Key Takeaways:
- Tmall, among other platforms, has launched its first shopping festival of the year, the “CNY Hamper Festival”.
- From a short film that encourages upgrading older family members’ homes to an offline “temple fair” with hot brands and IPs, Tmall makes younger consumers the “hosts “ of New Year shopping.
- It transforms the New Year goods from conventional gifting to something with more “emotional value”.
With the Chinese New Year of the Snake just around the corner, the first big e-commerce shopping festival is also going at full throttle. Coincidentally, most e-commerce platforms adopted the “年货节” (CNY Hamper Festival), including Tmall, who has been consistently campaigning for the sales event since the end of 2024.
Tmall’s approach to CNY is mainly to provide “emotional value”
Ever savvy about the zeitgeist, Tmall’s approach to CNY hampers, gifting and New Year shopping is mainly to provide “emotional value” to younger generations, who are not only the most active users on its platform but some of the most active consumers in general. This is also the reason why Tmall branded the younger generations in a family gathering the “host” (主理人) of the event.
In with the new
The campaign kicked off on 7 January with a promotional video co-created with the Xinhua News Agency. With voice-over narration from Jackson Yee, the video is titled “旧的不去，新的也来” (in with the new while keeping the old). It shows the latest appliances and lifestyles brought in by the younger generations that fit in instead of replacing the old, as well as taking care of the older members of the family.
The AI voice assistant, automatic curtains and the electric toothbrush are the updates to the home that are “just like us, bringing the home forward”. It’s part of China’s initiative to bring more electric appliances to homes, exemplified during the Double 11 shopping festival last year. The video is accompanied by a charitable initiative from Tmall where subsidised appliances are sold at 1 RMB (0.14 USD) for families with elderly members. On Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent, the topic “In with the new while keeping the old” (#旧的不去新的也来#) amassed a whopping 2.09 billion views.
To offline
Similar to Taobao’s travelling “temple fair” (庙会, miao hui) markets around China, Tmall, also from Alibaba launched a “‘喵’会” (also miao hui but replacing “庙” (temple) with “喵” (meow), a play of “天猫” (Tmall, lit. heavenly cat).
The “Meow Fair” was held in Hangzhou, the city where Alibaba’s HQ is located, between 11 and 14 January. Teaming up with 15 brands and some of the hottest IPs, Tmall effectively built a compound of pop-up locations, one for each partner. From Dyson and De’Longhi to Pingu and LEGO, the fair reinterprets CNY shopping as an occasion to buy what young consumers want, instead of what is expected for the occasion.
The fair reinterprets CNY shopping as an occasion to buy what young consumers want
Take me home
Tmall also partnered with 16 different brands including REDMI from Xiaomi and electric toothbrush maker Usmile, for a train and travel-themed series of adverts. Travelling back home in time for CNY is also a major theme in some CNY campaigns this year and in previous years, such as the Pokémon animated short film from last year. What is interesting about the Tmall campaign is that it combines the message of the platform’s optimised logistics service that provides fast deliveries, sometimes under an hour. This ad, then provides “emotional value” with its travelling and family union theme but actual value when advertising its logistics.
Tmall also combines some smaller campaigns to extend the span of interest with things like its collaboration with the film Creation of the Gods II (封神第二部) for a list of “god-tier” bestsellers of 2025. Additionally, a list of top 100 trendy fashion merchants on the platform have been highlighted to hype up the (Chinese) year-end event.
Tmall has “transformed” (爆改) the concept of conventional CNY goods, from foodstuffs, clothing, and, more recently, health supplements to electrical appliances, designer toys, and innovative food. It continues to show haphazard ways of gifting while also sticking to folk customs of the older generations, which can be transformed into something fun, helping consumers become more emotionally invested.
It goes beyond what to put in your hamper and is about how to celebrate the Chinese New Year, the most important festival in the traditional Chinese calendar.
