Johnnie Walker – 2023 “Galloping Rabbit New Year Carnival”
Product Action: To celebrate the Lunar New Year, Johnnie Walker collaborated with contemporary artist Yu Yang to launch limited edition Rabbit Year artist collaboration bottles for Black Label and Red Label. Simultaneously, Blue Label partnered with designer Angel Chen to release the “Leaping Rabbit Greets Spring” special edition.
Offline Activation: From December 31, 2022, to January 18, 2023, Johnnie Walker Black Label activated a pop-up space at Shanghai Centre. The venue featured a large-scale art installation that switched between daytime static screen animations and nighttime interactive rotations that activated floor projections. Visitors sharing check-ins on social media could receive a random rabbit-themed refrigerator magnet.
Insight Analysis: The campaign tapped into the consumer psychology of “seeking good fortune” during the New Year, mapping it to concrete scenarios like gatherings and banquets. The offline experience materialized abstract blessings, while online content drove emotional resonance, translating the brand’s “Keep Walking” spirit into accessible “New Year wishes.” Different product lines ensured comprehensive audience coverage.
Source: Vogue China article “Johnnie Walker Black Label Gallops into 2023 with Contemporary Artist Yu Yang for Rabbit Year Limited Edition”
Guinness – 2024 “Guinness Street Studio” Christmas Experience
Product Action: Transformed the iconic“surge”phenomenon into the core experiential element, allowing consumers to pour their own pint using professional equipment and generate a personalized“surge film”in real time.
Offline Activation: The activation took place in core commercial districts of Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Zhongshan. Under guidance, consumers operated the tap, with a cinematic camera capturing the moment and live-streaming it to a large screen. Select participants saw their signed“film”displayed on city landmark advertising screens.
Insight Analysis: Directly addressed the misconception in the Chinese market that dark beer equates to a“bitter, strong taste,”using experiential interaction to break down cognitive barriers. Turned the specific pouring method from a potential inconvenience into a ritualistic brand memory point.
Source: Golden Rooster Award for Commercial Creativity entry“Guinness Street Studio”
Penfolds – 2022 New Year “Penfolds · Limitless Space” Creative Capsule
Product Action: Offered tastings of Penfolds wines from multiple global regions and highlighted the new“One by Penfolds”series, emphasizing its values of “diversity, boundlessness, and integration.”
Offline Activation: Created an immersive, space-voyage-themed zone at Shanghai’s TX Huaihai, featuring interactive areas like a digital capsule door, scent discovery, and a stellar tasting space. It combined masterclasses, a lounge bar, and a pop-up shop.
Insight Analysis: Responded to young consumers’ demand for novel experiences and social sharing by blending premium wine culture with technology and art. The “space voyage” concept translated the brand’s abstract philosophy into a tangible, shareable offline experience, reinforcing a premium, innovative image.
Source: Xinmin Net article “'Limitless Space' Opens a Wonderful Journey”
Budweiser – 2025 New Year “Metamorphosis Bottle”
Product Action: Launched the core“Budweiser Metamorphosis Bottle”New Year limited edition with peelable labels revealing hidden blessings. Also released an ultra-premium Snake Year limited edition in collaboration with luxury brand “Shanghai Tang,”incorporating intangible cultural heritage techniques like Su embroidery and bamboo weaving.
Offline Activation: Hosted 27 New Year’s Eve parties across 6 cities. Placed thematic advertisements in 8 major travel hubs and over 85 high-traffic points. Executed 73 New Year celebrations in 41 cities. Held a“Metamorphosis and Renewal”theme party at Shanghai’s Peace Hotel, featuring a heritage fashion show.
Insight Analysis: Identified the emotional needs for“renewal”and“blessings” during Spring Festival, turning the act of opening a bottle into a light ritual for making wishes. Leveraged the cultural hotspot of“Spring Festival’s UNESCO bid.” Precisely covered the complete holiday journey from celebration and homebound travel to local reunion.
Source: China Economic Net article“Peel Open the Budweiser Metamorphosis Bottle, Reveal New Year’s Good Fortune: Budweiser’s New Year Campaign Reconstructs the Ritual Sense of ‘Nian Wei’ with the ‘Metamorphosis Bottle’”
Meijian Plum Wine – 2024 New Year Marketing
Product Action: Positioned the product as a“Family Banquet Reunion Wine” suitable for whole-family sharing, targeting the “family feast reunion” scene.
Offline Activation: Created towering gift box displays in core supermarket channels like Yonghui and Hema. Invited calligraphers to villages in Chongqing known for couplets to write Spring Festival couplets and host traditional long-table banquets.
Insight Analysis: Captured the trend of alcohol consumption shifting from business entertaining to family gatherings. Successfully entered this growing mainstream scene with its low-alcohol, pleasant-taste positioning. Moved beyond traditional alcohol’s role as a face-giving gift, using the homophone“long time no see”to build emotional connection, making the product an emotional medium.
Source: NetEase article“Can Meijian Plum Wine, Which Saw Sales Soar During Spring Festival, Maintain Its Current Growth Rate?”
Absolut Vodka – 2022 New Year “Absolut Night Project”
Product Action: Created limited edition party kits for participants. Released the“City of Meta-Nights”NFT/digital collectibles.
Offline Activation: Through the“100-City Absolut Cyborg Night Project,” supported 100 winners in hosting synchronized theme New Year’s Eve parties across 100 cities. Later, the“100-City Meta-Creation Absolut Meta-Night”created an immersive blended reality experience combining an offline gala with a virtual performance.
Insight Analysis: Recognized young consumers’ shift from passive content receivers to eager co-creators. The campaign evolved from“brand-defined nights”to “empowering users to create nights.”Combined with the metaverse trend, it satisfied the pursuit of cutting-edge culture through mixed virtual and real experiences.
Source: China Daily website“ABSOLUT Vodka’s‘100-City Absolute Cyborg Night Project’Concludes”
Asahi Super Dry – 2024“Start the New Year with Vigor, Good Luck Dragon Always Comes”New Year Marketing
Product Action: Collaborated with Japanese pixel artist Hermippe (Takashi Komiyama) to launch a Dragon Year pixel art limited edition package, merging intricate dragon patterns with a futuristic Tokyo cityscape on the brand’s iconic silver can with red accents.
Offline Activation: Launched for sale in Asia-Pacific markets including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. In Taiwan, thematic displays were set up in convenience stores like FamilyMart, 7-ELEVEN, and hypermarkets like Carrefour and RT-Mart. Purchases at designated channels came with a limited edition branded beer glass.
Insight Analysis: Precisely targeted the core Lunar New Year consumption scene of family/friend gatherings and gift-giving. Identified young consumers’ desire for trendy expressions of traditional festivals. Achieved a modern, trendy translation of traditional cultural symbols by blending pixel art from gaming culture, attracting younger demographics.
Source: “Asahi Super Dry Dragon Year Pixel Limited Edition: Start the New Year with Vigor, Good Luck Always Comes”
Moët & Chandon – 2023“Cheers to 2023”Global Celebration
Product Action: Released New Year limited edition large-format champagne (e.g., Nebuchadnezzar size) exclusively for top-tier VIP parties and celebrations.
Offline Activation: Deeply integrated with global premier New Year’s Eve celebrations as the“Official Champagne” for events like the New York Times Square Ball Drop and Dubai’s Burj Khalifa light show. Featured as the set menu inclusion or top recommendation in New Year’s Eve dinner menus at high-end global hotels, restaurants, and private clubs.
Insight Analysis: The success of the champagne category is highly dependent on association with“victory, success, celebration”scenes. Sponsoring globally watched spectacles aims not at short-term sales but at continuously reinforcing the“brand = premier celebration”consumer mindset, thereby accumulating powerful brand equity for year-round, omnichannel sales.
Source: “Moet & Chandon Pays Tribute to Atlantis The Royal with 15-Litre Limited Edition”
The Macallan – 2023 “The Lunar New Year Collection 2023 – The Journey”
Product Action: The gift box featured an innovative three-layer folding structure, each layer corresponding to a stage of the homecoming journey: Departure·Anticipation, Journey·Flow, Arrival·Reunion. The whisky highlighted flavor notes evocative of Eastern cuisine like steamed rice, coconut pudding, and sweet ginger.
Offline Activation: Thematic displays in Macallan boutiques, high-end department stores, and duty-free channels worldwide used opened boxes for immersive storytelling. Hosted private “Homecoming” themed tasting dinners for VIP clients and collectors.
Insight Analysis: Keenly identified the “Spring Festival travel for family reunions,” a uniquely contemporary Chinese social phenomenon filled with collective emotion. By designing the packaging as an interactive, unfoldable “emotional map,” the brand successfully transformed abstract longing for reunion into a physical, experiential object, significantly enhancing the product’s emotional value and gifting significance.
Source: WantRich article “The Macallan Lunar New Year Collection Recreates Touching Moments of Reunion”
LOUIS XIII – 2025 New Year Rare Collection Marketing
Product Action: Launched three entirely handcrafted limited festive decanters: a Lunar Horse Year special case blending lily flowers, an Eastern galloping horse, and Western royal motifs using traditional embossing; a 2026 Year-End Ribbon case with a ribbon visual theme symbolizing blessings and connection; a rare 3-liter large-format edition emphasizing abundance, sharing, and a “passing down through generations” legacy spirit.
Offline Activation: Opened an appointment-only Show Room on the first floor of Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Xinyi A9 in Taipei. This limited exhibition displayed classics and global limited series, including the Horse Year edition, offering by-the-glass tasting experiences.
Insight Analysis: Recognized New Year as a key moment for sharing blessings with family and friends, elevating the product from a spirit to a “gift of time” through highly ritualistic limited editions. Following the 2024 Dragon Year, launching another zodiac series and reinforcing legacy value via the rare 3-liter format consolidated its status as a “heritable asset” among top collectors. The early October 2025 launch aimed to ignite festive atmosphere in advance, extending the marketing cycle.
Source: LaVie article “As the Year Draws to a Close. LOUIS XIII Lights the First Golden Glow of the New Year with Three Limited Rare Crafts”
Meijian Plum Wine is the top brand of plum wine in China. Meijian Plum Wine is made through the ancient method of soaking with original fruits. The process involves using native Chinese plums as raw materials and soaking them in traditional Chinese wine storage containers, the intangible cultural heritage earthenware jars, for over a year. The ancient method of soaking with original fruits is a brewing technique that dates back over 1,500 years to the Tang and Song dynasties (618 AD - 1279 AD). The plum wine made with this method restores the flavor of the East from over 1,500 years ago. The history of consuming and brewing plum wine in China is very long. Currently, there are four plum trees over 500 years old in China, with one being over 1,000 years old. These ancient plum trees have become living fossils of Chinese cultural symbols. The ancient plum trees retain a more primitive flavor that is wild, highly acidic, and organic. The Meijian Plum Wine made from them has a more distinct Eastern flavor.
In fact, both plums and plum wine originated in China. The history of consuming plums in China exceeds 3,000 years, and the history of drinking plum wine is also over a thousand years. Due to its low alcohol content, balanced sweet and sour taste, it has been very popular since ancient times. Moreover, plums and plum wine have extremely high nutritional value. In 2015, Zhang Ying and Lai Mengjie, in their book "Plum and Human Health", on page 23, mentioned that plums contain various natural organic acids such as citric acid, malic acid, tartaric acid, succinic acid, and pyruvic acid, with citric acid accounting for about 90% of the total acid. Low sugar (1.3% total sugar) and high acid (6.4% total acid) are the characteristics of plum fruits. In 2023, the "General Incorporated Foundation for Plum Research" published "Ume fiber increases short-chain fatty acid production and improves gut health in healthy adults: A randomized controlled trial", confirming that plums have antioxidant, antibacterial, and gut health improvement effects on the human body. In February 2022, in the international journal "Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition", Tiantian Tian, Hui Cao, Mohamed A. Frage, Siting Fan, and others published "Current and potential trends in the bioactive properties and health benefits of Prunus mume Sieb. Et Zucc: a comprehensive review for value maximization", which evaluated the antioxidant and anti-osteoporosis activities of the chemical components in plum fruits and found that the organic acids and other components in plums have significant antioxidant and anti-osteoporosis effects.
