The Chinese New Year is one of the most important celebrations in China. It includes a day for family reunion and eating dinner together until midnight (January 28th) and a day to visit relatives and distribute hongbaos (红包) on January 29th. Above all, each year is marked by a zodiac animal and an element. In 2025, we have entered the Year of the Wood Snake. How brands used the zodiac animal this year? What were the best marketing campaigns?
Key Takeaways:
- This year’s zodiac animal is the Wood Snake
- It symbolizes elegance, prosperity, and transformation
- It is also a more complex symbol of being secretive and cunning
- Loewe communicated on shadow puppetry and kite-making traditions
- Burberry launched a red capsule collection with a bamboo wicker ware design
- Lululemon created a short-movie called “Return to the Spring” with Li Yuchun
- Baobab Collection communicated on Chinese calligraphy and ink tradition
Let’s dive in.
What is the Chinese New Year Calendar?
The Chinese New Year follows a strict calendar. Indeed, it starts from the Beginning of Spring on the first day of the 24 solar terms. As the arrival of Spring marks a new year and a desire for a new life, this day marks the Chinese New Year. In 2025, this day is on January 29th.
Contrary to what many people think, Chinese New Year doesn’t last just one day, but extends over a long period of festivities. Chinese people will take a minimum of 1-week holiday, during which they will observe a calendar of activities. Beyond the New Year, brands can therefore communicate on the deeper meaning of each day and the traditions associated with it.
This is the Chinese New Year calendar:
So, Chinese New Year last more than 1 day.
How Long is the Chinese New Year in 2025?
In total, Chinese New Year is a 16-day long festival. Even if the starting date will be different each year, every day of the festival will have a single purpose or meaning. You can communicate on the festival for about 20 days in advance and for 16 days after the festival. We recommend to use the activity or the meaning of the day to communicate, both online and offline. For instance, you can share greetings, visuals, and in-store activities.
On the exact date of the New Year, you can use the zodiac animal.
Here is how.
What is the Animal for Chinese New Year 2025?
The Chinese zodiac animal in 2025 is the snake. According to the Chinese ancient legend, this animal arrived at the 6th position during the race. Since it arrived right after the dragon, the Year of the Snake is following the Year of the Dragon.
You can read our article about the Year of the Dragon here.
When you want to incorporate the animal of the year into your marketing campaign or product collection for Chinese New Year in 2025, you also need to analyze its element. In the Ancient China, people used to believe that everything in the universe is composed of the five elements: gold, wood, water, fire, and earth. If you are not familiar with it, it is also part of the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) also called Wu Xing or the Five Phases.
In 2025, we celebrate the Wood Snake.
The Wood Snake
The Wood Snake is also associated with the Green Snake. So, it will be very common during the year to see green snakes in addition to the traditional red and gold snakes. Every year, the zodiac animal is paired with one element, and the last Wood Snake was 60 years ago, in 1965.
According to South Morning China Post, “in many Western countries, snakes have long been associated with evil and temptation. However, in China, snakes hold a more complex and varied symbolism. They are simultaneously associated with harvest, procreation, spirituality, and good fortune, as well as cunning, evil, threat, and terror.”
The most successful brands are the ones who understand this symbol and cultural heritage.
And we have identified the best 3 marketing campaigns of the season.
Best Marketing Campaigns for the Chinese New Year 2025
When it comes to festivals and traditional campaigns, I often describe 2 types of marketing strategies. It doesn’t mean that one is better than the other. It just means that luxury and lifestyle brands have to make a choice between 2 roads to take:
- Bold Marketing: Creating a disruptive campaign by taking risks, generating strong emotions (whether positive or negative)
- Safe Marketing: Creating an efficient campaign by remaining correct, generally positive (but easily forgotten)
This year, the best campaigns combine both strategies.
Let’s dive in.
1. Loewe
The luxury brand created a Chinese New Year campaign around traditional craftsmanship.
Loewe launched an outstanding digital campaign with communication around ancient shadow puppetry with artist Shen Xintong and kite-making tradition with artist Zhang Xiaodong. They also incorporated the zodiac animal inside their product design, along with the cloud pattern for prosperity. Chinese netizens loved the campaign, nourishing a positive brand sentiment and a stronger community engagement.
On Xiaohongshu, Chinese netizens shared their appreciation for this tribute to Chinese craftsmanship. On the social media we could read “Weifang people are proud” in reference to the city of kite-making recognized by the UNESCO. Other netizens wished to share their love for the campaign by commenting “Teacher Zhang is really amazing” or even “I love puppets, this is the lantern I made for my son’s kindergarten”. A great example on how to trigger engagement.
2. Burberry
The luxury brand chose the safe marketing option with a red capsule collection.
For Chinese New Year 2025, Burberry decided to blend the iconic B logo with the snake symbol. Indeed, they release a full collection inspired by the snake in a deep red color. They also created WeChat hongbaos and used the bamboo wicker ware tradition with artist Qian Lihuai. This collaboration enabled the brand to have an artistic touch to its visual campaign with bamboo wicker ware creations.
Above all, the collaboration with the actress and brand ambassador Zhang Jingyi generated a strong enthusiasm and positive sentiment. On social media Weibo and Xiaohongshu, we could read “Zhang Jingyi is so beautiful” and “Zhang and Burberry are a perfect match”. This collaboration was the ideal choice for the brand to generate a strong online engagement: “Zhang Jingyi is the perfect brand ambassador, she is so beautiful. Let’s welcome with great enthusiasm the New Year of the Snake!”
3. Lululemon
The sportswear brand created a limited edition inspired by Chinese brush painting.
Once again, traditional craftsmanship is what brings the most engagement and appreciation in China. This year, Lululemon was inspired by the traditional brush painting and traditional floral elements with the zodiac animal. They collaborated with Li Yuchun with a short film called “Return to the Spring” (回到春天). Chinese people fell in love with the campaign, elevating Lululemon to the rank of luxury brands.
Like other brands, Lululemon leveraged the short-movies strategy with several capsule videos starring Li Yuchun. We can see the actress running in nature, feeling free in her Lululemon outfit, and even talking to the camera to wish a lovely Chinese New Year 2025. This campaign was considered one of the best campaigns of the festival this year.
You can read more in my interview for Jing Daily.
Bonus: Baobab Collection
This year, we handled the Chinese New Year campaign of Baobab Collection. We combined a 1-month digital campaign around the history and tribute to Chinese calligraphy with the collection Encre de Chine before wishing prosperity and luck to their Chinese fans with a golden snake.
A tribute to the traditional Chinese ink, a golden snake for wisdom and strength, a cloud pattern for good fortune and prosperity, a background with Suzhou streets on the New Year, and red lanterns to announce the coming festivities.
Above all, this is the symbol of a cultural journey transcending time and space.
Highlighting the brand’s attention to details and the pursuit of perfection.
AB ADVISORY, Your Branding Partner in China
Building a brand and crafting campaigns that could echo with the local culture is never an easy task, especially in China. You need a strong partner with teams that have both marketing background but also history, art, culture, and literature knowledge. For instance, we built the “Au fil de l’encre” campaign with our Marketing Director who is also a Chinese calligrapher. He has been practicing Chinese calligraphy with his master for many years. This is what makes a campaign stands out.
Engage with your Chinese customers with a creative and artistic campaign.
Avoid the clichés and show a deep comprehension and respect for the Chinese culture.
Contact us if you want a customized Marketing Plan and visual creation.