The food delivery service Ele.me held a spring concert in Beijing this month to celebrate Qingming Festival (Tomb-sweeping day) and boost morale among workers.
The Spring Green Concert was held on April 3 at Omni Space near the Temple of Heaven and featured performances from three acts – singer Fan Qing and rock bands Screaming Kong and Powder Power. In line with the Qingming Festival/Spring theme, the event was named “qingtuan concert” in Chinese, after the sweet green dumplings that are traditionally eaten at this time of year. This naming taps into the recent surge in enthusiasm for the seasonal snack, which Hey Tea also leveraged for an exclusive beverage.
A promotional poster for the concert nicknamed it a “therapeutic party” and invited attendees to “sit down, lie down, eat qingtuan whilst listening to music”. The relaxed spirit of the event was underscored by flexible price options – women, students, elderly, and workers working overtime had free admission and rich people could pay a price of their own choosing. Even so-called “qingtuan enthusiasts” were granted free entry by showing proof of having purchased the snack on Ele.me.
Continuing the theme of boosting workers’ morale, Ele.me created a stack of mock “Request for Leave” letters that workers could sign and pick up at the event. The fake application read, “Given that the Qingming holiday is only one day by law, as well as the fact that my overtime has been particularly burdensome recently, I would like to kindly request that this evening I be given no overtime”. This sentiment resonates strongly with the hordes of Chinese urbanites working at the brutal 996 pace.
The Spring Green Concert comes under the banner of Ele.me’s “Seasonal Official”, an ongoing campaign in which a brand ambassador is appointed to help promote discounts on seasonal snacks and dishes. The campaign has proved popular, with the Weibo hashtag racking up 2 billion views so far.
