Golden Snake Ushers in the New Year: AI Empowers Smartphone Manufacturers' Spring Festival Marketing Battle

Golden Snake Ushers in the New Year: AI Empowers Smartphone Manufacturers' Spring Festival Marketing BattleAs the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) approaches, many people have the habit of "dressing up" their phones for the holiday, such as changing to festive wallpapers, using officially provided Spring Festival themes, experiencing new Spring Festival camera watermarks, and sharing them on social media. Smartphone manufacturers also seize this opportunity to create buzz through marketing campaigns such as New Year short films

Golden Snake Ushers in the New Year: AI Empowers Smartphone Manufacturers' Spring Festival Marketing Battle

As the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) approaches, many people have the habit of "dressing up" their phones for the holiday, such as changing to festive wallpapers, using officially provided Spring Festival themes, experiencing new Spring Festival camera watermarks, and sharing them on social media. Smartphone manufacturers also seize this opportunity to create buzz through marketing campaigns such as New Year short films. However, this year is different. The abundance of AI features and personalized settings in various new OS versions have enhanced playability, making the "Spring Festival flavor" of smartphones even richer. This article delves into the efforts made by smartphone manufacturers in 2025 to enhance this "Spring Festival flavor" on their devices.

AI: Adding Spring Festival Flavor to Smartphones

Vivo has been a pioneer in creating a New Year atmosphere, launching a limited-edition camera watermark for the 2024 Year of the Dragon Spring Festival. Subsequently, brands like OPPO and Xiaomi followed suit. Unlike previous image-branded watermarks, the New Year watermarks typically feature a red background, paired with New Year greetings and zodiac elements, highlighting the unique characteristics of the Spring Festival. Vivo previously launched the "AI Visual Effects Portrait" feature, integrating AI-drawn virtual elements while retaining the structure of the real environment, giving rise to AI visual effects gameplay for different seasons. This year, Vivo has introduced New Year AI visual effects. Users only need to upload a photo; no special setting is required to obtain an AI photo with Spring Festival elements. Furthermore, Vivo has introduced dynamic frame watermarks for richer effects, better matching LivePhoto output.

Huawei has focused on creating phone themes, launching five "Snake Ton Ton" themes in red, green, blue, purple, and brown, featuring a cute and cuddly snake image, available for free download. The latest HarmonyOS system incorporates an interactive lock screen function, and the "Snake Ton Ton" theme also supports shake interaction. Although the development of the entire theme is a huge undertaking, requiring consideration of icon adaptation, etc., users don't need to wait for OTA updates; they can download it directly from the theme store. The grab-and-send feature of HarmonyOS NEXT also offers more possibilities for future Spring Festival gameplay.

OPPO, while not launching a custom theme this year, still offers a wealth of features. In addition to the New Year camera watermark, OPPO has introduced Spring Festival gameplay centered around AI features, such as providing AI-generated image styles like New Year portraits and Chinese New Year photos in the Xiaobu Photo Studio, as well as AI-written New Year cards. Users can also summon Xiaobu Assistant and type "2025 fireworks" to play a full-screen fireworks effect with "2025" displayed. These one-click AI-generated effects are novel for novice users, guiding them to experience AI generative functions, and potentially becoming a key direction for enhancing the Spring Festival atmosphere in the future. The upgraded mutual transmission function of ColorOS 15 also provides users with a new way to transmit holiday content or red envelopes; users can share AI-generated greeting cards through a tap-to-send function.

Honor has added Spring Festival elements to lock screen customization, adding two new New Year magic lock screen styles. Users can upload a half-body photo and combine it with the lock screen template to create a personalized New Year lock screen. This fully utilizes the characteristics of MagicOS, enhancing user playability.

Meizu continues its tradition, releasing several exquisitely designed limited-edition wallpapers before the Spring Festival. The style is appealing and easy on the eyes, but still lacks Spring Festival-limited elements such as album watermarks.

In addition, Xiaomi has launched exclusive image watermarks and special New Year color schemes for its phones, while OPPO has launched New Year-limited edition power banks and phone cases. Manufacturers are participating in the "Spring Festival" marketing in their own ways.

The Spring Festival Theme Battle: The Core of Emotional Value

Compared to previous years with only camera watermarks, smartphone manufacturers' Spring Festival gameplay is significantly richer this year, avoiding simple "copying homework." Manufacturers provide unique gameplay based on their system characteristics and ideas. The emergence of AI features has also provided more customized space for Spring Festival elements. For example, uploading images to generate festive portraits or providing names and other keywords to generate New Year cards offers unique value.

In the age of smartphones, what is the value of holiday elements? The answer may differ for users and manufacturers. Just as we paste Spring Festival couplets and display kumquats during the New Year, Spring Festival elements are deeply integrated into our lives. These decorations not only create a festive atmosphere but also embody people's hopes for peace and prosperity in the coming year.

The Spring Festival camera watermarks, AI portraits, firework effects, and phone themes on smartphones, while offering limited improvements to the phone's overall experience, carry unique emotional value. Smartphones have become an indispensable part of people's lives; they are not just tools but also users' exclusive small spaces. Many users enjoy decorating their phones for the New Year or obtaining some "warmth" through their phones. Every year before the Spring Festival, many users urge manufacturers to push New Year watermarks and other features. This is not just to show off new features but also a desire for a festive atmosphere.

It is essential for smartphone manufacturers to develop New Year gameplay based on system characteristics. For example, using OPPO's mutual transmission function to transmit AI-generated greeting cards to other OPPO users can enhance communication among users. Diverse gameplay and arenas provide manufacturers with greater room for maneuver. By generating exclusive content using AI, deeply customizing lock screen templates or phone themes, manufacturers can create their own "festival labels," allowing users to feel the brand's strength and care, enhancing user belonging, and ultimately attracting more users.

The Smartphone Spring Festival Marketing Battle: Smoke and Mirrors

The significance of the Spring Festival lies in "going home" and reuniting with family and friends. Digital products migrate accordingly. Earlier, a photo with a model watermark or a New Year model watermark could attract users' attention to a particular model. Even if it doesn't influence purchasing decisions, it can leave an impression. Today, smartphones are feature-rich; what leaves a lasting impression is not just photos and watermarks. A fun Spring Festival feature, communicative Spring Festival interactive features, or exquisite AI-generated Spring Festival content can all leave a deep impression.

Spring Festival theme gameplay is not only beneficial to users but also an important marketing opportunity for manufacturers. The power of emotion should not be underestimated. Sometimes we "plant grass" for a digital product not because it is practical but because of its fun features. An interesting interactive feature can quickly create buzz and even go viral.

Manufacturers' efforts to create a Spring Festival atmosphere on smartphones are mainly due to the importance of the Spring Festival marketing window. While showcasing smartphone technology, they also provide value to users, attracting more people to "plant grass." While one can deny the manufacturers' efforts in Spring Festival limited features, in the future, smartphone manufacturers will only go further down this path, and the gameplay will become increasingly rich. On the surface, it's flashy, but the underlying goal is to use a particular feature to leverage users' "Moments" to accelerate brand awareness.

Conclusion

Ultimately, will you choose to dress up your phone in Spring Festival "clothes," or proactively show your friends the updated Spring Festival features? This is no longer just a competition at the technical level but also a competition for users' emotional value. The competition among manufacturers in Spring Festival limited elements will become more diverse with the addition of AI and new features. A series of unique differentiators will ultimately create a more three-dimensional and richer Spring Festival atmosphere for smartphones. Lei Technology MCN (Lei Technology/Xiao Lei Bibi/Dianche Tong/Intelligent Pro/Luo Chao Pro) will jointly launch the 2025 Year of the Snake Spring Festival special "Technology Welcomes the Year of the Snake, AI Celebrates the Spring Festival" from January 14th (the fifteenth day of the twelfth lunar month) to February 5th (the eighth day of the first lunar month), covering recommendations for New Year goods, Spring Festival marketing observations, New Year's Eve life experiences, and hometown market observations. At the intersection of technology and humanity during the "Spring Festival," it will showcase the empowerment of AI technology to the happy lives of the Chinese people. Please search and follow on Lei Technology (ID: leitech) and other platforms.