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← Back to IdeasChinese New Year is China's Advertising Super Bowl
Chinese New Year is the big date in the advertising calendar. While in the past this has been largely around the massively popular and highly rated Chinese New Year show on CCTV, it is now increasingly a time for brands to reaffirm their values by telling meaningful stories across many of the available channels.
Freed from the shackles of TV advertising slots, we see a great wave of creativity emerging, away from products and functional advertising to emotional story telling with distinctive Chinese characteristics. As evidenced by a number of recent campaigns, far from simply emulating the most successful holiday ads from North America or Europe, advertisers are embracing a different kind of creativity. A distinctly Chinese sensibility is now emerging in brand storytelling, thanks to increased confidence on the part of marketers to make a statement and emotionally engage their target consumer in a way that might not necessarily see.
Take ‘Three Minutes’ by Apple, for example. While millions of Chinese consumers will come together to celebrate Chinese New Year, a great many will have to work through this holiday. Such personal sacrifice is the inspiration behind this short film; although shot entirely on an iPhone X, the product is not centered at all, allowing the story to focus on the rare and precious moments in which a busy working mother is able to see. Chinese New Year is the big date in the advertising calendar.