(Source: https://pltfrm.com.cn)
Introduction
China’s major shopping festivals (618, 11.11, Chinese New Year, 12.12) remain the highest-ROI windows for overseas brands—campaigns timed perfectly routinely deliver 10–50x sales spikes. The winners are those who start planning 4–6 months early and integrate social platforms with e-commerce seamlessly. Here are the evergreen festival campaign frameworks that work every single year.
- Chinese New Year “Homecoming” Emotional Campaigns 1.1 Family Reunion Storytelling Create heartwarming short films or user-story series about returning home and gifting overseas products to family. Launch 3 weeks before CNY across all platforms.
Emotional CNY campaigns consistently achieve 500 million–2 billion organic views.
1.2 Red Packet + Limited Gift Box Mechanics Release festival-exclusive packaging and tie purchases to digital red packet rain events on Douyin and WeChat.
This combination drives both gifting purchases and massive participation.
- 618 & 11.11 Pre-Heat + Super Live Room Campaigns 2.1 30-Day Pre-Heat Content Calendar Start daily Douyin/Xiaohongshu content 30 days early: teasers, KOL unboxings, price reveals, and voting polls.
Brands that pre-heat properly see 3–5x higher sales on the actual day.
2.2 Anchor Livestream Rooms with Celebrity Guests Book top KOLs or celebrities for 8–12 hour marathon live sessions with flash sales every 30 minutes. Promote via Spark Ads and WeChat Moments two weeks ahead.
Top overseas brand live rooms now regularly hit 100–300 million RMB in single-day sales.
- Year-Round Festival Calendar Integration 3.1 Queen’s Day (March 8), Children’s Day, Qixi Valentine Tailor campaigns to each micro-festival with themed visuals, AR filters, and targeted KOLs.
These “second-tier” festivals now account for 30–40% of annual social sales.
3.2 Post-Festival Private Domain Harvest Immediately after each festival, push buyers into WeChat groups and Mini-Programs with exclusive member content and early access.
This converts one-time festival buyers into lifetime private traffic.
Case Study: Apple’s 11.11 “Red Envelope Rain” Campaign (Nov 2025)
Apple partnered with Li Jiaqi and top Douyin KOLs for a 6-hour live room featuring real-time red envelope drops worth millions in iPhone discounts. Pre-heated with 618-style teaser videos and Xiaohongshu notes, the campaign broke Apple China’s single-day sales record by 42% and added 3.1 million new WeChat contacts.
Conclusion
Festival social media campaigns remain the fastest way for overseas brands to achieve breakout growth in China. Start planning your 2026 calendar today and lock in KOLs early to secure the best slots.
PLTFRM is an international brand consulting agency that works with companies such as Red, TikTok, Tmall, Baidu, and other well-known Chinese internet e-commerce platforms. We have been working with Chile Cherries for many years, reaching Chinese consumers in depth through different platforms and realizing that Chile Cherries’ exports in China account for 97% of the total exports in Asia. Contact us, and we will help you find the best China e-commerce platform for you. Search PLTFRM for a free consultation! info@pltfrm.cn
