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Case Study: Clinique & 55Haitao

Clinique increased revenue in China by 88% through livestreaming with 55Haitao

+88%

Revenue YoY (Full year)

+258%

Revenue YoY (6.18 Shopping Day)

+2,101%

Revenue YoY (Singles’ Day)

+42%

Revenue YoY (Cyber Weekend)

Background 

Clinique, a subsidiary of the Estée Lauder Companies, is one of the largest skincare and cosmetics brands, with stores in 135 countries across the globe. Clinique’s mission has always been to provide the safest, most effective formulas in simple routines that bring remarkable results. 

55Haitao is a publisher that provides cashback and coupons to customers in China when they shop with international online retailers like Clinique. By combining the power of content marketing and shopping rewards, 55Haitao helps brands drive awareness and revenue at the same time – creating the perfect balance between brand and performance. 

 

The Challenge

Clinique’s objective was to increase brand awareness and market share in China. To do this, Rakuten teamed up with 55Haitao and introduced Clinique to new, more complex performance strategies that would take its presence in China to a new level.  

The teams were tasked with the challenging goal of increasing Clinique’s Chinese affiliate program revenue by 50% year-over-year. Additionally, the affiliate strategies used to reach the revenue goal had to be new to Clinique and trending in the market. 

 

The Solution & Results

The Clinique and 55Haitao partnership became the first to successfully launch the powerful combination of content-plus-coupon strategy on the Rakuten affiliate network. The teams picked two popular Chinese content platforms, Douyin and Little Red Book, where they launched two new trending content initiatives to engage their audience:  

Livestreaming + Coupon

Hosted on Douyin and Little Red Book with A-list influencers, the livestream highlighted some of Clinique’s exciting products and offered an exclusive coupon.

Content Seeding

Popular influencers from Douyin and Little Red Book were invited to participate and launched a series of content for Clinique in real-time.

Together, Rakuten and 55Haitao helped Clinique outperform its revenue goal and increased sales by 88% YoY. The brand also saw 52% more orders, 275% more clicks and 135% more new customers. Additionally, the innovative strategies achieved: 

+233% Livestream Views (Compared to Benchmark)

The livestream garnered 7,000 views and a 45,000 popularity score (a Douyin metric to measure livestream engagement) in the first 15 minutes. The benchmark for a successful livestream campaign is 3,000 views and a 30,000 popularity score.

+175% Content Seeding Impressions (Compared to Benchmark)

The content seeding initiative achieved a 4,000 engagement score and gained 70,000 impressions in one week. The benchmark for a successful content seeding campaign is a 3,000 engagement score and 40,000 impressions.

The partnership with Rakuten Advertising is extremely important for our campaign. We work closely with the Rakuten Advertising team daily to identify potential growth opportunities, address needs and solve issues for our audience. The team also helped communicate with Clinique team and share insights from both sides when necessary. We are grateful to have Rakuten Advertising as a strong partner in this campaign and in 55Haitao’s business.
Abby Wei
Senior Strategic Partnerships Manager, 55Haitao

Why Rakuten Advertising?

Global Expansion

As the leading global affiliate network, we have established relationships with over 150,000 publisher partners worldwide, like 55Haitao, that can be immediately activated to get the results brands need. Our network provides the foundation to experiment with some of the most innovative models emerging in different regions worldwide. 

Innovative Technology 

We deliver industry-leading technology, such as AI-driven paid placement recommendations, affiliate benchmarking and forecasting, and advanced reporting, to help you easily launch and manage your affiliate campaigns. In this case, our Linkless Code Tracking technology was used to commission publishers based on the use of exclusive codes at checkout. This allows advertisers to partner with different influencers and ambassadors and track performance holistically.  

Strategic Services

Backed by an experienced full-service team, we provide award-winning strategic services that build better ad experiences for your audience. Our team of experts is here to help you outthink the competition, outperform your goals, and create affiliate programs that get your brand in front of the right people in the right way and deliver real results. 

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