The World Baijiu Day
falls on 9 August every year. Thanks to the fast-expanding Baijiu markets outside China and innovative communications led by Cheng International, although the day is even lesser known than Baijiu itself, it is increasingly a day of celebration for British Baijiu enthusiasts and a new opportunity of introducing Baijiu to the wider public.
After collaborating with London local mixologists to promote the day for the first time in 2019 and navigating further into the social media terrain throughout the first wave of the pandemic in 2020, Cheng International celebrated this year’s World Baijiu Day with even higher spirit. After nearly two weeks of Fenjiu tasting events and creative influencer collaborations, awareness of Fenjiu and World Baijiu Day in the UK reached a new high.
Embracing the post-pandemic world’s heavy reliance on the online communities, while staying true to the Baijiu sensation, Cheng International’s latest “experience + share” communication approach presents a practical and engaging model for future overseas Baijiu marketing practises.
During
the joyous after-work hours of Friday 6 August, British locals were gathering at the Slurp Wine Banbury shop. They were invited to experience Baijiu, a spirit category they only started to know, and they were in for a remarkable evening: an array of Fenjiu Baijiu, cocktails and chocolates awaited.
Guests to the event were greeted by the adorable Fenjiu mascot and Baijiu products display.
This marked a shift in how Cheng International hosted its coveted tasting events, expanding their guest lists from the middle-to-upper class and professional elites to more ordinary wine and spirits enthusiasts. The market was ready for more – three years of efforts had indeed brought Fenjiu to a much wider British public.
One of the absolute highlights of the evening was when Qiqi Chen, managing director of Cheng International, talked through the Fenjiu products for the guests. The rich history and product features of Qinghua Fenjiu 20YO 42%, Zhu Ye Qing Jiu 10YO 38%, Fenjiu (Fen Chiew) 10YO 53, Zhu Ye Qing Jiu (Box Packaged) 45% and newly available Fenjiu (Fen Chiew) Red provided a broad context of the Fenjiu brand and the wider Baijiu category.
These introductions allowed more space for the guests to appreciate Fenjiu, whether tasted neat, in the cocktails, or as chocolate ganache. The fresh, smooth, elegant, complex, and yet balanced flavour profiles of the products danced around the guests’ palettes and truly drew them in, regardless of how little experience they had had with Fenjiu. The unique bottle designs incorporating the folk tales and literary excellence from ancient poet Du Mu’s All Souls’ Day further enchanted everyone at the gathering.
Qiqi Chen, managing director at Cheng International, addressed the event with the cultural significance and product features of Fenjiu.
Guests tasted a variety of Fenjiu Baijiu.
For British consumers, drinking Baijiu neat can still take some getting used to. However, during the event, Cheng International managed to navigate the guests through Fenjiu’s complex flavour profiles with clever food pairings.
“It [Fenjiu] is better with the food. It definitely draws out the different flavours,” commented Mick, one of the guests of the evening.
Neil Philips, widely known in the wine and spirits community as “the Wine Tipster,” agreed, “A very interesting thing is actually about food. We had a taste of Fenjiu with chorizo, and that was interesting… You still had that spiciness from chorizo which was softened [by the drink] to some extent. And it makes a beautiful combination.”
Heidi, another guest who had purchased Fenjiu before, said that she would normally only use Fenjiu in cocktails. But this tasting event proved to be an eye opener to her in terms of drinking the spirit neat, “It’s a bit too strong for my liking. But the more you taste it, the more you pick up the different flavours. It’s acquired taste.”
A selection of cocktails with different flavour emphases – fruity, herby, flowery – and Fen Chiew Classics chocolate, created by the acclaimed British chocolatier William Curley, took the event and the experience to an even higher level, according to the guests.
Customers took a closer look at the Fenjiu bottles’ design details.
William Curley’s Fen Chiew Classic chocolate tasting.
To enhance engagement
with the British market, Cheng International extended the 2021 World Baijiu Day campaign by inviting 10 influencers and/or mixologists to collaborate on a social media creative campaign.
Drawing inspiration from its own online campaign since March 2020, Cheng International asked these opinion leaders and professionals – Harp Mann, Enrico Gonzato, Andrea Dionori, Emma-Louise Winters, Marian Beke, Neil Philips, Maurizio Parolisi, Daniele Bossi, Serge Ventrella, and Marcello Cauda – to create their own Fenjiu cocktails and share online the recipes and their tasting notes of the spirit. The reaction was phenomenal.
Some of the Fenjiu cocktails the influencers created and shared on Instagram.
Some of the participating influencers were successful bar tenders and mixologists, some simply spirit enthusiasts who had built up their reputation online, and one of them even the winner of Cheng International’s very first Fenjiu Cocktails Competition from 2019. Difference aside, they had one thing in common – they were all keen to interpret Fenjiu’s shared “Our Language” with their own understanding and passion.
Their Instagram posts, stories and reels allowed many more to get to know Baijiu for the first time; and their tasting experience became a valuable insight for the wider public to understand the beauty of Fenjiu.
Harp Mann wrote in his Instagram post, “The light gold & green spirit bursts with tropical & floral jasmine flavours on the nose, to taste it starts off sweet & honeyed, then flavours of lime, mango, guava, + spices build, vegetal on the floral finish.” Mo Li Hua Xiang, or “Scent of Jasmine,” the cocktail he created using Zhu Ye Qing Jiu 10YO 38%, gained over 500 likes. One of his followers commented, “I have never heard of Baijiu before! Thank you for sharing this.”
Similarly, under the experimental Fenjiu mix from Dorset-based blogger Emma-Louise Winters, a follower of hers was in awe, “This is new to me too! Love learning about all kinds of spirits so very intrigued by this… love the honest review!”
It proves imperative that overseas Baijiu marketing needs to fully embrace the influencer economy – not only because online culture has gained massive momentum (no thanks to the post-Covid “new norm”) for every aspect of life, but also for how it can accelerate the communication cycle. First-hand experiences and tasting are crucial for Baijiu to reach its intended consumers, but equally important is how the culture and appreciation behind the drink can find their way to the public in the first place.
When “Our Language” is integrated into the local wine and spirits market’s common rhetoric, the Baijiu category can truly shine brighter.
The 2021 World Baijiu Day marked another new attempt of Cheng International’s creative Baijiu marketing in the UK. More wonders are yet to come.
The World Baijiu Day
of 2021 has gone by, but for wine and spirits enthusiasts, the charm of Baijiu would never wear off. If anything, it only grows more tempting and precious over time.
The many tasting events and the social media influencer campaign, both tailoring to various communities, are part of Cheng International’s ongoing exploration for overseas Baijiu marketing and cultural communication.
New bonds take place, and shared spirit forms. The beauty of Fenjiu blossomed again overseas with the thousands-years-old “Our Language” and many new chapters ahead.
