Manchester Airport × Juneyao Air | China Market Activation
To strengthen awareness of the direct route between Manchester and Shanghai, Manchester Airport sought to position itself as a preferred UK gateway among Chinese travellers—while translating its offering into culturally relevant content that resonates with China’s digitally native audience.
Beyond visibility, the key challenge was to shift perception from “a transport hub” to “a travel experience entry point”, and drive consideration through trusted local voices.
Hylink designed a content-led, KOL-driven storytelling strategy, leveraging both RedNote and WeChat to bridge inspiration and information across platforms.
Rather than delivering a one-off announcement, we focused on:
▪ Embedding the route within aspirational travel narratives
▪ Activating trusted Chinese-speaking voices based in the UK
▪ Creating a multi-touchpoint journey from discovery to consideration
This ensured the campaign not only reached audiences, but also guided intent and preference.
We collaborated with carefully selected KOLs to deliver a dual-platform content strategy:
▪ On Xiaohongshu (RedNote), UK-based KOL Judy created an immersive video narrative, showcasing the end-to-end travel experience and highlighting the convenience of the Manchester–Shanghai direct route.
▪ On WeChat, UK Stories delivered an editorial-style post to reinforce key information and credibility.
Content was designed to balance:
▪ Lifestyle storytelling (experience, ease, journey)
▪ Functional messaging (route convenience, travel benefits)
▪ Culturally adapted tone for Chinese outbound travellers
The campaign successfully delivered strong engagement relative to its scale, indicating high content relevance and audience interest:
▪ Generated 23.7K total views across platforms
▪ Achieved 2K+ engagements (likes, saves, shares, comments)
▪ Demonstrated active audience interaction, particularly on RedNote where travel inspiration drives decision-making
More importantly, the campaign validated that:
→ Localised storytelling + trusted KOL voices significantly outperform generic route promotion
→ Chinese travellers respond more strongly to experience-led narratives rather than informational messaging alone
Extended Value (Beyond Campaign Execution)
In addition to content delivery, Hylink provided strategic support on China market positioning, including:
▪ Platform selection strategy (RedNote vs WeChat roles)
▪ Content direction aligned with Chinese travel decision behaviour
▪ KOL profiling based on audience relevance rather than vanity metrics
This ensured the campaign was not just executed, but built as part of a longer-term China engagement framework.
