric podcast and coffee shop collab, as well as other localised efforts across China, showing a trend of hyper-local marketing.
The French luxury giant Louis Vuitton has opened a pop-up space ‘Nóng Hó, Shanghai’ at the newly-built Fotografiska photography museum, on the bank of Suzhou Creek, a landmark waterway of Shanghai.
The space will open for a month (12th October to 12th November), with various events celebrating the brand, the city and the culture of Shanghai. ‘Nóng Hó’, meaning ‘hello’ in Shanghainese, is a representative phrase for the culture of Shanghai. The Fotografiska is a global group of photography museums that is opening its new Shanghai location to the public later this month.
An unofficial ‘Shanghai culture month’ with Louis Vuitton
Visitors can get a free exclusive tote bag, or what the brand calls ‘your first LV this autumn’
For one month, Fotografiska Shanghai will be draped in the ‘LV’ logo and the theme colour blue, including the nearby ferry port and boats. Inside the pop-up space, the whole City Guide book series is displayed and colour-coordinated. Visitors who bought books can also get a free exclusive tote bag, or what the brand calls ‘your first LV this autumn’. There is also a gifts section from the French label, where a selection of travel-themed accessories and fragrance are available. A café/bar space by Metal Hands Coffee provides an immersive experience of the stereotypical Shanghai lifestyle of ‘morning C(offee) and night A(lcohol).
The opening event for the space was attended by celebrities such as the C-pop boy band TNT, rapper and LV brand ambassador Jackson Wang and footballer Zhao Lina. The event also included traditional Shanghai street food and craft stands. The boats in the themed blue livery provide themed river cruise tours on Suzhou Creek. Other events also include talks about Suzhou Creek, books and lifestyle, reading groups, architecture tours, screenings of classic made-in-Shanghai films and cartoons, jazz and Shanghainese seminars, as well as a children’s drawing workshop. All events focus on aspects of Shanghai’s rich cultural life. The events are bookable through Louis Vuitton’s WeChat mini program.
All events focus on aspects of Shanghai’s rich cultural life
The hashtag #LV侬好上海# (#LVnonghaoshanghai) garnered an impressive 590 million views and over 12 million discussions on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblogging platform. Although it is worth pointing out that, based on the interactions under the topic, the TNT fandom contributed a considerable amount of traffic. Fans for Jackson Wang and other celebrities also actively engaged in the conversation. The brand’s official WeChat article, on the other hand, gained more than 59,000 views. The Louis Vuitton WeChat channel also uploaded a video promoting the views of Shanghai on the Suzhou Creek river cruise, which enjoyed 185 likes and 174 shares.
Louis Vuitton going hyper-local in Shanghai
The pop-up space follows Louis Vuitton’s first ever Chinese-language podcast series Louis Vuitton [Extended], which was launched to commemorate the publication of the Shanghai edition of the Louis Vuitton City Guide. The podcast also focused on Shanghai, featuring discussions with writers, actors and directors from Shanghai to discuss the past, present and future of the city.
In July, Louis Vuitton also introduced a series of three pop-up co-branded bookshops/coffee shops, which also included Metal Hands Coffee, along with MANNER and Plusone. The coffee shop team-up similarly provided coffee, and themed kiosks selling LV’s Travel Guide series of books. The latest pop-up space serves as a scaled-up version of this hugely successful collaboration from July.
Brands can […] leverage the ‘cool’ factor of the creative campaign and location selected
Hyper-localised campaigns and events have been popular amongst luxury brands. Last year, LV held the ‘Louis Vuitton &’ exhibition in Qingdao, had its SS23 show at the seaside resort Aranya in Hebei province (which also included a café and screenings), while opening its first restaurant in China in the City of Chengdu, Sichuan. By tailoring their campaigns towards the local, brands can afford to not only bond with the local community, but also leverage the ‘cool’ factor of the creative campaign and location selected. With Shanghai being a treasure trove for creativity and coolness, there is little wonder the brand keeps tapping into both the traditional and global sides of the city.
