How Sunny Co Clothing Built Its Brand

It started as a small Instagram account with just 7,000 followers. On May 3, 2017, they posted a photo of a customer in swimwear along with contest rules: post your own swimwear photo, tag your friends and Sunny Co Clothing, share how you're participating, and enter for a chance to win—basically the same kind of follow-and-share giveaway we see on Weibo today. The contest ran for 24 hours (branded as a "24-hour flash clearance").

The difference was that not many people had run this kind of campaign back then, and it was layered on top of another popular promotion from those years: "pay shipping only and get the product free."

As long as you joined the contest, you could pay just the shipping fee to receive a free swimsuit. The swimsuit carried a sticker price of $65, the shipping cost was only $13, and the actual unit cost came to roughly $6.

They ended up with 750,000 followers and sold 50,000 units. (That number has since dropped to 300,000.)

Rumor has it that the whole operation was run by two college students who hadn't yet graduated.

What was the hottest promotional tactic back then? Probably the WeChat Moments "like this post to get a free product" craze?