Brand Strategy: Lunar New Year 2025
With holidays stretching for longer than ever in key markets including China, Korea and Vietnam, brands will have to meet heightened expectations around cultural fluency while tapping into new opportunities in travel, lifestyle and wellness to win attention and evolve alongside culture.
Opportunity
Also known as Spring Festival in China, Seollal in Korea, Tết in Vietnam and Chinese New Year among the Chinese diaspora in the rest of Southeast Asia and worldwide, the festival is celebrated by about two billion people and represents the peak season for retail and marketing in the Asian cultural calendar (TIME).
The festival is becoming more dynamic than ever as governments in China and Vietnam extend the holiday season. China will celebrate the festival for eight days while the Vietnamese will enjoy nine days for Tet, driving consumption, especially in travel and entertainment. New excitement around the holiday is also on the horizon as UNESCO added the Spring Festival to its Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list in December 2024.
Meanwhile, consumers are starting to rethink celebrations and traditions along with new priorities and rituals, including health and wellness, online festivities and more intentional ways of celebrating. In Vietnam, consumers are already replacing once-popular items such as beer and sweets with more health-conscious products such as nuts, yoghurt and bird’s nest. Though consumers are simplifying celebrations, they’re still seeking to maintain the integrity of rituals to connect with their heritage and culture.
Make space for new family dynamics and rituals
As young people reconsider the idea of family and explore new ways of celebrating the festival, brands have the opportunity to help them make new core memories by ensuring that they’re being seen, heard and represented across all touchpoints.
Brands should ensure the representation of modern household dynamics in their communications. These range from solo to multi-generational households, including DINKs (Dual Income, No Kids), pet parents, chosen families and friendship neighbourhoods (where friends choose to live near each other).
For pet parents, take a pet-centric approach and be creative about how pets can become included in festivities – host pet-themed Lunar New Year fairs, introduce pet-friendly spaces in your stores and design Lunar New Year pet outfits.
Participate in new festival playgrounds
Cater to new shoppers and celebratory journeys, which are increasingly shifting festivities online and into the nighttime.
The leading channel for shoppers to buy festive goods is shifting to short-video platforms (77.6%) including TikTok Shop, WeChat Channels, Douyin and Kuaishou, which are edging ahead of traditional e-commerce sites (76.7%). Brands should balance inventory between the two and refer to our Livestreaming in China and Livestreaming in Southeast Asia reports for best practices.
Another growing opportunity is the nocturnal consumer lifestyle. Explore this market with fireworks, lights, AR and drone shows, and offer Lunar New Year-themed alternative nightlife activities. Invest in nighttime hospitality and public spaces to meet consumers who are celebrating the season with travel.
Brace for the post-festival blues
Extend the festival opportunity for your brand by introducing recovery experiences and glimmers that help shoppers bounce back from their post-festival blues.
Cater to those who have returned to the hustle of mega-cities with urban healing spaces informed by mindful commerce. Incorporate tactile and movement-based lifestyle rituals and introspective workshops and experiences including meditation, book clubs and art therapy to aid consumers in finding balance and rest post-celebration.
Lean into the edible wellness opportunity to design post-festival food and drink experiences inspired by Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to help consumers recover their health after festive indulgence.
Capitalise on Lantern Festival-themed offerings, which mark the end of the Lunar New Year, to inject glimmers and rejuvenate moods as consumers return to the humdrum of everyday life. Renew excitement with packaging Glimmers or turn the occasion into a new Minorstone that shoppers can celebrate.