With the Year of the Horse approaching, brands both domestic and foreign are gearing up with campaigns. There is heaps going on, so instead of plugging a news item on each we’ve rounded up highlights of the best marketing work foreign brands are doing for the 2026 lunar new year
Voices from sports are coming through strong, as is the luxury market. A fourth instalment from Marshall’s CNY push also ties a neat rhythm to the Chinese new year. We suspect there’ll be part two of this to come in a few weeks, but for now, here’s what’s popping off.
Foreign brands in the 2026 lunar new year
Nike: ‘Unbridled’ energy, performance-first symbolism
Nike’s (耐克)Year of the Horse campaign frames the zodiac as a mindset: breaking limits, not just buying gifts. The Unbridled collection blends horse imagery with sports like running, basketball and street dance, layering Eastern motifs onto familiar Nike tech.
Nike has long anchored its message in the struggles and breakthroughs of athlete stories, and here it does the same. The idea being to drive home a motivational message with a CNY look.
RIMOWA: Peking opera meets modern travel poetry
Luxury travel and suitcase brand, RIMOWA, leans into a different cultural tack by pairing brand friend Greg Hsu (许光汉)with Peking opera artist Geng Qiaoyu (耿巧云) to revive tangma (趟马) – a stylised galloping horse stage technique.
The result is a campaign about movement, imagination and the romance of travel. For a product offering, they’re swimming against the traditional current. Instead of releasing a red colourway, they’ve opted to go for a soft-mist blue, sticking to their guns when it comes to sophistication.
On: local language built around the small moments
On’s (昂跑) CNY story is particularly sharp because it starts from a behavioural insight: young consumers don’t necessarily want grand narratives – they want control over their own pace. Their campaign – titled New Year, Your Own Rhythm (新年，自有节奏)– reframes the holiday as a time to choose your own personal tempo.
It then cleverly plays on the Chinese phrase ‘马上’ (lit. right away/on horseback) to paint a picture of the brand in CNY clothes: the return home, looking up at fireworks mid-run, hiking with parents. Its product design follows that restraint, using earth tones and subtle motion cues rather than loud zodiac graphics.
Lancôme: borrowed cultural capital
Lancôme’s (兰蔻) collaboration with Xu Beihong Art Foundation (徐悲鸿艺术基金) is a classic luxury move: translate national cultural assets into gift giving desirability. Referencing the famed modern Chinese painting Flying Horse (天马), they create symbolic legitimacy while keeping the product centre stage.
Packaging is key here: a keepsake element is added to the traditional box through cut outs, embossing and trims of gold.
Marshall: Local creator collaboration as a long-term ritual
Marshall’s (马歇尔) campaign works because it doesn’t pretend to be traditional. Instead, it translates the zodiac into the brand’s modern, native language: rock energy, instinct, volume.
Partnering with Chinese artist FCCK gives the visual system authenticity, and the limited products they’re offering new life as a canvas for expression. The more strategic element is continuity: they’ve been running the Chinese-artist collaboration method for four years now, positioning it as a part of the holiday ritual.
Foreign brands and the 2026 lunar new year: the takeaways
It seems this year is less about what you might call doing the zodiac and more about proving cultural knowledge. The strongest campaigns aren’t just leaning on motifs, they’re playing at emotional and cultural elements that feel true to the festival.
In other words, they’re not using the horse imagery as a creative brief. Instead, it’s a cultural framework – one that gives brands a chance to speak with consumers on a deeper level, and demonstrate cultural fluency.
