In recent years, the traditional celebrations of Chinese New Year have become stale to younger generations, who are losing their interest to modern technologies and see traditions as old fashioned, becoming increasingly distant to their cultural roots.

Tapping into this insight, we wanted to create meaningful contextual work that will have strong resonance, and build brand love and connection with the Chinese audience. Apple can empower people to revive the diluted CNY spirit by inspiring them to reimagine the traditional craft of New Year paintings, and embrace the old through the new, through the lens of technology.

Through 5 Chinese artists using Apple products, we reimagined traditional folk paintings, and we projected the artwork onto billboards, street level posters and in-store posters in 17 major cities in China, generating 473 million impressions, creating festive cheer throughout streets of China.

Media budget: USD 8.2 million

Production budget: USD 1.8 million

A bunch of friends setting off holographic fireworks.

With five Chinese artists, we recreated five classical New Year paintings and their greetings. The different folk styles of paintings – woodblock printing, distinct red, and typical mascots – were reimagined as digital illustrations with vivid colors and modernized mascots. For the greetings, we used modernized typography to replace the old-fashioned calligraphic style for an organic fit, all made on Apple devices. These paintings were spontaneously displayed in 6,682 non-Apple-Store including technology and life-style stores.