Case study
Camper: growing a design brand on China's social platforms.
Camper needed social growth in China without losing its design identity. We grew followers 4x and drove 31% same-store sales growth in 18 months.
Client
Camper
Industry
Fashion / Footwear
Services
Platforms
The client
Shoes from Mallorca since 1975. Social in China wasn't keeping up.
Camper has been making shoes in Mallorca since 1975. Unconventional design, Mediterranean craftsmanship, comfort over trends.
In China, they had accounts on WeChat, Weibo, and RedNote with a combined 43,000 followers. Engagement at 1.2%. Stores in tier-one cities, but social wasn't driving people into them. The brand needed growth, but not at any cost. Camper's design identity had to come through in everything. No discount campaigns, no generic lifestyle posts.
Camper's social presence across RedNote and WeChat. KOL collaborations, brand stories, and designer partnerships.
What we did
Content built around what makes Camper worth following.
Camper's target in China is design-conscious professionals, roughly 28 to 45. Not the audience that responds to hard sells. So we built content around what makes Camper worth following: design stories, artist collaborations, and how real people in Chinese cities actually wear the shoes.
RedNote: where we focused the most energy
We partnered with micro-influencers in architecture, interiors, and creative fields. Content went deep on why the shoes are made the way they are. Materials, construction, design intent. It pulled in a smaller audience than a fashion influencer push would have, but engagement was significantly higher.
WeChat: the longer stories
Mini-documentaries from the Mallorca workshops. Behind-the-scenes of how Camper designs and builds their shoes. Content with enough substance that people actually had a reason to stay subscribed.
Weibo: for conversation
One thread about whether shoes should be designed for how they feel or how they look ran for three days and pulled in thousands of comments.
Our team handled all of this from China. Native speakers, platform-specific content, weekly reviews to see what was and wasn't landing.
43K → 187K
Followers in 18 months
4.7%
Engagement rate (from 1.2%)
38%
eCommerce traffic from RedNote
+31%
Same-store sales YoY
The outcome
The first few months were slow. Then things picked up.
Over 18 months, followers grew from 43,000 to 187,000. Engagement went from 1.2% to 4.7%, well above footwear benchmarks.
RedNote was the surprise. Despite the smallest follower count, it drove 38% of all eCommerce traffic. Smaller audience, higher intent.
The effect showed up in stores too. Same-store sales grew 31% year over year. Retention improved 22%. Purchase frequency moved from 1.3 to 2.1 per customer annually.
Three RedNote collaborators kept posting about Camper after the paid campaigns were done. No contract, no brief. They just liked the shoes. That kind of thing doesn't come from a campaign brief.
Your turn
Want to grow a premium brand on China's social platforms?
Fixed scope. Fixed price. Team on the ground.
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