Spring Festival promotion cannot be separated from these 7 major themes

The Spring Festival is one of the most important traditional festivals in China and a day for family reunions. During this festival, those who work or study away from home will return to their hometowns to spend a happy reunion year with their families.

On such an important festival, each brand will naturally launch its own Spring Festival themed content.

So, how can we take advantage of the Spring Festival theme?

1. Reunion Theme

The theme of reunion is often accompanied by homecoming and sentimentality. Last Thursday, Alipay began warming up for the "Sweeping the Five Blessings" campaign and launched a New Year micro-film "Where Have You Been?"

The video is based on a true story and tells the story of a couple driving back to the husband's home with their young children to celebrate the New Year.

Due to a traffic accident ahead, they chose a remote road to go home, but the car could not move forward due to the snow. At this time, they were about 2 or 3 miles away from home. They wanted to walk home before daybreak, but found it impossible to move in the snow, so they had to return to the car.

The wife's helplessness and grievance suddenly burst out, and just when her husband was at a loss, they saw two figures in the distance, shoveling snow with shovels. It was their father and mother. In order to ensure that their son and daughter-in-law could drive home smoothly, the old couple took the trouble to shovel snow all the way to their front and opened a way for them to go home. I don’t know how many people were moved to tears by the mother’s call of “son”.

The most frequently used phrase in the entire video is "Where are we?"

I believe this is a sentence that everyone will hear on the way home. From the time of departure, on the road, getting off the car, to receiving a call from family, the first sentence is always: "Where are you?".

These are the simplest words and also the most sensational words. They seem simple but are full of affection. And our final destination is “home”.

Moreover, the theme song of this micro-film, "Listen to Me", was sung by the popular singer Zhou Shen. It triggered tens of thousands of hot comments within 48 hours of its release on NetEase Cloud Music. Everyone can hear their own story in the song.

A few days ago, Apple also launched a micro-film, "Daughter", starring actress Zhou Xun. The film tells the story of a single mother who drives a taxi. She quarreled with her mother and left home, driving a taxi alone with her child.

It's the Chinese New Year, and the single mother played by Zhou Xun drives a taxi with her only-year-old daughter to pick up passengers in order to make money. She encounters setbacks and is despised, but there are also kind passengers who get along well with her daughter in the back seat. On a rainy night, all the passengers went home to reunite with their families. Zhou Xun received her last guest of the day, who turned out to be her mother.

It turns out that every Chinese New Year, the mother would bring Zhou Xun's favorite dumplings stuffed with leeks and eggs, and look for her daughter's taxi one by one. She finally found her daughter this year. At the end of the film, the two pairs of mother and daughter are finally reunited.

It is worth mentioning that this micro-film was shot entirely with iPhone 11 Pro, but the pictures are very clear and moving, highlighting the characteristics of the iPhone. This is not a new idea. Last year, Apple shot a micro-film with its mobile phone, and Huawei also shot a micro-film with its mobile phone.

However, even with an iPhone 11 Pro, I don’t have the brains and hands of a master director.

Under the big IP of family reunion like the Spring Festival, "Where Have You Been" and "Daughter" magnified the warmth of home and the preciousness of family affection, touching the softest part of everyone's heart. No matter how hard we work outside, our homesickness and longing for home are the same.

These two micro-films express this emotion. Although this sentimental reunion theme is very common, it has been tried and tested and always resonates with the majority of netizens.

2. New Year Theme

We often say that the Chinese New Year should have the flavor of the New Year, and only a Spring Festival with the flavor of the New Year will have soul. The flavor of the New Year is actually the New Year customs and traditions.

Orion once shot a New Year advertisement - "Amazing New Year Adventure". This short film mentioned a magical legend - the Nian beast. According to historical records, the Nian Beast was an evil beast, but in the short film produced by Lotte, it has become a mini "cute pet". The reason why the Nian Beast's body is so small is that the New Year atmosphere is becoming weaker and weaker. In order to help the Nian beast, the little boy called on his family to go out to "find the flavor of the New Year". In the festive atmosphere around him, the Nian beast finally revealed its true appearance.

In addition, the New Year atmosphere also includes new clothes, lucky money, setting off firecrackers, New Year’s Eve dinner, staying up all night, etc.

3. Nostalgic Theme

During the Chinese New Year of 2017, Pepsi gathered the main creators of "Home with Kids" to shoot a 15-minute micro-film "17 Brings the Fun Home", which set off a wave of nostalgia.

New Year marketing is a huge test for all major brands. Everyone tries to catch users’ attention during this biggest festival by using various tricks. How to find a point of mass resonance is a headache for every brand.

"Home with Kids" is a classic sitcom IP that we are all familiar with. I believe everyone has watched this family comedy when they were young. It has accompanied the growth of generations of people. Whether they are born in the 70s, 80s or 90s, they will resonate after watching it. It condenses the memories of generations.

This nostalgic sentiment was also sublimated at the end of the micro-film. As Gao Yalin said, "In 2004, because of fate, the five of us became a family." Song Dandan said, "It has been twelve years. We have grown old and they have grown up. It is because we are together that home has its meaning."

One netizen directly said, "It feels like a dream. I finally see them reunited."

4. Science and Technology Theme

In recent years, science and technology have developed rapidly, and AR technology has been applied in all walks of life, and New Year's fun activities are no exception.

Coca-Cola Company once incorporated the traditional Fuwa into its Spring Festival marketing, which not only had Fuwa packaging and love gestures, but also AR interaction. The two little Fuwa were greeting the audience and handing out red envelopes. They were very cute and interactive.

Toutiao also used high technology in this year's New Year's mini-game. Enter the mini-game page, call the camera, and your face will appear on the game page. Open your mouth and steal food without being discovered by "Mom", then you win.

The advantages of these technology themes are that they bring people novel experiences, enhance the fun and feasibility of interaction, and increase user enthusiasm for participation. After all, everyone likes fun and interesting games.

5. Brain hole theme

There is a common characteristic among netizens nowadays - sand sculpture. Creative ideas with unique and unconventional thinking are often widely spread among netizens.

Do you remember the brainwashing hit song "Spring Festival Self-Help Guide" from two years ago?

What we fear most during the Chinese New Year? Of course, it is the fatal questions from our aunts and uncles.

"Do you have a partner? When are you going to get married? When are you going to have a baby?"

"Have you found a job? How much is your salary? Have you bought a house or a car?"

Are you ready to face these?

Don't panic, take out the "Spring Festival Self-Help Guide" and confront him.

Last year, Lai Mao launched an interesting H5 titled "I'll Invite You to New Year's Eve Dinner". Its unique style, riding on the popularity of palace dramas, attracted the attention of many netizens.

My food is good;

What I have is good;

My dear, you are also very good~

Although the idea is good, the activity format is a bit monotonous. After users enter the h5 page, they select 10 dishes and fine wines to receive rewards and have a chance to receive New Year gifts from Lai Mao. There aren’t many interesting interactions between friends and family.

6. Zodiac Theme

In addition to themes such as reunion and nostalgia, the most common theme of the Spring Festival is the zodiac sign.

As a symbol of my country's long-standing folk culture, the zodiac has a very strong symbolic meaning. Every Spring Festival, there are endless blessings related to the zodiac, and brands also come up with various unique ways to leverage the zodiac.

Nongfu Spring has launched a short film "The Little Mouse's Adventure of Returning Homeward Thousand Miles Away". The cute and agile little mouse embarks on a journey home to reunite with his family, "overcoming all obstacles" and "climbing mountains and wading through water" along the way, which is very cute.

At the same time, Nongfu Spring also launched the 2020 Gengzi Year of the Rat collector's bottle.

Zodiac elements can often be used in combination with other elements. Nongfu Spring combines "rat" with "going home", and Si Nian Tangyuan combines "rat" with "reunion".

The cute little mouse family is rowing a boat, eating rice dumplings and looking at the moon. It is simple, straightforward and cute.

7. Tyrant Theme

After introducing so many New Year themes, I have to say that the rich theme is what everyone is most interested in.

Just this week, the Alipay Five Blessings Sweep event officially began. Are you ready for the new round of sweeping blessings?

It is said that just 30 minutes after the event started, 68,263 people had collected all five blessings.

In addition to Alipay's activity of collecting five blessings and sharing red envelopes, Baidu and Weibo have also launched activities of collecting cards and sharing red envelopes in recent years, and even the CCTV Spring Festival Gala will send out red envelopes in real time. Ever since red envelopes became popular, it seems that not only New Year’s Eve parties, but even ordinary large-scale parties will use red envelopes to attract the attention of netizens.

This method of collecting cards and sharing red envelopes often requires users to complete certain tasks. For example, last year's Baidu card collection allowed users to get more opportunities to draw cards by watching short videos, downloading software, etc. This year's Weibo card collection will give you more chances to draw cards by browsing Weibo, signing in, posting Oasis updates, etc. This year, Alipay has specially added the "Family Portrait" to the Five Blessings Collection, inviting family members to participate in the lucky draw and help pay off the family's Huabei debts.

These tasks are actually their means to increase user activity (check-in), promote new products (download software, publish Oasis news), and promote their own products (Family Huabei repayment). Using benefits to attract more users and achieve greater publicity effects is simple and crude, but also very effective.

Therefore, wealthy fathers might as well spend money on a large-scale publicity campaign.

Author: Maotu Public Account

Source: Maotu Official Account