Mixue lucky bags have been exposed for over 60 million times! The Spring Festival marketing offensive has begun, which direction will the brands bet on?

For brands, the Spring Festival is a good time to launch marketing efforts. This article shares with you the five directions that brands are betting on, and is recommended for friends who are interested in marketing promotion.

There are still more than ten days to the Lunar New Year, and the New Year atmosphere in the beverage industry can no longer be hidden: Mixue Ice City launched the Mixue Lucky Bag Festival, and the topic was exposed more than 60 million times; Yihetang took a different approach and launched popcorn milk tea, and netizens said they found their childhood memories; Gu Ming's "Red Luck Series" launched a 1L barrel, ready for sharing at parties. This Spring Festival, which brands are worth paying attention to?

1. The Spring Festival marketing campaign has begun with over 60 million exposures

Recently, have you seen Mixue Bingcheng’s “Little Spring Festival Couplets” on your WeChat Moments?

The couplets read "Rich as the long flowing water of the East China Sea, thinner than the slender waist of the South Mountain", "You can be open-minded about everything and live a happy life", which are funny and warm. People use them to post mobile phones, cat beds, doorbells...‍

This is the peripheral product of this year's Mixue Lucky Bag Festival. If you spend at least 15 yuan in the store, you can draw a New Year's lucky bag, which contains 2 random pairs of small Spring Festival couplet stickers.

After checking various platforms, we found that the exposure of related topics of Mixue Lucky Bag Festival on Weibo and Douyin has exceeded 60 million times in total.

With less than half a month left until the 2023 Lunar New Year, brands’ marketing offensives are becoming more and more fierce.

Gu Ming is focusing on "Red Luck" and has launched two drinks: Red Luck Full Cup Cherry and Red Luck Cherry Berry. Among them, Red Luck Cherry Berry is also specially launched in a 1L barrel to cater to the Spring Festival party scene.

In addition, Gu Ming also created a series of "Lucky Side Products": Lucky Cute Rabbit Stickers, Lucky Refrigerator Magnets, Lucky Handbags, Lucky Rabbit Cup Covers, etc., and combined them with homophonic blessings such as "Money Rabbit Infinite" and "Rabbit Rich", which attracted a large number of fans to check in.

During the booming Spring Festival period, Yihetang took a different approach and launched a drinkable popcorn milk tea that is "extremely delicious".

In many people's memories, the flavor of the New Year and the taste of popcorn are inseparable. The sweet popcorn aroma of Yihetang's drink instantly brings back consumers' memories.

As a super traffic pool with its own hot topics, the Spring Festival has always been a key node that brands must compete for.

What kind of drinks can attract consumers this year?

2. Most brands that want to attract traffic from the New Year are betting on five directions

In the past few years, life has been full of uncertainty under the shadow of the epidemic. With the relaxation of epidemic prevention and control, at the node of bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new, and looking forward to the coming year, consumers are more looking forward to brands bringing emotional healing in addition to buying a cup of beverage.

After reviewing many new products that have been launched recently, I found that brands are focusing on these five directions:

1. New Year's atmosphere is upgraded, and "red" products create a sense of atmosphere

The color red is indispensable every New Year. Using red fruits such as hawthorn, strawberry, cherry, etc. to create a cup of "Red Luck" drink is a must-have item in the beverage circle during the Chinese New Year.

On January 6, Heytea kicked off the New Year season with the launch of the new hawthorn drink "Red Fire Hawthorn Berry" and a full set of "God of Fortune" New Year limited peripherals: bright red cup sleeves, paper bags, badges, door stickers, etc. Netizens praised it, saying, "Heytea understands the New Year" and "The New Year atmosphere is instantly full."

In addition, longan, as an auspicious fruit in the minds of Chinese people, has been repeatedly introduced by tea brands during important traditional festivals in the past two years.

Shuyi Herbal Jelly has launched a New Year Longan series with the slogan "Drink Longan in the New Year to enjoy good fortune all year long"; Heytea also launched a "Snow Mountain Homesickness Longan" as a New Year limited edition on New Year's Eve. Its reunion connotation and fresh taste have won it a lot of praise.

2. Continuing the trend of “COVID-19 special drinks”, vitamin C and moisturizing products continue to be popular

As epidemic prevention and control measures are gradually relaxed, "enhancing immunity" has become the mainstream demand, and the popularity of health and wellness drinks such as supplementing vitamin C and combating dryness continues.

1DianDian launched the Tremella and Pomelo Fragrance Koi Red on New Year’s Day. It uses honey pomelo sauce and black tea as a base, and is paired with Tremella, candied dates, wolfberry, and rock sugar. It is both moisturizing and nourishing.

CoCo has launched a winter care package: brown sugar ginger tea, whole pear, kalmandin lemon juice and kalmandin electrolyte water, mainly replenishing nutrients such as vitamin C and electrolytes to moisturize the lungs and protect the body.

3. Targeting gatherings, highlighting the sharing and relieving attributes

There are many gatherings during holidays, and many brands will launch large-capacity family packages, which not only meet the needs of relatives and friends to get together and share during the New Year, but also come with the social attribute of checking in.

Moqi has continued to use last year's New Year's tea box and changed it into a rice dew version, which includes a large bag of osmanthus oolong milk tea, plus five other small ingredients such as bamboo leaf jelly, pudding, and white jade meatballs. Consumers can take the tea box home and DIY it themselves to satisfy the New Year's party scene.

Based on the meaning of "good things come in pairs, and good luck is doubled", Gu Ming combines strawberries and cherries to launch the Red Luck Cherry series. It also specially launches a 1L bucket of Red Luck Cherries, which can be shared with friends and family, becoming the cost-effective choice for many consumers.

In addition, Hongyun Cherry Berry uses fresh fruit pulp and jasmine tea, blended into a smoothie. It has a sweet and refreshing taste and is very suitable as a side dish for the Spring Festival.

HEYTEA's Red Volcano Hawthorn Berry uses seasonal Shandong sweet red hawthorns, blended into Green Beauty tea soup to make a smoothie, and finally topped with classic cheese. The whole cup tastes sour, appetizing and refreshing, and has been included in the list of candidates for the New Year's Eve dinner by netizens.

4. Leverage the Rabbit IP to play with homophonic puns

Brands are also using the zodiac to leverage their influence in different ways.

• The "Jade Rabbit Brings Good Luck" gift box of the Forbidden City Corner Tower Coffee uses the rabbit pattern in the Forbidden City's cultural relics as a visual symbol, adding auspiciousness and interest to the New Year.
• Gu Ming's new Year of the Rabbit peripherals, the Bunny Straw and Bunny Phone Holder, have won the favor of users with their cute shapes and New Year scenes.
• Uncle Qiu launched the stress-relieving tool, Pinching Rabbit, and combined it with the mascot positioning of "pinching" good luck, it has won the love of countless fans.

At the same time, in terms of publicity, the brand is implanted into the minds of consumers through auspicious words and homophonic puns such as "rabbit for great achievements", "rabbit for good things", "rabbit for great achievements", and "money" and "rabbit" as brocade, with the help of the zodiac IP.

5. Heartfelt blessings in dialect, national fashion continues to be popular

With the strong rise of "national tide", it is also a common idea to attract consumers by starting from soft aspects such as art and culture.

For example, Luckin Coffee launched the "Win the Year of the Rabbit" series of packaging materials in collaboration with Han Meilin, Baifen Tea launched a joint cup sleeve in collaboration with the inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of paper cutting Ji Jianming, and LINLEE launched a limited edition New Year illustration packaging in collaboration with designer Xie Tu, etc.

By adding traditional Chinese elements such as New Year customs, paper-cutting, and calligraphy, not only does it give the product more cultural significance, it also provides consumers with a reason to buy it, take photos, check in, and increase dissemination.

Post Office Coffee played the warmth card and launched the "OH Mai Tutu Post Office" theme event with OATHLY, collecting New Year greetings in dialects from more than 50 regions across the country and making them into "spoken postcards" to give to consumers, which was full of sincerity.

3. Conclusion

After taking stock, I found that this year's Spring Festival seems different from the past:

As the public's consumption behavior becomes more rational, it is difficult for consumers to be manipulated by common marketing methods. Brands are more conservative in launching new products and are more concerned about costs.

On the one hand, many brands adopt the "leverage" approach to reduce wasted actions, focus more on products, and implant brands into user scenarios; on the other hand, some brands continue with the successful cases of previous years, which not only strengthens brand memory but also avoids the risk of failure; finally, the peripheral design is more compact and practical, focusing on user companionship and facilitating secondary dissemination.

During the Spring Festival, in addition to the demand for a delicious drink, consumers are also more concerned about the emotional needs and psychological satisfaction during consumption.

Using one's own brand power to convey positive and warm energy and finding breakthroughs through empathy with consumers may be an ideal way for a brand to seize the Spring Festival market.

Author: Zhang Jin

Source: WeChat public account "Kamen" (ID: KamenClub)