Singles Day, Double Impact: How CMOs Can Win Big on 11.11
Every marketer loves a big moment, and in Asia, they do not come bigger than Singles Day.
What started as a quirky shopping holiday has evolved into the $200B blockbuster that CMOs cannot afford to ignore. On 11.11, millions of shoppers flood marketplaces, baskets fill at lightning speed, and brand leaders walk away either crushing their targets or wondering where it all went wrong.
The good news is there is still time to get it right. Here is your step-by-step playbook for making 11.11 work harder for your brand.
1. Be Everywhere Your Customers Are Without Paying for Every Click
Here is the thing about Singles Day: consumers do not browse, they beeline.
They head straight to the big platforms like Alibaba, Amazon, eBay, JD.com, Shopee, Lazada and Tokopedia because that is where the deals are and where the algorithms keep them hooked. In China alone, Singles Day transactions hit ¥1.44 trillion ($203B) last year, with 300,000+ brands competing across 60 million livestreaming hours.
That is organic traffic you did not pay for, but it does not mean you can sit back. Brands that win here invest in platform visibility: curated storefronts, algorithm-friendly listings and creative built for marketplace discovery.
Because if your products are not where the eyeballs are, they might as well not exist.
2. Start Sooner Than You Think: Demand First, Discounts Second
Every CMO knows this truth: demand is not captured, it is created.
According to WARC’s Multiplier Effect research (which we co-authored), campaigns that focus on building demand before chasing conversions consistently outperform those that do not, and Singles Day is no exception.
That means balancing brand and performance media all the way through to 11.11. Done right, an integrated approach can lift Singles Day sales by up to 40% according to data from our ROI Genome.
ROI Genome also tells us that only 3 to 7% of your audience is actively in-market at any given time. So if you are banking purely on performance media, you will be fishing in a very small pond.
Use broad-reach campaigns to stay top of mind in the weeks leading up to 11.11. Not fluffy brand-building, but commercial storytelling that ties directly into your business strategy and sets up your performance spend to deliver when it matters.
3. Mobile First, or Nowhere
Here is the reality: mobile owns Singles Day and mobile shoppers are impatient.
Google’s Need for Mobile Speed report found that 53% of visits are abandoned if a mobile site takes longer than three seconds to load. That is not just lost clicks, that is lost revenue, lost market share and potentially lost lifetime value.
You need to do three things well:
Optimise the experience. Your mobile site and checkout must handle the traffic surge, especially from shoppers who research early but convert later.
Leverage platform expertise. The big e-commerce players have spent millions perfecting mobile-first shopping experiences. Their native apps are designed to be frictionless, fast and addictive, so make sure your products are set up to capitalise on that environment.
Design creative for mobile. Tight framing, bold contrasts, fast cuts, vertical-first formats and sound-off messaging are no longer optional.
Repurposed brand TVCs will not cut it. In fact, Jo-Ann Foo, Senior Director at Analytic Partners says “mobile-specific creative can deliver up to 300% higher ROI compared to assets designed for other formats.”
Bottom line: cinematic beauty shots might look great in a cinema spot, but on mobile, thumbs do not stop for pretty.
4. Think Like a CFO: 11.11 Is About Cashflow, Not Margin
If you are measuring Singles Day by short-term profitability, you are missing the bigger picture.
This is not just about driving margin on individual SKUs, it is about unlocking cashflow to fund stock purchases, marketing spend and operations leading into the crucial Christmas period.
The smartest brands treat Singles Day as a strategic lever, not just a sales spike:
Use loss leaders deliberately to drive volume.
Bundle complementary products to increase basket size.
Collaborate across marketing, finance and operations to ensure the numbers work before you launch.
From a media perspective, this is not the time to optimise purely for efficiency. You have one window and one shot. That means prioritising placements that cut through the noise, even if short-term ROAS takes a temporary hit.
5. Stay Nimble and Invest Where the Impact Is
One of the biggest mistakes we see is brands locking in their Singles Day strategy too early and then refusing to adapt when reality hits.
You need to watch CPCs, CPMs and conversion rates in a timely manner and be ready to shift budgets fast. If performance costs spike, take that as a signal: pull back, reinvest in demand-building, and create momentum that carries into December.
Singles Day is not a one-off event, it is a springboard. Play it right, and 11.11 fuels not just a great week but a record-breaking quarter.
The Takeaway for CMOs
Singles Day is no longer just a retail holiday, it is a high-stakes commercial battleground.
Winning requires more than a few well-placed ads. It is about:
Starting early
Investing across the funnel
Building mobile-first experiences
Thinking like a commercial leader, not just a marketer
Because when you get 11.11 right, you do not just win Singles Day, you set your brand up to win the season and, potentially, the year.
Need some help getting your ducks in a row? Get in touch with our modellers to find out how you can ensure you don’t get stood up by your customers on Singles Day.