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!

Navigating COVID: How the fashion industry is adapting

Across Europe, China, and North America, fashion brands are having to come up with creative solutions in an attempt to stay relevant during these challenging times. Take Bottega Veneta for example.

With efforts to limit in-person shopping by enhancing the at-home experience, their team sent editors and influencers a projector for an immersive display of their menswear film — a gesture that goes beyond simply posting the video on their social media. 

Brands are also focusing on how to continue capturing the Chinese audience. Since China has rebounded earlier from the pandemic than other countries, luxury brands are depending on Chinese consumers and their domestic shopping habits, especially with international travel still limited.

For Burberry, sales in Mainland China grew more than 30% in June but fell 20% worldwide. To ride the momentum, the British label is partnering with Chinese tech giant Tencent to open their first “social retail” store in Shenzhen.

With rewards that can be unlocked through WeChat mini-games and an in-store cafe, the idea is to merge interactive experiences with conventional shopping to appeal to the tech-savvy younger generation in Shenzhen. 

Shanghai was the first major fashion week to experiment hosting the event completely virtual, as they live streamed in late March through Alibaba-operated e-commerce website Tmall. This allowed viewers to instantly purchase items as it rolled out the runway.

In June, London Fashion Week was also virtual. Despite fashion houses’ efforts to put on a full production, the three-day spectacle was met with 55% less social media engagement than London’s other 2020 shows in January and February.

Even Jacquemus’ physically distanced outdoor show with select friends and family in attendance received only half of its earned media value compared to a year before.

Although transitioning to digital events and scaling down shows produced less than optimal results, brands are not shying away from this opportunity to continue showcasing new collections while supporting their staff and teams.

Upcoming shows in Copenhagen and Stockholm are on track to be completely virtual and some fashion houses are eager to present to small, physically distanced audiences. Luxury brands are more open to redefining strategies within the fashion industry regardless of the tepid response and low numbers. 

Perhaps this new normal only needs some getting used to.

What Is Singles' Day and Why It's Bigger than Black Friday

November is here, which means Black Friday is coming up! But while you’re busy going over that mile-long shopping list, did you know that a similar-like day in China has already become the world’s biggest online shopping spree?

It all started in the 1990s, when the Chinese society started seeing a surplus in the male population as the consequence of the one-child policy. Many believe that the origin was at Nanjing University, where a group of college boys would gather every night to talk about how to get rid of the single status.

Eventually, they decided to start an initiative that celebrates being single, choosing the 11th of November to be the Singles’ Day (or the “Double Eleven Day”) because of the number’s resemblance of single stick figures.

Then, there came the era of digital marketing, where companies and brands were looking for every way possible to maximize consumption.

The chairman of China’s biggest e-commerce company Alibaba Group, Jack Ma, who was listed by Forbes as one of the top 20 richest people in the world, wanted to launch a shopping promotion revolving around a day that was already nationally celebrated. Drawing inspirations from the American Black Friday tradition, Ma launched the first round of promotion on November 11th, 2009.

The company targeted single people in the country and catered to the mentality of “treating yourself better”, which would supposedly make up for the loneliness of staying single. It didn’t take long for other businesses to catch on.

In 2011, more than half a billion dollars was spent on Singles’ Day. Last year, the Chinese netizens topped their previous record with $24.2 billion spent on just that one day — which is practically equivalent to a smaller European country’s gross domestic product.

According to Bloomberg, “more than twice as much merchandise is sold over the 24-hour period than during the entire five-day U.S. holiday-buying spree” (from Black Friday through Cyber Monday). Last year, Alibaba even hosted an opening gala event for Singles’ Day, with guest appearances by top-tier celebrities such as Nicole Kidman, Scarlett Johansson, Jessie J and Pharrell Williams.

With more and more international brands offering massive deals and extensive options specifically for Singles’ Day, the celebration is not only for those who are single but has become a global phenomenon.

There has even been a new trend created in December — the “Double Twelve Day”, just so businesses would have another chance to benefit from another round of rapid consumption and e-commerce.

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

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!