Haval's 'Haha Fule' First Love Night: A Marketing Case Study of New Car Launch

Looking back at 2020, major automobile brands continued to deepen their marketing innovation, bringing new vitality to their brands through quality content. Among them, Haval, a brand under Great Wall Motors, collaborated with celebrities like Chopsticks Brothers and Li Jialong, and leveraged platforms such as Toutiao, Bilibili, and 'The Rap of China' to engage in high-frequency, long-span cross-border brand and livestream e-commerce campaigns.

Recently, Haval held a new product launch event that differed from traditional auto launches where executives in suits give dull PowerPoint presentations. Instead, this event set a new benchmark for the industry through a series of integrated and innovative marketing moves.

The theme of the event was 'Haha Fule' Brand First Love Night, aiming to create the longest-themed launch in the universe, with pre-set topics to generate buzz for the new models.

In addition to the main theme, Haval rolled out a series of playful and social sub-themes, including the Haval First Love Heartbeat Launch, Haval's First User Meetup, Haval Co-Creation Ecosystem Conference, First Investor Mining Conference, and a sci-fi movie premiere, attracting industry media attention and user curiosity while building online buzz ahead of the new model launches.

The event's on-site segments, flow, and venue setup were highly playful. Host Hua Shao interacted with celebrity guests Li Jialong and Nan Zheng Bei Zhan, showcasing the products from multiple perspectives through user interaction and human-machine battles, fully satisfying both online and offline audiences. The 'high-energy' entertainment atmosphere deepened consumers' memory of the brand and products, conveyed more value, and established an emotional connection with users.

During the event, Haval released its 2020 annual keywords—'Chuquan' (breaking out), 'Haiwang' (player), 'Yeqinghui' (youth is back), and 'Ruisibai' (respect)—to introduce the brand's 'internet celebrity journey' in 2020, demonstrating its determination to connect with young users and shaping a more playful and daring brand image.

Haval unveiled the world's first user ecosystem brand—the 'Fu Galaxy' ecosystem plan—accelerating its evolution into a user-centric brand. Based on respect for user needs, the event introduced three planets: 'Black Tech Planet,' 'Trendy Play Planet,' and 'Youth Planet,' with more planets to come. 'Fu Galaxy' is a comprehensive ecosystem development plan that blends virtual and real worlds, created for Haval's 6.5 million users and the entire value chain. Users can find their exclusive roles—Fu Star People, Star Pets, Planet Agents, etc.—and enjoy multiple experiences and services.

For the 'Fu Galaxy' co-creation plan, Haval built the 'Yiqi Chuangha' platform, which will offer product co-creation, merchandise co-creation, and brand co-creation, and will create a display space called the 'Chuangha Museum,' fostering a development ecosystem that grows together with the entire value chain and building an open world for continuous connection, multi-dimensional interaction, and unlimited expansion with users.

Additionally, Haval Big Dog, in collaboration with the domestic designer website 'Lokee.com,' launched the 'Million Reward, Logo Co-Creation' global design competition for the Haval Big Dog logo. The 'Create Your Exclusive Haval First Love' WeChat mini-program also went live, allowing users to create their own 'First Love' based on preferences. These initiatives reflect a 'user cultivation' model, helping the brand break through circles and empowering the popularity of new models.

Based on insights into the SUV market, the event launched three new models built on the Lemon platform—the third-generation Haval H6, Haval Big Dog, and Haval First Love—showcasing the brand's innovative genes and product value through innovative design and smart technology, shaping a youthful and intelligent Haval brand image.

Positioned as 'the first car for young people,' Haval First Love conveys a pure lifestyle and the belief that 'first love is eternal' through 'F&LOVE,' resonating with contemporary youth's imagination and pursuit of individuality and romance. Haval First Love offers young users four industry-leading technologies, including an active emotion recognition system and a situational intelligence system, as well as eight kinds of 'spoiling' features, such as 64-color ambient lighting with an entertainment system and three-screen smart interaction, providing a brand-new car life experience.

Furthermore, Haval also launched the third-generation Haval H6 2.0T version and the Haval Big Dog Chinese Pastoral Dog edition to meet the diverse needs of different users. With its precise insight into the '3/4 scale' vehicle and fashionable attitude, Haval Big Dog achieves emotional resonance with users, solidifying its position as the pioneer of 'urban SUV.'

Products and brand complement each other. Haval launched three new models targeting different user needs, not only showcasing high product quality but also capturing users' emotional and self-expression needs through humanized and intelligent design, successfully winning the minds of young users.

In summary, the 'Haha Fule' Brand First Love Night adopted a fresh and fun format, creating a closed-loop marketing cycle from creative concepts and topic dissemination, to new product launch and product experience, to brand ecosystem and brand value output, and finally to achieving both buzz and sales conversion. This enabled the new models to break through circles, established deeper emotional connections between the brand and users, broke the mindset of traditional auto launch marketing, and provided a reference for the industry.