- Established Livestreaming E-commerce & MCN/KOL Business Units and JV with Vision Entertainment to Capture the Fast-growing Digital Opportunities in China
- Strategic Alliance with Fosun Fashion Group
MOU to Establish JV with HK Land for Venue Operation
A provider of integrated marketing solutions in Greater China, Activation Group Holdings Limited (Activation or the Company, collectively, the Group, HKG: 9919), today announced the Company has strategically upgraded itself as an Interactive Data Performance Marketing Group for Fashion Brands. Under this new upgrade and combining its newly set up live streaming e-commerce and MCN/KOL business units with existing experiential marketing, digital marketing and public relations services, the Company will provide interactive data performance marketing services to premium brands to help them seize fast-growing digital opportunities in China.
The looming pandemic has seen more and more high-end and luxury brands expanding business online to attract generation Z customers with high spending power. To address the growing demand, Activation has set up the new e-commerce marketing and MCN/KOL business units to provide all-inclusive e-commerce services on platforms including Tmall, JD.com, Douyin, Secoo, Xiaohongshu, VIPS and WeChat Mini Program, and also MCN and KOL services on all social media platform covering live streaming, short videos, TV commercials, endorsements and commercial cooperation activities. Those services will help brands seamlessly integrate online and offline marketing activities and, with more data-driven and sales-oriented marketing approaches, provide effective marketing solutions that can bring win-win to customers and the Group.
To capture the best from its new strategic upgrades, the Group has implemented the following strategies:
— Established MCN business unit Avant Plus, drawing on its deep experiences and resources in fashion trends and style, it has built long-term cooperation with a list of trendsetting celebrities and KOLs, including famous actress Charmaine Sheh, the fashion blogger Jiangnan BoyNam and “Di Bai Nai Nai”, helping them set up social media accounts for word-of-mouth marketing for luxury and fashion brands.
— Established a joint venture (JV) company (Activation owns 51% stake) with Vision Entertainment to provide Douyin KOL live streaming services and DouYin Partner business. Vision Entertainment is a leading MCN organization in live streaming, game and e-commerce businesses on the Douyin platform. It has more than 100,000 contracted IPs in all categories including apparel, beauty, drama and comic short movies. It sells products via Douyin live streaming and, formed an advertising + e-commerce closed-loop generating business traffic and shares sales earning with live streaming hosts. As at July 31 this year, the JV had already completed more than 20 celebrity livestreaming shows, contributing GMV of over RMB100 million to brands. While the Group expects profit making, it expects the profit of the JV to climb and the business to grow quickly and continuously.
— Signed a cooperation agreement with Fosun Fashion Group (“FFG”), a subsidiary of Fosun International Limited (stock code: 00656.HK), to capture the emerging demand for luxury brands in China as well as to explore new brand expansion business models and solutions. Activation together with Baozun Inc. (stock code: 9991.HK) is also making a strategic investment in FFG. Activation will become the preferred one-stop platform for all brands in FFG’s portfolio, and will also explore opportunities to introduce and nurture new brands in China.
— In addition, the Group is actively looking for acquisition and JV opportunities that can enhance its all-inclusive e-commerce services. That will help the Group strengthen its data technology capabilities and fully cover e-commerce platforms including Taobao, JD.Com and Douyin to form a huge e-commerce database. With those capabilities, it can help brands improve vertical penetration and boost e-commerce agency operation services and open up new revenue sources.
— In addition to digital services, Activation Group’s subsidiary has recently signed an MOU of Cooperation Intent with Hong kong Land’s affiliated company, under which the parties plan to establish a JV company to jointly operate the relevant venues in West Bund Financial Hub in Xuhui District, Shanghai. The West Bund Financial Hub will be a world-class waterfront landmark in Shanghai, featuring fashion & art, technology & finance, health & wellness, urban luxury travel and other themes, and will be a premier product launch venue for brands from around the world
Mr. Steve Lau Kam Yiu, Joint-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Activation, said, “As their sales via e-commerce channels in China boom, the digital marketing needs of luxury brands in the China market have also kept changing. Activation has over the years gathered extensive experiences in integrated marketing of luxury and fashion brands and data of the spending behaviors of high-net-worth individuals. In its new strategical upgrade as an interactive data marketing group for fashion brands, the Group will make use of its wealth of marketing experiences and insights from those consumer behavior data and combine them with its new businesses such as the latest live streaming e-commerce and MCN to help brands enhance interactions with target consumers and convert interaction into sales, thereby increase the revenue and profit of the brands and boosting our income and profit via profit-sharing with those brands.”
About Activation Group Holdings Limited
Activation Group Holdings Limited is a leading Interactive Data Performance Marketing Group for Fashion Brands in Greater China, offering experiential marketing, digital and brand communication, and public relations services, digital marketing, e-commerce services as well as IP operations etc. It is the largest experiential marketing company serving luxury and trendy brands in Greater China, claiming a 7% share of the market. Its shares were listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited on January 16, 2020. All businesses of the Company are driven by interactive data performance and the Company has kept accelerating the comprehensive deployment of its digital marketing capability, including setting up the MCN organization, providing effective marketing and live e-commerce services to brands, thereby build a closed-loop – marketing to sales – system.