Solar Terms and Niche Holidays are the New Marketing Powerhouses
EXCLUSIVE INSIGHTS
Springtime Marketing Strategies to Shine
The latest trend in marketing in China is creating an energetic Spring campaign by giving Chinese folk culture a modern twist. Here’s how you can do it:
- Leverage Solar Terms: Solar term marketing, 节气 is a concept based on China’s ancient calendar, incorporating elements of lunar and solar calendars, which divides the year into 24 periods. For example, China beauty brand Florasis suggests wearing different makeup for different solar periods. Aligning your messaging and visuals with seasonal themes can help evoke the energy and spirit of the season.
- Research Chinese Folk Culture: Start by immersing yourself in the rich and diverse world of Chinese folk culture. Learn about traditional customs, festivals, symbols, and beliefs that are associated with the Spring season. Gain a deep understanding of the cultural significance, stories, and symbolism behind these traditions.
- Lean Into Niche Holidays: Instead of competing in noisy and competitive large holidays, lean into niche holidays for creative marketing campaigns, like World Sleep Day and Cat Day. These smaller holidays create opportunities for your audience to connect with your brand, share their stories, and become advocates for your campaign.
- Create a Multi-Dimensional Spring Campaign: Develop compelling campaign content that showcases a modern twist on Chinese folk culture. In addition to ads, include social media posts, videos, blogs, infographics, or other forms of digital and offline content. Accompany the campaign with booklists, playlists, interactive activities, and events to make the content richer and more impactful.
- Give It a Modern Twist: Avoid appropriating or stereotyping the culture, and strive to represent it accurately and authentically. Consider how you can reinterpret Chinese folk culture in a contemporary and innovative way that resonates with your target audience. Develop a campaign that evolves from basic product collabs and shows a depth of understanding of Chinese culture.
By infusing Chinese folk culture with a modern twist in your Spring campaign, you can create an energetic and captivating marketing campaign that resonates with your audience and sets your brand apart. Remember to approach Chinese folk culture with cultural sensitivity, create engaging content, and leverage seasonal themes to create a memorable and successful Spring campaign. Check out the articles below for successful Spring marketing campaigns.
Trust CLA’s expertise for culturally relevant campaigns. Contact us for in-depth insights and success-driven strategies.
NEWS ROUNDUP
Say Hello to Spring
Your Spring Wake Up Call from Beneunder
In the second month of the lunar calendar, spring thunder crackles, and stinging insects take flight.
Recently, a brand short called “Awakening of Insects” (惊蛰令), from outdoor apparel brand Beneunder, was like a thunderous drum piercing the atmosphere, sending shockwaves through the advertising world. The video, featuring singer Tan Weiwei, launched on the most energetic day in the traditional Chinese 24 solar terms – Awakening of Insects (惊蛰) – leaving viewers feeling rejuvenated and excited to welcome spring. It heralded the launch of Beneunder’s superstar product – the Lightweight All-Terrain Outdoor Shoes.
Analysing the characteristics of each solar term, Beneunder’s choice of leveraging “Awakening of Insects” makes a lot of sense. After a thunderstorm, spring returns to earth, green willows sway in the wind. This is the best time for people to venture out for a spring outing. Therefore, this solar term has been closely related to the outdoors since ancient times. At the same time, under China’s recent COVID recovery, the brand also borrows the meaning of all things sprouting in “Awakening of Insects” to trigger people’s longing to go outdoors after a long dormant period.
From mainstream holidays to niche festivals, the window for brand messaging is becoming more and more crowded on the calendar. The 24 solar terms may open up an “alternate dimension” for brands to share a different marketing perspective and avoid falling into homogenization.
Niche Holidays
Ubras’ New Arrivals for World Sleep Day Uses Niche Holiday as Key Selling Point
This year’s World Sleep Day on March 21 coincided with the vernal equinox. Lingerie brand Ubras seized this day of balance and rest to debut their new Hu Hu loungewear series, and launch the “Huhu Sleep” campaign (hu hu being a word associated with the sound of sleep in Chinese).
The commercial utilized the double asmr of visual and auditory senses, and constructed an imagination of the sense of touch – the sun shining, the breeze blowing, the comfortable and quiet afternoon nap, and the clothes wrapped around the body. It not only conveys the selling point of the new loungewear, but also provides a visual representation of the concept of “sleep”.
In addition to the commercial, ubras has partnered with many brands both online and offline in pursuit of better quality sleep. Online, Ubras created a full range of digital sleep companion services, from tips for falling asleep, and goodnight healing meditation, to bedtime reading lists, and sleep aid podcasts. Offline, Ubras set up “Hu Hu Snooze Points” in the city and launched a sleep healing experience. Consumers can try out the Hu Hu loungewear and sound therapy meditation on the spot, as well as other sleep aid tools, to experience the double healing of body and mind.
Time to Lean into Traditional Chinese Culture
Louis Vuitton’s Newest Watch Is An Homage To Traditional Chinese Opera
On March 9, Louis Vuitton unveiled its latest high watchmaking timepiece in Courchevel, the ultra-luxury Alpine ski resort favored by UHNWIs, to an audience of media representatives and monied consumers from across the world.
Taking inspiration from bian lian 变脸, or face-changing, a subgenre of Sichuan opera that sees performers rapidly switch vivid masks to indicate changing emotions, the watch’s movement recreates a series of mask changes on the timepiece’s face.
In a 16-second sequence, the watch face’s bian lian mask expresses a range of emotions through movements like frowns and winks, finishing with the right eye retracting to reveal a flower.
A Dialogue With China
Can Cartier Boost Cultural Credibility In China With This Branding Campaign?
The L’Odyssée de Cartier film series is a visual history of the legendary jeweler, spotlighting Cartier‘s most iconic pieces and showcasing the brand’s connections with various cultures around the world. The project has launched 10 chapters, and the latest one features China.
Titled “A Dialogue with China,” the short film explores a relationship that has lasted for over a century. It tells the story of how the brand’s founder, Louis Cartier, and creative director Jeanne Toussaint were drawn to China’s rich heritage at the beginning of the 20th century — from the mythology of dragons and phoenixes to unique color combinations — and how that inspired Cartier’s brand archive and culture.