If you’re one of those people who like clockwork forgets Valentine’s Day every year and is forced to spend the day panic-buying last-minute gifts, spare a thought for Chinese couples, who don’t just have one Valentine’s Day to remember, but five. There is the Western Valentine’s Day on 14 February, 520 on 5 May (sometimes called the ‘Chinese internet Valentine’s Day), and the traditional Lantern and Shangsi festivals.

Another traditional Valentine’s Day is the Qixi Festival, which falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, which this year was on 25 August.

If you haven’t heard about the Qixi Festival, well, it’s kind of a big deal. Read on to find out what it is, and why marketers should care about it.

What is the Qixi festival?

The Qixi Festival – also known as the Double Seventh Festival or Chinese Valentine’s Day – is a traditional holiday that dates back 2000 years to the Han dynasty.

The legend behind the Qixi Festival, like all great love stories, revolves around two star-crossed lovers: Zhinhu, a weaver girl and daughter of a powerful goddess, symbolised by the star Vega, and Niulang, a humble cowherd, symbolised by the star Altair.

Niulang and Zhinhu fell in love and got married, eventually giving birth to a boy and a girl. But when Zhinhu’s mother discovered her daughter had married a mere mortal, she brought her back to heaven and cast a river between heaven and earth – the Milky Way – to separate the lovers. The magpies on earth, however, felt sorry for the lovers’ plight, so once a year they fly up to the heavens and form a bridge over the Milky Way, so that the lovers may be together for a single night – the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.

Niulang and Zhinhu meeting on the bridge of magpies,as depicted in the Summer Palace of Beijing.

This romantic story perhaps holds even greater poignancy now, as many couples grapple with being unable to see each other due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Why should brands care about Qixi Festival

Outside of Chinese New Year, the Qixi Festival is one of the biggest sales-driving Chinese holidays of the year for luxury brands, even more so than Singles Day, according to Danielle Bailey, managing vice president at Gartner. And it continues to gain popularity. On Alibaba’s two major e-commerce platforms Tmall and Taobao, sales of Qixi gifts increased by almost 120 per cent compared to the previous year, in the week before the festival.

According to China Internet Watch, ahead of this year’s Qixi, home goods, outdoor and luxury products, and chocolate and candy saw sales increase by 20–30% YoY. Coveted imported items included jewellery and handbags, while mid- to high-end cosmetics also proved popular, particularly in lower-tier cities. 

This year, we could also see the coronavirus effect on sales, with sales of red wine and imported steak increasing on the eve of Qixi, according to data from JD’s Yihaodian store. This suggests more couples opted for a romantic dinner at home rather than going out to a restaurant. The number of intercity orders for flowers also rose by 30% YoY across the country.

The Qixi Festival, therefore, can be another key ecommerce festival for brands to mark in their calendars, providing a great opportunity to build brand awareness, cultivate relationships with consumers and drive conversions.

Qixi Festival marketing tips for brands

So how can brands capitalise on this important holiday? Here are a few tips for marketers wanting to create an effective Qixi Festival marketing campaign for China:

• Create limited-edition products: Chinese consumers respond strongly to exclusive and limited-edition products that have been designed specifically for Qixi. Just make sure your products are thoughtfully designed and respectful of cultural nuances, to avoid consumer backlash.
• Work with KOLs: With many brands vying for attention during this time, working with KOLs can be a good way to cut through the noise and reach consumers.
• Encourage user-generated content: As Gucci’s campaign has shown, a campaign that incentivises user-generated content, perhaps with a chance to win a prize or a small discount, can really help drive impressions and spread awareness across social media.
• Create a WeChat mini program or store: While offline activities are back on the cards in China, as the virus remains suppressed and life slowly returns to normal, many consumers are still opting to stay in and shop from home. Consider a fun interactive game that user will want to share, or a beautifully designed store illustrated with gorgeous Chinese Valentine’s Day imagery.

The Qixi Festival is a key event on the Chinese calendar, and it should be a key event on your marketing calendar too. Sinorbis can make sure you’re prepared for next year’s festival by creating and optimising your digital presence in China.