Luckin Coffee (瑞幸咖啡) has launched a year-end collaboration with the Minions, tapping into the banana-loving IP’s global popularity to for a product and merchandising push. The co-branding went live on December 15, with three banana-themed items forming the core of the rollout: the Banana Latte, Banana Velvet Milk, and Banana Daifuku. The flavour logic is deliberately literal. Bananas are the Minions’ most recognisable obsession, and Luckin leans into that visual and narrative shorthand to make the products instantly legible on shelves and social feeds.
Packaging plays a central role. Luckin has re-skinned cups, sleeves, and takeaway bags with Minions imagery dressed in a winter aesthetic, a nod to seasonal gifting and year-end rituals. The collection includes one double-cup bag, one single-cup bag, two cup sleeves, and five themed cups, designed to maximise visibility across different formats.
Beyond drinks, the campaign extends into an unusually broad line-up of extras. Consumers who purchase selected bundles can receive Minions-themed stickers, a rotating phone stand, a party horn, banana mini cup charms, plush sound-effect keychains, and a branded carry cup.
Several items are explicitly positioned as comic relief tools: the party horn offers instant laughs, while the plush keychains feature hidden character voice clips activated by squeezing.
The Luckin Coffee Minions collaboration reflects Luckin’s continued fluency in emotion-led IP marketing. Rather than relying on discounts or novelty alone, the brand frames the Minions as a year-end decompression mechanism, pairing playful visuals with tactile, collectable merchandise. In doing so, Luckin broadens the appeal beyond core coffee drinkers, using recognisable IP and sensory cues to turn routine purchases into small moments of levity – a strategy increasingly central to China’s crowded beverage market.
