As one of the largest celebrations in the world, Lunar New Year – also known as Chinese New Year and Spring Festival – is an ideal opportunity to engage audiences in our Asian markets with culturally relevant macadamia content. In addition to being a widely celebrated occasion, it is also a time when nut sales typically peak in several Asian markets, with food playing a key role in traditional celebrations as people prepare banquets at home and give food as gifts.
As part of our ongoing commitment to supporting macadamias in international markets, last month we rolled out our 2019 Lunar New Year campaigns in China, South Korea and Taiwan. Here’s a look at how we kicked off the Year of the Pig in macadamia style.
Blessings and good wishes abound
The festival is always an excellent opportunity to engage with our audiences around the theme of new year blessings and wishes.
In China, this formed the focus of our activity on our Weibo channel, where we posted a different blessing each day that aligned with Chinese customs that run throughout the festival. On New Year’s Eve, our blessing centred on the traditional reunion dinner, when we wished our fans a delicious meal with their loved ones, while the day after, when it’s customary to travel around the city visiting relatives, our messaging included new year travel tips. Every blessing was light-hearted and accompanied by a cute Lunar New Year macadamia character, and the hashtag #CNYWithMacadamias.
In South Korea, we asked our Facebook audience what their wishes were for the Year of the Pig, with hundreds of fans responding enthusiastically.
A year of good health
With Lunar New Year celebrations typically involving an abundance of food, it’s not uncommon to overindulge, so it’s a great time to educate our audience about the health benefits of macadamias and how they can help curb unwanted kilos over the new year period.
Health messaging was central to our activity on WeChat in China this year, with an article entitled ‘How to avoid the curse of Lunar New Year weight gain’ introducing our audience to the nutritional benefits of macadamias and what they can bring to a Lunar New Year reunion dinner.
We paired this with a fun competition that invited fans to share the article with their friends and leave a comment with their new year blessing or wish. A macadamia gift hamper was awarded to the fan whose comment received the most likes.
Fans shared their wishes wholeheartedly, with some, such as “I hope my children grow up healthily and my partner and parents stay healthy”, and “My desire for 2019 is to get away from being single and find a boyfriend” receiving several hundred likes.
Tarts, leftovers and riddles in Taiwan
Our Taiwanese team always creates engaging celebratory content, and this year was no exception, with a three-phase Lunar New Year campaign achieving great results.
Executed via the Australian Macadamias Taiwanese Facebook page, the activity ran from mid-January until late February, with the hashtag #EatingMacadamiasHavingaGoodYear uniting all the elements of the campaign.
The first phase focused on the cultural tradition in Taiwan of enjoying sweets for Lunar New Year, as a way of wishing for a ‘sweet’ new year. To leverage this, we collaborated with Miss Cookie Taiwan, a Taiwanese bakery, that made limited edition new year macadamia tarts which we gifted as prizes in a Facebook competition. Fans were invited to tag two friends and share our post for a chance to win, with the activity further amplified via Miss Cookie Taiwan’s social media channels.
The next phase of activity was a clever twist on how macadamias can enhance new year meal preparation. Instead of focusing on how to incorporate them into the reunion dinner on the first day of the Lunar New Year, our Taiwanese fans were encouraged to make use of macadamias the day after new year to enhance leftovers. For example, a delicious and unique fried rice can be created in minutes by combining leftover minced meat and rice with macadamias. The activity was so successful that some fans even shared their own creative leftover recipes with macadamias, proving just how engaged this community is.
Our campaign in Taiwan concluded with some macadamia-themed fun to coincide with the Lantern Festival that marks the conclusion of the festivities. Sharing jokes and riddles is a cultural tradition during this time, so we joined in the fun with a macadamia riddle on Facebook. Fans who answered correctly and shared the post had the chance to win a macadamia prize.
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From everyone at Australian Macadamias, we wish you all the best for the new lunar year – may the Year of the Pig bring you good health and happiness!
