Halitube produces episodes for Halifax Shopping Centre Lunar New Year

When Halifax Shopping Centre was facing a pandemic lockdown and increased competition from online shopping, Halitube was there to help.

The Nova Scotian Asian Youtube video channel helped HSC find a new audience by celebrating a major festival in the Asian calendar.  In doing so, HSC welcomed a new community of young Asian customers through its doors.

The young Asian community celebrates the Lunar New Year by going shopping. HSC spotted an opportunity to develop a new community.

Inclusive Marketing

HSC engaged Halitube’s sister company Differo to design a campaign that would reach young Asians, many of whom came to Halifax, Nova Scotia to attend post-secondary education. 

With this project, HSC was tapping into an emerging trend known as Inclusive Marketing. These campaigns partner with new audiences who have been underrepresented, ignored or stereotyped by traditional marketing campaigns. 

Inclusive marketing moves away from a one-size-fits-all approach to marketing and takes into consideration a tapestry of perspectives and experiences that come with different cultures, skin tones, age groups, sexual identities, languages, and spiritualities. 

HSC Lunar New Year Celebration featured on Halitube episode

The first HSC Lunar New Year campaign began in 2019 before the pandemic with a limited-time gift card promotion offered exclusively to the Asian market.  During the period of the promotion, a $200 spend would net the cardholder with a bonus $18.88. An $800 spend would earn the customer $98.

This promotion was accompanied by an immersive and stylized video episode shown on the Asian-targeted YouTube Channel Halitube with a loyal following of young Asians living in Nova Scotia.

 The Halitube episode featured Asian clients and influencers shopping and experimenting with fashions, makeup and other products offered by HSC vendors. The shopping centre also hosted special events including Asian calligraphy lessons which raised funds for the food bank, Feed Nova Scotia.

Halitube produced a number of video episodes over three years which were viewed by thousands of followers in the Asian community.

The Halitube episodes were then  “sliced and diced” into clips which were then leveraged on Halitube’s social media and video platforms followed by the target audience. The campaign also used behind-the-scenes footage and photography to depict the campaign.

The 2020 Lunar New Year campaign built on the success and increased participation by young Asian shoppers. Then in 2021, HSC was dealing with a pandemic and lockdown during Lunar New Year. This posed challenges that were overcome with a different approach to production.

New shoppers were found, friends were made

In the bigger picture, HSC has shown that embracing the cultural sensibilities of a new group of shoppers by celebrating an important event on the Asian calendar produces a new and loyal customer base.

The campaign is now in its fourth year, and each campaign growing the number of shoppers and revenues for HSC vendors, particularly during the mid-winter festival of Lunar New Year.

 The HSC- Halitube  Lunar New Year collaboration is a testament to the power of Inclusive Marketing. It not only boosts sales and reaches the market segment, but it also demonstrates HSC's commitment to diversity and inclusion. 

Inclusive marketing is more than social justice, it’s good business

Today’s consumers want more than just products and services from their brands. They want alignment with values. This is particularly true for younger customers.

Brands that wish to cultivate loyalty need to demonstrate commitment to diversity and show that this commitment goes beyond gestures. 

Consumers demand authenticity and will “call out” a token gesture on social media, punishing a brand that isn’t putting its money where its mouth is.

Brands are responding to demands for more inclusion and a more accurate representation of the real world in their images, messages and content. 

This has changed the game for marketing.