Last Updated on September 15, 2024
Mid-autumn festival or 中秋节 is a celebration often observed in Asian countries, but its roots originate in China. With local consumers particularly mindful of Chinese culture, it’s one of the holidays that opens doors for foreign brands to engage more deeply with their target audience.
Given that the Chinese market has so many celebration events, it’s only natural if you find it challenging to keep track of your digital marketing calendar.
Here are some insights from our team regarding everything you should know about the Mid-Autumn festival in China. We’ll also tackle some proven-and-tested marketing campaigns that may help you connect better with Chinese consumers during this holiday.
What is Mid-Autumn Festival in China?
The Mid-Autumn or Moon Festival is the second most important holiday after the Chinese New Year. It has been widely celebrated in the country for over 3,000 years, with its modern form emerging during the Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD), a golden age of Chinese culture and prosperity.
Back then, the festival was celebrated literally through full moon worship. Chinese people believed the event meant showing gratitude to the moon goddess for a good harvest season.
Nowadays, formal celebrations for the festival exist in the form of fire dragon dance performances, moon gazing activities, writing wishes on sky lanterns, and many more.
Volunteers writing Mid-Autumn Day wishes (Source: China Daily)
How Do Online Consumers Celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival in China?
The Autumn Moon Festival is not only a time of traditional celebration but also a massive e-commerce opportunity for businesses. Most social commerce platforms host flash sales and deals targeted explicitly at online shoppers in hopes of generating more engagement and conversions.
During the Mid-Autumn Festival in China, online shoppers engage in a flurry of purchasing activities driven by both tradition and emerging trends.
The mooncake remains a staple, but many opt for limited-edition or luxury gift boxes. These boxes often feature intricate designs and premium ingredients like truffles. They are popular both as family treats and corporate gifts.
Consumer Patterns During the Mid-Autumn Festival in China
More and more consumers are spending on experiences rather than just physical goods. Short-distance travel, “micro-vacations,” and cultural tours are trendy during this holiday. Online travel agencies like Fliggy and Tongcheng have seen increased bookings for night cruises, garden tours, and trips to ancient towns.
Sales of home appliances, especially smart kitchen gadgets like air fryers and vacuum cleaners, have also spiked during last year’s MId-Autumn festival. According to data from Pinduoduo and Vipshop, these items have seen triple-digit growth as consumers prepare for home celebrations.
The focus is increasingly on quality and practicality, reflecting a shift towards more discerning, value-conscious purchases.
5 Digital Marketing Campaigns for Mid-Autumn Festival in China
1. Demonstrate Cultural Awareness via Social Media
Wishing your audience a happy Mid-Autumn festival is one of the most fundamental aspects of localizing your digital marketing strategies. Acknowledging the holiday by posting on local social media demonstrates your brand’s cultural awareness.
For our brand partners, we make sure to create timely event-related posts for important local holidays. This year, our team designed Mid-Autumn Festival greeting posters specifically dedicated for each brand’s WeChat article releases.
Mid-Autumn Festival Posters designed by SDG
Rather than a generic greeting, we created distinct event-related messaging that captures the brand’s essence. We also aligned all aspects of the visuals to the Mid-Autumn Festival theme to help readers resonate better with the content.
When posting these messages, remember that timing is critical. To ensure maximum visibility, we recommend sending your greetings when consumer engagement peaks (typically the day before or on the day of the festival).
2. Virtual Mid-Autumn Festival Events and Livestreaming
Livestreaming is a powerful tool in China’s digital landscape, especially during festivals. Brands can take this opportunity to host virtual Moon Festival events where influencers or company representatives introduce limited-edition products or even conduct giveaways.
Platforms like Douyin and Taobao Live provide an interactive space where viewers can ask questions, make purchases, and engage directly with the host.
Virtual moon-gazing events or “moon-viewing tours” have also grown in popularity. These events combine traditional festival customs with modern technology, and brands that offer such immersive experiences to their audiences tend to have higher engagement rates.
WeChat Livestreams featuring the Mid-Autumn theme
3. Collaborations with Key Opinion Leaders
Like many brands, influencers know the high social media engagement rates during the Moon Festival. So, rather than posting videos of themselves eating mooncakes or admiring the full moon, they are eager to find ways to better connect with their audiences.
One thing you should note is that these KOLs often have large, loyal followings and can amplify your brand’s message through engaging and relatable content.
We’re not saying that your campaign should only promote products. After all, Mid-Autumn Festival content that emphasizes storytelling around family reunions, mooncake traditions, or cultural connections still performs best.
Miguo’s Mid-Autumn Festival KOL Campaign
However, there’s no harm in tapping into other aspects of the festival. Take Miguo (觅菓), for example. In 2023, the food brand leveraged the power of KOLs on the RED platform to promote its high-end gift boxes, positioning itself as “the best Mid-Autumn Festival gift.”
The brand successfully differentiated itself from competitors by tying its premium offerings to the festival’s strong gifting culture. This strategy allowed the brand to tap into the event’s themes and the aspirational tastes of consumers looking for luxury gifts.
4. Festival-themed Discounts and Product Offerings
As our team discussed in previous posts, brand localization is particularly important for businesses that want to generate traction during important holidays.
In the Mid-Autumn Festival, localization means using the themes of family reunion, togetherness, and traditional values to help brands craft limited-edition products that resonate deeply with Chinese consumers.
A prime example of this is Durex’s creative mooncake campaign, which played on the famous Mid-Autumn Festival poem “但愿人长久，千里共婵娟” (May we all be blessed with longevity and share the beauty of the moon).
The brand humorously altered the word “长久” (long life) to “持久” (lasting), cleverly promoting their product while staying culturally relevant. This witty twist on tradition shows how brands can incorporate cultural nuances into their offerings, making them more engaging and memorable in the eyes of locals.
Durex’s Special Gift Box for the Mooncake Festival
According to last year’s consumption trends and patterns, Chinese consumers spend more during holiday sales than during non-holiday periods. Because of this, it’s always wise to offer festival-specific deals or discounts to create urgency and tap into the festive shopping mindset more effectively.
5. Personalized Storytelling Through Family-Centric Content
The Moon Festival is deeply rooted in the themes of reunion, family, and togetherness, making these powerful touchpoints for any marketing campaign. Storytelling that revolves around these elements can create a strong emotional connection with your audience.
One successful example comes from a Hennessy campaign. The brand posted a video on Weibo featuring a family reunion dinner, friends celebrating, and a couple sharing messages about the moon.
Hennesy’s Mid-Autumn Video Promotion on Weibo
This campaign wasn’t a direct promotion of their cognac products. It was about showing how Hennessy could bring people together during one of the most important celebrations of the year. The imagery of family and friends reconnecting, a theme central to the Mid-Autumn Festival, helped position the brand as part of those meaningful moments.
Content can be simple yet effective. Whether it’s a touching social media post about family traditions or a beautifully crafted short video about reunion, always remember that most consumers are drawn to stories that reflect their own experiences.
Marketing Reminders for Mid-Autumn Festival Celebrations in China
● Different festival traditions per region
Chinese people celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival differently, depending on specific regions. With a market as vast as Mainland China, marketers need to consider this factor if they want to launch a successful event-related campaign.
For instance, in Zhejiang province, watching the tidal flow on the Qiantang River is a popular tradition due to the full moon’s gravitational pull at its peak during the festival. Meanwhile, in Beijing and Tianjin, the “Lord Rabbit” (Tu’er Ye) is a local mascot celebrated for this public holiday.
Marketers should recognize these regional differences and customize campaigns to resonate with local customs. This ensures your brand speaks directly to traditions and avoids misrepresenting them in your materials.
Source: South China Morning Post
● The cultural and business significance of mooncakes
Mooncakes are central to the festival. In the traditional Chinese business scene, it is customary to give mooncakes and eat them on the exact festival date.
Most companies often send high-quality mooncake sets to clients and partners to show appreciation and reinforce business ties. Some even customize their mooncakes with logos and branded packaging, making them part of a larger marketing strategy.
Gucci’s take on traditional mooncake gifting (Source: Jing Daily)
● The role of Chinese folklore and legend
In Chinese culture, each important festival often comes from famous folklore and legends. For example, the stories about Chang’e, the moon goddess, and the Jade Rabbit are particularly when locals celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival.
From a marketing standpoint, these legends offer brands a storytelling angle. Many companies already incorporate these mythological figures into their product designs, from mooncake packaging to themed digital advertisements.
Tapping into this folklore can help create a deeper emotional connection with consumers, allowing them to associate your brand with the festival’s cultural significance.
● The influence of modern technology on the festival
Today’s Chinese consumers heavily rely on e-commerce platforms like Tmall and JD.com to make festival-related purchases.
These channels offer foreign brands a direct route to engage with millions of customers, allowing them to offer exclusive products and capitalize on flash sales with seamless, tech-driven logistics.
Taobao’s Special Product Section for Mooncakes
Social media also played a role in the changing consumption patterns of Chinese shoppers during the Mid-Autumn Festival. The holiday gives locals the time to engage with live-stream events, participate in digital gifting, and follow influencer promotions more than on regular days.
Important FAQs for Mid-Autumn Festival Campaigns in China
● What are the Popular Greetings for the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival?
During the Mid-Autumn Festival, sending well wishes is a deeply ingrained tradition. Whether through WeChat messages, greeting cards, or social media posts, sharing greetings helps express goodwill and maintain close connections.
The most straightforward and widely used greeting is “Happy Mid-Autumn Festival” (or, in Chinese, 中秋节快乐). It’s a simple, inclusive wish that appeals to all demographics, making it a safe and practical choice for brands to use in marketing campaigns.
More traditional greetings are often poetic and carry a deeper emotional tone, reflecting the festival’s themes. For example:
- “Wishing us a long life to share the graceful moonlight, though hundreds of miles apart” (但愿人长久，千里共婵娟)
- “I wish you a happy Mid-Autumn Festival. May the round moon bring you a happy family and a successful future” (祝福中秋佳节快乐，月圆人圆事事圆满)
Brands that incorporate well-known, meaningful greetings show cultural sensitivity. This conveys respect for tradition, which helps build trust—a key factor in consumer loyalty.
● When is the Mid-Autumn Festival celebrated?
While it’s true that the Chinese mid-autumn festival is a public holiday, you must remember that the date falls differently every year.
It takes place on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, typically in late September or early October when the moon is at its fullest and brightest. This year, the festival will be held on September 17, 2024.
If you don’t want to miss the opportunity to plan a marketing campaign for any momentous local occasion, always base your scheduling on the Chinese lunar calendar.
● Should your Mid-Autumn Festival content be in Simplified Chinese?
Mainland China’s population exceeds 1.4 billion, and most consumers are accustomed to reading in Simplified Chinese. Posting content in any other script, such as Traditional Chinese characters (used primarily in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan), can confuse or turn off potential customers.
Using Simplified Chinese makes your campaign feel local and relevant, demonstrating that your brand respects local culture.
Furthermore, China’s major search engines prioritize content in Simplified Chinese. To ensure your Mid-Autumn Festival campaign ranks high in search results, you must optimize your text, keywords, and metadata in this language variation.
Your Trusted Social Media Marketing Partner in China
The Mid-Autumn Festival is an ideal time for brands to connect with Chinese consumers through culturally relevant and well-executed digital marketing. However, success in this market requires more than just participating in a cultural celebration. It demands a thoughtful, well-timed strategy that resonates with the festival’s unique values.
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At Sekkei Digital Group, we understand that an effective Mid-Autumn digital marketing campaign needs to leverage the power of China’s leading digital platforms. Our experienced team can create localized content to help your brand cultivate authentic relationships with your audience.
Whether you want to launch a Mid-Autumn campaign on WeChat or generate traction through live-streaming sessions with KOLs, we have all the digital solutions you need. Get in touch with our team to develop a customized digital marketing strategy that aligns with the unique needs of the Chinese market.
References:
Mid-Autumn Moon Festival: 2025 How and When to Celebrate
5 brands Bringing Mid-Autumn Festival Closer to Chinese Consumers