The Chinese New Year has changed a lot in the twenty years since the government first introduced a holiday period and continues to evolve so brands need to consider whether they want to take advantage of what is now the annual occasion. largest in the country.
Writing in the current issue of Admap (topic: smart approaches to second-hand marketing), Lin Liu, director of strategy at UM China, points out that it was only in 1999, in a movement designed to transform a nation of savers on consumers, that the government gave a mandatory break to an obsessively hardworking people so they could take a break to “savor the fruits of their labor and be with their families”.
Since then, the way people in China spend the Chinese New Year (CNY) holidays has been intricately linked to the nation’s changing fortunes, and Liu identifies three current trends that he believes will have a lasting influence. .
Cities
One is the growing importance of second-tier cities: inland cities such as Chengdu, Xi’an, Suzhou and Zhengzhou have played a role as drivers of regional growth and attract the kind of talent that once migrated to the coastal megacities.
One effect of this is that the annual movement of millions of people to reunite with family in CNY is increasingly likely. a these cities instead of moving away from them. “Many of the implants do not return home, but organize family reunions in their new‘ hometowns, ’” Liu says.
Demographics
The nation’s demographic profile has also changed over the past two decades. In 1999, young people aged 18 to 35 accounted for 35% of the Chinese population; in 2018, this segment had dropped to 27%.
This, coupled with the distribution of wealth among different cohorts, is transforming family dynamics. Gen Z may be the poorest cohort since reform, but it has the richest parents, Liu notes.
Screens
China’s technology giants have successfully leveraged CNY to introduce new technology applications, such as visual search, mobile games, and mobile test games, but the transformation isn’t just limited to small screens; movie screens and DOOH are standard even for small towns, a development that is transforming media planning.
What it means for marketers
• If Singles Day is about bargains, CNY is about “the best in class, limited edition and added value”.
• China is not a homogeneous country; the best marketing has its roots in regional differences and tensions, and increasingly on the occasion of CNY.
• Brands have the opportunity to work with technology giants to co-invent CNY projects to create new behavior.
Coming from Admap