Review of Spring Festival Marketing: Six Major Changes, Anchoring the New Year with a New Atmosphere

What did brands do during the Spring Festival marketing in the past? Faced with multiple changes in the market and industry, the Spring Festival marketing methods of Internet platforms and brands this year are naturally different from usual. This article sorts out this and lists the six new changes in Spring Festival marketing. Let's take a look.

The Spring Festival holiday came to an end in a bustling atmosphere. It is undeniable that the just-passed 2023 Spring Festival was the most special and precious marketing outlet in recent years.

On the one hand, three years of consumption desire are released during this Spring Festival holiday. Wandering children embark on the journey back home, and the atmosphere of family reunion, joy and peace is stronger than before. Visiting relatives and friends, offline gatherings and other scenes also drive the increase of consumption power accordingly.

On the other hand, as China's most lively and grand traditional festival, the Spring Festival brings its own topics and traffic, and is a natural marketing venue for brands. It is also a default process for advertisers to "flex their muscles" during Spring Festival marketing to lay a good foundation for business in the new year.

With multiple changes in the market and industry, the marketing methods of Internet platforms and brands during the Spring Festival this year are naturally different from usual. For example, the overall tone emphasizes family reunion and the flavor of the New Year, the marketing cycle of the Spring Festival is also extended accordingly, and brands and platforms pay more attention to user experience and interaction... After carefully sorting out these details, we can see the six new changes in Spring Festival marketing more clearly.

1. Platform changes: more low-key, more pragmatic, focusing on technology and interaction

The Spring Festival was once the main marketing battlefield for Internet platforms, with Internet platforms spending a lot of money on Spring Festival Gala sponsorship and red envelope wars. However, this year, all Internet platforms have reduced their spending and become more low-key and rational.

Change 1: The red envelope war has cooled down, and platforms are spending money rationally

Looking back, in 2015, Tencent won the exclusive cooperation rights for the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, and distributed 500 million cash red envelopes through WeChat "Shake", adding more than 20 million new users; in 2016, Alipay won the exclusive interaction of CCTV Spring Festival Gala red envelopes, and the big companies that did not get the Spring Festival Gala cooperation began to change their thinking and distribute red envelopes on their own apps, which kicked off the "Spring Festival Red Envelope War" among Internet big companies. 2021 is the "highlight moment" of big companies spending money, with a total red envelope amount exceeding 12 billion.

This year, affected by the external environment, the amount of red envelopes on Internet platforms has shrunk significantly:

Kuaishou, which spent 2.2 billion last year, distributed 2 billion red envelopes this year, and has become the "biggest player" in the industry this year; Douyin and Baidu have many activities and gameplay, but the total amount distributed is only 700 million yuan and 800 million yuan respectively; Xiaohongshu's activities do not mention the amount of red envelopes at all.

In the e-commerce platform camp, JD.com, which was the sponsor of last year's CCTV Spring Festival Gala, launched a low-key red envelope activity this year called "Everyone blows up the Nian Beast and shares 1 billion New Year's money"; Pinduoduo and Taobao, which spent 2.8 billion on red envelopes in 2021, did not focus on red envelope activities, but instead devoted themselves to the New Year's Goods Festival promotion.

Douyin and Kuaishou red envelope promotion

The red envelope war no longer has the tempting real money, but the activities on each platform are more complex and diverse.

For example, Kuaishou and Douyin aggregate various interactive mini-games, and users can get red envelopes after completing the game, aiming to mobilize users' enthusiasm for participation; there are also many mini-games that invite friends to play together, which can not only attract users to stay for a long time during the Spring Festival, but also use social attributes to attract more traffic participation. Baidu has applied AI to many gameplays, and Alipay's "Collecting Five Blessings" is not just about scanning the word "Fu", but also adds virtual space.

It is not difficult to see that the platform has given up on attracting users by spending a lot of money, and instead generally hopes to retain users, stimulate activity, and interact with them in depth by upgrading the "game play". However, the platform has not given up on the marketing activity of sending red envelopes during the Spring Festival. The reason behind this is that, on the one hand, the platform still has traffic anxiety and does not want to miss the key node of the Spring Festival; on the other hand, it can further drive the core business and revitalize the platform ecology by superimposing the gameplay. Compared with the past, the red envelope activities of the platform now actually carry more "heavy responsibilities".

Change 2: Evening party + live broadcast, strengthening content power

In addition to red envelope activities, the platform is also working hard to strengthen its content operation capabilities during this year's Spring Festival.

One type of content is evening parties. For example, Kuaishou launched the Laotie Gala on the eve of the Chinese New Year, and Baidu launched the Boiling Point Metaverse Night. While continuing the traditional evening party model, the theme is consistent with the platform's tone, and the content is mainly to spread the platform's influence through celebrities and influencers.

The other type is live broadcasts with more flexible and varied forms. For example, Douyin not only has its own New Year concerts and New Year's Eve parties, with different types of content such as bands, operas, and talk shows, but also includes the promotion and live broadcast of Spring Festival movies and the local TV Spring Festival Galas that will be launched later, almost covering all the content of the Spring Festival. In addition to singing and dancing performances, Kuaishou's special live broadcasts also opened up special sessions for "blind dates" and "job hunting", which are also the new live broadcast sections that Kuaishou has promoted since last year.

Kuaishou live events

Although Internet galas were once abandoned due to their low cost-effectiveness, it now seems that the combination of galas and live broadcasts has made the platform content and form more varied and brought more important value:

• First, as a marketing project of the platform, the party leaves room for brand placement. For example, the Kuaishou Laotie Party is sponsored by JD.com, which has previously cooperated with Kuaishou on party projects many times.
• Secondly, it can present the richness and development of the platform's content ecology, especially the short video platform, where the richness of content verticals is always its core advantage;
• In addition, by combining with live broadcasting and carrying out special live broadcasting projects, it directly boosts the platform's business while bringing topics and popularity.

It may be difficult for red envelope activities to achieve the same surprise effect as many years ago, but the appeal of diverse and high-quality content will become the main force to continuously supplement the exposure and traffic effects of Spring Festival marketing activities.

Change 3: Use a sense of "technology" to increase eye-catching

In the past two years, high-tech concepts such as metaverse, NFT, virtual humans, and AIGC have become popular. During this year's Spring Festival, many Internet platforms have also incorporated these high-tech concepts into their Spring Festival marketing.

The idea of ​​Baidu and Alipay is to use AI technology to add fun to the Spring Festival. Baidu's "Year of the Rabbit, AI" event mainly combines AI technology to customize avatars, write Spring Festival couplets, send blessings, etc. In Alipay's "Collect Five Blessings" event, users can use AI to draw New Year pictures, enter the virtual space Fortune Park and interact with netizens, and after collecting cards, they can also receive "Fu" digital collections. Almost all of the metaverse, digital people, and NFTs are brought into the event.

In addition, Internet platforms have also added a "sense of technology" to the evening party. For example, the CCTV 2023 Online Spring Festival Gala, which was broadcast on the eve of the Chinese New Year, launched a Metaverse branch venue in cooperation with NetEase, creating a truly immersive viewing experience for users. The "Metaverse Spring Festival Gala Barrage" function was launched online, presenting elements such as fireworks and lanterns through 3D special effects, which added atmosphere and flavor to the traditional Spring Festival Gala. The Boiling Point Metaverse Night held by Baidu on January 16 also integrated AI and XR technology, emphasizing intelligence and innovation from celebrity promotion to the setting of the evening party.

In fact, the platform's application of these technological gameplays is more to make innovation and fun become the prominent labels of the Internet platform. The ultimate goal is still to enhance the user experience in marketing activities.

In summary, whether it is upgrading the red envelope marketing gameplay, strengthening content capabilities, and focusing on technology empowerment, the Spring Festival marketing of Internet platforms has achieved a shift - the Spring Festival marketing war among large companies will continue, but the story of achieving growth myths by spending money has come to an end. In the present and future when red envelopes are no longer the only protagonist, platforms continue to explore more eye-catching gameplay as a supplement.

2. Brand changes: Consumer goods return to the center of sponsorship, integration, and full chain

The Spring Festival is extremely important for brands: it is not only the final battle of the year, but also the beginning of the new year's business. It can be said to be a key node that "connects the past and the future". Because of this, the market competition during the Spring Festival is extremely fierce, which also prompts various industries and major brands to constantly update and iterate their marketing strategies and gameplay.

Change 4: Marketing cycle becomes longer and marketing methods become more integrated

In the early days, most brands used TVC short films to increase brand exposure and maximize brand awareness in a short period of time. Now, we can see that brand marketing during the Spring Festival has entered a more refined stage, with a much longer cycle and a more integrated approach.

This year, consumers can see that the "New Year atmosphere" has started from New Year's Day, and marketing has continued until the second half of the Spring Festival. However, the brand's action time must be even earlier. Judging from the rhythm reference given by Tencent Advertising and ByteDance, brands have already started to prepare for the Spring Festival as early as November.

The extension of the marketing front is a test for the brand's communication content and communication rhythm: on the one hand, it means predicting the market competition and consumer preferences, which require brands to make good insights through various data and tools. On the other hand, how to grasp the rhythm after the extension is also a difficult point. Once the marketing content is not disseminated enough in a certain link or there are omissions in other aspects such as goods and services, it is easy to lose consumers and affect the final conversion.

Therefore, almost all brands have chosen the marketing strategy of "integrating multiple gameplays with one theme", matching reasonable content and gameplay according to the rhythm of communication, linking each other up and advancing step by step to form a complete marketing chain, which not only maintains the stickiness of users' continuous attention, but also continues to attract new users with the release of new materials.

The theme that Amul clearly stated was "Good luck to Amul with you every year". The subsequent official announcement of spokespersons, TVC ads, and the fireworks interactive ads on WeChat Moments all revolved around this theme. And through the coverage of multiple channels such as mobile phones and OTT, a multi-pronged approach was taken to maximize the brand's voice.

Safeguard's theme of "Wash hands and eat, spend a healthy New Year" is also very consistent with the atmosphere of the Spring Festival. The gameplay includes cooperating with JD Supermarket to create a special health train for the Spring Festival travel, linking with Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room to jointly create a New Year TVC blockbuster, etc., while outputting brand concepts and directly linking sales conversions.

Amul and Safeguard Spring Festival Marketing Theme

In fact, extending the time period for integrated marketing has become a common strategy for brands. It is worth noting that integrated marketing now does not only mean to aggregate and release all gameplay and channels before and after the big promotion nodes, but also emphasizes the need to link daily operations with the big promotion nodes, so that daily operations can accumulate water and big promotions can harvest the benefits.

Of course, this has two sides to the effect for brands. On the one hand, brands can better grasp the nodes of big promotions and be well prepared to accurately harvest traffic. But on the other hand, integrated marketing is heavier than daily marketing, and it consumes more resources and energy after normalization. It is difficult for small brands to keep up with this pace.

Change 5: Consumer brands return to the center of the Spring Festival Gala title

As one of the most core IPs and traffic portals during the Spring Festival consumption season, the Spring Festival Gala has always been extremely attractive to brands.

This year, from CCTV to local satellite TV stations to Internet platforms, galas during the Spring Festival are "blooming everywhere", giving brands more choices and room to participate. At the same time, the Internet giants, which were once the most active sponsors of the Spring Festival Gala, have gradually "withdrawn" this year, which also makes it more possible for consumer brands to take back the title C position.

Among many consumer brands, dairy companies and alcoholic beverages appear most frequently. Among local satellite TV stations, the title sponsor of Liao TV's Spring Festival Gala is Huishan Dairy, Zhejiang Satellite TV's "2023 Yue Opera Spring Festival Gala" is co-sponsored by Yili Jindian, and the title sponsor of Beijing Satellite TV and the Yellow River Folk Song Spring Festival Gala (Shanxi Satellite TV and other nine provinces along the Yellow River) is Qinghua Fenjiu. CCTV's Spring Festival Gala also shows a trend of "involution" of liquor brands, with Yanghe Shares, Wuliangye, Gujing Gongjiu, Shede, Jinjiu and other brands appearing in the Spring Festival Gala in different forms.

In addition, new energy vehicle companies are also increasing their sponsorship efforts. This is because the new energy vehicle industry has become increasingly mature in recent years, and many new forces car companies have used sponsorship, title sponsorship, and cross-border marketing to expand their voice and shape their brand image. Among the major Spring Festival Galas this year, the new energy SUV Haval H6 plug-in hybrid exclusively sponsored the CCTV 2023 Online Spring Festival Gala, and the logo of Hongqi New Energy Vehicles also appeared on the screen of CCTV's 2023 Spring Festival Gala many times.

CCTV 2023 Online Spring Festival Gala

Looking back at the title sponsors of the Spring Festival Gala over the past few decades, the rise and fall of brands reflects the changes in business.

The "exit" of Internet platforms this year is inevitable for the industry as a whole to reduce costs and increase efficiency, and to shrink its battle lines. For all kinds of consumer brands, the Spring Festival is a peak sales season, and the reunion atmosphere and gift-giving scenes bring more consumption opportunities. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand why they are generally optimistic about the Spring Festival Gala - one more national-level exposure channel means one more possibility to enhance brand awareness.

Change 6: From high exposure to the pursuit of product-effect synergy and full-link business

Nowadays, marketing is no longer about spending money for exposure. The overall marketing demands of the brand are shifting to the backward link, hoping to see clearer results, achieve brand-effect synergy and gain business growth with the help of marketing. Spring Festival marketing is naturally no exception.

In order to adapt to this mainstream marketing trend, the platform has built a complete route from marketing to sales, and many brands have taken this opportunity to actively try it out.

For example, in the Alipay Five Blessings event, when users are in the Alipay Fortune Park brand pavilion and receive the Fortune Card, they can directly jump into the brand mini program, become a member, learn about and purchase products, and the platform's public domain is directly transformed into the brand's private domain, bringing transaction growth. According to the official data of the platform, 440,000 Fu Cards of Pop Mart were snapped up after the launch of the Fu Card on the Alipay mini program, and the brand's transaction volume soared by more than 3 times within a week. The Honor Fortune Store sold nearly 10,000 orders a day, and the Wanglaoji Five Blessings customized cans were sold out in seconds after they were launched.

WeChat red envelope covers are also an important way for brands to leverage large traffic with a small incision. In the past, the cooperation between brands and WeChat red envelope covers was mainly based on official accounts, and the number of red envelopes issued was limited. However, this year, brands have embedded multiple jump links on the page where users receive WeChat red envelopes. For example, Land Rover China will remind users to follow the brand video account when users receive the red envelope cover. Brands such as Anta have integrated the red envelope collection gameplay into short videos, and also added links to directly enter the brand zone and mall.

In addition, when the video account was broadcasting the CCTV Spring Festival Gala this year, the two major brands, Jindian and Amul, cleverly integrated into the content through customized gifts, icons and other elements. At the same time, they also took advantage of the shopping cart function of the video account, allowing viewers to order products while watching the Spring Festival Gala, thereby achieving a marketing closed loop from exposure to conversion.

Watch videos on WeChat to get red envelope covers, and draw cards on Alipay to jump to brand mini-programs

To sum up the above, the Spring Festival marketing strategies of platforms and brands are actually a slice of the overall marketing trend in recent years - exposure is not the only purpose, real visible results and feasible growth are the core goals.

For the platform, the way to achieve results and growth is, first, to increase user activity and activate existing users; second, to link marketing activities with core businesses to contribute to boosting business revenue.

For brands, effectiveness and growth are achieved with the help of the marketing channels built on the platform, from the vast public domain to their own private domain, from attracting user attention to stimulating interest and search, and finally to achieving purchase and sharing, so as to better achieve brand-effect synergy and business growth with integrated ideas and gameplay.

The new marketing ideas and new ways of playing formed by platforms and brands during the Spring Festival are not just "temporary changes". This not only shows the many possibilities of Spring Festival marketing, but also provides more experience references for subsequent brands to do marketing at other important nodes, opening up greater imagination space.

Author: Lv Yue Zu Yang

Source public account: Deep Echo (ID: deep-echo), global vision, value perspective