Check out 19 spring marketing cases and see how Starbucks, Ele.me, Uniqlo, etc. are doing well.

Spring is here, and with it comes a new sales season. Brands are using a variety of marketing tactics, so let’s take a look at this article to learn more.

In spring, a season full of change and vitality, brands are renewed, products are updated, and visuals are refreshed. What spring marketing actions will brands and Internet platforms take?

We have counted down 19 brands to see the most popular marketing cases this spring.

1. Coffee and tea drinks play with concepts, food and beverages play with "flowers"

1. Starbucks

On February 27, Starbucks launched the "Spring Art Cup". This time, Starbucks worked with four Yunnan farmer painters to create a visually innovative design. They wore characteristic ethnic minority costumes and painted the fresh spring in the fields and mountains, turning the coffee cup into an art exhibition. The designs of wrist bags, Starbuck cups, Starbuck gift cards and other peripherals were also based on these paintings.

Two new "Spring Coffee" products were launched simultaneously - Lanxiang Oolong Mianyun Latte and Matcha Mianyun Latte, with the slogan "A cup of Spring Art Cup, a cup of Spring Coffee full of tea aroma".

Whether in the stores or in the commercials during this spring marketing campaign, you can feel the fusion of the nation and the world.

This is also what Morketing believes is different from ordinary design changes, because it also adds a concept, which makes people pay attention not only to the surface but also to the core. It is worth noting that Starbucks does not often make too many changes in paper cup design, and often makes some changes around important nodes such as Christmas and Spring Festival.

2. Luckin Coffee

International brands are close to the local market, while national brands are going global. Luckin Coffee also played with art, co-branding with UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, and launched a new visual design and three products inspired by the exhibition "Matisse's Matisse" - Luojia Sakura Latte, Sakura Teppanyaki and Pink Sakura Lily Daifuku.

In addition to the collaboration, Luckin Coffee has also set up a special zone on its mini program for the Spring Equinox. Click to enter and you can see the main spring products, such as tea coffee and sauce-flavored latte.

Reclassifying products and setting up scenes for marketing is a classic approach. However, this can also lead to a lack of focus. Among the three tea latte series, only Huangshan Maofeng Latte is a new product this year, but it is not clearly differentiated from Biluo Zhichun Latte and Jasmine Latte, which makes people ignore the new product.

3. HEYTEA

The hottest topic of HEYTEA recently is the collaboration with Light and Night, but the previous spring marketing plan is also worth mentioning. While launching new products - Spring Light (Qinglanxiang) and Spring Light Kiwi, the official brand ambassador Xu Guanghan launched a wave of "Spring Light" marketing.

In addition, the exquisite packaging has also gained some attention on social platforms.

4. Overlord Tea Princess

Bawang Cha Ji launched a spring TVC not long ago. In the commercial, young people living in the city are running or riding bicycles towards the tea mountains. The overall tone is very high-end. There is not a single word in the whole film. The atmosphere is created entirely by camera language and music. Rather than a tea brand, it is more like a sports brand.

This is actually also the main direction of Bawang Cha Ji this year - targeting fitness people and creating a healthy tea brand. Not long ago, Bawang Cha Ji launched the "Nutrition Choice" logo for tea drinks, which is to classify products into health levels. This is the first official nutritional grading system in China. This move allows the brand to take a step further in creating a healthy mindset.

This time, Bawang Tea Princess did not promote spring in a blunt way. Instead, it used symbols such as "tea", "outdoors", "green" and "sports" to replace "spring", which also gave people a sense of vitality. In addition to various flowers in spring, weight loss is also a hot topic of public concern, which is very consistent with the brand's own marketing focus.

5. Oreo

Oreo has launched limited-edition sunshine lemon and French lime cheese flavors, which focus on refreshingness. In addition to the taste, some small designs have also been made on the food. The cookies are printed with patterns of flowers, spring bamboo shoots, and tender sprouts. The orange, yellow, and yellow-green tones are also very spring-like.

6. Pure Zhen

Chunzhen has launched a spring limited edition cherry blossom and green plum flavored yogurt, with fresh cherry blossom + sweet and sour green plum, and the selling point is that it is the same product as spokesperson Yang Zi.

7. Soup Master

Tang Daren launched the Sakura-flavored Tonkotsu Ramen, which was designed in terms of product packaging and taste. The barbecued pork in the seasoning package was changed into the color and shape of cherry blossoms. In addition, a special advertising film "Heartbeat Conference" was shot for the new product.

8. Glico

Glico's Pocky, Beautify, Pretz, and BISCO all launched new spring limited edition products, including sakura cheese sea salt milk cap flavor, camellia green grape flavor, cheese baked sakura shrimp flavor, and strawberry flavor. The collaboration with Crayon Shin-chan also effectively attracted many potential consumers.

9. Ka Wah

Jiahua Foods, famous for its flower cakes, is still making a fuss about flowers, launching seasonal limited edition cherry blossom flower cakes, cherry blossom towers, and cherry blossom sea salt cookies.

Overall, the leading coffee and tea brands are no longer obsessed with cherry blossom marketing, but are playing with concepts, marketing humanities, arts and lifestyle. In terms of products, coffee is merging with tea, and tea is moving closer to pure tea. In short, they are returning more and more to Chinese style and health. Food and beverages are still working hard on flowers, whether it is peach blossoms, cherry blossoms, roses, and both the taste and packaging are as close to the spring atmosphere as possible.

Morketing believes that this is related to the scene, on the one hand, it is the scene of consumption, and on the other hand, it is the scene of use. Food and beverages belong to the retail industry and need to be placed on the shelves to compete with other products. Therefore, no matter how many marketing concepts there are, sometimes they are not better than a beautiful packaging and novel flavors. However, tea brands are different. When consumers buy a cup of milk tea or coffee, they often know what store they are going to, so marketing must be done in advance to plant grass in their minds. Therefore, the "Sakura Marketing" that has been played for so many years is not effective, because consumers are tired of it and have no interest in seeing this thing on the Internet. Some suitable concepts can empower the product and brand itself, such as ethnic minorities to Starbucks, avant-garde art to Luckin, and healthy light sports to Bawang Tea Princess.

After the consumption scene, there is also the usage scene. For food and beverages, a very important usage scene in spring is picnic. A red checkered cloth, balloons, flowers, and a small bamboo basket are placed, and a few beautiful pink snack packages can form a standard photo setting. At this time, snacks not only have the function of eating, but also have the attribute of social currency. Therefore, every spring, snacks still can't let go of cherry blossoms. For coffee and tea drinks that are made and drunk immediately, playing some new tricks in concepts and products may be more able to highlight the brand than packaging.

2. Outdoor marketing vitality, women's clothing aims at soft beauty

1. UNIQLO

Uniqlo's spring marketing is carried out together with the Women's Day marketing. In more than 20 stores across the country, including the global flagship store, "Flower Lifestyle Hall" was built, and the "Flower Fitting Experience" was launched simultaneously in stores across the country. Thousands of employees turned into "Flower Protectors" recommendation officers, and a large number of flowers were piled up on the walls, models, fitting rooms, etc.

2. Banana

During the Spring Equinox, Jiaoxia launched the TVC "Back to the Outdoors", proposing the concept that "people are not going to the outdoors, but returning to the outdoors", and using reverse editing techniques to present interesting outdoor activity scenes. The word "back" also has a double meaning of "return".

Jiaoxia's commercials have always been the focus of attention in the industry. Last year's "The Awakening" caused a great response. This year's TVC for Spring Equinox is much lighter and presents a relaxed atmosphere overall, which is in line with their current brand concept of "light outdoor".

3. Columbia

Columbia and Jiang Qiming jointly filmed a spring advertisement, picking mushrooms in the mountains; buying a natural romance at the Dounan Flower Market, picking a leaf, and competing with the cows to see who has a better sense of music; traveling from the city to nature, finding new fun in the outdoors.

This veteran outdoor brand announced the launch of a brand renewal plan in September 2023, and subsequently launched limited-time spaces in several well-known shopping malls including Shanghai Grand Gateway 66, and cooperated with different types of media such as GQ Lab and Sanlian Life Weekly to increase exposure.

4. UBRAS

UBRAS launched the TVC "Spring Lace", interpreting sexiness with nature and vitality. The video cleverly combines tree shadows and lace. Lace has long been a symbol of sexiness and elegance, while tree shadows are a natural symbol of vitality and freedom, giving new inspiration to women's underwear marketing, just as the copy says, "When we fall in love with sexiness, we fall in love with freedom."

5. VGRASS

The high-end women's clothing brand founded in 1997 shot a spring TVC, inviting the audience to transform into a spring grass growing upwards, and feel the healing power of nature in an "uncurled" posture.

6. Wood Ninety

The creative theme "All Things Wake Up with Spring" released by Mu Jiushi is also a good example. Through the artist's perspective and integrating the expression of contemporary art, it depicts the naturalness of spring in the collision between the avant-garde and the nation, and interprets the time-honored oriental culture.

SAN CHUN, an independent female photographer and director, observes every extraordinary and ordinary moment with the delicate touch of a woman, captures the ever-changing appearance of spring, delicately perceives emotions through the lens, and shoots a series of visual poems of awakening spring from Yunnan.

Spring marketing is the main battlefield for outdoor brands. After dormancy in winter, spring outings, hikes, flower viewing... returning to nature in spring is something engraved in human genes. Advertising at this time can not only boost sales but also strengthen consumers' minds.

In addition, many sports brands do not deliberately market "spring", but only focus on outdoor sports.

Some women's clothing brands and underwear brands tend to combine the soft tones of spring with their products.

3. Internet platforms, keep up with trends and love to play with memes

1. Ele.me

Ele.me’s spring marketing is not a one-off, but continuous, with good commercials launched in different seasons.

"Rainwater·Tea Drinking Literature" humorously expresses the voices of migrant workers with short sentences from Zhu Shenghao, Lao She, Kafka, Lu Xun and others; "Insects Awake When the Insects Awaken" tells the custom and culture of eating insects from the perspective of a child's innocence and interest; "Spring Equinox, the Equinox of Spring" focuses on the "equinox", losing weight during the day and having a midnight snack at night, feeling sleepy during the day and staying up late at night, maintaining health during the day and clubbing at night... These contradictory but real lifestyles lead to the slogan "Taste freshness at the Spring Equinox, enjoy spring in time".

Chinese people have traditions and rules about what to eat at different times of the year. By leveraging the 24 solar terms as a traditional IP marketing tool, Ele.me can establish long-term connections with its users. Every time a solar term comes, people will pay attention to what new things Ele.me has at that time.

2. Tmall

Tmall and actress Jin Chen shot several blockbuster photos, in which she sometimes transformed into the character Xiaoxiao from the Classic of Mountains and Seas, or rode a small boat, or practiced Tai Chi on a tea mountain...

It is worth noting that many new Chinese elements appeared in the TVC, and this year's new Chinese style is definitely the highlight of women's clothing. According to the data of the Insight Research Report, from January to October 2023, the number of new Chinese style related notes increased by 110%+ compared with the same period in 2022, with an average of more than 10,000 notes per month and an annual total of more than 20 million interactions. The number of commercial notes placed by brands increased by 119.75%, and commercial interactions increased by 56.46%.

3. TikTok

Douyin E-commerce and Sanlian Life Weekly jointly released a refreshing spring TVC "Mint Mambo for Spring", which focuses on wearing nature on your body and lighting up the entire spring with "Mint Mambo".

The heroine of the short film, Chai Biyun, is not only an actress with a certain fan base, but also a popular anchor on Douyin. She once ranked No. 1 on the Douyin sales rankings in September last year.

4. Ctrip

As a travel platform, Ctrip doesn’t need to spend much time marketing spring. It only needs to show the audience the beautiful scenery of spring, which is enough to mobilize consumers’ emotions. Ctrip adopts a video matrix approach, with flower viewing as the main theme, and uses the “Next Month” series to present spring around the world.

According to Ctrip data, the search popularity of "flower viewing" on the platform has increased by 330% month-on-month in the past week; the average daily booking volume of flower viewing scenic spot tickets has increased by nearly 50% year-on-year recently. Since March, the average daily booking volume of flower viewing scenic spot tickets has increased by nearly 50% year-on-year. At the same time, the number of orders for flower viewing day tours has increased significantly.

Flower viewing has also boosted travel photography. Since March, the number of travel photography orders on Ctrip’s platform has increased by more than 30% month-on-month.

The commercials shot by various Internet platforms based on their own business attributes have different characteristics. E-commerce platforms like to use celebrity endorsements to leverage traffic, and use female celebrities who are compatible with the platform to show the tone; local life platforms that focus on food pay more attention to timeliness, and therefore prefer hot topics and communicate with consumers in a young way.

IV. Conclusion

Overall, both brands and Internet platforms need to grasp several major directions.

1. Seasonal Limited

Seasonal limitations are essentially hunger marketing. On the one hand, they stimulate the curiosity of consumers. On the other hand, they send consumers the signal that time is limited, thus stimulating a sense of urgency and leading to transactions.

However, seasonal limited products are different from general hunger marketing in that they are repeatable and continuous, which is what brands that want to operate in the long term should pay more attention to. For example, launching a product once a year to form an IP, such as the Luckin Tea and Coffee series mentioned above.

2. Emotional Marketing

The importance of emotional marketing is self-evident. In spring, we should pay more attention to emotional marketing, because some scientific studies have shown that mood swings are more likely to occur in spring.

At this time, if marketing activities can provide emotional value to consumers, it will be very helpful to strengthen the connection between brands and consumers. For example, spring marketing of sports brands often gives people a feeling of vitality; tea drinks shape a leisurely and leisurely attitude towards life; the Internet empathizes with workers...

3. Follow the trend

As the first season of the year, spring often presents some new trends from the previous year. When doing marketing, we should grasp these trends and make them different from previous years.

Different fields have different trends, such as the new Chinese style in beauty and clothing, the healthy concept of coffee and tea, the overseas market in the tourism industry... You can also grasp some common trends, such as AI, co-branding, etc.

Author: Tiana

WeChat public account: Morketing