As the 'atmosphere maker' of the Spring Festival, lanterns symbolize reunion and happiness, and also light up people's beautiful expectations for the new year. As the Spring Festival approaches, lanterns are being lit one after another across the country, and the topic #彩灯一亮年味就有了# has even surged to third place on Weibo's hot search list. Amid the festive atmosphere, the giant 'cape-style' Master Kong Iced Tea lanterns that appeared in Harbin, Xi'an, and other cities stood out with their highly recognizable and majestic designs, quickly becoming a new favorite for young people to check in. It is worth mentioning that this viral 'cape-style iced tea' image was not a brand fantasy but originated from an online meme. Master Kong Iced Tea proactively embraced the meme, telling consumers with a 'two-way effort' full of New Year flavor: Master Kong Iced Tea, here for you. Origin: Users Play with Memes to 'Crown' the Brand, This Time Iced Tea Really 'Comes for You'**** In the context of young people, Master Kong Iced Tea naturally carries an open, fun 'meme physique': from the teasing of 'get more exposure to high society' to the interesting interpretation of 'accidentally entering the heavenly family' to the rise of 'iced tea literature'—this national beverage is highly favored by netizens for its delicious taste, fun, and refreshing qualities. And the most viral this year is undoubtedly the phrase 'I know why you came.' The cape-style iced tea, paired with a majestic BGM and high-energy special effects, directly maxed out the sense of mission and passion, quickly going viral on short-video platforms. Creative netizens collectively played with the meme, integrating Master Kong Iced Tea into this famous scene: opening the refrigerator door, subtitles appear; the camera shifts, thunder and lightning strike, and the 'cape-style iced tea' makes a center-stage entrance. In the comment sections, interactions like 'Who says the tea clan has no emperor' and 'Ice Red Hero' flooded in, making it as lively as an early New Year. Related creative content was reposted wildly, with multiple videos receiving millions of likes. Behind this spontaneous carnival is actually young users using their familiar discourse system to emotionally crown a long-standing national beverage. Facing this love and recognition, Master Kong Iced Tea chose to give the most sincere response at the most ritualistic moment of the Spring Festival—proactively going to consumers, making the 'cape-style iced tea' a reality, and adding New Year flavor to the meme.**** Landing: Giant Lanterns Appear in Multiple Cities, Integrating Local New Year Flavor**** From online carnival to offline implementation, there is often a huge execution gap in between. How to break the dimensional wall and turn 'iced tea comes for you' into a tangible, real experience? Master Kong Iced Tea's approach is very clear: find a super carrier that combines New Year ritual and social currency—the lantern festival. As an important carrier of traditional Spring Festival customs, the lantern festival has strong crowd-gathering power and emotional density. It not only carries people's longing for reunion and celebration but is also a natural traffic entry point for young people to check in and share. Master Kong Iced Tea keenly captured this and launched themed lanterns in multiple cities such as Harbin, Xi'an, and Zigong, using a differentiated strategy of 'one city, one New Year flavor' to truly integrate the 'cape-style iced tea' into the local Spring Festival context.

  • In Harbin, it was a stunning 'giant ice lantern.' On Central Street, densely packed with ice sculptures, the ice-crystal cape not only blended into Harbin's ice-and-snow fairy tale but also vividly interpreted the brand's 'full ice power,' sparking interaction enthusiasm among tourists—people stood in front of the ice lantern, holding Master Kong Iced Tea to 'cheers' or taking photos. At this moment, 'refreshing and exhilarating' was directly concretized.
  • In the ancient capital Xi'an, the giant Master Kong Iced Tea lantern in Tang Paradise was adorned with a Tang-style cloud-pattern cape, not only adding to the festival's auspicious and peaceful atmosphere but also achieving a perfect fusion of 'traditional lanterns + modern brand.' As night fell, the Master Kong Iced Tea lantern complemented the bustling scenes of the Tang Dynasty, giving 'here for you' an extra touch of boldness that spanned a thousand years.
  • In Zigong, this 'effort' was given deeper cultural connotations. As a national intangible cultural heritage, the Zigong Lantern Festival is already the 'top tier' of New Year flavor. Master Kong Iced Tea used the dazzling lanterns as a carrier, cleverly incorporating Sichuan local cultural symbols such as covered-bowl tea, pandas, bamboo chairs, Zigong dinosaurs, and salt crystals: a panda leisurely soaking in a 'tea bath,' a dinosaur arriving joyfully with a salt crystal on its head, all together with Master Kong Iced Tea's iconic cape lighting up the night, vividly interpreting the fiery New Year flavor, comfortable life, and trendy Sichuan style. Offline popularity was explosive, and online buzz was equally boiling. As of now, on Douyin, the topic #冰红茶为你而来# has exceeded 1.14 billion views. When tourists are attracted by these giant lanterns and spontaneously strike the same poses for photos, it goes beyond simple check-ins and becomes a wonderful resonance between 'pop culture' and 'traditional New Year customs.' Every freeze-frame and interaction in front of the camera is not only people cheering for the charm of traditional New Year customs but also genuine recognition and love for the brand. It is understood that the 'cape-style iced tea' giant lanterns will also travel to multiple cities, lighting up more people's Spring Festival memories. Co-creation: New Year Kang with me, Add Kang and Add New Year Flavor**** This year marks the fifth year of Master Kong Beverages' 'Add Kang and Add New Year Flavor,' and the brand proposition has also been upgraded to— 'New Year Kang with me, Add Kang and Add New Year Flavor.' In the brand's New Year film, Jia Bing and Fan Chengcheng perform a father-son story with laughter and tears. With the companionship of 'New Year Kang with me,' they write a new annotation for 'Add Kang and Add New Year Flavor'—love is a two-way effort, a beautiful memory created together by parents and children. And the 'Iced Tea Comes for You' New Year lantern festival not only adds a strong New Year flavor to the Spring Festival but is also a warm invitation—this Spring Festival, meet with family and friends in the light and shadow, check in and interact together, and 'Kang with me' together, embedding the reunion and celebration of the New Year deep into people's memories. Whether it's the creative offline implementation or the emotional online narrative, Master Kong Beverages always chooses to listen, empathize, and accompany users. This sincerity elevates users from passive recipients to co-writers of the meaning of New Year flavor. The relationship between the brand and users has also evolved from one-way output to equal invitation and co-creation. For channels, this change is equally practical: the lantern festival scene drives consumption at surrounding terminals, and terminal stores use themed displays and stack displays to carry traffic, converting content heat into sales. Online emotions, offline experiences, and terminal sales form a closed loop, allowing a meme to complete the full path of 'communication-participation-conversion.' When the brand becomes part of users' Spring Festival interactions, Master Kong Iced Tea transcends the beverage itself and becomes an emotional carrier that carries shared Spring Festival memories and conveys New Year flavor. This proactive brand effort, inspired by user co-creation, not only truly grounded the meme but also practically 'added' Spring Festival dividends to terminals nationwide. Summary This Spring Festival, Master Kong Iced Tea demonstrated the true power of 'two-way effort' to the industry. It also showed the industry that the key to keeping a 10-billion-yuan mega product young is not deliberately making a youth declaration, but sincerely and proactively paying attention to, understanding, and going to consumers, communicating with them on an equal footing, and becoming a companion who co-creates joy and New Year flavor. As long as it always lives in the love of young people, the classic will forever be young. After all, who would refuse a fun, meme-savvy 'partner' willing to play along? Finally, as the New Year approaches, 'New Distribution' has specially compiled the launch times of the 'Iced Tea Comes for You' lanterns in various places. Everyone is welcome to come to the scene and light up the New Year flavor together with Master Kong Iced Tea! Harbin Station (Launch time: 2026.1.1) Bamili, next to Bamili Bakery, intersection of Central Street and Duan Street, Daoli District, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province Xi'an Station (Launch time: 2026.1.16) Tang Paradise·Chang'an Lantern Festival, Longmen Shanhe area, Tang Paradise, No. 99 Furong Garden Road, Qujiang New District, Yanta District, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province Zigong Station (Launch time: 2026.1.24) Zigong International Dinosaur Lantern Festival, Visitor Distribution Square, China Colorful Lantern World, East Yandu Avenue, Da'an District, Zigong, Sichuan Province Nanjing Station (Launch time: 2026.1.26) The 40th China·Qinhuai Lantern Festival, Bai Lu Zhou Exhibition Area (Bailuzhou Park), Wanshi Daji, No. 1 Bailu Village, Confucius Temple, Qinhuai District, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province Guangzhou Station (Launch time: 2026.2.10) 2026 Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Lantern Festival, next to the emergency exit of the 2026 Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Lantern Festival, No. 107 Shuiqiao Street, Gangwan Street, Nansha District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province Hangzhou Station (Launch time: 2026.2.15) Qianwang Temple, Moshang Huakai·Yingchun Huashi, Qianwang Temple, No. 11 Qianwang Temple Road, Nanshan Road, Shangcheng District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province Luoyang Station (Launch time: 2026.2.17) Shendu Shangyuan Lantern Festival, Sui and Tang Dynasty City Ruins Botanical Garden, No. 281 Wangcheng Avenue, Luolong District, Luoyang