The Top 4 Marketing Campaigns From 2018 Spring Festival

2018 spring festival is coming, as one of the most festivals in China, it’s a big day for the family gathering and visiting relatives. So Chinese new year marketing definitely can’t be missed by every merchant.

What is festival marketing? As the name implies, it relies on consumer behavior and psychology to do brand promotion and sales during the holiday season. Festival marketing is always predictable and essential. Its event planning based on what consumers needs and wants.

As the saying goes, “no creativity, no marketing.” For all the companies, the annual Lunar New Year is a smokeless battlefield. How to make your products stand out and catch people’s eyeballs becomes the target of all significant brand marketing. For the upcoming 2018 spring festival, do you have a plan for your marketing campaign? If now, let’s have a look at these creative cases!

Mafengwo.com：A good travel planner for your spring festival vacation

Mafengwo.com official website

Mafengwo.com is one of China’s leading free travel service platform, founded in 2006 and officially launched in 2010. It helps hundreds of millions of users make free travel plans every year. And all the website’s information about views, restaurants, hotels, and transport is from the sharing of the users.

Mafengwo.com takes “free travel” as the core, providing more than 60,000 tourist destination of tourist guides, tourist Q&A, travel review and other information, as well as the other products and services such as hotel, transportation, and local tourism program.

Being regarded as the travel bible of China, Mafengwo.com is widely popular among young Chinese people. For the coming 2018 spring festival, they no doubt grab this opportunity to do a marketing campaign.

1)Based on this topic, it pushed several blogs about suitable travel destination for the spring festival, as well as some other information such as recommended hotels.

One of the blog about spring festival journey

2) It pushed out some discount Airplane ticket during spring festival. People can choose different place and date of departure. Usually, the travel period is 5-7 days. For the consumers who have special needs, they also provide the discount package with hotels or some activity tickets.

3) Mafengwo.com even corporate with some foreign travel agencies, such as Brand USA, to do some information sharing about local traveling.

Ctrip: New KOL and game of grabbing red packets

Ctrip is an online ticket booking company. It was founded in 1999 and headquartered in Shanghai, China. As another famous travel assistant, Ctrip is the leading ticket and hotel reservation service center in Mainland China. It also pushed out a series marketing campaign for the spring festival.

1）Using new KOL, pushing out “healing journey.”

This winter, Ctrip invited PAN Yueming, a famous Chinese actor as the new KOL. Combining his characters, Ctrip pushed out “healing journey” as the theme of traveling to Japan. It provided a series discount of hotels, airplane tickets as well as recommended routes about Japan.

PAN Yueming and the theme journey

2) Corporate with popular mobile games

More recently, a Japanese mobile game Tabi Kaeru(旅かえる) have become popular in China, over the past few weeks, gamers in China have become obsessed with a free-roaming Japanese frog. Travel Frog has topped the charts in the free game category in Apple’s App Store in China for more than a fortnight. Although the game is only in Japanese, it’s easy to play despite the language barrier. (Learn more about this game)

Chinese players have spent more than $2m (£1.4m) on in-app purchases for their frog babies. While in Japan, however, it’s been downloaded a mere 400,000 times on the App Store and Google Play combined, with users spending only $100,000.

The game and Ctrip’s Ad

Some critics argue that such a game feature is consistent with the characteristic of  “Buddha-like youngsters“. The People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s mouthpiece has used it as a chance to encourage “core values” by urging young people to visit their parents more. Weibo also posted “The traveling frog is like everyone away from home”.

Ctrip grabs this hot spot of society, they corporate with the game and put in in-game game advertising. When people use their phone play Tabi Kaeru, sometime the page will appear to pop up ads, Ctrip’s ads are one of them. Actually, it is more like a friendly reminder: “What’s the feeling of waiting for your kid? Please remember to visit your parents, all wandering frogs.”

(Buddha-like youngsters” (佛系青年), it claimed that some of the post-90s generations, who were born between 1990 and 1992, have”seen through the vanity of life” and kept a casual and calm mindset toward career and life.)

3) Grabbing red packets for your trip

Besides theme journey, Ctrip also launches a game for grabbing red packages and some discount coupon. Every registered user can take part in the activity once a day. And the coupon’s validity period is until Feb, 28.

Are you “soaked” in the falling of “red packets”?

Pepsi – Shooting “bring happiness home” series short movie

Every time people see the new Pepsi “bring happiness home” series short movie, they know that the Spring Festival is not far away. This year, Pepsi continue last year’s “love” theme, launch the new movie “thunderbolt parents”. (Click here to see the short movie)

Pepsi short movie 2017: Bring Happiness Home

Pepsi short movie 2018: Bring Happiness Home

The movie tells the story of two generations about love and dreams. With music as the carrier, the movie clarifies a “misunderstanding” to the younger generation: we used to think that parents don’t understand us. Till we grow up, we will find that our parents were who we are right now. They also had colorful youth and crazy dreams.

One of the movie posters

Pepsi seven consecutive years of “bring happiness to home” series micro movie, with keen insight into consumer, it brings people different surprise in each spring festival: the Monkey King story in 2016, the gathering of national family in 2017 has been raised for a heated discussion about family. This year, Pepsi presents another meaning of “family happiness” with a new perspective: During the Spring Festival, don’t let the generation gap become a barrier to family communication and getting along.

Starbucks – Using Chinese zodiac elements

Starbucks Chinese New Year Series drinks 2018

Almost every holiday, Starbucks will push our new products with the relevant theme. This year, besides the Chinese new year series drinks, Starbucks also launch out a series cups about Chinese Zodiac, using the lovely pattern of different dogs.

Starbucks Chinese New Year Series cup 2018

Apart from that, cause this year the Valentine’s Day is next to the new year’s eve, Starbucks also push out new products and gift box for couples. 

Conclusion on Chinese New Year Marketing

Companies longing for Chinese customers should understand that Chinese New Year matters a lot. Well-thought-out marketing campaigns during the period are critical for brand awareness. Furthermore, they should build a clear brand image and core value,  try to innovate the promotion way and give it a real WOW effect.

The Dragon Social team always stays up-to-date. If you have any questions about China marketing or the creation of some creative campaigns of your own, feel free to contact us!