How to plan brand marketing for the Chinese Valentine’s Day?

As a traditional festival, couples are busy getting together to show their love, singles are busy avoiding ridicule and tons of hurt, and marketers are racking their brains to think of brand marketing plans. As a powerful IP that leverages marketing momentum, let’s see what tricks can be played during this year’s Chinese Valentine’s Day?

How to interpret is the key

1. Chinese Valentine's Day is for couples

It is China's most romantic traditional festival, based on the folk legend of "Cowherd and Weaver Girl" and with blessing, praying for cleverness and love as its themes. In China, it has become the second best opportunity to express love after Valentine's Day. According to Meituan’s data from 2017, the growth rate of flower delivery orders on Valentine’s Day reached 347%.

At the same time, in 2017, the proportion of two-person movie-watching in cinemas reached 73%, and the growth rate of hourly room orders soared to 266%.

When love, romance and sweet talk become the eternal topics of Chinese Valentine's Day, on this day, the whole world only looks up to couples. An apple with the words "You are my forever" printed on it will be supported by couples; if a hotel launches a marketing strategy of "couples book a room and give commemorative roses", other hotels will be eclipsed; if a photo-taking APP launches a filter exclusively for couples and holds an activity where guests can take photos together to win big prizes, the number of downloads and daily active users on that day will reach a peak.

By grasping the couples' worship and attachment to totems such as "romance", "love" and "exclusivity", you can capture the hearts of couples and become their target.

2. Chinese Valentine’s Day is not just for couples, there are also singles and outsiders

According to Alibaba's 2017 data, the average spending of married people on Chinese Valentine's Day reached 618 yuan, but single people, who are isolated from Chinese Valentine's Day, also spent as much as 259 yuan per person on the day.

Unable to escape, unable to hide, singles are trying to survive in the difficult gap of the Chinese Valentine's Day. They are used to seeing others being in love and affectionate, and then thinking about themselves being alone at home, they can't help but feel sad. Singles certainly need care. If brands can show compassion in real time and approach singles' emotions such as "I'm proud to be single" and "I'm single just because I don't want to compromise" from the right angle, they can trigger the single group's strong consumption desire.

When the whole world is targeting singles, if there are brands that can notice them and show "humanistic care", they will undoubtedly gain a lot of goodwill, instead of just making fun of and mocking them like other brands. In contrast, if the brand implements the right marketing strategy, it can bring about good conversion results.

In addition to "showing affection" and watching others "show affection" on Chinese Valentine's Day, there is another type of "outsider" who needs attention. They have someone they like in their hearts, but due to many reasons, they are not brave enough to express their love. So if brands can tap into this type of material and encourage them to speak out their thoughts, they can also convey a better brand voice.

In the eyes of outsiders, those memories and details that we had together began with secret crush and ended with love, and are all related to the Chinese Valentine's Day. They are all worth cherishing and worth speaking out. After all, Chinese Valentine's Day should belong to you and the one you love.

丨Keywords for Chinese Valentine's Day

Main keywords: dog food, romance, love, Cowherd and Weaver Girl, long-distance relationship, love words, meeting on the magpie bridge, strategies to get out of being single…

Niche keywords: caring for singles, dog abuse, hourly rooms, not compromising, ex, singles…

Many keywords can independently generate some marketing entry points, but for niche keywords, it is necessary to grasp the degree and ensure that they convey positive energy without causing public disgust and condemnation, which would lead to a marketing failure.

丨Classic copywriting for Chinese Valentine’s Day:

vivo mobile phone: I used to like someone, and now I like someone.

PP money financial management: Love is a permanent savings account, and every interest is the capital for continuing love.

Didi Chuxing: People who truly like you are available 24 hours a day.

Jissbon: Liking you is a very troublesome thing, but I just like to cause trouble.

Coca-Cola: We used to say one thing and mean another, but today we speak from the heart.

Excellent copywriting that leverages momentum is not only reflected in creativity, but also in strong relevance. For example, making use of memes, poetry adaptations, slang adaptations, homophones, ambiguity, etc., and providing certain emotional insights and creating contradictions, ultimately forming the communication and exposure of brand information. Good copywriting that leverages the momentum can amaze people and make them applaud, but good copywriting is hard to come by. In order to attract attention and traffic, some brands force memes and awkward segments, which ultimately confuses the public and even makes them disgusted.

丨Marketing approach

Leveraging marketing is not just about following the trend to write a copy or make a poster, it can also be done through integrated marketing methods.

1. H5 page game

Durex "Catch the Magpie" on Chinese Valentine's Day

Combining the creativity of the then popular Pokemon Go, Durex developed a "dirty" H5 mini-game. Click GO!!!!! to enter the game. Based on the real-time positioning, your actual current location will appear, and a certain number of magpies will appear on the screen at the same time. You must walk to the designated location with your mobile phone and click to capture. You can also redeem prizes by collecting a certain number of magpies.

Putting aside the playability of the game itself, the biggest highlight is that it is integrated with Tencent Maps, so you can see the number of online game players nearby and the cute little magpies at any time. Therefore, the process of catching magpies is, to some extent, also a process of "romantic encounter". In this way, Dudu really cares for a group of single people and encourages everyone to socialize offline in the form of games.

Meituan APP "Don't waste my time"

Meituan produced an H5 on the occasion of Chinese Valentine's Day in 2017, inviting hip-hop singers GAI and Li Yugang to perform a song battle. The collision of the Jianghu style and the opera style successfully attracted a lot of attention, but the brand seemed a little weak in the end. Apart from sharing and grabbing red envelopes, there were no other eye-catching routines. It was just a simple exposure without any further extension.

JD APP "Restart time and space, fall in love with you"

JD.com also launched an H5 mini-game on Chinese Valentine's Day. Users could use their mobile phones to help the heroine avoid the dark witch, reunite with the hero, and successfully complete the game in order to get coupons. However, the coupons are only for Huawei Honor series mobile phones, so the communication volume and conversion rate are very average.

2. Insights into Segmented Groups

What is one sentence that proves you are under a lot of pressure at work? No sex for half a year has become the most recognized answer among people in the workplace. After dog abuse gradually became the mainstream routine on Chinese Valentine's Day, Maimai and Okamoto began to take a different approach. They realized the current situation of "sexless life" of people in the workplace and launched a cross-border marketing campaign to "save the sex life of people in the workplace."

First of all, a private questionnaire called “Sex Life Survey of Chinese Working People” appeared in the in-site messages of many Maimai users, which marked the beginning of the cross-border marketing for the Chinese Valentine’s Day.

After a small-scale trial, various workplace elites including Overtime Cat, New Media Dog, and Programmer took the lead in complaining about their "lack of sex life" on Maimai. Through anonymous complaints from users' UGC, we actively stimulate people in the workplace to pay attention to their sex lives and dig deep into their "non-sexual" pain points.

After the topic reached a certain level of popularity, Maimai and Fashion Health jointly released the first "Survey Report on Sexual Life of Chinese Working People". Based on sampling surveys and big data, the sex life index of nearly 10,000 Chinese working people was collected, showing the current sex life status of working people from multiple dimensions, which triggered coverage in mainstream media.

Coupled with subsequent street interviews and celebrity endorsements, the event moved from online to offline communication, bringing it to a climax. A street video titled #How happy are you# went viral on the Internet. A series of explicit questions made passers-by panic and shy, and various celebrities and joke tellers joined in the heated discussion, bringing the event's level of dissemination to a peak.

Finally, the event ended with the “Job Love” series of suits jointly launched by Maimai and Okamoto, which brought out the brand’s attitude: every working person who works hard and lives hard deserves to be loved!

3. Use a good story to convey the brand proposition

Kimberley Diamond: Dare to Love and Dare to Take Responsibility

The short advertisement selected moments when five different pairs of lovers dared to love and take responsibility, including the passionate love in youth, the persistence of an overseas relationship, the entanglements in life, the devotion for each other, and the hand in hand after the seven-year itch, etc. It truly and vividly demonstrated the brand concept of being brave for love. The story is plain and touching, and it resonates with people because of its authenticity, and successfully gained social voice and favorability.

Chanel : Love Like This

In the Chinese Valentine's Day short film from Chanel's COCO CRUSH series, Liu Wen and Jing Boran interpret completely different ways of love. One desires to be in sync with each other, the other yearns for freedom and spontaneity; one tends to express love, the other tends to hide love; one is in the light, the other is hidden outside the light. Through the short film, the brand conveys its understanding of love: there may be different ways of loving, but sincerity cannot be misunderstood. Everyone has their own emotional experiences. Chanel’s answer has a good insight into the love profile of all people, which can resonate with people, trigger social discussions, and bring brand exposure.

3. Qixi Festival customs

Worshiping the Seven Sisters, praying for blessings and making wishes, begging for skills, watching the Altair and Vega stars, praying for marriage, storing water for the Qixi Festival, stargazing, listening to whispers, dyeing nails, receiving red hair strings, etc. are traditional customs of the Qixi Festival and are also marketing materials worth exploring.

Once we have the materials, the next step is to process them, adding modern popular elements, adding meme culture, and presenting them in a language system that the public loves. This can not only allow the audience to understand traditional culture and learn new knowledge, but also make them smile and forward the content.

In the special feature "How did the ancients celebrate the Chinese Valentine's Day?" produced by Amazon and Phoenix News Client, spoofs were made on well-known figures such as Wang Zhaojun, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Yang Guifei, Tang Bohu, and Li Qingzhao. While it was full of Internet meme culture, it was also in line with historical facts and successfully implanted brand information, attracting attention and selling goods.

4. Scene Construction

Build a scene for users, allowing them to unscrupulously show off their love words, gifts, confess their love, complain about their significant other, or even be single. These are the scenes that best match the Chinese Valentine's Day. Build the scene, then attract traffic, and naturally there will be participation and forwarding.

Showing sweet words: In an intimate relationship or a secret love relationship, there is bound to be private sweet words whispered in the ears, loving confessions, unswerving promises, beautiful fantasies about the future, and ardent love in the afternoon, which are all expressions of true feelings. The belief of loving only one person in a lifetime can always make your heart beat. Finally, by integrating "love" between the lines, the brand implanted information can also be exposed, which is also a successful "pick-up routine".

Show off your complaints: If love talks are too greasy or too serious, they will lose their flavor and will make the situation awkward. In this case, complaining about your significant other is a seasoning that will successfully add interest to your life. For example, complaining about straight men not knowing how to choose gifts for the Chinese Valentine's Day can make your girlfriend furious in minutes. After attracting traffic, the humorous and funny atmosphere is bound to attract more users to participate, and they will join the ranks of the objects of ridicule, and the brand will also be able to successfully increase its voice and popularity.

5. Singles First

Those texts that speak from the perspective of single people have their own potential, for example: What's wrong with being single! Have you eaten your rice? The single group itself is dissatisfied with their own situation, so this kind of copywriting that justifies singleness and is filled with righteous indignation can easily spread in a fission manner. For example, Red Bull’s Chinese Valentine’s Day copywriting: “I am single because of you, and I have been waiting for you.”

· “Be Yourself” by Wei Lu Shi: I stand on the street corner, not waiting for anyone.

The watch brand Weilushi launched a campaign in the Shenzhen Metro during the Chinese Valentine's Day, speaking for single people and expressing the brand's philosophy: it's still cool to live alone.

Their interest sites and views are correct. Whether people are single passively or actively, they are all working hard to live and should not be ignored. Therefore, if brands take practical actions to care for single people during activities, it is easy to attract a lot of goodwill and gain positive attention through secondary dissemination.

6. Strategies for finding a partner

Not only do we provide strategies for Chinese Valentine’s Day, we can also organize an Internet blind date conference! For example, Didi, together with Sina Weibo and NetEase News, launched the "First Houchangcun Internet Blind Date Conference" to provide for the lifelong events of singles. There is also the "Foodie Blind Date Conference" created by Jiayuan.com, Alipay and word of mouth, which aims to help you find a partner who is "right for you" and has also attracted the participation of many single netizens who love food.

7. Goodbye to your ex

In addition to the current lover, there is also the "ex" perspective on Chinese Valentine's Day. As a participant in past emotional experiences, it is also easy to touch people's heartstrings, instantly triggering memories and emotions in their hearts, making people think about and examine them again. For example, Heytea’s Qixi Festival campaign #bye bye前任# reminds everyone to deal with their ex in a scientific and reasonable way, and only after completely letting go can they reap new happiness.

In short, there are many angles and means to leverage marketing on the Qixi Festival. It is important to find new and creative entry points, provide accurate and profound emotional insights, and formulate appropriate marketing plans based on the characteristics of different groups of people in order to break through and win the Qixi Festival battle.

Author: Tenant 404

Source: PR Home