Nativex Enables Haidilao’s Social Media Marketing Across 12 Global Cities, Attracting Over One Billion Impressions
Nativex, a leading global digital marketing platform, Nativex collaborated with Haidilao, a prominent Chinese restaurant brand, to execute highly successful event marketing campaigns across 12 overseas markets, including countries in Southeast Asia, Europe, the United States, Japan, and South Korea. Nativex developed a marketing strategy focused on Xiaohongshu and TikTok, covering creative ideation and collaborations with local influencers for in-store promotions. Our campaigns helped Haidilao expand its global brand presence and drive a significant increase in sales.
About Haidilao
Established in 1994, Haidilao has emerged as a top-tier chain of hot pot restaurants in China, currently operating over 1,000 locations nationwide.
In 2012, Haidilao started expanding internationally and has since successfully established 113 stores in cities such as Sydney, Singapore, and London. Its global business subsidiary, Super Hi International, was listed on Nasdaq.
Challenges
Haidilao aimed to bring together its customers worldwide with one big celebration for its 30th anniversary. The brand was also undertaking a comprehensive brand upgrade in global markets, including the introduction of a new mascot.
Dealing with varying store sizes, customer demographics, and performance targets across 12 countries was a considerable challenge in keeping communication consistent with a unified global theme.
Successfully execute synchronized international marketing campaigns
Create a notable increase in brand recognition among global target audiences
Marketing Strategy
- 1. Target global Chinese communities and young consumer demographics through a dual-platform approach on Xiaohongshu and TikTok, engaging both Chinese and non-Chinese speaking audiences.
On Xiaohongshu, Nativex crafted tailored content to resonate with local Chinese communities, focusing on the brand’s English name upgrade and mascot debut to effectively attract Chinese customers to visit Haidilao’s overseas stores.
On TikTok, Nativex optimized ad creatives to encourage viral sharing across 12 countries, reaching global user bases and target audiences such as pan-Asian and Western consumers, significantly boosting brand exposure.
- 2. Collaborate with local influencers to create authentic content and generate interest through real-life dining experiences, establishing ongoing engagements with the target audience.
Nativex designed compelling communication creatives that appealed to Chinese audiences worldwide and younger demographics, encouraging spontaneous interactions, shares, and even user-generated content related to Haidilao’s 30th-anniversary celebration and other brand initiatives.
The content revolved around topics that were meaningful to overseas Chinese communities, such as “international students enjoying Haidilao abroad,” fostering a sense of belonging and cultural identity.
- 3. Use creatives that blend brand culture with a global perspective, incorporating humor, novelty, cultural attributes, and interactive elements like 3D face-changing panda stickers to convey the brand image.
In Asian countries like Singapore, we used the cartoon style “Xiaolaolao” Beijing opera face-changing effects to emphasize the youthful and widely accepted Chinese cultural attributes.
In Western countries like the United States, special effects featuring toasting beer mugs were designed to underscore consumers’ enthusiasm, cheerful personality traits, and festive vibes.
By inviting influencers from various countries on TikTok to create videos using these stickers, Nativex touched on cultural identity among global Chinese communities and effectively promoted Haidilao’s distinct and endearing brand culture to global consumers. This strategy attracted active fan participation and extended the brand’s reach, ultimately resulting in increased in-store dining consumption and further breaking down barriers to embracing the brand’s culture.
Campaign Results
Through the adaptation of localized marketing strategies, Haidilao’s “30th-Anniversary Celebration” campaign achieved over a billion social media impressions:
As Xiaohongshu’s official cross-border marketing agency, Nativex enables brands and developers worldwide to achieve significant user growth on the platform.
Leveraging our extensive knowledge in media strategy planning, influencer marketing, creative production, ad campaign management, and social media operations optimization, Nativex empowers global brands and developers to make the most of the abundant opportunities offered by Xiaohongshu.
Contact the Nativex team today to start your campaign on Xiaohongshu platform.