What did successful solar term marketing do right in 2024?

From Kuaike's "Quickly Exceed 12 Grams" to Ele.me's solar term short film, to Wenxian's solar term perfume, these cases show the youthful trend and success factors of solar term marketing in the new era. By combining the 24 solar terms of traditional Chinese culture, brands are creating marketing activities that resonate with consumers emotionally.

The 24 solar terms, as the time coordinates of traditional Chinese culture, mark the change of seasons and are the life guide of the Chinese nation for thousands of years. Although modern society no longer completely relies on this calendar for production and life, every time the solar terms change, it always becomes a hot topic of discussion.

Solar term marketing, as a marketing strategy that closely follows the changes of the 24 solar terms in traditional Chinese culture, is increasingly favored by brands. This marketing method combines the characteristics of solar terms with brand attributes and plans related activities to enhance brand awareness and consumer favorability.

In recent years, the popularity of solar term marketing has continued to soar. According to the data of the "2023-2024 Festival Marketing Trend Report", the popularity of many solar term marketing is on the rise, and the popularity of the Spring Equinox has increased by an astonishing 400%, while the popularity of the Summer Solstice in the previous year also increased by 400%. Amid the soaring popularity, solar term marketing has become an important battlefield for brand competition.

But in practice, although brands try their best to fit their brand characteristics with the characteristics of the solar terms, this may cause their own "brand" to be weakened in the communication process, resulting in unsatisfactory marketing results.

A single strategy may be limited, but brands are not rigid. If one strategy doesn't work, they will try another one; if one brand is not good, there are always other brands that are good - next, let's see how successful solar term marketing in 2024 is done.

01 Binding to season, binding to positioning, binding to innovation

As mentioned above, solar term marketing cannot achieve the expected communication effect. One of the main reasons is that the brand and the solar term products are not strongly related. To solve this problem, the simplest way is to "lay the long line", bind the brand content with the natural season, and bring a more long-term and systematic expression.

Morketing counts the brands that have done well in this regard: Kuaike, Ele.me and Wenxian. In addition, we summarize the reasons why they have done well.

At the beginning of the year, the topic of "Recruiting Kuake Supermen with a daily salary of 30,000 yuan" became popular on Weibo, and this was the beginning of Kuake's 2024 solar term marketing. Kuake's "recruiting Kuake Supermen" was for the purpose of filming "Kuai Chao 12 Grams", which is a "fast movie" created by Kuake with the solar terms as the rhythm and Kuake Supermen as the protagonists, shooting 12 different types of "fast movies". Kuake plans to use 12 solar terms in a year, combine 12 professions, embody 12 life stories, and output the spirit of 12 ordinary supermen.

As of press time, "Fast Over 12 Grams" has released seven issues: Beginning of Spring "Fortune", Waking of Insects "Choice", Grain Rain "Speech", Grain Full "Full", Summer Solstice "Cool", Great Heat "Light" and Beginning of Autumn "Resolution". A long-distance bus driver, a woman facing "choice", a software development engineer who met Cangjie, a badminton player who caught the racket again, a drummer who found courage, a lighting engineer who shined behind the scenes, a "dialogue" with a barber... all walks of life, but they are all ordinary people's troubles, happiness, courage and life.

Kuake does not focus on the depth of popular science about solar terms, nor on the height of Chinese aesthetics, but extends to the cultural connotation of the brand through the cultural depth and accumulation of solar terms. Kuake has insight into the changes in the social environment, grasps the emotional appeal of current consumers, and gives consumers warmth and encouragement: "You are Superman."

Kuaike provides people with warmth and encouragement, and Ele.me also gets closer to the lives of ordinary people through the "Ele.me Seasonal Officer".

Ele.me has been more active in solar term marketing. As of press time, Ele.me has the following 10 solar term marketing short films in 2024: "Minor Cold Stores Sweetness, Have Some Sweetness", "Don't Make Weekly Progress on Laba, Just Eat Laba Porridge", "Beginning of Spring, the Philosophy of Volume", "Drinking Tea in Rainwater", "Insects Awaken the Awakening of Insects", "Spring Equinox, the Split of Spring", "Food is the Deepest Miss, Full of Care for the Loved Ones", "Beginning of Summer for the Elderly", "The "Famous" Hall of Noodle Shops" and "The First Cup of Autumn in Famous Paintings".

Ele.me’s short videos can resonate more emotionally with young people.

Short films such as "Beginning of Spring, the Philosophy of the Volume", "Literature of Drinking Tea with Rainwater", and "Vernal Equinox, the Schizophrenia of Spring" are all based on the small problems of young people, and make good use of homophonic puns and Internet puns to present the "crazy" mental outlook of young people in a humorous way, and soothe anxiety with interesting words.

In addition to humor, Ele.me's short films also convey emotions. For example, during the Qingming Festival, the film explores the taboo topic of death and tells heartwarming stories; during the Beginning of Summer, the film holds a "Community Elderly Egg Throwing Competition" to call on the society to pay attention to the elderly living alone... The brand not only gets close to young people, but also incorporates the brand's sense of social responsibility into the expression of solar term marketing.

Resonance and emotional communication are the winning formula for Ele.me’s long-term system expression.

Wen Xian was unwilling to fall behind.

As of press time, Wenxian has released five solar term perfumes: Beginning of Spring "HUG", Rain "Lay", Waking of Insects "SHY", Spring Equinox "SENSITIVE" and Qingming "LOOSE". Wenxian gives each solar term perfume connotation, capturing nature and culture, thereby realizing the connection with the brand.

Telunsu and People magazine released four short films titled "Better Growth" during the summer solstice, the Lesser Heat, the Greater Heat, and the Beginning of Autumn. The four short films invited Shan Jixiang, former director of the Palace Museum, Luo Xin, professor of the History Department of Peking University, singer Chen Hongyu, and artist Chen Peisi to tell the story of "Better Growth", which coincides with Telunsu's brand positioning - "Better".

By reinforcing its "better" positioning through the heaviness of life experiences, Trunusu has escaped from information saturation and achieved successful solar term marketing.

Of course, another major reason why solar term marketing cannot achieve the expected communication effect is the lack of innovation in the entry point. Among those who have done well in this field, we must undoubtedly mention Jiaoxia and McDonald's.

Last year, Jiaoxia's "The Awakening" became a hit on the Internet, highlighting its "lightweight outdoor" positioning. This year, Jiaoxia is also thoughtful and released a short film "Back to the Outdoors" on the Spring Equinox. This year's short film is presented in the form of a musical, and at the same time, it expresses the core of "returning" to the outdoors through the form of reverse playback, which is quite innovative and has attracted people's attention.

McDonald's "Eat Big Potatoes on the Great Heat" has a long history and is creative. This year is the tenth "Big Potato Day". In addition to the traditional big potato discounts, McDonald's also invited artist Yushan Fankuan to jointly launch the "Retro Multi-purpose Cooling Mat" and "Retro Waist Fan", which attracted the attention of young people.

In addition to innovation, the solar term marketing of Jiaoxia and McDonald's has another notable feature: strong connection with the brand.

Both the "lightweight outdoor" Jiaoxia and McDonald's "Big Potato" focused their marketing campaigns on a single solar term. The solar terms themselves even tended to serve only as a time background for marketing rather than a theme. It was through the strong targeting and relevance of their marketing that Jiaoxia and McDonald's gained the attention and favor of their audiences.

After talking about these successful solar term marketing campaigns, can we find some commonalities among them?

02 In the new era, solar term marketing must be young to be successful

Looking at these solar term marketing, we can find the following characteristics:

1. Focus on young people and pursue emotional resonance, such as Kuaike's "Cool" and Ele.me's "Spring Equinox, Spring Schizophrenia"

2. Pay attention to your own positioning and ensure strong relevance, such as Wen Xian's "Soul Relaxation LOOSE" and Telunsu's "Better Growth"

3. Be innovative and memorable to the audience, such as McDonald’s “Eat Big Potatoes on the Great Heat” and Ele.me’s “Don’t Make Weekly Progress on Laba, Just Make Weekly Progress on Laba”

4. Have connotation and a sense of social responsibility, such as Kuaike's "Solution" and Ele.me's "Old Man's Beginning of Summer"

It is not difficult to find that in the trend of solar term marketing, "focusing on young people and pursuing emotional resonance" has become a new magic weapon.

As Generation Z becomes the main consumer, products with avant-garde ideas, open concepts, and new and interesting trends are generally welcomed. However, although Generation Z has a stronger desire to consume, they are not blind consumers: they prefer products that meet emotional needs, have personality, are innovative, and have connotations. Brands that have been successful in solar term marketing have also seen this opportunity and achieved success in solar term marketing.

In short, solar term marketing is by no means a simple, optional link. Solar terms are special days that are indeed worthy of continued attention from brands. If brands have ideas and needs for solar terms, solar terms are an important marketing moment. In the end, it all depends on the brands' dedication: only solar term marketing that is closer to the audience and closer to the brand can be a great success.

Text | CD