Stat of the Week
In the first two months of 2024 FURLA has generated 700% more engagement on social media than the previous 30 months combined.
Behind the Stat:
👜 We track over 150 different luxury and premium brands and the highest ranking Furla ever achieved on our COMPASS index was 44th (back in February 2022), but was typically ranked above the 100th position. In January and February, the brand was in the Top 5 of all brands across the major social platforms in China.
👜 This significant uplift in social performance was driven by the announcement of Karry Wang (王俊凯) as their brand ambassador – over 12m engagements on Weibo alone during the period.
👜 The official accounts of the brand grew 6.5% on Weibo (38,000 new followers), 37.1% on RED (8,500 new followers), and 5.8% on Douyin (4,300 new followers).
👜 The move appears an attempt at revitalizing the brand in China, and while the social metrics show a significant increase, the ecommerce follow through on Tmall is less impactful.
👜 The brand had seen a decline in 2023 of nearly 60% in Tmall revenues (vs. 2022) – the January performance would have been the best month in 2023, but only the 9th best in 2022.
👜 The top product was the Candy bag showcased in the communications, with the positive sign of being sold at full price (Furla typically maintains a significant amount of its Tmall portfolio on discount at an average of between 20-30% off the listing price).
Moving Forward
📈 Furla – in the past we have seen brand ambassador announcements generate huge engagements on social with a varying level of ecommerce impact. Boucheron, with their announcement of Xiao Zhan last November, remains the best-in-class case study of the past year, resulting in 1,400% revenue uplift for the 11.11 period 2023 vs 2022). However, the impact is often short lived if not maximized after the fact. Furla need to double down and continue their drive to capture attention in China.
🎯 Competition – Its certainly interesting to see Furla activating so strongly at a time when the market segment is facing pressure from a shifting Chinese dynamic. It comes as brands such as Michael Kors have also been looking to revitalize to stimulate the market, with the net effect adding pressure on brands such as Coach, MCM WORLDWIDE, and Tory Burch to maintain market share against an increasingly competitive landscape.
