The Mid-Autumn Festival (also called Autumn Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival) is a special time to come together and celebrate with friends and family alike. In fact – it is the second most popular holiday after Lunar New Year in China! The Festival falls on the 17th of September this year and over a billion people will celebrate worldwide. Though the two largest groups that celebrate within Australia are the Chinese and Vietnamese communities, others such as the Malaysian, Singaporean, Japanese and Korean communities also partake in variations of festivities.
With so many Asians in Australia celebrating, your brand has a unique opportunity to tap into the customs and values of your Asian audiences, engaging with them in a deeply personal and effective way. From family reunions to lions and mooncakes – let’s look at the exciting ways the Autumn Moon Festival is celebrated!
Significance and Origin of the Festival
The festival has been celebrated for over 2000 years and is believed to have started in China as a way to thank the gods and worship the moon following a successful autumn harvest season. The worship of the moon translates to various key aspects of Chinese culture. In Chinese literature, a full moon is often symbolic of family reunions. The mooncake eaten throughout the festival carries similar connotations.
Families frequently decorate their homes using lanterns and organise moon viewing gatherings (called shangyue in Mandarin). Dances, including the famous Lion Dance, aim to ward off evil spirits and draw in good luck. These traditions add to the strong appeal surrounding the festival.
(Lion Dance at a Moon Festival Celebration in Sydney. Copyright to Darling Harbour.)
Other countries share similar origin stories for their version of the festival. Koreans call their version of the festival Chuseok (‘추석’). Many young Koreans travel to their hometown to pay respects to their ancestors and spend time with family. In Vietnam, the festival is called Tet Trung Thu and revolves more closely around also celebrating children, whilst in Japan it is called Tsukimi (‘月見’) and a special dessert called Tsukimi Dango (rice balls) is more commonly eaten than mooncakes.
The Way to a Community’s Heart is Through the Stomach
A simple and effective way for brands to approach the festival is with corporate gifting of mooncakes. Modern and traditional iterations of these desserts are always well received by Asian stakeholders and win hearts and minds. For younger audiences, cute characters have had a recent surge in popularity. Starbucks and Uniqlo recently had success with Miffy branded merchandise. Below is an image in a restaurant in China called Sunya, showing patrons lining up for special Hello Kitty mooncake boxes.
(Copyright to Ti Gong, Source: SHINE)
(A Snoopy Mooncake Gift Set released by BreadTop.)
Chinese micro-influencers are another great way to engage audiences celebrating the Moon Festival. They can post on beloved Chinese social media platforms like WeChat, Little Red Book, Douyin, Bilibil or Weibo and they generally have a higher ratio of followers to engagement. Your brand can therefore benefit greatly from small investments! Luxury brands like Dior often offer VIP patrons and influencers upscale mooncake gifts to celebrate the festival. This creates a heightened sense of brand loyalty by making the patron feel like their culture is appreciated.
(A post by influencer Trish Trinh showing Dior gift, Source: Trish Trinh)
There are innumerable Autumn Moon Festivals right across the country and definitely in all our major cities. These represent a great opportunity to engage those celebrating in a memorable and impactful way.
Other Ways to Bond with Asian Audiences throughout the Festival
A creative activation at a stand is a great way to connect with festival-goers, generate leads, and create goodwill. A great example of this is the Chinese Garden of Friendship offering a Mooncake making class, allowing direct interaction with the community.
As many are travelling to visit family or will spend the festival with their families, it is also effective to centre campaigns around spending time together, travelling to see one another or sending money home (in 2022, China had $51 Billion in remittances). The inclusion of rabbits and lanterns in the China Airlines creative helps to incorporate the Autumn Moon Festival traditions of multiple countries and thus target a larger audience.
From influencers to social media, to traditional media and special promotions, there are innumerable ways to get on board the Autumn Moon marketing campaign train.
With an effort to respect key aspects of the culture and values surrounding the Autumn Moon Festival, your brand is certain to touch the hearts of those celebrating – including 2.1 million Chinese by ancestry, 350,000 Vietnamese by ancestry, 103,000 Koreans by ancestry, 78,000 Japanese by ancestry and those from other backgrounds!
To become one of the brands pioneering in Autumn Moon Festival marketing, contact MultiConnexions today.