Singles’ Day (also termed 11.11 Global Shopping Festival by Alibaba) is held annually on November 11 and is the largest global online shopping festival. In the lead-up to this year’s event, our Brand Journeys to Singles’ Day 2020 series profiles 11 brands that are participating in Singles’ Day, and we explore each brand’s journey on Alibaba’s cross-border e-commerce platform, Tmall Global. In this report, we spotlight Bravado, a global merchandise division of Universal Music Group. Bravado: Brand Background Brothers Keith and Barry Drinkwater created Bravado in 1997 with the aim of offering high-quality licensed artist merchandise to audiences worldwide. From design and manufacturing to distribution, Bravado works with prominent entertainers such as Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift. Following its acquisition by Universal Music Group in 2007, the brand has worked with over 200 new and well-established artists to offer tailor-made services to each of its clients, and it has teams in 40 countries. Bravado sells licensed merchandise through live tours, selected retail outlets and online stores.

Brand Spotlight

In partnership with Alibaba, Bravado launched its Tmall Global store on October 28, 2020. As part of the new store opening, the brand announced a collaboration with Taylor Swift to bring the singer’s new merchandise for her recent album Folkelore to Chinese fans two weeks ahead of the official release date, giving fans exclusive early access from Bravado’s Tmall Global store on Singles’ Day. As we stated in our recent Singles’ Day 2020 Preview, Alibaba expects around 800 million consumers to shop on its platforms during this year’s Singles’ Day, providing a significant opportunity for Bravado to drive traffic to its newly launched store. Bravado’s Chief Financial Officer, John Habbouch, sees the brand’s partnership with Tmall Global as an “opportunity to engage more deeply with fans in China and to continue to reach new consumers and audiences around the world,” as reported by Alibaba’s news hub Alizila. As Alibaba expects 250,000 brands to join the online shopping festival, Bravado is looking to differentiate itself by selling exclusive merchandise from US artists. This exclusivity and the early-access benefits that the brand is offering is likely to create consumer excitement. Since the Covid-19 pandemic has brought a large part of the merchandising market to a halt, particularly due to live tour cancellations, Bravado’s recent strategic partnership with Tmall Global provides an alternative channel for the brand to expand its potential consumer base in a new market and capitalize on the desire for exclusivity among Chinese shoppers to drive sales. To adapt to the shift toward online sales channels post pandemic, Bravado is planning to put together online exhibitions to showcase the work of its artists and the merchandise creations from its designers. China’s Music Market  The music merchandising market is well established in China, providing a ready customer base for Bravado to tap into: According to the IFPI “Global Music Report,” China ranks seventh in the Top 10 Music Markets of 2019. Moreover, global sales revenue in licensed merchandise reached $292.8 million in 2019, representing one of the largest categories of music industry growth, according to Licensing International. Alibaba recognizes that this growing market presents significant opportunity for Bravado, stating that “the collaboration [with Tmall Global] will offer music lovers in China creative merchandise to complete their fan experience, just in time for the 2020 Double 11 Global Shopping Festival.” Bravado is looking to build brand awareness in the China market by offering exclusive benefits to Tmall Global shoppers, including the opportunity to unlock prizes such as access to songs, full albums and merchandise signed by artists. [caption id="attachment_118785" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Bravado’s Tmall store offers promotions and benefits for Chinese consumers
Source: Bravado/Tmall Global [/caption]   Bravado sells a diverse range of merchandise, including water bottles, skateboard decks and board games, and products feature with logos, album design art and artist portraits. The brand claims to tailor its merchandise offerings to its artist clients and always seeks to “bring [the] artist’s creative vision to life.” Bravado is well prepared to take advantage of marketing opportunities for its first Singles’ Day: It plans to leverage livestreaming and social media to boost consumer engagement and direct traffic to its Tmall Global store.