12 Best Lunar New Year Marketing Ideas with Examples [2026]

The Lunar New Year is a significant celebration in many countries in South and East Asia, including China, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia. It’s also a major public holiday that begins on February 16 in 2026 and February 6 in 2027.

If you’re a business owner or target consumers in these markets, leaving the Lunar New Year off your calendar would be a massive loss. Its cultural significance makes it a perfect occasion to celebrate and connect with your audience.

Thankfully, there are plenty of Lunar New Year marketing ideas to choose from, for all budgets and audiences. Let’s dive in.

What Is the Lunar New Year?

Lunar New Year, also known as Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival, marks the beginning of the year according to the traditional lunisolar calendar and lasts 15 days. It’s the perfect opportunity to bid farewell to the past year and welcome the new one with wishes of good fortune.

The Lunar New Year begins with the first new moon and ends with the Lantern Festival on the next full moon. Throughout these festivities, numerous traditional activities take place, including hanging colorful lanterns, watching dragon and lion dances, and enjoying traditional delicacies such as dumplings and sticky rice balls.

Each Lunar New Year is associated with one of the 12 zodiac animals. 2026 is the Year of the Horse, which symbolizes good luck, freedom, and strength.

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Gatherings with friends and family reunions are central to the celebration. Inevitably, businesses in the entertainment, tourism, and retail industries benefit greatly from the Lunar New Year season, which boosts sales.

Lunar New Year Marketing Ideas to Connect with Your Audience

While well-established businesses often have larger budgets for Lunar New Year marketing campaigns, small businesses can still find impactful, cost-effective alternatives.

In this section, you’ll discover a variety of Lunar New Year marketing ideas that cater to diverse needs and audiences, regardless of your available resources.

1. Launch limited-time products

As with all major holidays, consumer spending and gift-giving rise during the Lunar New Year. To capitalize on this, you can give your existing products a seasonal revamp or launch new ones to attract customers. Promote with time-sensitive language, such as limited time only, to create a sense of urgency and boost sales.

For example, if you have an e-commerce store for scented candles, you could design an elegant red-and-gold candle, two colors central to the holiday, with a fresh scent. To gain more traction, name it after the zodiac animal of the year and decorate it with a beautifully designed label.

Limited-time bundles with complementary products are also popular, offering a richer customer experience. Here’s a perfect example from the online store Moon + Heart, which celebrated the Year of the Dragon with a special bundle:

Determine the types of products or services your target audience would appreciate. Just be sure to launch your campaign at least three weeks before the Lunar New Year celebrations. This gives potential customers more time to make up their minds, especially if shipping is involved.

2. Offer seasonal discounts and offers

To capture the themes of abundance and good fortune during the Lunar New Year, you can engage your audience with compelling discounts and offers. This strategy works well for both seasonal products and sitewide sales.

For example, consider launching a limited-time discount, a flash sale, or a BOGO (Buy One, Get One) offer. If you’re on a tight budget, you can still boost loyalty and retention with alternatives like free shipping or VIP-exclusive offers.

To maximize your campaign’s reach, promote these initiatives on the channels where your audience spends the most time. For instance, share your offers on social media platforms and create an email series to nurture subscribers with timely updates, increasing your overall campaign impact.

3. Create engaging, festive content

In addition to sharing limited-edition products and offers, you can create engaging seasonal content to celebrate the occasion. This can include tutorials, blog posts, and quick guides that connect with your audience on a cultural level.

For example, if you run a food blog or own a kitchen supply store, you could share traditional Chinese recipes. You can also create social media or TikTok posts that showcase unique New Year customs and traditions to further engage your followers.

Check out how the food blog “The Woks of Life” created a dedicated Lunar New Year culinary planning guide.

If you’re short on time or resources, you can use pre-made design templates from tools like Adobe Express and Canva to create quick yet impactful content that still aligns with your brand. For instance, you can design an infographic or craft a heartfelt Lunar New Year’s wish. You can also source relevant images from stock photo sites that portray Chinese New Year celebrations or family gatherings.

4. Send a festive email campaign

Email marketing can play a pivotal role in your Lunar New Year promotions. Whether you’re sending a limited-time offer or a heartfelt wish, craft an eye-catching email that subscribers can’t help but ignore.

Combine your brand style with Lunar New Year details by adopting the primary seasonal colors, gold and red, without losing your own identity. If you’re promoting a specific action, make sure your messaging is clear and the call-to-action button stands out.

This email from Ashley & Co. effectively combines its brand style with festive elements to grab attention:

Subject line: A Lunar New Year with Free Shipping!

Email marketing also provides powerful personalization capabilities through list segmentation. For example, you might send an exclusive discount to your VIP customers and a “Happy Lunar New Year” message to the rest of your subscribers. This maximizes engagement without hurting your bottom line.

Most email marketing services also offer pre-made assets like email templates and automation workflows. This allows you to create and schedule entire email sequences in advance, making it a crucial tool for any Lunar New Year marketing strategy.

Try Moosend’s editor

Check out additional resources:

• 26 Tested Email Marketing Best Practices That Drive Results
• 100+ New Year Email Subject Lines For 2025
• Monthly Email Planner: January Edition [2025]

5. Decorate your website or store

What about consumers who visit your online or physical store right before or during the Lunar New Year? Grab their attention and invite them in with a celebratory atmosphere that evokes holiday festivity.

Starting with your digital assets—such as your website and social media profiles—decorate them with festive colors and imagery of Lunar New Year symbols, including zodiac animals, red envelopes, and dragons.

As for your physical store, you can start small by hanging lanterns or go for a complete makeover, if your budget allows it.

6. Embrace the tradition of red envelopes

The red envelope, or hongbao, is a tradition deeply associated with Lunar New Year celebrations. In many Asian countries, giving red envelopes filled with money is a cherished tradition. You can brainstorm numerous ideas to incorporate this into your Chinese New Year marketing campaigns.

Beyond using the design in your digital assets, you can also create digital red envelopes containing discounts. Alternatively, in a physical store, you could hand out actual envelopes containing coupons to customers who have spent a certain amount, as a reward.

You can also create referral campaigns based on the red envelope tradition, offering incentives for both the customer and their referred loved ones.

7. Collaborate with influencers

Many brands, especially those targeting Gen Z and millennials, collaborate with influencers to maximize the reach of their Lunar New Year campaigns. These partnerships can take many forms.

For instance, you can ask influencers to post about your seasonal products on their social media or create a video tutorial using them to gain traction. Feel free to make an affiliate agreement if that model works for both parties. Another great idea is to invite them to your seasonal event and ask them to share related content on their social media profiles.

When planning, it’s a good practice to discuss with the influencer what content types perform best for their audience. Combine that information with your own data to make a well-informed decision. Finally, make sure that your target audiences align to raise brand awareness and maximize sales.

For example, Dior featured actress Sun Yi Han in an exceptional video to promote its 2022 Lunar New Year Capsule.

8. Host giveaways or contests

Giveaways are an excellent tactic to boost engagement during the Lunar New Year. You can choose from various formats based on your business goals.

For example, to increase your Instagram followers, ask users to follow your page and tag a friend in the comments to enter a drawing for a prize. To grow your email list, you could ask people to provide their email addresses to enter.

Whatever format you choose, make sure the prize is something your customers and prospects will genuinely find intriguing. Clearly state the benefits the winners will receive to encourage them to participate. You can also keep an eye on giveaways run by your competitors or brands you admire to get inspired.

9. Encourage user-generated content (UGC)

Another great option to boost customer engagement and grow your reach is to encourage customers, prospects, or partners to share content featuring your Lunar New Year products, services, or events. By doing so, these users become brand ambassadors and can help bring new people to your brand.

To make it easy to track, invite them to use a specific brand hashtag when posting their photos or videos. You can also combine this tactic with a giveaway or contest to increase its popularity and success.

10. Join a charity initiative

Community plays a vital role during the Lunar New Year. Many brands partner with charities and donate a portion of their seasonal earnings, showcasing their social consciousness.

Collaborate with organizations whose causes align with your values and consider sharing this initiative with your customers. You can also consider donating to organizations that specifically support Asian communities and cultures.

11. Share cultural storytelling

You won’t capture your target audience’s attention without great storytelling. Think about what your audience would like to learn about the Lunar New Year and share educational stories on your blog, in email newsletters, or on social media.

But what can you share? From recipes and the origins of seasonal traditions to the importance of family reunions, share emotional and meaningful stories to engage your audience.

This amazing email campaign from Viator educates its U.S. audience on how to celebrate the Lunar New Year properly.

Subject line: Celebrate Lunar New Year in the US

12. Host a virtual or in-person event

If you want to boost interaction with your target audience before or during the Chinese New Year, you can plan an online event or host one in a physical space. Offer an experience that they would want to be a part of. This could range from a workshop on making traditional dumplings to a seasonal marketing webinar for a wider audience.

Overall, this experience can create a sense of community and belonging, which are central to the main themes and symbols of the Lunar New Year.

Lunar New Year Marketing Examples from Top Brands

How have top brands shaped their Lunar New Year campaigns in the past? We’ve collected a few examples to inspire you.

Apple

Every year, Apple releases a new short film shot with its latest iPhone to celebrate the Lunar New Year. For 2025, they shared the film “I made a mixtape for you.” The story follows a young man who visits his parents for Chinese New Year and discovers a mixtape from the 90s. He is transported into that era, where he falls in love with a stranger and starts to believe in love again.

Apple found an incredible way to showcase its new product, demonstrating great storytelling and video quality that’s hard to ignore.

Fendi

To celebrate the Year of the Dragon, Fendi collaborated with Fragment (Frgmt) and Pokémon on a special collection. One of their initiatives featured beloved dragon Pokémon characters on classic Fendi products to attract younger audiences.

Bottega Veneta

For their 2024 Lunar New Year campaign, Bottega Veneta launched a campaign titled “The First Sunrise with You.” The brand’s campaign showcased a variety of people experiencing the first sunrise of the new year in different settings, including popular actress Shu Qi to gain more traction.

Lululemon

The popular brand Lululemon displayed its Lunar New Year collection on its website. They added high-quality images of happy models wearing the clothes and stayed true to the season’s core themes in their copy, using words like health, wellness, and bold.

Off to New Beginnings

As you prepare for the upcoming Lunar New Year celebrations, consider what you’d like to wish your customers and which campaigns will resonate with them. Find the right Lunar New Year marketing idea and create compelling content and campaigns that will accompany your audience as they walk into the new year.

Interested in creating Lunar New Year emails? Create a Moosend account and choose one of our pre-made templates to start building your campaign inside our editor. You can also request a 30-day free trial to experiment with its powerful personalization and automation features.

FAQs

Let’s explore some frequently asked questions regarding Lunar New Year marketing ideas.

1. Are markets open on the Lunar New Year?

During the Lunar New Year, markets in East Asia are either closed or operate on limited hours. For example, they are typically closed in China and Taiwan, while Hong Kong and Singapore may offer partial services.

2. What is the Chinese zodiac sign for 2026?

Lunar New Year 2026 marks the beginning of the Year of the Horse, and the zodiac sign for people born during this year is the Fire Horse. It symbolizes freedom, energy, and excitement.

3. What are the most effective Lunar New Year marketing strategies for small businesses?

Here are some top suggestions:

• Offer limited-time discounts.
• Create engaging Lunar New Year content.
• Bundle themed products and packaging.
• Focus on personalization and storytelling.