7 January 2025 was the Laba (腊八, lit. the 8th day of the La month, i.e. 12th month) Festival in the traditional Chinese calendar. On this day, German automaker BMW launched its 2025 CNY campaign, this time with the classic Chinese animated film Havoc in Heaven (1961, 1964), featuring the beloved Monkey King, Sun Wukong.
The team-up is between the car brand and Shanghai Animation Film Studio (SAFS) and was first teased on 30 December 2024. The main attraction of the campaign is a plush toy of BMW China’s mascot, the BAVA bear, dressed in the Monkey King livery. The bear is named after the anglicised name of the automotive maker, Bavarian Motor Works. The toy also comes with a Monkey King mask so you can have a full Monkey King toy. The gift box contains a Fu (福, lit. fortune) decoration, red envelopes and other CNY essentials, all with exclusive Havoc in Heaven artwork.
The online campaign started with a prize draw for the gift box, available to new followers of the BMW China accounts across platforms on 7 January. A second stage was added after the first giveaway, where followers can complete to win a “fa chun” couplet with the first line given by BMW, and 3 of the answers to be chosen for the second round of giveaways. A co-branded pop-up with SAFS will also be available for offline visits and “check-ins” (打卡) between 7 January and 4 February at the BMW store in the Universal Resort Beijing.
BAVA was introduced in 2022 and it’s not the bear’s first rodeo with a SAFS IP. Last year, BMW placed its mascot among the Calabash Brothers. The topic “BMW and the Monkey King wreak havoc this CNY” (宝马和齐天大圣新年整活儿) reached number 19 on the Hot Search list on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform with 60.31 million views. This might be due to CNY bringing traditional Chinese culture and aesthetics to the forefront of the internet and Black Myth: Wukong, a game also featuring the titular Monkey King, winning big during the awards season, as well as the popularity of SAFS IPs in the age of nostalgia marketing.
