Did you know that customers who receive information about a sale through email are likely to spend about 138% more than those who don’t receive emails? So, email marketing is pivotal, especially during high-traffic holidays like the Lunar New Year. But yes coming up with email marketing ideas for a year filled with festivals can get overwhelming. We’re here to help you tackle that. We are going to give you some beautiful ideas to boost your email marketing efforts this Lunar New Year. 

Part of the planning is about understanding the backstory. How can you plan the themes and concepts for your campaigns if you do not know what the festival stands for? So, let’s get a quick look at what Lunar New Year celebrations are all about. 

How Much Do You Know About the Lunar New Year? 

The Lunar New Year or the Chinese New Year is an occasion celebrated with all pomp and splendor by the Chinese population around the world. This comprises a 15-day festival commencing on the first new moon in the lunar calendar. Thousands of years old, this festival is now celebrated in many Asian countries. With the increasing number of Chinese migrants in several parts of the world, combined with globalization, this is no longer a festival restricted to China. 

From clearing the house of negative energy about 10 days in advance to gifting loved ones with a money-filled red envelope, there are many beautiful traditions attached to the Lunar New Year. 

Every new year is linked with an animal based on the Chinese Zodiac. 2024, according to the Chinese calendar, will be the Year of the Dragon. And the Lunar New Year 2024 falls on February 10.

Lunar New Year From a Brand’s Standpoint 

Perhaps by now, there are several questions in your mind. Should you plan your Lunar New Year campaign? What kind of brands can engage during this festival? Is it a holiday worth considering for brands outside Asia? 

Festivals like the Lunar New Year provide you with an opportunity to humanize your brand. Because those are times when engagement takes a slightly higher priority than promotions. 

Of course, as you engage your customers you can subtly work on your sales as well by curating promotions that feel relevant to the occasion. But then the focus is more on showing how you respect the diverse cultural backgrounds your customers are from. It is about showing that you care. It is about getting them to think of your brand as they shop for the holiday. 

Celebrating the Lunar New Year and planning a memorable email campaign for it will be a way to engage the Asians in your audience base. And to the rest of your audience, these campaigns will be a way to show your diversity. They help them understand that you respect the cultural and ethnic differences that exist among your audience. 

One of the biggest advantages of email marketing is that it lets you accurately target your campaigns. You can easily create targeted lists so as to increase your emails or frequency only to the relevant audience. 

The real question still remains – what kinds of brands benefit from Lunar New Year marketing? 

Brands that benefit the most during Lunar New Year celebrations 

The travel industry is one that benefits the most. This is because of “chunyun” or the spring migration. The trend arises from the fact that the week-long holiday for Lunar New Year is spent with family and friends. So Chinese who have settled in other parts of the world travel back to their home country for the celebration. In fact, for the upcoming Spring Festival travel rush in 2024, China is projected to witness approximately 9 billion passenger trips.

When the pandemic forced people to stay indoors a lot of other industries saw a spike in their revenue. Like online streaming services for example – about 2.3 billion Chinese audiences tuned in to watch online videos during the Lunar New Year holiday of 2021. 

In general, retail sales shoot up. A majority of the expense from about 77% of consumers goes into food and then comes the spending on alcohol. The fact that a majority of consumers spend their New Year’s Eve dinner at home should give you an idea of where most of the money goes. 

Use these snippets of data to plan your campaigns. If your business belongs to one of these direct niches, then you are in luck. A little motivation is all it takes to boost your sales. But if your products or services are not under the umbrella of industries that see a surge during the Lunar New Year, no problem! You can still use this as a chance to greet your customers, start conversations, and get to know them better. 

Finding ideas solves half of your problems. So, here are some campaign ideas and examples from big brands that you might like. 

Lunar New Year email marketing – 3 brilliant campaign ideas to try 

Holiday deals 

Any season when the purchase behavior changes and the spending from an average household increases is a good season for revisiting your marketing strategy. So, the Lunar New Year is a good season to do that. Like most other festivals with rich cultural backstories, this one also involves a lot of gifting. People are buying things for family members and for themselves too. 

What does all this mean for your brand? You guessed it right – a good time to run discounts! Limited-time deals further intensify the game. Because people know that they need to make their purchase decision before the stock runs out and before the slashed prices vanish. 

Where does an email help in this case? Emails are the best way to inform your customers about the upcoming sale. If you are targeting new leads who are yet to make their purchase, you can plan an email that guarantees them special discounts on their first purchase during the festive season. For existing customers, you can drop in an exclusive coupon code through email. Efforts like these help increase your email list while maintaining the existing subscribers too. 

The below image shows an email from Uniqlo on account of its Lunar New Year sale. 

Uniqlo’s way of managing its global approach while staying local is a topic that interests marketers. The above email is a good example of how the brand achieves this. From the color palette relevant to the festival to the use of imagery to convey the idea, the brand gets in right in every way. 

Limited-edition products launched in the Lunar New Year theme 

You don’t even have to launch a whole new product. It can be a small variation of the existing product but following the aesthetic of the Lunar New Year. Here is an email from UGG that talks about its “blossom-embroidery” range for the Lunar New Year. 

As you can see, email marketing comes in handy to introduce the new product to be launched. If you have a story to tell behind the conception of the idea for the new product or if there are details that you do not want customers to miss, marketing emails help. 

New features for software products 

For software products celebrations like the Lunar New Year can get pretty exciting. When you have the option to push new features over the air, planning a themed campaign gets so much easier. Wondering what we are talking about? We’ll give you an example. 

Around the Lunar New Year time, WeChat introduced its new feature called Red Packet. This feature let customers send and receive money directly from the messenger application. It takes the tradition of gifting money in a red envelope to the digital space. 

In addition to giving a modern twist to the old tradition, it manages to preserve the purpose. Ideas like these work brilliantly during festivals. While there is a lot happening in such campaigns, emails can be drivers that help these campaigns gain traction. About 41% of email views happen on mobile devices. So, for a campaign like the one from WeChat that extensively relies on the use of a smartphone or smartphone app, emails can be the best promotional tool. 

KIMP Tip: While adding images and videos to your emails ensure that you prioritize mobile optimization. 36% of B2B companies report seeing a better email marketing performance with mobile-optimized email designs. This includes faster loading times, visuals that look good on the small screen, and a copy that makes an impact. 

Need help creating your emails for a busy time like the Lunar New Year? Get in touch with the KIMP team. 

Design tips to get your Lunar New Year aesthetic right 

As you can see from the examples above, most brands stick with campaign ideas that are standard for most holiday seasons. New product launches, packaging design changes, social media contests, events at stores, and so on. But what really matters is how you make these campaigns and the promotional graphics for these campaigns appear relevant to the theme. 

So, your marketing emails for Lunar New Year should look festive and they should incorporate aesthetic details that capture the fun and festivities of the occasion. We’ll give you a few ideas to do that. 

Take cues from the Zodiac animal of the year 

One of the easiest symbols to incorporate will be that year’s Zodiac animal sign. Since 2024 is the Year of the Dragon, dragon-themed elements in your emails will help people recognize the idea instantly. Like the below email from LEGO.

Another example is the email from Kate Spade when it introduced a dog-themed collection in 2018 (Year of the Dog). 

Emails are more targeted and can be directed only to your customers in a particular geographic location. But that’s not the case with social media posts.

Vibrant red to set the mood 

Red in the Chinese color is seen as a symbol of luck. Naturally, it makes a good choice for a celebration that is believed to bring good luck and fortune. Another reason behind the association between red and the Lunar New Year is the legend linked to the Chinese New Year. In Chinese mythology, Nian is a mystical creature known to devour livestock and human beings, especially on New Year’s Eve. Legend has it that Nian is scared of the color red. So, people started incorporating red in their decorations. 

There is also the famous exchange of red money envelopes. Symbolizing all these practices you can use red as the main color in your Lunar New Year emails. This is one of the easiest ways to set the theme. The below email from Armani beauty beautifully incorporates a festive color scheme.

Flowers, fireworks, and other symbols 

Nian was also believed to be afraid of loud noises. This is cited to be the probable reason behind the practice of lighting fireworks during the Lunar New Year celebrations. So, if you are looking for other symbols to add to the Lunar New Year theme in your emails, fireworks are brilliant options too. 

Flowers are the next best thing. Because most Chinese celebrations are accompanied by flowers like Narcissus as these are known to bring good luck and prosperity. 

In the below email, Clinique shows how you can incorporate something as simple as floral accents to bring on the Lunar New Year vibes. 

Create Festive Lunar New Year Email Designs With KIMP 

With all these new ideas for campaigns and the Lunar New Year aesthetic, are you ready to dress up your emails for the festive season? Then hurry up and click here to sign up for a KIMP subscription. Because we know that a whole lot of new design requirements pop up, especially around the holiday season. You would want a solid plan of action to tackle them all and engage your customers when you have a chance. An unlimited design subscription that gives you unlimited designs is just what you need. 

Not too sure how this works? We even have a free trial option. Register here.