3 rules to teach you how to seize the marketing hotspots of Dragon Boat Festival and College Entrance Examination!

Before we know it, the Dragon Boat Festival is almost here, but this year's Dragon Boat Festival seems a little "different from Zongzi" because it coincides with the college entrance examination. Surprise or not? Is it surprising?

One is a traditional Chinese festival, and the other is a social topic that has attracted nationwide attention. After the two merge, the huge amount of traffic is self-evident. Various platforms and brand operators will naturally not miss such a good publicity opportunity. It is estimated that the smell of gunpowder in this year's marketing war will be even stronger.

So, how do you combine these two hot topics to create an attractive marketing campaign? This article will discuss with you our thoughts on this hot topic from the perspectives of Brand, Content, and Channel.

1. Brand

It includes two aspects: brand elements and brand tone:

1. Brand elements

Brand elements are a concept for creating brand assets mentioned by Kevin Lane Keller in Strategic Brand Management. They refer to trademark designs used to identify and distinguish brands. The main brand elements include brand name, brand logo, product features, target audience, spokesperson, packaging, slogan, etc.

The marketing can be considered qualified only when a certain element of the product can be linked to the holiday hotspot and the product element is naturally reflected in the marketing strategy.

2. Brand tone

Brands in different industries have different positioning, so the brand tone of each industry is also different. Brand tone is the market impression formed based on the brand's external performance. From the perspective of brand personification, it is equivalent to a person's character. So if a hot event does not match your brand tone, you need to consider whether to follow it or not.

As far as this marketing hotspot is concerned, basically the entire industry can take advantage of it. But one thing needs to be noted: no matter what brand or what marketing method is used, the final destination should be the brand itself. Marketing products that overemphasize techniques and themes while ignoring brand tone will result in products or brands that are too substitutable and fail to generate additional stimulating demand, thereby weakening users' memory of and appeal to the product or brand.

2. Content

It includes three aspects: customs/characteristics of festivals/hotspots, marketing techniques and presentation forms:

1. Customs/characteristics of Dragon Boat Festival and College Entrance Examination

There are so many marketing nodes in a year, and each festival/hotspot has its own customs and characteristics. Therefore, it is important to keep these points in mind when planning marketing activities. That is, when the audience sees these elements in the marketing content, they can associate them with related festivals/hot spots.

(1) Dragon Boat Festival

• Customs: making rice dumplings, rowing dragon boats, commemorating Qu Yuan, hanging sachets, hanging mugwort, etc.
• Keywords: Zongzi, dragon boat, blessing, Qu Yuan, etc.

(2) College Entrance Examination

• Features: As the focus of the whole society, the college entrance examination is not only a battlefield for the candidates of this year, but also an important moment for anyone who has taken the college entrance examination to fall into nostalgia;
• Keywords: exam, encouragement and blessings, remembrance, admission ticket, graduation, pre-exam tips, pre-exam diet, etc.

2. Marketing skills

After understanding the main features of festivals/hotspots, how can we combine these features for marketing? And make the brand stand out amid the crowded marketing activities, monotonous content and user aesthetic fatigue? Here are a few ideas for your reference:

(1) Explore the similarities between products and hot topics

No matter how many methods there are for leveraging marketing and how new the ideas are, good leveraging has one important characteristic, which is to find an intersection between the hot spot and the brand so that the two can establish an intrinsic connection, that is, to find the commonalities between the hot spot and the product and cleverly combine the two. Instead of writing some meaningless and self-congratulatory texts.

Only when a brand cleverly grasps the commonalities between its products and hot topics can it leave consumers with unique memories and enhanced cognition of the brand after the excitement.

(2) Arouse emotional resonance among users

Most of the festivals that have been passed down to this day have a deep cultural or emotional core. The reason why they are attractive is not just because of the holidays or consumption boom, but also because of the certain emotions or blessings they carry.

Therefore, festival-related content has a natural emotional advantage and is more likely to resonate with users, and emotional resonance is one of the most effective marketing methods. It can bring the festival closer to users, allowing them to find a sense of group identity and belonging, thereby establishing a trusting relationship.

(3) Personalized customization

Some food e-commerce companies and physical stores can customize holiday gifts for users during the Dragon Boat Festival/College Entrance Examination marketing week and launch exclusive customized products based on the characteristics of target users.

Chinese people like the homophonic meanings of some foods very much, and some of them have even become a custom. In some places, during the college entrance examination, a few rice dumplings are hung on the door. If the candidate touches them, it means he or she has won the top scorer in the high school, etc. Therefore, for the families of the candidates (zongzi is made of glutinous rice and is difficult to digest, so it is better to avoid this group of candidates), the zongzi are wrapped according to the homophony of the rice dumplings, with the intention of bringing good luck, such as "zongzi for every exam", "zongzi for the top scorer", etc.

(4) Brand crossover

There is no doubt that brand cross-border has become the current marketing trend. Through cross-border marketing, not only can the two brands share traffic, but also it can bring new experiences to customers while enhancing the brand image. It can be said that it is a mutual fit and complementary advantage.

Case: SakyX@Weilong Food

"Gao Zong Zhuang Yuan" is a homonym of "Senior High School Zhuang Yuan", which not only highlights the characteristics of the two brands, but also cleverly connects the product and hot spots together, setting an example for other brands to leverage cross-border cooperation. When the combination of two brands can create features related to hot topics, they can boldly collaborate across borders to create some creative ideas.

3. Presentation format

What kind of sparks will be created when the Dragon Boat Festival meets the college entrance examination? Based on previous brand cases, the editor here makes a bold prediction about the form of this year's brand marketing activities: pictures, texts, H5, small games, posters, live broadcasts, Weibo, Moments, videos, etc. are all indispensable.

(1) Leverage posters

When it comes to leveraging marketing, most brands will choose poster copywriting. China has a vast territory, and every Dragon Boat Festival there is a dispute between the north and the south over sweet and salty food, which is also a point for brands to leverage.

Case: McDonald's

If these 4 flavors were also added to the "Zongzi War", which one would you most like to eat_______? #Dragon Boat Festival#

This format can be continued this year. Firstly, we have the iconic object of the Dragon Boat Festival, "Zongzi"; secondly, the multiple-choice questions are also related to the exam.

(2) Fun and interesting H5 games

In the past two years, H5 mini games have become very popular on social platforms. There are still 10 days left until the Dragon Boat Festival, so it’s not too late to create an H5 interactive activity based on user attributes.

If you don’t have much budget for materials, you can directly use the Dragon Boat Festival event template of the event box and replace the corresponding brand materials. Save labor costs and improve operational efficiency.

Image source: Activity Box

The festival atmosphere can be enhanced by playing mini-games such as dragon boat racing and making rice dumplings. The editor thinks that the game can also be named based on the homophonic pun mentioned earlier. The sharing slogan can also be: "You can't even beat the college entrance examination candidates, so why do you celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival?" to increase user participation.

(3) Creative short videos

Short video marketing has become the hottest marketing method at present due to its fun and easy-to-spread characteristics. The first thing a brand needs to do when conducting short video marketing is to find the right KOL.

A KOL that matches the brand's tone can achieve twice the result with half the effort, and their influence even exceeds that of some celebrity artists. Because KOLs have their own field traffic and high fan stickiness, their communication with young people is more equal, more in line with young people’s cognitive patterns, and can even form a trust transfer among young people.

For example, Huamei teamed up with the well-known food video blogger "Zhonghua Xiaomingzai" to carry out a rice dumpling eating live broadcast. Through interaction, the brand's impression was deepened among users, thereby achieving purchase conversion and achieving very good communication effects.

(4) Immersive AR interaction to improve user experience

As AR technology matures, more and more brands are beginning to try new AR marketing methods. AR marketing not only attracts attention, but also brings deep feelings and interactive experiences. Consumers can deeply feel the brand tone during the interactive entertainment process, eliminating the distance between users and brands, thereby achieving brand recognition and promoting behavioral conversion.

Whether it is imaginative copywriting or black technology, the key is to bring a sense of novelty to the audience, which is the same for any brand's marketing activities.

3. Channel

Each channel has its own unique attributes, which are the first things we consider when choosing a channel. Only by understanding the communication channels of the entire network can we better plan the communication path of our activities that suits us. Common communication channels include: “WeChat, Weibo and Douyin”, video websites, elevator advertisements, TV advertisements, offline scenarios, etc. The specific attributes of each channel will not be elaborated one by one.

It should be emphasized that in terms of channel selection, there is no advantage in channel information carriers, and the choice is mainly based on the brand. Here are some suggestions for channel selection:

1. Find cost-effective channels

The more channels the better, but the key is to choose the most suitable and cost-effective channels. Especially for the distribution channels of events, the main purpose is to stimulate participation. If ineffective channels bring in ineffective users, they will not be interested in participating in your events.

2. Set up a reasonable mechanism to maximize the effect of the activity

The channel itself is a part of the traffic that is purchased with money, but how can we maximize their effectiveness? In addition to allowing the content to spread on its own, we can also set up some interesting mechanisms to allow people in these channels to help us spread the content.

3. Concentrated launch, maximum exposure in a short period of time

Leverage marketing requires timeliness. Once the golden period has passed, the meaning of leveraging the momentum will be lost.

4. Summary

If brands want to take advantage of holiday hotspots to increase consumers’ attention to their own brands, they should make efforts in the above aspects. Deeply explore the intersection of brand and product, fully align the brand tone based on novel creativity, and promote it through appropriate channels. Only in this way can you stand out among the many brands that are trying to "take advantage of the popularity"!

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Author: Activity Box

Source: Activity Box Operation Society