Over 150,000 users, popular on Douyin, this is how tea drinks are marketed in the New Year

The new year is booming, and the tea industry is also very lively. Tea brands have launched the "Spring Festival marketing war". Compared with the past, this Spring Festival marketing campaign is more fancy and richer in content. Let's take a look.

As January approaches, the Lunar New Year is getting closer. For tea brands, the Spring Festival holiday is also the peak sales period of the year for milk tea shops.

At this time of bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new, tea brands have also used the traditional Lunar New Year to launch a Spring Festival marketing campaign. Luckin Coffee's "Winning the Year of the Rabbit" series on Xiaohongshu received 140,000 views, and Mixue Ice City's "Mini Couplets" on Douyin received 12,000 likes...

Mixue Ice City mini couplet received 12,000 likes

What other new ways of playing and marketing are there? Let’s take a look.

1. The tea drinking circle launched the "Spring Festival marketing war"

The new year is booming, and the tea industry is also very lively. Tea brands have launched the "Spring Festival marketing war". Compared with the past, this Spring Festival marketing campaign is more fancy and richer in content.

1. Chinese New Year symbols resonate

What do you remember most about the traditional Chinese New Year? Is it the couplets that must be posted on the doors of every household, or the red envelopes that are sent with new blessings during the Chinese New Year, or the scenes of family members playing mahjong and eating melon seeds together?

Mixue Ice City "Lucky Bag Festival"

Mixue Ice City's "Mi Xue Lucky Bag Festival" event offers free lucky bags for purchases of NT$15 or more. Each lucky bag contains 2 pairs of mini wedding couplets in 12 different styles, which are cute and can be posted anywhere. Similarly, Yidiandian and Shuyi also launched New Year couplets for the Year of the Rabbit, and the point is that they can be posted anywhere.

"Congratulations on making a fortune, give me the red envelope", make a fortune in the new year. Yihetang launched the "Year of the Rabbit Fortune Cup" cup and "Year of the Rabbit Fortune Cup Handbag", as well as "Year of the Rabbit Fortune Small Red Envelope", "Year of the Rabbit Fortune Mahjong Card" and small couplets.

HEYTEA New Year Series Peripheral Products

HEYTEA has launched a full set of "God of Wealth" New Year peripherals. In addition to the regular cup sleeves, paper bags, etc., there are also God of Wealth door stickers and badges that symbolize making a fortune in the New Year, which will maximize the New Year atmosphere.

Tea Rescue Planet launched the "Drink Tea to Save the Day in the Year of the Rabbit, and Get a Fortune-Making Mahjong" campaign. Order any cold drink and get a mahjong set for free. Points and cash can be exchanged for the Rabbit Year Limited Edition Cool Black Mahjong Set. The campaign aims to create a sense of experience for the "mahjong" game that is a must-have during the Chinese New Year.

When familiar Spring Festival symbols become tea-related products, these memorable items can resonate strongly with consumers.

2. Add traditional cultural elements

Compared with previous marketing, the tea brand this time also focused on starting from traditional Chinese elements, such as the zodiac rabbit and paper-cutting.

Baifen Tea cooperated with Ji Jianming, the inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of paper-cutting, to use the rabbit face paper-cutting pattern with bamboo elements as a limited edition cup sleeve for the New Year; Luckin Coffee and Han Meilin jointly launched the "Win the Year of the Rabbit" series of paper bags, cup sleeves, etc., which are printed with two traditional Chinese ink-and-wash rabbit illustrations.

100% Tea Year of the Rabbit Limited Edition Cup Set

Netizens have used their imagination to transform it into lanterns, window papers, indoor hangings, etc., allowing traditional Chinese elements to collide with new tea drinks. As a cultural power, China has a long history of thousands of years. The addition of traditional elements makes the drink, and also makes a cup of new tea drink, a carrier for spreading traditional culture.

Gu Ming launched the Year of the Rabbit peripherals, including the stick rabbit straw and the rabbit mobile phone holder, which won the favor of many consumers with their cute appearance; Shuyi launched the "Red Rabbit" New Year packaging and peripherals, which are red and prosperous, focusing on the atmosphere. Starbucks' New Year limited zodiac edition is presented in the form of a "cute rabbit piggy bank", a mug, and a cup and pot set, which "touched" the hearts of consumers with its appearance.

Starbucks New Year Peripheral

3. New Year’s special drinks

Launching limited-edition new products during hot periods is a common approach for tea brands.

HEYTEA’s new seasonal product “Red Fire Hawthorn Berry” uses red fruit that is most compatible with the Spring Festival atmosphere and symbolizes good luck in the new year, visually enhancing the festive atmosphere. The name implies “red cloud”, which naturally adds to the favorability. SHOUYI’s new longan series “Longan Camellia” means “drink longan in the new year, and your fortune will be prosperous for the whole year”; CHAFESTOO and Oreo have teamed up to launch the new “Oreo Milk Tea” in the new year, which means “it brings peace and the more you drink, the more you feel good”.

Nova Coffee and Wangzai launch new products

In the coffee circle, Luckin Coffee launched two new products limited to the Spring Festival, "Rabbit Thick Milk Latte" and "Red Rabbit Fresh Cheese Latte", which are named with puns and add fun to the blessings; Nova Coffee and Wangzai have jointly launched the "Half-Raw Cheese Latte" and "Tuantuanyuan Wangzai Tea", which have the meaning of a prosperous New Year.

In addition, healthy and wellness tea drinks are still a popular trend. During the New Year's Day period, Yidiandian launched new products such as "Tremella and Pomelo Koi Red" and "Boba Tremella and Milk Tea". Tremella and other healthy ingredients meet people's demands for wellness and health since the epidemic.

4. Launch New Year gift boxes

This year, many tea brands have launched their own limited edition New Year gift boxes, which are not only rich in content but also innovative in design.

MANNER Coffee New Year Gift Box

Cha Baidao's New Year Red Cloud gift box includes milk tea shop-shaped building blocks, Tintin cat dolls, notebooks, etc. It is not only good-looking but can also be used as a storage box; MANNER Coffee has teamed up with Beihong YOUNG to launch the new Auspicious Rabbit New Year gift box, and the double-drawer gift box design contains Chinese aesthetics... and so on.

Due to the characteristics of the Spring Festival, the New Year gift box of tea drinks has given the drinks the potential to serve as New Year goods. It also provides an opportunity for tea drink brands to break out of the circle and maximize their social functions.

2. How is the New Year marketing of new tea drinks different from previous years?

Marketing capabilities have now become the basic skills of a brand. As epidemic control is relaxed and the economy is about to recover, this year's New Year marketing is particularly critical.

In addition to the popularity of the Spring Festival itself, the New Year marketing of tea brands also has the following points worth reviewing:

1. Down-to-earth and life-oriented

After years of development, new tea drinks have become a part of consumers' lives. Looking at the hottest cases, down-to-earth promotional methods often have the best effect. Whether it is the mini couplets or the Heytea door stickers, it can be seen that the design focuses on simplicity and can be posted anywhere. For tea consumers, the surrounding utilization value is higher.

Couplets, a representative of the Spring Festival, carry people's beautiful expectations for the New Year. When tea brands miniaturize traditional couplets, it is a fusion of fashion and tradition. With the unique symbol of brand IP, it can truly enter life and expand the radius of communication.

Yihetang New Year Series

In addition, the Spring Festival is the day when families reunite. In this warm and life-filled festival, tea brands will infiltrate their publicity into every aspect of consumers' lives. "Mahjong" and "red envelopes" are intended to create a Chinese New Year atmosphere, reminding people of the long-lost New Year flavor.

When a cup of ordinary drink is given special value, it can empathize well with consumers, enhance their favorability, and thus strengthen the connection with consumers.

2. Follow the trend and emphasize health

When it comes to industries that follow popular trends, new tea drinks must be among them.

1DianDian New Year Health Drink

Since the New Year's Day period is a period after the epidemic has been relaxed, consumers are extremely sensitive to health needs. Tea brands have launched "New Year's Special Drinks" at this critical stage of the New Year. This not only has the auspicious meaning of "drinking a healthy drink and having a good body", but also fits the peaceful and harmonious atmosphere of the New Year, which can increase consumers' sense of identity psychologically.

Tea brands are keeping up with beverage trends by targeting health demands in line with the festive atmosphere during hot periods. Drinks that emphasize health functions will continue to be popular not only during the New Year, but for a long time in the future.

3. Deliver culture and focus on emotions

With the continuous improvement of Chinese people's cultural confidence, tea drinks with traditional Chinese elements have gradually been sought after by consumers in recent years, and peripheral products containing traditional Chinese elements are also very popular.

Netizens DIY window paper

The addition of traditional elements such as 100% tea paper-cuts and Luckin rabbit illustrations not only makes the drinks attractive on the outer packaging, but also reflects the brand and consumers' identification with Chinese traditional culture through a cup of tea, and allows more people to see China's long-standing classical aesthetics.

In addition, the Spring Festival has a special meaning for most people, and tea drinks pay more attention to the emotional level in their marketing for the Spring Festival. Drinking a cup of special Spring Festival drinks brings back memories from afar, which may also be what the brand wants to convey, another meaning of the drink.

Author: Li Yanhao; Editor: Sanyue; Design: Acun; Review: Aru

WeChat public account: China Beverage Express (ID: zgypkb)