SHANGHAI — Ralph Lauren‘s vision of the American dream has clearly struck a chord with the Chinese audience, which became the impetus for the American brand to host its first marketing spectacle in the country.
During the first week of December, the company staged a Shanghai takeover, which included a showstopping drone show by the historic Bund and the China premiere of the HBO documentary “Very Ralph.”
In the lead-up to the event, Ralph Lauren also lined the autumnal streets of the city with custom “Very Lauren” banners, then covered a busy subway tunnel at Xujiahui, the city’s downtown intersection, with a multimedia display of clips from the poignant documentary.
“We have basically blanketed the city with advertisements. It’s on airplanes, it’s in the hotels, and it’s on Tencent. It’s hopefully going to be seen by millions of people,” said David Lauren, Ralph Lauren’s son and the company’s vice chairman and chief innovation officer.
The company executive, who visits China annually, said the cultural event was meant to be the most significant brand experience ever created in the fast-growing market.
“And then, of course, we did a drone show,” Lauren said proudly.
Upon landing in the city on Tuesday, Lauren rushed to the Bund, sprinted up the stairs, and arrived just in time for the exhilarating moment. “As I came up the stairs, lights came up above the sky — it said ‘Very Ralph,’ I didn’t know if I was dreaming, and it was an amazing way [for me] to enter the country,” Lauren enthused.
Animating the city’s velvet-black expanse were words of wisdom (“I Design Dreams”) and 10 iconic images from the brand, including the classic Polo pony, a silk tie, sleek runway silhouettes, a logo handbag and an image of Ralph Lauren tipping his cowboy hat. The cinematic spectacle involved more than 1,000 synchronized drones, lasted for 15 minutes and extended to the size of a football field.
Ralph Lauren’s drone show in Shanghai.
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Lauren said using technology to showcase a “viral moment” was meant to defy expectations and reposition Ralph Lauren as a new symbol of luxury. “A lot of people see Ralph Lauren as classic, as a polo shirt, as a traditional American item, and we wanted to immediately hit them over the head in a big way and say Ralph Lauren is the future,” Lauren said.
A new definition of luxury based on status, or “living a better life,” instead of lofty prices, is what Ralph Lauren stands for, according to Lauren.
As Chinese luxury shoppers, including its wealthiest clan, move away from “wealth flaunting” aesthetics and opt for styles with discreet charm, brands like Ralph Lauren, Brunello Cucinelli and Loro Piana continue to appeal and ring up sales.
In the most recent second quarter, Ralph Lauren’s revenue growth in Asia reached 9 percent to $380 million, which surpassed Europe’s 7 percent and North America’s 3 percent.
“A few years ago, the Chinese wanted everything to feel modern and new, but today, one of the things that’s been trending in China is this concept of ‘old money,’ which is also very Ralph Lauren. Chinese shoppers are finally responding to products that make them feel emotional. They want clothes that can stay for them forever, that can be passed on to their children because they have such a story to them — the idea of ‘timelessness’ is also very Chinese,” Lauren said.
Despite the trend’s opportunistic connotation of striking it rich, Lauren would like to emphasize the brand’s legacy steeped in “love, not money,” Lauren added.
When asked how uncertainty facing U.S.-China relations could threaten the appeal of the American dream under an incoming Trump administration, in turns fraying brand perception, Lauren said that it’s important to remember the immigrant narrative essential to the so-called American dream and that “Ralph Lauren is telling a story of someone trying to define themselves in a changing world, and that’s a universal idea,” Lauren said.
On Wednesday evening, the film premiered at the Shanghai Concert Hall and gathered an eclectic roster of actors, musicians, songwriters and athletes from China and other Asian hubs.
Inside the Shanghai Concert Hall.
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The diverse cast of celebrities included Chinese actors Li Bingbing, Deng Chao, Liu Shishi, Gao Yuanyuan and Zhu Zhu; Chinese athletes Guo Jingjing, Yao Yan and Xu Xin; Chinese anchor Yang Lan; Japanese American singer Caelan Moriarty; K-pop star Krystal Jung; South Korean actor Ha Jung Woo; Malaysian news anchor Marion Caunter; Thai actress Sarocha Chankimha, aka Freen, and more.
Chinese athlete Guo Jingling.
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“I think about how the brand has transcended generations; I’m just looking forward to getting to know him a little better, to read his mind and find out what inspired him,” Carter said after mugging for cameras at the step-and-repeat. “I want to know what keeps him motivated,” Yang Lan said.
The celebrity red carpet was livestreamed across social media platforms including Weibo, WeChat and Xiaohongshu, where guests were seen walking through a majestic stairwell dressed in key items from brands across the designer’s universe, which include Ralph Lauren Collection, Purple Label and Double RL Collection.
The “Very Ralph” film, originally aired in 2019, illustrates how Lauren successfully turned his dreams into reality, using storytelling to build a multibillion-dollar powerhouse. The film is currently streaming on HBO, Tencent and Bilibili.
Ralph Lauren told WWD at the time that he initially didn’t want to do the film but was eventually convinced by Richard Plepler, former chairman and chief executive officer of HBO, whom he met at Lauren’s Polo Bar restaurant. “I didn’t want the publicity. But this is a momentous time. It was the 50th anniversary, and it all came together as something special,” Lauren said at the time.
Ralph Lauren made its official debut in the Chinese market in 2011, following a restructuring of its distribution network previously managed by Dickson Concepts. The company began opening flagships in luxury shopping malls and actively engaged with local e-commerce marketing mechanisms. It became one of the first brands to join Tmall’s then-Luxury Pavilion in 2017.
As one of the earliest brands to bring hospitality offerings to the market — Ralph’s Coffee in Beijing, quickly followed by Shanghai and the Ralph Bar at Taikoo Li Chengdu — the company is also scouting locations for a possible restaurant. “We definitely would like a restaurant here and we’ve looked at locations — it’s authentic to our story,” Lauren shared.
To further amplify brand visibility in China, the company has plans to grow brick-and-mortar offerings by opening around 20 to 30 new stores in first- and second-tier cities per year in the next three to five years.
By the end of 2024, the company plans to have 200 stores in mainland China.
