A ceremony is held to kick off a weeklong campaign featuring the use of livestreaming to promote brands as part of the efforts to boost consumption citywide in Shanghai, on May 50, 2020. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Shanghai kicked off a weeklong campaign on Saturday featuring the use of livestreaming to promote brands as part of the efforts to boost consumption citywide.

A consortium of 19 media platforms, from traditional news channel Kankan News and video sharing site Bilibili, to social commerce platform Xiaohongshu, are scheduled to host over 300 key livestreaming shows, aiming to introduce viewers to a variety of special merchandise, catering options and tourist attractions through vivid, on-site storytelling.

The series of broadcast sessions will highlight six sub-themes, including youth, kids, Chinese traditional brands, women, art and decoration as well as cultural premises.

"Teaming up with 1,000 influencers and 4,000 brands, we will be giving out over 100 million yuan ($14 million) worth of shopping vouchers in various forms during the campaign," said Xiaohongshu partner Zeng Xiulian.

The initiative is a core pillar of the city's ongoing May 5 Shopping Festival, during which businesses dish out coupons to encourage spending as the novel coronavirus has inevitably exerted an economic toll.