Hedone, a rising online C-Beauty brand, uses their social media influence to connect with young customers through humor and tongue-in-cheek packaging. Their in-house marketing team also creates video content that touches on affairs important to China’s Gen Z and millennial generations that wouldn’t generally get a mainstream platform, including diversity, gender fluidity, self expression, and even LGBTQ issues. Their August 2018 video to market the Existence collection, “The Grand Hedone Hotel,” encourages fans to consider “What is the raw and essential you?” The comments under the video are filled with emotional answers, flanked by words of encouragement from Hedone: don’t be ashamed of who you are because you’re not the only one with a complicated soul.
Media empowerment
Publishers at the forefront of youth culture in the West seem to be recognizing China’s potential and giving it new platforms. This month, The Face magazine celebrated its relaunch after publishing its last edition in 2004, this time tapping Chinese-Australian influencer and photographer Margaret Zhang as its Asia creative director. Dazed Media recently announced it will launch Dazed China later this summer in partnership with Yoho! and backed by C Ventures, the investment firm run by entrepreneur and K11 art mall founder Adrian Cheng. While Dazed China has yet to reveal what content they have in store, it’s likely that one highlight will be China’s burgeoning young independent fashion designers, who are making waves in Gen-Z circles for their fresh take on Chinese-ness.
“Mars [Liang, Yoho!’s founder] and the Yoho! team fully understand our motto ‘empower youth through creativity’ and we believe that Dazed China in their hands can make a significant contribution for this generation as it carves out this new identity,” Hack told JWT Intelligence.
“What’s exciting is China’s youth are moving so fast. What Mars [Liang] created at Yoho! is leaps ahead of any publisher in the West, so we are being introduced to a 21st Century publishing model that is for me me is the future of youth me is the future of youth media.”