Lapse Productions studies holiday advertising because the constraints are instructive: a fixed date, a crowded field, and an audience that will forgive a sales pitch only if the sentiment is real. Chinese and Lunar New Year campaigns are the clearest example of that, so here are seven worth your time, what each one gets right, and how far ahead you need to start if you want to run one.
The Short Answer
- Reunion and homecoming carry the format, not gifting.
- Runtimes are long by advertising standards, often several minutes.
- The year’s zodiac animal gives every campaign a ready-made visual motif.
- The date moves each year, between late January and mid February.
- Start roughly three months out, which puts the shoot in November or December.
What Makes a Lunar New Year Ad Work?
The ads below were chosen on six things, which double as a checklist if you are briefing one of your own.
| Criteria | What we looked for |
|---|---|
| Creativity | An idea that breaks from the usual reunion montage |
| Emotional impact | A spot that is still in your head an hour later |
| Cultural relevance | Traditions and symbols handled with knowledge, not decoration |
| Storytelling | An actual narrative arc, not a sequence of festive images |
| Craft | Cinematography, sound, and music that hold up on a large screen |
| Reception | Evidence that real audiences responded, not just the industry |
Which Lunar New Year Ads Are Worth Watching?
Seven campaigns, each solving the brief a different way.
1. Huawei: Year of the Loong
Huawei builds the spot around the Fire Dragon Dance, tying the traditional symbol of prosperity to the company’s own theme of connection. The visuals carry the festival colours without tipping into pastiche.
Why it works. The product claim and the cultural symbol are the same idea: bringing people together. When the brand message and the holiday theme line up that cleanly, the ad does not feel bolted on.
2. Time Internet: Your Father’s Ad
A Malaysian reunion dinner where each family member appears as an avatar of their own interests, which lets one household stand in for a whole audience of different internet users.
Why it works. It solves the hardest problem in family-reunion advertising: showing a family without flattening everyone into the same person. The device is funny and it sells the product feature at the same time.
3. BMW: Project Jupiter
A fourteen minute mockumentary built on Ben Ming Nian, the belief that your own zodiac year brings bad luck. BMW noted that 2024 was its own zodiac year and made the superstition the plot.
Why it works. Long form only works when the story earns the runtime, and humour about a superstition is risky unless you are the target of the joke. BMW made itself the target, which is what makes it land.
4. Tune Talk: Good Deeds Bring Good Fortune
Mei is promised lasting happiness in return for her kindness, a short and direct fable for the Year of the Dragon.
Why it works. Proof that a Lunar New Year ad does not need a big budget or a long runtime. One clear moral, told simply, is enough to carry the sentiment.
5. RHB Group: Acceptance
A bank argues for individuality and self-acceptance, pushing against the expectations that family gatherings tend to concentrate.
Why it works. Lunar New Year advertising leans heavily on tradition, so a spot that gently questions it stands out. It works because the challenge is affectionate rather than dismissive.
6. PepsiCo: Finish the Unfinished
PepsiCo tackles the half-finished cans left over from festive gatherings and positions its larger communal bottles as the fix, under a slogan about a good start and a good end making things perfect.
Why it works. A practical product benefit dressed in a cultural idea about completeness. The waste angle also gives the ad a reason to exist beyond the holiday.
7. Samsung: Dragon Dragon Year
A brief greeting for the Year of the Dragon, with the repetition doing most of the work.
Why it works. Included as the counterweight. Not every brand needs a film. A short, sincere acknowledgement is better than an ambitious campaign that misreads the occasion.
When Should You Start Planning a Lunar New Year Campaign?
Work backwards from the date, which moves every year with the lunisolar calendar and lands between late January and the third week of February. Three months of lead time is a sensible minimum: concept and script in the autumn, casting and shoot in November or December, edit and approvals through early January. Anything later and you are colour grading over the holidays with no room for a second round of feedback. Our guide to early planning for holiday video campaigns covers the scheduling side in more detail.
One caution worth stating plainly. Lunar New Year is celebrated by a very large audience in the Greater Toronto Area, which makes it a real opportunity for brands here, and also makes a superficial campaign obvious. If the festival has nothing to do with your customers, skip it. If it does, involve people who celebrate it in the writing, not just the review.
Plan Your Seasonal Campaign Early
Lapse Productions produces seasonal campaign video for Toronto brands, from concept through delivery, as part of our video services. Tell us the date you are shooting for and we will build the schedule backwards from it.
Get a Free QuoteFrequently Asked Questions
When is Chinese and Lunar New Year?
The date moves each year because the festival follows the lunisolar calendar, falling between late January and the third week of February. Each year carries a zodiac animal, and 2026 was the Year of the Fire Horse. Check the date for your campaign year before setting a production schedule.
What makes Lunar New Year ads different from other holiday ads?
Reunion and homecoming carry most Lunar New Year advertising, where Western holiday ads lean on gifting. The films also run longer, often several minutes, and the year’s zodiac animal gives brands a built-in visual motif to work with.
Should a Canadian brand run a Lunar New Year campaign?
It depends on your audience. Toronto has large East Asian and Southeast Asian communities, so for many brands here the answer is yes. The risk is treating the festival as decoration. Work with people who celebrate it, and skip the campaign if you have nothing genuine to say.
How far ahead should you plan a Lunar New Year video?
Start about three months out. That puts scripting and casting in the autumn and the shoot in November or December, which leaves editing time before a late January or February launch. Working backwards from the date is the only way to avoid a rushed edit over the holidays.
About the Author
Dario Nouri is a Producer and Co-Founder of Lapse Productions, a Toronto video production company creating corporate video, photography, and drone content since 2014. He also hosts Creatives Grab Coffee, a podcast on the business of video production.