Spring marketing, advanced branding strategies!

The annual "Spring Limited" marketing campaign has started again.

Spring is beautiful and full of vitality. Many brands choose to inject new vitality through marketing during this period, which not only creates a differentiated image, but also allows the general audience to feel the brand's ability to renew.

Shiyouqu has compiled the marketing campaigns related to spring launched since last year, and disassembled several cases that have emerged this year. By analyzing the brand marketing behaviors, we can see what breakthroughs there will be in this year's spring marketing .

Taking advantage of the cherry blossom season, putting “old wine” in “new bottles”?

Spring coincides with the blooming of cherry blossoms. In recent years, brands have also noticed the traffic effect brought by the cherry blossom season and have put a lot of thought into cherry blossom elements, hoping to attract consumers to try new things and check in through vision and taste.

Judging from the spring marketing cases that appeared this year, brands are once again gathering around cherry blossoms. What’s different from before is that they are beginning to incorporate IPs such as trendy toys and virtual idols, giving the seemingly “tired” marketing a fresh spin.

Lay's x Pop Mart launches limited edition high-end flavors

As early as January this year, Lays smelled the scent of spring and teamed up with Pop Mart's IP Sweet Bean series to launch limited edition hibiscus sakura shrimp flavor, mellow black truffle flavor, and butter fried matsutake flavor potato chips, catering to multiple spring travel scenarios with high-end flavors.

Image source: brand official Weibo

At the same time, the two parties also launched a limited edition Sakura Shrimp Sweet Bean figure, which netizens can obtain by participating in Weibo interactions. This cross-border cooperation not only satisfies consumers' curiosity, but also interprets Lays' young image of "knowing how to play".

Yuanqi Forest innovates temperature-changing "flowering" bottle

Yuanqi Forest's Sakura White Grape Sparkling Water officially announced its return not long ago. For Yuanqi Forest, launching seasonal limited products is already a well-known marketing strategy, and this time it chose the form of a return. Based on the regular packaging, it innovated and launched a special "temperature change" version. When the beverage is refrigerated at a temperature lower than 8°, cherry blossoms will bloom on the temperature-changing bottle.

Image source: brand official Weibo

By adding content to the packaging, Yuanqi Forest has made this spring marketing of its products more eye-catching among general strategies such as taste and color, creating a differentiated and surprising experience for consumers.

Yogurt creates a virtual cherry blossom planet

This year, You Yogurt teamed up with brand spokesperson Chen Linong and virtual image Xiaoyou to launch two new limited edition cherry blossom flavored products, inviting users to welcome this cosmic romance together.

Not only that, the brand has also built a marketing matrix for spring limited products through diversified activities such as customized cans, 0 yuan tasting, and new product communities.

Image source: brand official Weibo

In fact, during last year's cherry blossom season, You Yogurt teamed up with Chen Linong to launch limited products. Although the season is short, the brand has created a once-in-a-lifetime atmosphere through long-term strong binding, and also increased consumers' expectations for the coming year.

It is "Spring Limited" and "There is a long way to go"

The reason why spring marketing emerges in an endless stream every year and is tiresome is that the public is looking forward to and yearning for a better life. For brands, this is a good time to communicate with consumers.

Image source: Shiqu Insight Engine-2021 Brand Spring Marketing Campaign List

According to the data from the Shiqu Insight Engine, the top 10 brands in the 2021 spring marketing campaign list are Xiaomi, Wuling, Lays, Oreo, Yili, Uniqlo, Belle, Pizza Hut, Dyson, and McDonald's. The main forms of communication are launching new products, welfare delivery, cross-border collaborations, etc.

Of course, there are also brands that habitually launch "Spring Limited Edition" products, using long-term thinking to increase consumer stickiness. Among the many marketing strategies, Shiyouqu has summarized the following possible directions for spring marketing to provide reference for brands that are preparing for recent campaigns.

1. Beyond cherry blossoms, effective interaction through IP

As Generation Z becomes the main consumer group, young users are more pursuing products with high appearance value. This demand has prompted the continuous enrichment of brand marketing. Beautiful scenes such as cherry blossoms, butterflies, and solar terms are precisely the symbols of spring, satisfying consumers' imagination of beauty.

From Starbucks' cherry cat claw cup to the followers of major brands today, the cherry blossom economy, which debuted with its beauty, is still effective in the market. From the above three cases this year, we can also see that brands want to break people’s aesthetic fatigue and interact efficiently with young people with novel and interesting ideas.

Image source: Shiqu Insight Engine

By searching the #优酸乳樱花星球爱了# campaign through the Shiqu Insight Engine, the reading volume of related topics reached 180 million and the number of discussions reached 1.76 million. While the brand injects experiential marketing into consumers, it also stimulates consumers' independent sharing and dissemination, creating positive feedback in terms of influence, sales, and word of mouth.

In the long run, brands are still enthusiastic about using specific spring elements, and the core of the consumer market is consumers. IPs such as virtual idols and trendy toys are becoming one of the ways to communicate with young people.

2. Focus on national style content and interpret brand culture

In recent years, cultural confidence among Chinese people has gradually become a new popular trend. There are many cases of using traditional Chinese style to give brands cultural value, trying to give brands deeper cultural value.

In traditional Chinese culture, there are many customs, activities and delicacies in spring. Brands can take advantage of this national style to bring a wonderful experience to consumers, which will coincide with people's imagination of spring.

With this idea in mind, Ele.me and McDonald's teamed up last year, drawing inspiration from the paintings of Feng Zikai, "the artist who best paints spring," to create a joint spring limited edition meal.

Image source: brand official Weibo

The two parties also materialized the spring described by the master into package peripherals, extending the spring atmosphere from the products to consumers' daily lives. On the one hand, the products provide new ways to promote traditional culture, and on the other hand, they promote the effective dissemination of interesting topics.

It is worth noting that combining with traditional content is not as simple as cross-border integration. Folk culture contains deeper concepts. We must make "Spring Limited Edition" a cultural carrier of the brand and resonate with consumers.

3. Focus on spring consumption needs and scenarios

The marketing idea of ​​focusing on consumption scenarios is to solve the consumption pain points at the right time and place. Brands need to have consumer thinking and become real consumers.

As the temperature has risen since spring, consumers have become more willing to travel, and discussions related to the outdoors have become increasingly heated. In response, many brands have entered into areas of demand such as seasonal skin care, spring makeup, and picnics to expand the space for discussion.

Image source: Shiqu Insight Engine - Spring marketing campaign in the past three months

According to the data of the brand #春日# campaign retrieved by the Shiqu Insight Engine, the brands that have been on the list in the past three months include Tencent Music, Sophie Brand, SK-II, Ninebot, 52toys, Disney, Estee Lauder, and Carslan. The social topics of these brands are also related to the spring scenes.

Because of leveraging specific elements, spring marketing is often more timely. Shi Youqu believes that "Spring Limited Edition" is far more than just competing for popularity. Brands need to clarify their target audiences and choose appropriate forms of communication to match them. While boosting short-term sales or social media voice, they can use limited marketing to precipitate the long-term value of the brand.

Author: Interesting

Source: SocialTouch Research Institute (ID: SocialTouch2020)