China – MINISO, a Chinese lifestyle retail brand, has collaborated with the creative agency McCann China to launch a comprehensive integrated marketing campaign titled ‘Reinvigorating China’s Intangible Cultural Heritage’ during the country’s Golden Week national holiday in October.
Said project is part of the “Chinese Cultural Innovation Global Development Plan,” a collaborative effort between MINISO and China’s official state news agency Xinhua. This represents both parties’ common goal of promoting and advancing Chinese culture, and it is in line with the celebration of the Belt and Road Initiative’s tenth anniversary.
The campaign included a variety of touchpoints, beginning with a film that highlighted the beauty and current state of China’s Intangible Cultural Heritage. It then went on to actively involve consumers through interactive offline events, allowing them to share in and enjoy the pride and enthusiasm associated with “Continuing to Write China’s Intangible Cultural Heritage.”
MINISO’s Xian flagship store was transformed into a theme store dedicated to intangible cultural heritage as part of the campaign. This fusion of traditional and contemporary elements resonated with customers, propelling the store to fame in Datang’s Sleepless City, a bustling pedestrian street known for its fusion of culture, tourism, and commerce.
Speaking about the campaign, David Zhang, group planning director of McCann Shanghai, said, “When MINISO reintroduced the three wonderful daily items they really enriched people’s lives. The campaign resonates across hundreds of years of time and space. When people put these small intangible cultural heritage items to use, you can say that our cultural heritage came alive again.”
Meanwhile, How Chu, executive creative director of McCann China, said, “Our Intangible Cultural Heritage should not be a cultural memory that will gradually fade over time. So we took a very sincere approach to tell the story in a way that made our Intangible Cultural Heritage fresh and vivid, so it could be recognised and used by people again. MINISO was the key driver of this transformation. Our Intangible Cultural Heritage will not disappear if people actually use it.”
