The Complete Guide for your Mid-Autumn Festival marketing

Symbolizing the Chinese celebration of harvest and reunion, the Mid-Autumn Festival appears to be extra special this year — with China’s National Day and Golden Week all aligning at the same time. 

Having previously talked about the various traditions of the festival on our #SpotOn blog — we want to take time in 2020 to look at some intriguing examples of Mid-Autumn marketing ideas, from popular global brands.

Let’s start with Netflix’s collaboration with Pearl Studio and Lady M, the world-renowned luxury dessert brand, on an initiative to promote the upcoming animated musical Over the Moon. Fusing both Eastern and Western elements, the collaboration offers a limited-edition mooncake gift box housed in a lantern-shaped package, with a light-up feature and paper cutting details depicting scenes from the highly anticipated film. 

It’s a perfect balance of creative ideas, while showcasing the initiative and truly reflecting on the festival spirit.

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Netflix’s Mid-Autumn collaboration with Pearl Studio and Lady M

Branded gift boxes are indeed a great approach to secure publicity in a timely manner, while offering customers a memorable experience that’s closely associated with brand identity. 

Last year, mooncake packages from Loewe, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co. and Fendi all made it into Weibo’s trending list, with their exquisitely designed gift boxes.

Loewe

Louis Vuitton

Tiffany & Co.

Fendi

American chocolatier Godiva also recently debuted their immersive pop-up at Fashion Zoo, an annual fashion exhibition in Shanghai. Featuring a golden colour palette that gives off some major autumn vibes, the photogenic space highlights their latest mooncake collections, which are artfully decorated with patterns of full moon and peony.

Godiva's Mid-Autumn Pop-up at Shanghai Fashion Zoo

Apart from branded gift boxes and pop-up activations, content creation also plays an extremely crucial role when it comes to engaging the Chinese market — especially with the younger demographics (mainly the millennials and Gen Z) who are always hungry for unique experiences and ideas. 

Luxury automobile companies such as BMW and Audi have all become skillfully adept at incorporating relevant Chinese trends into their marketing messaging — but no brand has come close so far to the trendsetter reputation that Durex China has established, with the mind-blowing creativity they continue to demonstrate each year.

Mid-Autumn Poster by BMW

Mid-Autumn Poster by Audi

Mid-Autumn Poster by Durex China

Feeling a bit inspired by these ideas? Are you trying to plan out marketing strategies for the rest of the year, to engage with more Chinese customers? Great news — we can help!

Talk to us about Chinese traditions, fun social media trends, or marketing tips to reach your desired Chinese demographics — just drop us a message at info@spotlightwest.ca, or say hello on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn!

The Sad Story Behind Chinese Valentine’s Day

As if there wasn’t already an online Valentine’s Day in China — set on the popular date of May 20th which sounds similar to “I love you” in Chinese — you may be surprised to find out there’s actually another day even more authentic when it comes to celebrating love in China.

Officially named “Chinese Valentine’s Day”, this special date falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, which is why it’s also called “Double Seventh Day” or “Qixi Festival”. This year, that happens to be August 17. Although it’s been around for more than 2,000 years, it wasn’t until recently that its popularity returned, thanks to the massive influence of global consumerism.

So what’s the story behind Chinese Valentine’s Day?

Legend has it there once was a cowherd named Niu Lang, who was a very kind-hearted young man, attending to his crops and taking good care of his cattles everyday. One day, a mysterious old man showed up, leading the cowherd to visit a sick cattle from heaven. After the cattle recovered due to the great care from the cowherd, it showed its gratitude by helping Niu Lang meet Zhi Nu, a weaver girl from heaven. They fell madly in love with each other.

Unfortunately, their time together didn’t last long. Just like every great love story, an obstacle came about — the Empress of heaven was furious to learn that one of her weaver girls had eloped with a human being. She decided to punish the couple by splitting them apart and creating a huge river between them, keeping them from seeing each other for eternity (in some stories, this is also considered the origin of the Milky Way Galaxy).

Absolutely devastated, the couple cried day and night. The Empress saw this, and decided to make an exception, allowing them to meet for one day every year on the seventh day of the seventh month.

Although the story is sad, the day is now celebrated much more positively by Chinese millennials. While not exactly used to showing affection as outwardly as Westerners, the Chinese are always looking for perfect opportunities to profess their love — whether it be May 20th, Singles Day, White Valentine’s Day, or the official Chinese Valentine’s Day. It’s less intimidating to ask small or big relationship-related questions on a special occasion, knowing that there are many others doing so on the same day!

Global brands and local businesses have joined the trend, showcasing products through campaigns that are targeted specifically for the Chinese Valentine’s Day. Luxury names such as Burberry, Dior, Bvlgari, Tiffany, and even athletic brands like Nike, have all launched their “Qixi” lines recently, each represented by a popular Chinese influencer or celebrity.

As for traditions, Chinese Valentine’s Day is unlike other more common festivals such as Spring Festival or the Mid-Autumn Festival: there aren’t any specific ones you have to follow. The more popular one for young couples would be to get married on the day  — which is more romantic than the actual Valentine’s Day or on an anniversary.

As this year’s Chinese Valentine’s Day arrives, you can hopefully take time to celebrate with your loved one as well — having now had a crash course on the special day!

Shoot us a message at info@spotlightwest.ca if you’re interested in learning more, or follow our social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) to find out more about Chinese social trends, or WeChat marketing tips!

How do Chinese People Really Celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival?

We’ve all heard of the Dragon Boat Festival, and most likely have participated in its festivities every year. But what’s the reasoning behind the celebrations?

It didn’t actually start off as something to celebrate. The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival first originated as a tradition to mourn over the loss of Qu Yuan, who was one of the most prominent poets in Ancient China’s history.

Also known as the Duan Wu Festival (端午节), the Dragon Boat Festival has a few different origin stories. The most well-known version is that the tradition started as a tribute to the poet and minister Qu Yuan, who committed suicide during the Warring States period. He jumped into the Mi Luo River because he failed in his advising role to the Emperor during an invasion, and subsequently lost the battle.

It’s believed that in order to distract the fish from damaging the patriotic poet’s body, people came up with the idea of throwing wrapped rice balls into the river to keep the creatures away. It’s also told that people began paddling down the river to look for his body, which evolved to what is now considered to be the origin of dragon boat races

So what exactly do Chinese people like to do to celebrate Dragon Boat Festival?

1. Enjoy Rice Dumplings

Because of the name “Dragon Boat”, people don’t associate the day with food as much. However, there’s ALWAYS food involved when it comes to Chinese holidays and celebrations.

One of the most iconic delicacies enjoyed during the Festival is Zong Zi (rice dumpling), which is sticky rice balls wrapped in reed leaves. The rice balls usually contain different types of stuffing depending on the region’s tradition; this includes stewed pork belly and marinated duck eggs to sweet treats like dates and red bean paste. There are hundreds of options to choose from. Social media influencers on Weibo even host contests to see whether people prefer “savory or sweet”.

2. Race Dragon Boats

Well, this is a given. Dragon Boat races have become a universally celebrated summer event across continents, and it’s a great opportunity for communities to connect and share stories. You don’t need to be extremely athletic or an expert in Chinese culture to participate — the races purely revolve around the spirit of sportsmanship and competition.

3. Hang Herbs

With the Dragon Boat Festival taking place at the beginning of summer, the weather is more humid and the households are prone to mold and bacteria. That’s why people believe that hanging up herbs in their homes would help clean the air and drive away insects. Common herbs include mugwort brushes (which smell very similar to sage) or calamus (some are a source of rattan and canes).

In our future #SpotOn blog posts, we will be sharing more insights from the Asian Community and Chinese social trends, so make sure to follow us on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter!