How can brands leverage solar terms to carry out good marketing planning? Here are 3 classic cases

Today is the "Minor Snow" in the 24 solar terms. As expected, this term has been on the hot searches and has become a hot topic among people. Each of the 24 solar terms represents a unique concept of time in our traditional culture. It can be said to be a concrete manifestation of ancient Chinese agricultural civilization and has a very profound and profound cultural connotation. Nowadays, even though this calendar is no longer needed in life, its unique traditions are still inherited by modern people. The arrival of each solar term becomes a topic of life that people talk about with relish.

The essence, origin and principle of solar term marketing

Solar term marketing is a promotional activity in which brands leverage the popularity brought by solar terms and integrate their characteristics with their own brand features. Because solar terms can attract a lot of attention like festivals, through creativity, the public can have a stronger awareness and favorability of the brand when paying attention to this topic.

Since 2016, China's 24 solar terms have been listed as the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. CCTV has also spared no effort in promoting this traditional culture. The series of public service advertisements it has launched have received impressive responses. These 24 fixed solar terms in a year have gained widespread attention from the Chinese people and also allowed brands to see the marketing power of these solar terms. Among them, brands such as Durex and BMW were the first to make successful marketing leveraging the solar terms, becoming the earliest textbooks for this promotion method.

In fact, people's enthusiastic attention to the 24 solar terms is not only because it was once an important time point closely related to people's lives and is one of the traditional cultures of the Chinese nation, but also because the 24 solar terms are very "down-to-earth". The changes in the solar terms vividly show the changes in the seasons, which itself has very beautiful and profound meanings. It also depicts some traditional customs in specific seasons, such as eating spring pancakes at the beginning of spring, tomb sweeping at Qingming Festival, and eating boiled eggs at the beginning of summer. With the improvement of living standards, the enhancement of cultural confidence and the increase of social pressure, people are paying more and more attention to this traditional custom that can bring peace and comfort to daily life. Therefore, every time a solar term comes, the public is enthusiastic to participate and discuss it. In general, people pay attention to this moment, not only caring about the traditional culture contained in it, but also paying more attention to life. This is what brands need to pay attention to when conducting solar term marketing.

What are the characteristics of solar term marketing?

In solar term marketing, the characteristics of concentration, suddenness, abnormality and scale are often presented.

Concentration and scale mean that on the day of a solar term or the day before, brand marketing activities will be launched, and many brands will release brand promotional materials about the solar term at almost the same time. With the help of the Internet, this phenomenon is more obvious. These two characteristics are precisely because the solar terms are time-bound.

Suddenness and abnormality are actually mainly relative to the brand's daily and regular marketing activities. When the solar term arrives, marketing activities will follow immediately. Because the date is fixed and the time only lasts for one or two days, the marketing effect does not need to consider too long a duration, and preparation is also faster and more immediate.

At the same time, its marketing forms are mostly presented in a form that can reflect strong visual effects, such as posters, animated pictures, H5, videos, etc.

Classic Case of Solar Terms Marketing

It is actually not difficult for a brand to successfully leverage the solar terms. We can see some of the tricks from some typical and successful cases.

Case 1: BMW's 24 Solar Terms Series Marketing Posters

In 2016, BMW’s “Twenty-Four Solar Terms” series of posters amazed many netizens and enlightened many brands, becoming a classic of marketing through leveraging solar terms.

March 20th is the "Spring Equinox". On that day, BMW released a poster with a very "Chinese flavor" on its official Weibo. The poster is a landscape painting in ink painting, with two Chinese ink characters "Spring Equinox" in the middle, which also show the theme of the poster. At the same time, a BMW car also appeared in the picture without any sense of incongruity, accompanied by very literary words such as "equally divide the day and night", "live up to the scenery, and move forward with time", "front and rear weighting, stable without losing agility". It not only expresses the interpretation of the solar term, the promotion of product advantages and beautiful vision, but is also full of a high-end, grand and elegant temperament, which is very consistent with BMW's high-end brand route.

For every solar term in the year, BMW will release such a fresh and elegant promotional poster. The style is consistent and obviously a series. Through the exquisite presentation of traditional art and calligraphy, it leaves a deep impression on the public. When discussing the connotation and customs of the solar terms, appreciating such romantic and beautiful posters not only allows people to see the ingenious fusion of Chinese style and "foreign brands", but also makes BMW more visible and talked about.

Case 2: Pechoin "Giving You a Poem Hidden in the Solar Terms"

As a classic domestic brand, Pechoin has been very successful in its brand rejuvenation in recent years. In particular, several marketing campaigns have successfully attracted considerable attention. Among them, the solar term marketing in 2017 also allowed the public to see the youthful colors of this old brand.

At the beginning, Pechoin launched a promotional poster for the "Spring and Summer" chapter of the twenty-four solar terms. From its posters, we can clearly see its intentions. Since Pechoin's brand base color is green, choosing the spring and summer solar terms is more in line with its brand's visual identification system, so this series of posters all use green as the main color. Through hand-painted pictures, it shows the characteristics of nature, plants, freshness, and agility, which fully reflects Pechoin's positioning as herbal skin care. At the same time, in terms of copywriting, the company mainly uses prose-poetry-style text to describe the combination of solar terms with skin care, beauty, etc., such as "Shining on your beauty that equally shares the spring" in "Spring Equinox", which well integrates the nature of the brand with the characteristics of the solar terms, while also emphasizing the brand's core concept of "herbal energy, caring for modern oriental beauty."

This series of posters received praise and recognition from many people. After that, Pechoin produced a video advertisement from the same series based on this series of posters. In the form of hand-drawn animation, it showed the prosperous landscape and changes in the spring and summer seasons from a girl's perspective, and also expressed the emotions of Chinese girls in different solar terms. The theme of the video advertisement was "Giving you a poem hidden in the solar terms". The combination of time characteristics, brand connotations, hand-drawn pictures and character stories brought very good communication effects.

Case 3: Land Rover and National Geographic China jointly launched the "Discover China's 24 Solar Terms"

Since 2014, BMW has launched a series of brand activities with the theme of "Endless Discovery". In 2018, BMW and National Geographic China conducted cross-border cooperation and launched a new activity of "Endless Discovery" - Discover China's 24 Solar Terms. In this series of activities, Land Rover mainly adopts the means of combining offline and online to carry out experiential marketing, and "Discover China's Twenty-Four Solar Terms" is no exception.

By planning the 24 solar terms self-driving routes, discovering stories and scenery along the way, shooting special videos of different solar terms, creating and publishing pictures and texts, we have created a very creative and distinctive high-end off-road self-driving event. At the same time, we have cooperated with China National Geographic magazine and many domestic geographical experts to explore and photograph the solar terms scenery and customs and culture along the way, and make them into pictures and videos and publish them on WeChat, Weibo, websites, and all media platforms, such as a daytime trip to the Ussuri Shallows on the Summer Solstice, a trip to far Xinjiang on the Beginning of Autumn, a trip to Yunnan-Tibet on the Autumnal Equinox, and so on. In the pictures and videos, you can see the unique natural landscapes along the way during different solar terms, as well as the customs and culture of different regions. It also shows the functions and advantages of Land Rover off-road vehicles that can move freely in different regional terrains. It perfectly presents the concept of harmonious unity between nature and man in traditional solar terms, while also clearly highlighting the brand core of Land Rover and showing more cultural connotations.

How can brands leverage solar terms to carry out marketing planning ?

Through the above cases, we can actually learn a lot of key points and techniques about brand solar term marketing planning.

1. Explore the connotation and showcase the brand story and traditional culture

It is necessary to understand the seasonal characteristics and traditional customs of the 24 solar terms, and at the same time, have a clear understanding of the brand's own connotation, find concepts that can overlap and integrate, and naturally show the brand's temperament or tell the brand's story while expressing traditional culture.

2. Use creativity to integrate the brand with the characteristics and traditions of solar terms

To combine the brand and the solar terms naturally and perfectly, it is mainly necessary to rely on creativity. From the beginning to the end, this marketing needs to rely on creativity to catch people's attention. For example, the compatibility of concepts, the design and expression of the pictures, the coordination and cooperation of copywriting, video shooting and production, and the establishment of activities all require the use of associative ability.

3. Use a form of expression that can fully demonstrate visual creativity

Since the solar term only lasts for one day, the timeliness of leveraging the solar term is very short. In order to make the public pay attention to the brand in just one day, it is necessary to use simple and clear forms that can quickly attract attention. Posters, animated images, H5, videos and other visual forms can more effectively undertake and express creativity, are more impactful, and can quickly catch people's attention. At the same time, they are also clear at a glance and can convey the marketing content very quickly and powerfully.

4. Can be made into series type

There are twenty-four solar terms in a year. Although each solar term lasts only one day, its specific time is fixed and can be prepared in advance according to the English marketing calendar. Brands can make a series of posters about the solar terms based on these characteristics, create a theme, select the same style and elements, show the specific differences according to different solar terms, form a unified style, and make the brand more popular.

5. Joint promotion with other brands

The strong alliance between brands can also be used in solar term marketing, which can not only further increase popularity and attention, but also bring new marketing ideas and creativity, integrate and penetrate originally unrelated elements, and create more new marketing methods and forms.

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Source: PR Home