Campaign visuals for the Lunar New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival: where to start

The Tet holiday and Mid-Autumn Festival are the most important sales windows of the year for the beverage and food industry, but they are also when the entire market pours advertising money into a short time frame. In that environment, offering deeper discounts than competitors is not a sustainable advantage. What helps accumulate the budget and ensures consumers remember the right brand is distinctive assets: visual elements, colors, and motifs closely associated with the brand and occasion that are instantly recognizable.

Tet and Mid-Autumn Festival: two occasions, two challenges

The most common mistake is combining two seasons into a single visual frame just because both are "traditional." In reality, the purchasing purpose and target audience are distinctly different.

Two occasions require two separate key visuals (main images). However, the visual language, color palette, and brand motifs should remain consistent so that viewers recognize the same brand even on two different occasions.

Creating the key visual: contextual, not just beautiful.

A seasonal key visual is valuable not because it is beautiful, but because it connects the brand to the exact moment when the buyer is thinking about it. Ehrenberg-Bass refers to this as linking to purchase activation points (category entry points): when, with whom, and for what purpose people buy during the season. The more moments you can connect to and the stronger the connection, the more memorable the brand will be when the purchase decision occurs.

Sinh Vũ creates the foundational key visual in three layers:

• Occasion layer: images that evoke the atmosphere of Tet or Mid-Autumn Festival, not just generic red and yellow but specific scenarios like family reunions, altars, lanterns, offerings, and gift wrapping.
• Product layer: products appear naturally in scenes, not isolated like catalog images, allowing viewers to associate the product with the occasion rather than just seeing a beautiful object.
• Brand layer: colors, typography, distinctive motifs of the brand must be prominently present so that when cut out for use on each channel, viewers still recognize them.

Distinctive identity assets need to be high on both axes: well-known enough for many to recognize, and exclusive enough to avoid confusion with other brands.

Jenni Romaniuk, Building Distinctive Brand Assets (Ehrenberg-Bass)

Duplicate key visual: one source, many touchpoints

The value of the original key visual lies in its ability to replicate consistently. During peak seasons, beverage and food brands often need to cover multiple channels simultaneously: KOLs (social media influencers), POSM (point-of-sale materials, such as displays, standees, posters), short commercials, e-commerce platforms, and limited edition gift boxes. If each channel creates its own visuals, viewers see many disjointed images, and the budget does not accumulate.

Sinh Vũ creates adaptation guidelines from the original key visual: clearly specifying which colors can be used, which motifs must be retained, logo proportions, and how to handle product images across different formats. KOLs, print agencies, and internal teams use the same guidelines to execute, ensuring a cohesive brand.

Common mistakes during the season

• Starting late: Jumping in during peak times when all brands are advertising increases costs and reduces visibility. Printing limited edition packaging and POSM needs to be scheduled weeks in advance.
• Changing style completely each season: A new direction each year means discarding the identity assets built from the previous season. Consumers need to see familiar elements to connect with the brand.
• Each channel creates its own visuals: KOLs design their own, sales points print their own, advertisements have a unique style. The result is a non-cumulative budget, and viewers do not recognize the same brand.
• Only showcase beautiful products, without context: product images are beautifully shot but not placed in specific buying and usage scenarios, leaving viewers with no reason to associate the brand with that occasion.

Sinh Vũ's viewpoint

Sinh Vũ provides creative direction for the Lunar New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival: creating original key visuals, developing adaptable guidelines, and supporting execution across touchpoints. Sinh Vũ does not handle media booking and does not commit to campaign metrics as effectiveness depends on budget, channels, and the quality of execution by each team. The value Sinh Vũ brings lies in the consistency of the imagery and the timely preparation for packaging and POSM.

The principle of budget allocation referenced from Binet and Field (IPA) shows that peak seasons are allowed to lean towards sales activation more, but still need brand foundations to avoid merely competing on discounts. A brand without a foundational identity must rebuild each season, which is more costly and less effective.