Slim Secrets spends up on Avril Lavigne
Jul 6, 2017 20:28:48 GMT
Uncle Bob, ben545, and 5 more like this
Post by sliperslip on Jul 6, 2017 20:28:48 GMT
Melbourne-based snack brand Slim Secrets might have only turned over $2 million in 2016-17 but it is sparing no expense to crack China, enlisting the world's top-ranked female tennis player, Australia's largest daigou, and pop star Avril Lavigne to the cause.
In the same month that at least two new intermediaries have emerged to help brands gain exposure in mainland China via Australia's 40,000 daigou, or 'suitcase sellers' - the ASX-bound 'one stop shop for daigou' chain AuMake, and an ecommerce platform called DaigouSales which links the personal shoppers with brands - Slim Secrets is risking a more direct approach.
The maker of protein bars and low carb fit balls has inked a distribution deal with Shanghai-based Sunjoy Marketing & Trading, which will help its snacks meet the conditions that Chinese authorities require before they can be stocked on shelves.
For Slim Secrets, this has meant removing all flax seed and linseed from its China-bound batches, as they are considered medicinal ingredients there.
Sharon Thurin, a wellness coach who founded Slim Secrets in 2005, said such mysteries made direct sales into China a slow and expensive process but that daigou could only take a brand so far.
"We've had products like our protein shakes turn up on Taobao [the Chinese version of eBay] and we have no control over the messaging, they've been presented as meal replacements where that is not the case," she said.
"Done right, the daigou channel is still great for seeding a brand but when you go to China and look at all those drugstore and supermarket shelves you realise that is the big opportunity."
Slim Secrets had doubled its marketing budget to 20 per cent of revenue ahead of the China campaign, Ms Thurin said. It will feature content posted to microblogging site Weibo featuring pop star Avril Lavigne, and meet-and-greet after September's Beijing Open tennis tournament with top-ranked player Angelique Kerber. who has been an ambassador since her fourth round exit in January's Australian Open.
Ms Lavigne has also been posting about Slim Secrets to her Western social media followership of 80 million, which would be costing Slim Secrets around $20,000 per post, estimated Tina Zafiropoulos, a Sydney-based 'influencer manager' for the likes of Deliveroo.
Ms Thurin claimed Ms Lavigne was the third most powerful Western influencer in China, after becoming in 2014 one of the first international pop stars to tour extensively there. The brand is also buying posts from Chinese "key opinion leaders" in health and nutrition, she added.
"You only have one shot at China so we're going all in," she said.
If the China gamble does not pay off, Slim Secrets has also begun courting the Australian daigou market.
The daigou channel turned over $1 billion in Australia in 2016-17, estimated Matthew McDougall, who ran a digital agency for western brands from Beijing for 13 years, before returning home to Sydney in 2016 to launch DaigouSales.
The platform is charging brands $250 a month for direct access to daigou, whom he hopes to attract to the marketplace with streamlined logistics and a more esoteric product range than other intermediaries.
"My wife is a daigou, so I very much live and breathe this channel," he said.
Unless brands were prepared to take the high-risk, high-reward path of Slim Secrets, Mr McDougall said their main routes to China had hitherto been Alibaba's TMall or JD.com, which could still cost $100,000 a year once factors like compulsory escrow accounts and marketing spends were taken into account.
Article:
www.afr.com/leadership/entrepreneur/slim-secrets-spends-up-on-avril-lavigne-angelique-kerber-for-china-push-20170619-gwu1g8
In the same month that at least two new intermediaries have emerged to help brands gain exposure in mainland China via Australia's 40,000 daigou, or 'suitcase sellers' - the ASX-bound 'one stop shop for daigou' chain AuMake, and an ecommerce platform called DaigouSales which links the personal shoppers with brands - Slim Secrets is risking a more direct approach.
The maker of protein bars and low carb fit balls has inked a distribution deal with Shanghai-based Sunjoy Marketing & Trading, which will help its snacks meet the conditions that Chinese authorities require before they can be stocked on shelves.
For Slim Secrets, this has meant removing all flax seed and linseed from its China-bound batches, as they are considered medicinal ingredients there.
Sharon Thurin, a wellness coach who founded Slim Secrets in 2005, said such mysteries made direct sales into China a slow and expensive process but that daigou could only take a brand so far.
"We've had products like our protein shakes turn up on Taobao [the Chinese version of eBay] and we have no control over the messaging, they've been presented as meal replacements where that is not the case," she said.
"Done right, the daigou channel is still great for seeding a brand but when you go to China and look at all those drugstore and supermarket shelves you realise that is the big opportunity."
Slim Secrets had doubled its marketing budget to 20 per cent of revenue ahead of the China campaign, Ms Thurin said. It will feature content posted to microblogging site Weibo featuring pop star Avril Lavigne, and meet-and-greet after September's Beijing Open tennis tournament with top-ranked player Angelique Kerber. who has been an ambassador since her fourth round exit in January's Australian Open.
Ms Lavigne has also been posting about Slim Secrets to her Western social media followership of 80 million, which would be costing Slim Secrets around $20,000 per post, estimated Tina Zafiropoulos, a Sydney-based 'influencer manager' for the likes of Deliveroo.
Ms Thurin claimed Ms Lavigne was the third most powerful Western influencer in China, after becoming in 2014 one of the first international pop stars to tour extensively there. The brand is also buying posts from Chinese "key opinion leaders" in health and nutrition, she added.
"You only have one shot at China so we're going all in," she said.
If the China gamble does not pay off, Slim Secrets has also begun courting the Australian daigou market.
The daigou channel turned over $1 billion in Australia in 2016-17, estimated Matthew McDougall, who ran a digital agency for western brands from Beijing for 13 years, before returning home to Sydney in 2016 to launch DaigouSales.
The platform is charging brands $250 a month for direct access to daigou, whom he hopes to attract to the marketplace with streamlined logistics and a more esoteric product range than other intermediaries.
"My wife is a daigou, so I very much live and breathe this channel," he said.
Unless brands were prepared to take the high-risk, high-reward path of Slim Secrets, Mr McDougall said their main routes to China had hitherto been Alibaba's TMall or JD.com, which could still cost $100,000 a year once factors like compulsory escrow accounts and marketing spends were taken into account.
Article:
www.afr.com/leadership/entrepreneur/slim-secrets-spends-up-on-avril-lavigne-angelique-kerber-for-china-push-20170619-gwu1g8
