The Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, with its moon-viewing, lantern-making and dragon boat racing, is rich in cultural symbolism and offers luxury brands an opportunity to maintain their cultural relevance in the market.
This year’s Mid-Autumn Festival, considered the second most important festival in China after the Lunar New Year, runs from Sunday to Tuesday.
Despite expectations of a boom in tourism and spending over the three-day national holiday, the Chinese market slowdown looms large, with brands starting to adopt targeted efforts in lieu of big-budget marketing events to boost brand awareness.
“Occasions such as the Mid-Autumn Festival and traditional Victorian gift-giving are increasingly aligned with the strategic priorities of these brands,” said Jack Roizen, managing director of consulting at DLG, adding that the ultimate goal is to increase shopper spending in mainland China.
“It also provides a unique opportunity to differentiate yourself from competitors through compelling creativity and relevance in the eyes of this important customer group,” Roizen added.
Given the growing importance of key opinion leaders in China, who largely overlap with VIP consumers, non-sale gift sets reserved for a select list of customers can also help create a sense of exclusivity and drive organic conversations online, especially on the popular social commerce platform Xiaohongshu.
This year, intangible cultural heritage has become a common source of inspiration for leading luxury brands.
Louis Vuitton has put together a playful interpretation of the paper-cutting art of Shaanxi province: “The ancient ‘jingqi mopeds’ from northern Shaanxi province symbolize the strength of this tradition, while Xun Yu’s folk tale-inspired colored paper cuttings exude rustic charm and convey festive blessings,” Louis Vuitton said in a press release.
For the past three years, the luxury brand under the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton umbrella has been conveying its affinity with traditional Chinese culture through its Mid-Autumn Festival gift boxes.
In 2022, the giant brand has stopped sending mooncakes and instead delivered rubbing kits. Invented over 1,000 years ago, the rubbing technique was used to copy ancient inscriptions and works of art. The kits also included three curated rubbing prints titled “Wealth and Beauty,” “Children Playing in an Autumn Garden,” and “Glory, Glitter, and Fortune,” signifying much-needed good fortune and optimism in a market still reeling from the COVID-19 aftermath.
In 2023, Louis Vuitton’s Cultural Wonders wooden box included a calligraphy set and a curated collection of Chinese and global lunar poems.
As a keen explorer of China’s regional traditions, Loewe gifted VIP shoppers with gift baskets made with the traditional bamboo weaving technique, an intangible cultural heritage. The gift baskets contained four flavors of mooncakes, including creamy egg yolk, black truffle pork, pandan lotus and red bean, as well as a top, a traditional Chinese toy used to ward off evil spirits and pray for blessings.
“When it spins, it looks like a full moon rising, symbolizing longevity and happiness,” the brand noted.
Blending old and new, Dior’s lanterns feature the brand’s distinctive “Miss Dior” logo and introduce two new mooncake flavours: crab roe and Iberian ham.
Taking inspiration from blue and white porcelain, one of China’s four great porcelain styles, Moynat worked with skilled artisans in Jingdezhen, China’s ceramic capital, to create a triangular gift set that recalls the Parisian trunk maker’s original logo, with a hand-painted rabbit figurine on the lid – the festival’s mascot.
“Over more than two months of meticulous work, the piece is shaped, polished, painted and fired, with each step breathing life and character into the piece,” Mowanat said.
Inspired by the idea of a Chinese cupboard, Fendi designed a yellow lacquered wooden box with black F-shaped legs. Four handkerchiefs embroidered with the iconic FF logo pay tribute to Fendi’s Selleria stitching technique. The gift box contains four Momoyama mooncakes filled with fragrant Osmanthus, velvet coconut, pine nuts with jujube and black rice paste.
At Miu Miu, VIP shoppers were gifted wooden lanterns in “Miu Miu Blue,” which represented “the mystery and charm of traditional entertainment,” the holiday ritual of hanging colorful lanterns outdoors. “The lantern casts beautiful shadows around it and you can customize the sides to create your own magical moonlit night,” Miu Miu wrote in the gift message.
Chanel paid tribute to Gabrielle Chanel’s love of books and reading by giving guests magnifying glasses and paperweights made in its Goossens workshop.
Lemaire has also been nodding to the full moon, introducing its much talked about Fortune Croissant leather handbag in a dark sage colorway exclusive to China.
“Its lines perfectly outline the body and form an almost perfect circle, resembling the unity and completeness that is celebrated during this time of year,” Lemaire said in a press release.