Mid-autumn Festival is here again. Last year we had a combined holiday with the National Day, which took Mid-autumn out of the spotlight to make space for the travel boom. For 2024, we have a gap between the two holidays for more attention on both, the catch being 5 weeks of compensatory workday adjustments.
Mooncake gifting has been a great marketing and promotional tool, for brands, food-related or not, or various causes like the “mental health mooncakes” from the Shanghai Mental Health Centre (SMHC) in 2021 and 2023, raising awareness of mental health issues. How are brands leveraging the traditional moon appreciation holiday with the special delicacy for their marketing this year?
Blue moon
After reigning over fashion and the tea and coffee market, collaborations have also entered the mooncake market
After reigning over fashion and the tea and coffee market, collaborations have also entered the mooncake market. The biggest moon cake collab this year is no doubt the Daoxiangcun x Black Myth: Wukong team-up. The co-branded gift box includes 6 mooncakes with different flavours, moulded to represent 5 characters from the game and the real star of the IP, the resident cat at the Game Science office. With a discount from Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese sister app the 6-cake box will cost 99 RMB (13.97 USD).
Another interesting collaboration is the Wufangzhai x Manchester City Football Club collab which takes inspiration from the club’s fan anthem “Blue Moon” to combine mooncake and football. The cakes themselves also have squad numbers of iconic players and Man City’s symbolism such as the Rose of Lancaster and the Manchester bee on them. Although the release was to commemorate the club’s championship title win of the 2023-24 Premier League, the gift box was released on 29 August, two days before tickets for the Oasis reunion tour went on sale (both Gallagher brothers are lifelong supporters of the club).
Honourable mentions should include the Kuaishou collab with Liaoning Fine Arts Publishing House which just reissued its classic lianhuanhua comic books of Journey to the West. The co-branded gift box is centred around the Monkey King. This might help Kuaishou harness some of the resurgent interest towards the character brought about by Black Myth.
Bad moon on the rise?
However, all is not well with the mooncake market. The market was worth roughly 20 billion RMB (2.81 billion USD) in 2019. In 2021 and 2022 it did not reach the same number due to the pandemic. However, 2023 surpassed pre-COVID levels and reached 22 billion RMB (3.10 billion USD). This year the forecast is roughly at 2019’s level at 20 billion RMB, a slight drop from last year. Many mooncake makers and retailers are feeling the pressure in sales.
Earlier this year, Zongzi for the Dragon Boat Festival faced difficulties with a 15% to 30% drop from last year. To combat the headwinds, many brands started preorders of mooncakes as early as mid to late June, just after the Dragon Boat Festival. On the other hand, brands also started discounts later, from about a week before Mid-Autumn to 2-3 weeks prior. Of course, cheaper options, price reductions and group discounts are also prevalent this year. Some brands like Jinjiu are exploring lower prices with an optimised supply chain.
Fly me to the moon
Of course, it’s not all doom and gloom. There are ones that have done well, such as the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) – filled mooncakes from brands such as TCM pharmacy Tong Ren Tang which sell up to 50 boxes per day at its Beijing concept store. One gift box with 9 cakes and 6 flavours will set you back 318 RMB (44.86 USD).
Hospitals also released their versions of TCM mooncakes. Selling like hot cakes, the Nantong Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine’s version of 48 RMB/box (6.77 USD) and 58RMB/box (8.18 USD) mooncakes could not keep up with demand with its 120 boxes a day production rate.
Or you can forgo mooncakes entirely. Chinese fragrance brand To Summer launched a bunny-shaped candle (referencing the mythological moon rabbit), as well as several other fragrance gift boxes, focusing on osmanthus, begonia and grapes, all seasonal scents for autumn. Osmanthus is also associated with the moon in mythology.
For brands to leverage traditional festival marketing, messaging is important as well
However, gifting in general is under pressure. For brands to leverage traditional festival marketing, messaging is important as well. The TCM mooncakes and To Summer fragrances both incorporate traditional Chinese culture, while Wufangzhai goes the creative route. Creativity and novelty can also be helpful sometimes, for example, the truffle and latiao-flavoured mooncakes from Spicy Prince are surely going to turn some heads.
