While WeChat Mini Program might sound unfamiliar, WeChat should not be a stranger for anyone who have done some research on marketing to the Chinese population. As WeChat becomes a major interpersonal communication platform and the major social media within the Chinese community, the traffic on the platform has bring immense opportunities for marketing to the said demographic across the globe, including China, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and more.
The Wechat Mini Program provides a chance of offer an application-like experience with browsing products and services while offering in-app purchase to convert the immense traffic on WeChat into actual sales figures. Multiple Australian industry leaders have adopted WeChat Mini Program as one of their marketing channels.
- City of Melbourne
The immense number of Chinese-speaking tourist visiting Melbourne every year has brought huge capitals to the city. In order to greet these overseas guests better, the City of Melbourne has developed a WeChat Mini Program to help these millions of visitors to navigate around the laneways of Melbourne.
Named “Check-in Melbourne”, the Mini-Program encourages the users to “check-in” at the 10 iconic Melbourne attractions within the program. Successful users will receive a digital badge to share on their WeChat Moments and an “Avid Traveller” luggage tag.
With the mini-program, Chinese-literate tourists can feel at home with a personal travel guide speaking their language on their palm devices.
- Queensland State Government
Yet another governmental body has adopted WeChat Mini Program to enhance their appeal to Chinese-speaking tourists. The “CityExperience Mini Program” from Queesland embeds the content from Ctrip, one of the largest online travel companies in Asia, to offer information of attractions but also allowing bookings and payments through a back-end integration with the travel platform.
“The initiative will help to ensure Queensland is front-of-mind for millions of Chinese tourists looking to book their next holiday” said Kate Jones, Tourism Industry Development Minister of Queensland.
The “CityExperience Mini Program” shares the vision of “Check-in Melbourne” to provide an intuitive guide for tourists using WeChat to enjoy the best of the amazing coast and cities in Queensland.
- AusTrade
In 5th November 2018, Austrade has launched its new digital platform to support the communication of Australian and Chinese business with its “Austrade Mini Program”.
Exploiting the existing user base in China because of the monopoly of WeChat in the country, the Mini Program from Austrade will offer information on “Australian products and services, promotional and trade events, commercial and investment opportunities and industry specific insights” while also benefitting the education and tourism sectors.
The CEO of Austrade, Dr Stephanie Fahey commented “we need to reach out to both business and the consumer. [WeChat Mini Program] is an innovative way of achieving both aims.”
This new adoption of marketing from Austrade helps with the access of information from Australia while enhancing the experience with notifications of news and registration for Austrade events.
- Chadstone – The Fashion Capital
While the tourist shuttle bus service from Chadstone provides the much-needed convenience for tourists to visit the largest shopping complex in the Southern Hemisphere, the service has hit a major obstacle in 2018 when Asian customers who booked the seats were denied from boarding the bus while others Caucasian visitors who failed to show evidences of a booking were allow to board.
The isolated incident has created a huge stir among the Asian, and particularly the Chinese community, as most of the mistreated were Chinese. In hope of resurrecting the disappointment among the community, Chadstone has looked for an alternative to reach the Chinese demographic.
A WeChat Mini Program to book its tourist shuttle bus service was soon developed with accompanying marketing campaigns. The Chadstone Tourist Shuttle Bus Mini Program integrates with the existing backend of the booking system to offer a Chinese interface for easier booking while demonstrating an incentive to accommodate Chinese visitors to Chadstone.
The Mini Program, developed by WeBOOST, gained a wide adoption in a short period of time since launch, contrasting the previous reluctance to visit the shopping complex. Over time, the initiative slowly rebuilds the lost confidence. Currently, Chinese visitors are one of the most common demographics found in Chadstone.
