Connecting Vancouver International Airport with Chinese Audiences

Vancouver International Airport (YVR) has been actively engaging with Chinese Audiences since 2016 on WeChat and Weibo. 

LAT is proud of the work we do for YVR because managing the airport’s Chinese social media requires both quality translation services and a marketing strategy.

YVR has more Mainland Chinese air carriers than any airport in North America and Europe, with over 100 direct flights a week to destinations in Asia. It is therefore important for the airport to engage with the Chinese population, both locally and abroad, to provide valuable information about its services.

Our team takes pride in assisting clients to build a strong Chinese social media presence. We believe this service is part of what makes YVR one of the top 3 best North American airports (2022 Skytrax World Airport Awards).

Since social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are banned in China, we leverage their Chinese equivalents, WeChat, Weibo, and RED, to connect with Chinese travellers.

YVR takes its Chinese social media engagement to the next level:

Looking at the success of WeChat and Weibo amongst Chinese travellers and Chinese Canadian audiences, YVR is now venturing into RED (Xiaohongshu), one of China’s fastest-growing social media platforms!

To understand more about how the platform works wonders to engage with Chinese audiences, read the blog here!

Our Chinese Marketing team understands Chinese culture, consumers, and social media, and has vast Chinese-Canadian social media marketing experience.

According to Vividata, “53% of Chinese Canadians report that they pay more attention to the information in their own language”, so being on the right Chinese social media platform, such as RED, along with WeChat and Weibo is crucial. 

Within less than 6 hours of publishing the very first post on RED, our team was blown away by the results: the post received 250+ likes and the account got 1,400+ followers! 🥳

In its first few weeks, the account gathered more than 4,500 followers. The first post had nearly 30K page views, 884 likes, 223 comments, 159 shares, and 171 collects!      

On YVR’s RED, the comments section is continuously active and the account receives countless PMs (private messages) from enthusiastic readers. We believed YVR would be a big hit on RED, considering the airport’s success on other Chinese social media platforms such as WeChat and Weibo, but this platform even exceeds our most optimistic expectations!

Some of our achievements working with YVR include:

  • Helping triple the number of Weibo followers within six months.
  • Contributing to a hugely popular campaign with Hong Kong Airlines featuring martial arts master Jackie Chan. We gained 900 followers on Weibo during the one-week campaign.
  • Managing an ad campaign to celebrate the first anniversary of YVR being on WeChat that resulted in more than 1,000 new followers.
  • Helping YVR keep passengers well informed during the COVID-19 pandemic by translating and sharing information about safety-related information, changes to travel procedures, etc. We have continued to grow followers and increase engagement during this time, despite there being a significant drop in the number of flights.

We make connections happen with translation, social media management, and more!

Our expertise lies in marketing to a multicultural audience with the help of an experienced team of translators and marketers. The whole team at LAT comes from vastly different backgrounds and cultures, which is what allows us to be experts in multicultural marketing and translation. We believe that language should not be a barrier to connecting with your customers.  

We are committed to exploring and assisting clients and businesses who are enthusiastic to reach and engage with diverse audiences in Canada and abroad!

If you need help in marketing to a diverse audience, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us!

Our trusted partners at LAT Multilingual have been by our side for more than five years, helping us connect with our community in an innovative way. Their commitment to premium service has helped us remain the "Best Airport in North America" and we would recommend them to any business looking for excellent work grounded in quality data. 

Christopher Richards
Manager, Marketing
Vancouver International Airport (YVR)

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