The Cultural Insight
Lunar New Year is the biggest holiday for East and Southeast Asian cultures. A multi-day celebration where families gather for reunions, gift-giving and of course, extravagant meals. Many of the dishes are symbolic, representing wealth and good fortune. And perhaps one of the most iconic traditions of Lunar New Year is The Red Envelope, or Hongbao. These money-filled envelopes are often gifted to children by elders as a way to express luck, prosperity and most importantly, love.
The Challenge
We had to show up to the celebration in a huge way. Through digital, social and experiential activations, we needed to reinforce Knorr as the leading brand among Asian-American diasporas. Reminding them: If you want the most authentic cuisine possible for your celebration, start with Knorr.
The Solution
Through a precisely-targeted multimedia approach, we aimed to capture the essence of what makes Lunar New Year so beautiful.
First, we knew we had to use our social channels and influencer network to let audiences nationwide know Knorr was here for the celebration. By partnering with Chinese-American and Vietnamese-American macro-influencers, we were able to highlight the importance of connecting with family during this renowned holiday. Through a content series where our influencers connected with their parents, using Knorr products to cook many of the traditional, iconic dishes…we were able to make quite the impression.
Next, if we wanted to show people that we were truly part of the festivities, we had to show up at the biggest Lunar New Year celebration in the United States –– The San Francisco Chinese New Year Festival and Parade. A festival with over 85M visitors and 3M+ total viewers. Handing out over 7k+ product samples and giving attendees an authentic taste of Asian culture was a great start…but we wanted to go even bigger.
So, we entered our own branded Knorr float into the parade. With a stunt of this magnitude, we saw another opportunity to amplify our activation across social channels. But we still wanted to maintain the campaign’s message of family and prosperity. So, we put one of our micro-influencer partners on top of the float and asked them to create a hilariously heartwarming piece of branded content. The video featured our influencer giving their father the chance to finally ride in the parade. A lifelong dream of theirs.
Finally, to make our celebration interactive for audiences across the country who were unable to attend the festival, we created an online sweepstakes in order to convey the spirit of wealth and prosperity. Knorr customers had the opportunity to enter for a chance to win 1 of 5 Red Envelopes filled with $1,000.
Our big celebration netted us even bigger results. This campaign built a beautiful connection between the brand and Lunar New Year. And in the process…created lifelong fans nationwide.
