If done right, a live stream auction can really help to generate massive sales and huge traffic, but just like everything else in life, things don’t always go according to plan.

Recently, a Chinese news outlet reported that a brand of massage tools had engaged a media company to help them promote their products during the Singles’ Day sales period last year.

The brand paid the media company 510,000 yuan (S$109,000) in exchange for 16 live broadcast sessions over 11 days, with six of those streams featuring public figures.

Hongkong singer-actor Jordan Chan, 54, was one of the celebs who was hired for the job, but the results were so abysmal that the brand went to court in a bid to get their money back… and they won.

What happened?

For some reason, someone forgot to add the product link to Jordan’s live stream page, which means that no matter how many people tuned in to watch the star, they wouldn’t have been able to make any purchases (which would defeat the purpose of having the stream in the first place).

As a result, the entire broadcast was taken down after just a few minutes.

Unfortunately, the company was unable to get Jordan to come back to do another session on such short notice, so they had no choice but to settle on having his assistant do the live stream instead.

This expectedly drew a lot less eyeballs than if Jordan himself were in front of the camera (no offence to the PA), and after three broadcast sessions, the massage tool brand only managed to sell a measly 5,000 yuan (about S$1,100) worth of products.



Definitely not the outcome anyone was hoping for

Of course, the massage tool brand was absolutely furious with the media company for messing up so badly and sued them for a refund of the money the former paid for the latter’s services.

The court ruled in favour of the massage tool brand, with the reason being that getting Jordan’s assistant, who obviously has less of a pull factor compared to the star (again, no offence to the PA), to do the live stream instead of Jordan himself was deemed a serious breach of contract.

The fact that only three live streams were held instead of the stipulated 16 was taken into consideration as well, and in the end, the media company was ordered to return 410,000 yuan (S$87,000) to the massage tool brand as compensation.



Let this be a lesson to everyone doing live stream sales

Photos: Jordan Chan/Weibo, Cherrie Ying/Weibo, Call Me By Fire/Weibo