An Experiential Marketing Event Concept Celebrating Lunar New Year by Blending Traditional and Modern Elements to Create a 'Feast of Propserity'

THE CONCEPT 

Our client, ASPAC Developments, tasked us with creating an innovative and unique event experience to welcome the Lunar New Year of the Rat for 2020. After reviewing the client's brand values and positioning in the market, we were inspired to modernize a traditional Chinese concept to emphasize the Client's international roots back in Hong Kong, China, and also their experience building truly world-class residential communities in Vancouver. 

The traditional Chinese event is known as 'The Emperor's Feast' (滿漢全席）and originated during the Qing dynasty when the Emperor wanted to promote harmony amongst his people. The feast presented a minimum of 108 dishes, with 54 from the North and 54 from the South. For those who have had the pleasure of traveling around Mainland China to experience its various culinary delicacies, you would know that the cuisines vary greatly in different regions of China. 

Inspired by this tradition dating back to the Qing dynasty, we decided to focus on an East meets West concept, and instead of focusing on the culinary component, we updated the concept to create a week-long exhibit that featured 108 eastern and western lifestyle objects, products, and experiences that would improve the standards of living for our real estate client's homeowners. We came up with the name 鴻運盛宴 for the event, which stands for good fortune and prosperity. In English, this event would come to be known as the ‘Feast of Prosperity’ - a treat for our sense incorporating inspirational designs, homeware, kitchenware, and trinkets to make each day living in an ASPAC home better.

Each of the 108 gifts was allocated as a surprise gift for homebuyers during the Lunar New Year promotion, where the sophisticated homes would sell for $1080 per square feet regardless of which floor the condo was located on, a tremendous savings opportunity for homebuyers. 

A SERIES OF WECHAT ARTICLES

To promote this event, our team created a series of 5 WeChat articles to announce the event, showcase different categories of exhibit items, and to announce the unrivaled savings opportunity for homebuyers leading up to the event. We utilized the new horizontal, designed format we have seen luxury brands using in the past few months, giving our client's brand an elevated look and feel through their Chinese communications.

Instead of traditional portrait orientation WeChat articles, we designed the article in a landscape format used by luxury brands on WeChat.

EVENT BRANDING

In addition to the creation of the event concept and the management of the event logistics and sourcing of the various items for the 108-item exhibit, WeChat strategy and content creation, our team also handled the Chinese event branding efforts. 

Red Pockets

We designed 10 different red pocket inserts, highlighting the benefits of our client's homes, encouraging interested parties to connect with the sales team on WeChat, and also had 6 'lucky cards', with different 'well-wishes' that would be different for each red pocket. This is similar to the tradition of how the Chinese visit temples during the new year to ask for their fortune for the year.

A selection of the customized Chinese New Year red pocket and inserts with new year greetings.

Digital Animation

To give the event space a more lively and animated feel, we created portrait and horizontal animations in Chinese with new year greetings for the exhibit and event space.

An animated digital screen incorporating Year of the Rat element.

Banner Ads

As part of this Chinese New Year campaign, our team also created Chinese HTML5 and GIF ads for WeChat banners, Google Ad banners, and other media outlets to promote attendance at the event. 

THE RESULTS

The day before the event was, unfortunately, the confirmation of the first case of the coronavirus in Canada, and attendance was a big concern the evening prior to the event. However, with a strong Lunar New Year campaign push, the event still attracted close to 500 attendees and was a very successful sales event for our client's new phase of condo releases for Hollybridge at River Green in Richmond, British Columbia.