New marketing trend for Chinese Valentine’s Day: Brands embrace the true nature of love with warmth

With the arrival of Chinese Valentine's Day, brands have used creative marketing strategies to establish emotional connections with consumers. This year's marketing activities not only redefined the traditional way of celebrating Chinese Valentine's Day, but also made consumers feel the core value of love - warmth and protection - during the traditional festival through limited series, artistic integration and cross-border cooperation.

As the Chinese Valentine's Day approaches, this traditional Chinese festival has become an important moment for brands to showcase their creativity and build emotional connections. This year, brands have adopted a delicate and sincere strategy to redefine the marketing activities of the Chinese Valentine's Day. Focusing on delivering the core value of love - warmth and protection, brands have established a deep emotional resonance with consumers.

Although the overlap between the Chinese Valentine's Day and the Olympic Games may have distracted some brands' marketing focus, we have observed that industries such as luxury goods, beauty, coffee and tea still pay great attention to this traditional festival. Brands have found a balance between tradition and modernity, emotion and innovation, and have integrated traditional Chinese culture into their products through strategies such as limited series, artistic integration, cross-border cooperation and cultural heritage, providing consumers with a deep and differentiated festival experience.

Let us explore the marketing cases worth paying attention to during this year’s Chinese Valentine’s Day.

1. The love story of luxury goods

This year, luxury brands have adopted a more people-friendly and emotional marketing strategy, no longer limited to the display of material luxury, but focusing on building emotional connections and resonance with consumers. This shift reflects the brands' deep understanding of consumers' emotional needs and demonstrates their active role in fulfilling their social responsibilities. Even in times of economic pressure, these brands continue to convey messages of love and care through diverse creative forms such as illustrations, animations and short films, injecting new cultural and emotional values ​​into the Chinese Valentine's Day, making it an important part of consumers' emotional experience.

1. @Hermès Love is a long-lasting day and night

Hermès uses the theme of "Love is a long-lasting day and night" to delicately depict the sweet daily life between lovers through two illustration-style animations. The interaction at the seaside and the tacit understanding of the paper boat, every detail tells the warmth and romance of love.

2. @Chanel Meet your CRUSH

Some encounters leave a lasting mark on you. Chanel joins hands with brand ambassadors and close friends on Chinese Valentine's Day to tell stories about encounters and lead the public to feel the excitement together.

3. @Gucci Love

When eyes meet, they have each other in their hearts; when hands are linked, love is connected. Gucci, together with actors and brand ambassadors, presents a Chinese Valentine's Day advertising film, interpreting the moment of "love linking", inviting consumers to visit the boutique to experience the spread of love.

4. @PRADA

Green bamboos sway and green mountains are like dark green. Prada spokespeople shoot a series of films on Chinese Valentine's Day in Chengkan Ancient Town, Huizhou, where romance meets romance on Chinese Valentine's Day.

5. @BurberryBurberry

The brand launched a series of gifts for the Chinese Valentine's Day, inspired by the swans, a symbol of loyal love. The brand specially invited filmmaker Chen Jiayan to create a romantic animated short film, in which two swans stand opposite each other, forming a heart-shaped outline, complementing the affectionate couple.

6. @LOEWE Star Picking

The Qixi special series is inspired by the image of a hedgehog, paying tribute to the Chinese Valentine's Day. The healing stop-motion animation "Picking the Stars" was launched simultaneously, directed by the gold award-winning director Nina Gantz, and voiced by Chinese actor Lin Dongfu, telling the story of a little hedgehog's relentless pursuit of love.

7. @Qeelin

Qeelin's Infinite Possibilities of Love uses the brilliance of the Wulu series to depict the happy moments of love and explore the infinite possibilities of love.

2. A romantic encounter with beauty makeup

The beauty brand collaborated with artists and cultural symbols to launch a carefully designed limited series. These series cleverly blend traditional aesthetics with modern design, making each gift box not only a respect for traditional culture, but also a novel expression of contemporary love concepts. The brand used cross-border cooperation to cleverly combine the traditional culture of Qixi Festival with modern aesthetics, launching beauty products that are both rich in cultural significance and keep up with the trend, meeting the market's demand for products with depth and fashion.

1. @CPB "Key of Eros" series

The CPB brand collaborated with French artist Margot Reverdy to transform the legend of Cupid, the god of love, into a limited edition series, and brought consumers a full range of interactive experience through the live broadcast of astrology master ALEX and the H5 mini program.

2. @Winona「Gift from the Weaver Girl」

Inspired by the "Heavenly Brocade" of the Naxi people in Lijiang, Yunnan, the Qixi gift box launched by Winona is not only a gift, but also a heritage of intangible cultural heritage and a praise of female power.

3. @韩束「Chinese Valentine's Day Limited Edition Gift Box」

Hansu has joined hands with the Suzhou Silk Museum to create the "Qixi Limited Edition Gift Box", which perfectly combines the magnificence of thousand-year-old silk with the sophistication of modern skin care. While conveying deep affection, it also demonstrates the power of Chinese brands.

4. @PROYA "Wandering in the Light of Love"

PROYA and SUSAN FANG have jointly launched the "Wandering in the Light of Love" Chinese Valentine's Day co-branded gift box, which combines the romantic atmosphere of Chinese Valentine's Day with SUSAN FANG's iconic color-shaded prints to create a visual and emotional feast.

5. @RED CHAMBER✖️Sunset Racer RED

CHAMEBR (Zhu Zhan) collaborated with Sunset Rollercoaster to weave the magic of music with the essence of beauty, and jointly brought a limited English new single "bluebird" and a limited-edition Chinese Valentine's Day gift box, adding a special touch to the festival.

6. @卡兹兰 Tanabata Art Gift Box

KISS ME teamed up with illustrator Li Yulong to use the "red thread" that symbolizes the bond of love as the theme, showcasing the combination of traditional Chinese Valentine's Day elements and modern art, delivering products with unique love.

3. Daily happiness of coffee and tea

In the first solar term of autumn, coffee and tea brands not only continued the hot topic of "the first cup of milk tea in autumn", but also brought consumers a series of meticulous Qixi surprises through positioning close to the hearts of the people and innovative thinking. Whether it is interesting refrigerator magnets or romantic and warm confession cup sleeves, from sweet pink ingredients to deep blue theme cups, major brands interpret the various colors and flavors of love with their unique creativity. Moreover, each brand cleverly combines traditional festival elements with modern creativity, using diversified marketing methods such as homophonic puns, joint cooperation, and special peripheral products to add a sense of innovation and fun to consumers' festival experience. This marketing method that combines tradition and modernity not only enhances consumers' participation and desire to buy, but also deepens consumers' emotional identification with the brand, successfully creating a Qixi Festival consumer experience that is both novel and full of emotion.

1. @Starbucks

Play with the homophonic pun, and "fragrant" meet under the moon, inviting customers to enjoy a romantic time in the fragrance of osmanthus. Special activities include free "mobile phone lanyard & earphone bag", adding the first warm "star" meaning to autumn.

2. @Luckin Coffee

Join hands with cute Ruby to launch a special joint event for the Chinese Valentine's Day. In the name of "gentle jasmine", it gently drips into the hearts of customers and brings a refreshing and moving experience.

3. @Grid Coffee

In collaboration with Dior, a pop-up exhibition with the theme of "Love is Fearless" was held in Taikoo Li Sanlitun, Beijing. Two special drinks limited to Chinese Valentine's Day were launched, with wood and citrus aromas, paying tribute to Dior's brave love.

4. @M stand

With the pink bubble theme of "Hao Ba Hao Ba", new summer products and packages are launched. At the same time, exclusive nylon bags are provided to members as a must-have item for a relaxing feeling in summer.

5. @CoCo

With fun and love as the theme, we launched a limited set meal. The set meal includes super cute love filter glasses and sticker pendants, making every cup of tea a signal of love and a sweet Valentine's Day.

6. @一点

A little bit of "pink", a thousand points of excitement. The signature boba topping has been upgraded to pink with a faint rose scent, bringing a sweet taste enjoyment while making every cup of tea full of love.

7. @Nayuki

With the slogan "Love is blue", the brand launched blue themed cups and bags, as well as heart-shaped mini plush dolls, which are limited to the Chinese Valentine's Day. The brand also cooperated with Ctrip to provide "Inner Mongolia Round Trip Package for Two" to create romantic surprises for couples.

8. @茉沁

The Qixi Festival limited edition refrigerator magnets and stickers are launched with humorous slogans, such as "The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, add ice to your milk tea" and "You're in trouble, you've fallen in love", adding a touch of fun and laughter to the festival.

9. @Tea Hundred Road

The specially blended new product, the Purple Rose, is paired with a limited edition sparkling cup, which is dazzling. At the same time, the love fragrance card is launched to make the festival atmosphere more intense.

10. @Shanghai Auntie

The Fugui series is brought to the Chinese Valentine's Day, and the peripherals include bracelets, Fu "Gui" firework guns, paper bags and Chinese Valentine's Day limited love special effect paper glasses, bringing consumers a full range of holiday experience.

IV. Conclusion

Based on the 20+ Qixi marketing cases in the three major industries of luxury goods, beauty, and tea and coffee, we have summarized the five characteristics of brand marketing this year:

• Pay more attention to cultural heritage: Brands not only emphasize the modern aesthetics of their products, but also pay more attention to integrating traditional Chinese culture into marketing activities to enhance the emotional depth and cultural value of the brand.
• Innovation of limited series: This year, the limited series launched by the brand is not limited to the products themselves, but also strengthens the connection between the products and the holiday theme through innovative packaging and design.
• Deep integration of art and marketing: Brands collaborate with artists to incorporate art elements into marketing activities, thereby enhancing their brand image and attracting consumers’ attention.
• Expansion of cross-border cooperation: Cross-border cooperation is no longer limited to brands in the same industry, but has expanded to cooperation with the fields of culture and art, providing consumers with a more diversified experience.
• Traditional elements with modern interpretation: In its marketing, the brand cleverly reinterprets traditional elements in a modern way, making them more in line with the aesthetics and values ​​of contemporary consumers.

These brand marketing cases not only promote products, but also bring consumers a warm and pleasant experience through creativity and emotional investment, making the Chinese Valentine's Day a special moment full of love and care. The precise use of brand strategy not only strengthens the emotional connection with consumers, but also injects richer emotional connotations into the brand, while adding warmth and depth to the brand.