THE CHALLENGE
Kiehl's, our long-standing skincare partner, needed a Chinese social campaign for Qixi Festival—China's Valentine's Day. With gift-giving driving significant sales during this holiday, Kiehl's wanted to stand out by integrating gaming elements into their campaign.

The campaign required a strategic balance between cultural authenticity, innovative engagement, and commercial objectives in a crowded holiday marketing landscape.

THE SOLUTION
I created an vintage-style video game where two charming characters ran through a custom-designed landscape to collect gifts for each other. This nostalgic gaming experience was then integrated into WeChat, featuring a scrollable journey with clearly marked gifting milestones.

The campaign was so successful in the Chinese market that Kiehl’s commissioned a follow-up campaign the subsequent year, seeking to recreate the same magical experience that had connected so effectively with their audience. For that campaign, I recreated the trending “forever zoom” with their hand drawn characters.

Paid & Owned Social Campaign