The Egyptian Adventure Pop-Up Store is on a tour of eastern China. It is currently installed at the Suzhou Centre Mall through June 30, which follows a successful run at Chengdu’s Qiyi International Plaza.
The British Museum is busy growing its brand in China, and has developed a strong social media presence on WeChat and Weibo (via Jing Culture & Commerce), working with Alfilo Brands.
The London-based attraction also sells items on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms Tmall and Taobao, and livestreams its collections to China. The most recent attracted more than 300,000 Chinese visitors.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art launched a flagship store on Tmall in 2019, following the British Museum’s successful offering on the Alibaba platform.
The Egyptian Adventure Pop-Up Store is a crossover between two popular IPs in China, the British Museum and Hello Kitty, and is a physical extension of the museum’s online strategy.
British Museum growing brand in China
The immersive exhibition recreates an open-air Egyptian temple, with Hello Kitty showing up as ancient Egyptian gods, including Horus, Ra, Anubis, Baset and Thoth.
In addition, it includes replicas of the British Museum’s Egyptian collection, including the Gayer-Anderson cat, pharaoh sculptures and the Rosetta Stone.
The store is also selling British Museum x Hello Kitty merchandise, such as phone cases, mugs, stationery and miniatures.
Jing Culture & Commerce, which is part of the Jing Group, recently released a report exploring cultural livestreaming in the wake of COVID-19.
Sanrio is set to open a Hello Kitty theme park in 2024 in the Chinese island province of Hainan, while another Hello Kitty theme park is scheduled to launch in Vietnam in 2021.
Images: WeChat/woo.oh!
