QiXi 2021: Valentine’s Campaigns sparking passion

Who says advertising can’t be romantic? The Hot Pot China team, never ones to shy away from a bit of romance, have put our heads together to collect our favourite marketing campaigns from Chinese Valentine’s Day, Qixi, in 2021.

Raise a bottle of beer, try on some “weekly pants”, explore traditional Chinese culture and most of all, fall in love, with our 2021 Qixi ad campaign highlights.

Featured Brands

浪漫氤氲，七夕制爱

Qixi, the time for romantic atmosphere

The Concept

The Chinese ad campaign for Michael Kors’ Qixi capsule collection saw iconic monochromic logo print collide with explosive floral colours. The result? 5 unique bag designs, summer sandals, baggy streetwear and even a wristwatch. Michael Kor’s limited collection is neat, dynamic, consistent and playful. The campaign was delivered through a series of creative visuals, where products were transported on pink conveyor belts.

Campaign Highlights

Pippa Ebel, Strategist: “I like the fusion of New York urban street design with a more playful, feminine aesthetic. The short clips of bags arriving on conveyor belts were fun, artfully done and original.”

Was it successful?

The MK valentine’s day release video had over 830K views on their official Wechat account.

Zhang Chang Touches up Eyebrows

The Concept

Florasis created an ancient China inspired animation entitled, Zhang Chang Touches up Eyebrows / 张敞画眉, which was adapted from the historical Book of Han telling a romantic story of Zhang Chang and his wife:

Zhang Chang, an officer who worked for the emperor in the Han Dynasty, helped his wife make up her eyebrows every morning before leaving home to meet the Emperor because when they were young, Zhang Chang accidentally ruined one part of his wife’s eyebrow when they played games together. When they grew up, Zhang Chang married his wife and decided to do eyebrow makeup for his wife everyday. When the Emperor heard about it and asked why he did this unusual thing for his wife Zhang Chang answered that it was part of their happy married life, it was private and there was nothing wrong with it. Nowadays this phrase is used to describe a good relationship between husband and wife.

To celebrate Qixi, the brand launched a social marketing campaign, inviting consumers to share pictures or videos of them touching up their beloved one’s eyebrows using Florasis products.

Campaign Highlights

Adam Sandzer, Head of Brand Strategy: “I like that this advertising campaign was tied into Chinese history and culture but with a very different and unique activation. I also admired the product focus and tie into sales. Overall this was a great demonstration of the increasing strength of Chinese brands and ability to connect with local audiences.”

Emma Milligan, Account Director: “It is very hard to authentically connect love with an eyebrow pencil, in a way that is moving. But this story really marries the two concepts. The ad campaign uses HanFu (historical styles of clothing worn by the Han people in China) but targets it to for a younger audience with an anime.”

Chan Li, Senior Account Manager: “This marketing campaign not only aligns with the brand’s image — rooted deeply in Chinese traditional culture — but also solidifies its bonds with today’s younger generations who show strong interest in anime content and who support and feel proud of the Chinese brands and culture.”

Was it successful?

• 6.9 million searches for the brands Chinese name (华西子) on WeChat the 13th August

• 418k views of the short video on Weibo (+874 likes, 205 comments and 115 reports)

This ad campaign garnered substantial traffic and drove the eCommerce sales of the brand’s eyebrow pencil product line-up (Source: Jing Daily)

爱语新绎

Love Language, New Interpretation

The Concept

Burberry’s Qixi marketing campaign used five short animated videos to interpret five loved-themed Chinese idioms. The brand also created two animal protagonists and creatively named them as ‘博博鹿’ (Burberry deer) who wear Burberry Qixi collection and appear in the brand video, WeChat Red Packet cover, emojis, social media contents and other marketing materials.

Campaign Highlights

Ashley Zhang, Creative Strategist: “This advertising campaign is very visually appealing, especially resonant with Gen Z. Like other ad campaigns featured here its related to traditional Chinese culture and cleverly tapped into the Guochao 国潮 trend (the integration of traditional Chinese culture and style with domestic brands and products)”

Was it successful?

1.5 x WeChat reads compared to Burberry’s usual posts even in the wake of controversy surrounding recently removed Burberry collaborator Kris Wu and the flooding crisis in Henan province.

我的星球，等待你的空投

My planet, waiting for your “airdrop”

The Concept

ROSEONLY, an online high-end flower shop providing imported roses for customers in China, partnered with Tencent and their Chinese branded version of video game Player Unknown Battlegrounds (PUBG) Mobile Peacekeeper Elite (和平精英) to create a joint marketing campaign that delivers representations of valuable game loot in real life, representations of guardians of love and beauty: Undoubtedly a very hardcore romance.

Campaign Highlights

Ivy Guan, Shanghai Office Manager: “Centred on Chinese Social Media App Weibo, Peacekeeper Elite and ROSEONLY is a great example of cross-market marketing, making note of the different demographics shared romantic feelings: "When Peacekeeper Elite's most precious materials, advanced equipment and drop boxes meet ROSEONLY’s classic cat doll and hot rose planet, the romantic gamer will receive the rewards of the battlefield in real life. Love has the ability to overcome all obstacles; whether it is a dangerous battlefield or unknown reality, let the "airdrop" loaded full of affection, reach your planet”.”

Was it successful?

As expected, these brands’ cross-boundary cooperation is very good. The three co-branded products sold out as soon as they were released on the official website and WeChat, despite their expensive price tag. The campaign also saw 19,159k views and 62k discussions on Weibo.

一周之内会发生什么

What will happen to us in a week?

The Concept

Bananain (蕉内), the Chinese underwear brand, celebrated Qixi with the launch of a limited edition gift box “ Weekly Pants”, containing seven underpants in different colours to be worn throughout a week.

Bananain launched their advertising campaign for this box with the Weibo hashtag #一周之内我们会发生什么# “What will happen to us in a week” and collaborated with six brands from various categories to run competitions for a whole week. The campaign posts were playfully centred around daily sweet things that couples share, for example it interacted with the shampoo brand 雪玲妃Snepe to ask “Why your bath water is warmer than mine?”, and interacted with the home brand LOVO乐蜗家纺 saying “For us, the double bed always becomes the single bed”.

Chen Jin, Account Manager:

• “The “Weekly Pant” gift box is aesthetically appealing with simple and fashionable packaging, and also highly practical. It aligned well with the brand’s positioning; “redesigning the basics”, and demonstrates pride in being a Chinese brand”

• “The choice to use social media channel Weibo as the main distribution channel for this ad campaign was good for interaction and topicality. As a relatively young brand, Bananain knows how to collaborate with non-competing brands from different industries to exchange traffic and acquire new customers in a low-cost way”

• “The ad campaign posters are fun, creatively combining the sweet little things in a relationship and offering attractive gifts. The “simple drawing style” appeals to the audience of urban young people.”

Was it successful?

3.6M reads and 23k discussions on Weibo under #一周之内我们会发生什么# / “What will happen to us in a week”

一个吻，回敬所有问

All Love is Love

The Concept

“There are lots of questions/doubts needed to be considered/answered while we are in love, some of which might influence us to make decisions, even breaking the current balanced relationship.”

This Qixi, Budweiser’s marketing campaign invites/encourages you to explore your true answer through a direct/bold kiss with those we love, since there are always questions in love but not in kisses, a kiss never lies!

Campaign Highlights

Vivian Qin, Account Manager: “Sharp and emotional message and content with a strong, bold, young attitude, which represents young people’s attitude in love today (love is love, no matter who you are). The simple digital mechanism that Budweiser whose, sharing your story under the WeChat post, is easy to participate in.”

Was it successful?

Over 100,000 views, more than 10,000 likes & WOWs of this WeChat post.

There was a clear winner in Florasis’ “Zhang Chang Touches up Eyebrows”, with many of the team picking sharing that campaign as their favourite. Whichever campaigns you fell in love with it was clear this year, more than ever, there’s been an increase in the use of the traditional Chinese elements being integrated into brand storytelling and that Guochao 国潮 and other traditional elements continue to prove popular with audiences.

Does your brand aim to gain the love of Chinese consumers? Hot Pot China can help you assess the market, ideate the perfect strategy and win business in this fast-moving, challenging market that’s full of potential. Drop us a message to chat >