Double agent

Pop princesses team up

What?: In a targeted country-specific marketing move, Kylie Minogue recently recorded a duet with Taiwanese Mandopop singer Jolin Tsai especially for the Asian edition of her upcoming album, X. Tsai featured on the track ‘In My Arms’.

Tsai is a branding stalwart, having appeared in commercials for Lux hair care products, McDonald’s, the Oops! Jealous nail polish range, Levi’s, Max Factor, China Mobile, and Pepsi (among others). The deluxe version of Tsai’s own Agent J album features a three-part 70-minute music movie filmed in France, London, and Bangkok. The movie – which cost NT 50M to film – stars Tsai as the leather-clad Agent J and boasts a host of popular Korean actors. The film features prominent promotion for Pepsi during a key pole dancing sequence. The track ‘Let’s Move It’ from the album has also featured in commercials for Toyota.

So what?: Jolin Tsai is considered by many to be the Taiwanese Britney Spears, rising in fame off the back of a MTV singing competition to become the biggest star in the Mandarin music market. Like Britney, Tsai has been a major Pepsi brand ambassador, staring in the Lord Of The Drinks commercial in 2005. The linking of Tsai with Kylie highlights a new trend in pop princess pairing. With Kylie struggling to gain ground in the US, and Tsai’s album generating 65% of Mandarin album sales in its first week, Kylie’s X wants to mark the spot in Asia.

“Western / Asian collaborations can be hit and miss. This is a powerful partnership between two mainstream ‘brands’ and it will be interesting to see how it plays out”
Michael Denmark, Co-Founder, Branded Asia

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