Lunar New Year sparks one of the biggest annual movements across APAC and beyond. Millions of people travel to reunite with family, explore new destinations, shop for the season and celebrate with loved ones. It’s a moment shaped by real-world movement, and a powerful opportunity for brands to connect with high-intent audiences at scale.
With Vistar Media’s global DSP, marketers can activate programmatic digital out-of-home (DOOH) across 35+ countries, reaching travellers in airports, shopping precincts, lifestyle hubs and city centres throughout the entire holiday season. Programmatic DOOH gives brands the precision, flexibility and cultural relevance needed to show up at the moments that matter most.
A high-impact moment shaped by movement
During Lunar New Year, travel and retail activity spike. From trip planning and family visits to dining out, gift shopping and destination-hopping, people are constantly on the move — filling airports, transit hubs, malls and key city locations. With programmatic DOOH, brands can meet these audiences throughout the journey, not just at a single peak point.
Creative tactics that bring cultural and contextual relevance to life
In DOOH, context can make or break the impact of your message. Aligning creative to the time, place and mindset of your audience turns a standard impression into a relevant moment that actually lands.
- Time and date triggers: Use countdowns to Lunar New Year or rotating well-wishes in multiple languages to keep messaging fresh and culturally aligned.
- Weather triggers: Shift creative based on local conditions, such as “Perfect day for a celebration” or “Stay cool this Lunar New Year.”
- Location-based targeting: Tailor messaging to airport arrivals and departures, nearby retail, cultural events or dining precincts to match audience behaviour in real time.
These tactics help campaigns stay relevant as audiences move across environments throughout the season.
Plan your brand presence across the full Lunar New Year journey
People are planning trips weeks in advance, moving through airports and transit hubs, staying in hotels, exploring shopping districts and visiting residential areas throughout the entire season. This extended movement creates a broader window for brands to connect with high-value audiences, rather than relying solely on the days surrounding Lunar New Year itself.
Lunar New Year is a multi-stage consumer journey that plays out over several months.
- Pre-holiday (Dec-Jan): Inspire gifting, travel and planning by activating across airports, luxury malls and transit hubs as people organise trips and purchase gifts.
- Holiday peak (February): Drive brand presence across city centres, celebration hotspots and dining precincts while people are out and about enjoying the holiday.
- Post-holiday (March): Reconnect with high-value audiences reached during the campaign, driving loyalty and repeat engagement once people return to everyday routines.
Planning your presence across this full journey ensures your brand stays relevant from early inspiration through to post-holiday follow-up.
Contextual programmatic DOOH in action: ByteSIM
ByteSIM’s activation at Changi Airport shows how powerful context can be. The brand leveraged programmatic DOOH to target travellers heading to Japan and South Korea right as they were planning connectivity for their trip. Using JCDecaux screens activated via Vistar’s global DSP, ByteSIM served tailored creative with a QR-driven CTA, generating a 5X higher scan-through rate.
Show up with cultural relevance and precision this Lunar New Year
Lunar New Year is fundamentally about connection. With programmatic DOOH, brands can connect with travellers, shoppers and celebratory audiences wherever they go, using creatives that adapt to the moment, environment and cultural mindset.
If your team is planning Lunar New Year activity across APAC, Vistar can support with strategy, audience targeting and dynamic creative execution to help you reach audiences in motion and make the most of this key seasonal moment. Let’s get started!
