When you think of the typical Lunar New Year ad, it’s often a sensory overload. Firecracker soundscapes, slapstick set around reunion dinners, and a misty‑eyed payoff about prosperity. It’s big, loud, determinedly cheerful work built to punch through crowded airtime and say, in no uncertain terms, that the year ahead will be better, richer, luckier.
Brands are careful not to oversell optimism. In 2026, where growth feels tentative and spending decisions are more considered, that default mode suddenly feels out of sync. “In a season often defined by high energy, subtlety can cut through the noise with greater resonance,” says Kienhoe Ong, executive creative director, TBWA\Media Arts Lab Shanghai.
Instead, brands are now grounding themselves in restraint, creating moments that feel emotionally useful as big emotional swings give way to storytelling that delves into inner journeys.
The biggest brands are moving away from spectacle
Subtlety is a luxury in a festive season built on volume, and not every brand can afford it. A 2025 analysis of seasonal ad trends in China by ULP notes that brands usually increase budgets by 20–50% during peak seasons, such as Chinese New Year, as competition and CPMs surge.
The most restrained work this year largely comes from players with established platforms and clear positioning. This means subtle work makes the most sense for brands that no longer need to shout their names just to be noticed. Consumers know what they stand for, and media resonance rewards brands who can spend time on depth, not just recall.
Take Apple, for example. The tech giant's latest work by TBWA\Media Arts Lab Shanghai sustains a 12‑minute narrative as both the product proposition—the latest iPhone—and the brand are already deeply encoded in consumers’ minds. "Leading brands are acting with greater confidence and respect for the consumer, recognising that decisions are driven by shared values and trust," Ong observes.
This shift can also be observed in other major consumer categories like sportswear. In the recent Adidas spot created by TBWA\China, the apparel giant dedicates prime inventory to values that resonate with its core audience of young local athletes instead of leaning into generic festive spectacle.
The ad’s subdued narrative also leans on Adidas’ longstanding grassroots relationships. It’s a deliberate choice to centre football—a sport followed by an estimated 290 million fans in China—as a long‑term cultural bet, not just a seasonal backdrop. Otherwise, such a focused approach would be more
More pointedly, the protagonists of the campaign features youth athletes from the brand's real-world partnerships with Xu Genbao Football Base and Tsinghua University High School.
Pires Guo, planning director at TBWA\China, observes that this confidence is reshaping how stories are told. The focus is increasingly on conveying and reinforcing brand values. He explains: “We’re seeing another, more powerful trend: advertising as a documentary of real-life storytelling. It’s about capturing a real moment and amplifying its emotional truth."
Other major brands in the sportswear space are making similar bets on restraint and inner work. Nike’s recent Lunar New Year work with indie agency Water Creative leans into this shift by design. Instead of defaulting to loud narratives about prosperity in sport, the brand uses the campaign to align itself with the idea of reclaiming agency under social and family pressure. It's a positioning that speaks directly to China’s young, competitive athletes who see sport as their own way of setting the terms.
Similarly, Lululemon’s latest “Be Spring” chapter pushes even deeper into storytelling that spotlights the benefits of routine. The campaign reinforced its always‑on narrative about balance and mindful movement, instead of breaking character for festive theatrics.
Ong frames it as a mindset shift between consumers and brands alike rather than just a stylistic one. He notes: “Lunar New Year is a unique, collective pause in our fast‑paced lives. Brands that use this moment for genuine connection—honouring the quiet dignity of routine, family, and inner reflection. They aren’t being subtle just to be different. They’re choosing to resonate on a deeper, more human frequency.”
Long-term cultural equity over short-term buzz
One of the clearest shifts in this year’s work is how the strongest brands are treating the festive season not as a one-off idea but as a chapter in a long-term brand platform. Apple’s campaigns now function as a running anthology.
Different stories, tones and directors each year, but often drawing on storytelling that reflects the year's social and emotional climate among its consumers. Since 2018, the brand has released nine Chinese New Year films under the Shot on iPhone banner. This consistency is what allows Apple to invest in recurring, 12-minute, long-form films without having to spend valuable airtime re‑introducing the brand each time.
Meanwhile, Coca‑Cola’s work functions as an evolving platform with various messaging on togetherness, rather than crafting a new slogan each year. It returns to the same brand role connecting generations, but deliberately rotates who leads that connection. This year, the campaign by Ogilvy Shanghai handed the narrative to Gen Z, betting that long‑term cultural equity will come from being embedded in how consumers are modernising their traditions.
In Southeast Asia, where over 200 million people celebrate the occasion, major brands like RHB Bank are taking a similar approach. Its long‑running platform is a consistent way to show what the bank stands for—and what its customers are wrestling with—year after year. Through stories that foreground dignity, labour, and social mobility, RHB uses the season as a recurring checkpoint to restate the same core values in new, culturally specific ways, rather than reinventing its message every Lunar New Year.
For Shaun Tay, co-founder and CEO of The Shout Group, this is where consistency and adaptation need to work in tandem. “It’s about social progress. It’s about what RHB believes in,” he says. “Purpose has to be consistent. But when it comes to creativity and storytelling and making your message heard, that has to adapt and change with the times. It’s got to reflect the current sentiment of where the work lives. Otherwise, it’s tone deaf."
Created by The Shout Group, RHB’s recent film sits in this same space. The real-life story of Komuniti Tukang Jahit is not positioned as a one‑off, but as another articulation of the bank’s longstanding social initiatives. Having worked with RHB on its Lunar New Year platforms since 2017, Tay sees the campaign as part of brands awareness of what matters to its community.
Tay warns that this kind of long‑term platform only works if the brand’s behaviour and stories stay aligned. “You've got to keep it real. You've got to stay authentic to the brand. And if you don’t, that’s where the younger consumers will call you out.”
Gen Z as a cultural stabiliser
If Gen Z were once cast as the generation pushing away from tradition, this year’s work recasts them as the ones holding them together. Looking at this year's campaigns, some brands appear to concede that Gen Z isn’t drifting at the edges of culture. Instead, they’re often the ones most deeply invested in connection, identity, and belonging—and they expect the brands they let in to take those commitments seriously.
Rather than framing Gen Z as villains or saviours, Coca‑Cola’s recent campaign frames them as a bridge generation managing expectations on both sides. The work invited “New Year Ambassadors” to bring their own twists, from anime‑inspired food to online interactions, into family rituals, turning the brand into a co‑creator of new traditions rather than pushing single, top‑down message.
Similarly, Apple’s film plays a quieter variation on that theme, aligning itself with what younger audiences care about. In this case, the brand spotlighted animal welfare and chosen family as key values. This means the brand is plugging into an existing value system among its younger consumers, signalling long‑term alignment with causes the cohort is already driving.
Ong explains the intent behind the campaign: “Gen Z prioritises authenticity and meaningful connection. In the case of ‘I’m Glad I Met You,’ Gen Z see pets as their real families, and their love for animals goes far beyond their own pets. Animal welfare is a cause Gen‑Z care deeply about and actively champion. They adopt, advocate, and drive initiatives such as anti‑abuse laws and #AdoptNotBuy.”
"In a society where misconception, animal abuse, and pet abandonment remain prevalent, we want to stand with Gen‑Z in this journey to help move culture forward. Our film reflects their belief in treating all living beings with care and humanity," he adds.
Tay believes that brands can no longer talk at Gen Z with festive tropes and expect patience. He makes it clear what brands need to do to deeply understand this generation: “Experimentation is key. To get into the world of Gen Z is to ask key questions. How do we activate my story in your world? Better yet, how do we activate it together? Is it a cause that all generations would feel invested in?"
The risk, of course, is slipping into performative flattery. Ong argues that the more interesting work this year assumes Gen Z will interrogate the brand’s motives.
“They value relatable truth. The key is balancing sincerity with engagement, which is why director’s light touch on using humour to ground the story—makes the emotion feel relatable and true,” Ong says, adding: “We chose to stand with Gen Z in a cause that Apple care deeply about, spotlighting the human–animal bond and the positive role animals play in our lives through a cinematic iPhone lens.”
Jerry Ma, creative partner at Saatchi & Saatchi China, echoes Ong's point. He neatly sums up the shift across this year’s work: less theatre, more lived reality. "In a crowded market, creating experiences or content that foster genuine connection will be more effective than grand, elaborate productions. The emphasis should be on nimble, engaging touch points that speak directly to personal experiences and emotions," he explains, adding: "Younger demographics aren’t responding to heavy-handed storytelling."
When brands treat young people as “intelligent partners in a conversation, not just targets for a sale,” as Ong puts it, they create room for Gen Z to act as cultural stabilisers on their own terms, instead of pushing an outdated narrative of “saving” tradition—or being blamed for eroding it.
The return of longer, carefully crafted brand films
After a cautious 2025, when brands either sat out in producing Lunar New Year campaigns or defaulted to shorter, safer formats, 2026 sees a marked return of film. This shift signals a deliberate bet on brand building at a time when every non‑performance dollar is under scrutiny.
Totem’s 10th China marketing and media report shows this tension clearly. Over half (48%) of brands planned to cut 2025 marketing budgets, even as they expected consumer spend to edge back up through 2025 and 2026. In the follow‑up report, cost pressure is still there, but planned cuts ease slightly and brand awareness climbs back up the priority list. This opens the door on major festive seasons like Lunar New Year for more selective investment in upper‑funnel, brand storytelling rather than an all‑in shift to performance alone.
Overall ad spend in the region is rising, but with modest uplift that keeps pressure on ad budgets, even in the festive seasons. EMarketer's data report forecasts total media spend in APAC to reach roughly US$325 billion in 2026 on growth of around 6–6.5% YoY.
This year’s long‑form work sits in a clear cluster rather than as isolated bets. Apple stretches to 12 minutes, Prudential Malaysia runs at six, and RHB crosses the five‑minute mark. These show that calculated brands which invest in film during Lunar New Year are prepared to give their stories real breathing room rather than squeezing a narrative into a token 60‑ or 90‑second cut.
But even in shorter formats, brands are dialling up craft rather than backing away from it. Rimowa’s 35‑second “Enjoy the Ride” and Lululemon’s campaign both lean on strong visuals and elevated production values to feel cinematic despite their brevity.
Tay sees this as a function of both accountability and ambition: “There's now accountability from audiences—and rightfully so—that makes brands and marketers more discerning in what they put out there.”
In other words, brands that invest in big festive films need to clear a higher bar than before. A strong idea, craftsmanship that rewards repeat viewing, and a clear connection back to what the brand stands for outside the season.
For Tay, that is where the work becomes emotionally useful instead of just moving: "If you’re clear about what you stand for, you don’t have to tell the same story every time,” he says. “Your Chinese New Year work can look and feel different from your other festive work, but when you step back, the message should line up so you recognise it as the same brand—just told through different tales.”
That consistency—across festivals, formats and initiatives—turns seasonal campaigns into waypoints in a longer journey. It also reflects a broader shift in what audiences care about: proof that brands are willing to show up where it’s hard and slow, not only when it’s festive and visible.
After a year of retreat and caution, the renewed appetite for bigger, braver work is not about a sudden surge of optimism. Tay is cautious about calling this a full‑blown rebound, but he sees a shift in how clients think about festive work. Instead, brands are being “just a little bit tighter” with budgets, and far more selective about what they put out.
In this frame, restraint isn’t a retreat, it’s a filter. Brands are willing to commit to festive storytelling when it earns its place twice over—cutting through in the moment, and strengthening a platform they expect to carry the brand, and its relationships with its consumers.
"If you’re faced with a situation where you can no longer bring out your six shooters and just start firing away, but you’ve got one bullet left, then it’s got to be a good one. Brands have to be discerning," he adds.
Source: Campaign Asia-Pacific
