Sydney Lunar Festival 2020

In 2020 we took Sydney Lunar Festival to a whole new level. The festival program was the most extensive ever with more than 100 exciting events and experiences over 15 days.

The 2020 festival faced significant, unforeseen challenges including the aftermath of devastating bushfires, severe weather warnings and the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak. Despite this, the festival succeeded in engaging broader cultural audiences and bringing Sydney’s diverse cultural communities together.

Timeline: July – December 2019 (planning) & January – February 2020 (event)
Project team: The marketing team worked collaboratively with the City’s major events, web, media and social media teams. Together, these teams along with Creative Services and with support from Destination NSW, presented a far-reaching and highly engaging marketing campaign which gave maximum exposure for Sydney Lunar Festival.

Our objectives

We were tasked with positioning Sydney Lunar Festival as the biggest and most exciting Lunar New Year celebration outside of Asia. The event reflects Sydney as a uniquely inclusive and innovative global city and showcases its cultural diversity and vibrant local communities.

Generate greater awareness and build participation in festival events
Attract broader cultural audiences and a younger demographic
Drive traffic to the Sydney Lunar Festival website

Generate greater awareness and build participation in festival events
Attract broader cultural audiences and a younger demographic
Drive traffic to the Sydney Lunar Festival website

Who we targeted

City of Sydney residents and workers
Greater Sydney metro area residents (with a focus on families, regular cultural event/festival goers)
Sydney's cultural communities who celebrate Lunar New Year
Visitors - international and domestic
Shoppers (who capitalise on the season through the purchase of new items at the start of the festival)
Local businesses who can leverage from the increased footfall
Media
Stakeholders including charity partners, tourism agencies and government bodies

Our approach

Our marketing and communications strategy was built around a traditional media mix of press and radio advertising across local, metro and key ethnic media. Eye-catching creative designs were used in out of home advertising (CityLights, street banners, bus timetables). And for the first time this was extended to the Green Square community using train station display opportunities.

This was supported by extensive media engagement – securing feature editorials and live cross television spots - along with digital activity across Facebook advertising and display ads. We invested in a Chinese digital media campaign and created a Chinese language landing page on What’s On. This approach effectively doubled our digital audience reach.

Two social media videos were created to build excitement around the broader festival experience, creating sharable and engaging content. An audio tour along the Lunar Lantern Culture Walk hosted on the City’s Culture Walks app extended the opportunities for festival engagement.