Shanghai carnival rides on revival of time-honored brands

Shanghai's time-honored brands, or Laozihao, are experiencing a revival, which will get a further boost with the launch of the 2023 Shanghai Time-honored Brand Carnival on Tuesday.

The campaign will bring new vitality to traditional business districts such as Nanjing Road, Yuyuan Garden Malls, Huaihai Road and Shaanxi Road N., by creating immersive and experiential scenes that incorporate various forms of online and offline marketing, such as pop-up stores and bazaars, according to Zhang Jianyong, deputy director of the Shanghai Time-honored Brand Enterprises Association.

This will unleash a new wave of consumer interest in traditional brands, Zhang noted.

During the ongoing fourth Double Five Shopping Festival, 284 Laozihao brands in Shanghai launched more than 100 new products or designs with distinctive Chinese features and held 15 themed promotional events.

The Shanghai Time-honored Brand Carnival will continue to launch new products every week during its nearly one-month run, concluding alongside the Double Five Shopping Festival at the end of June.

For example, the Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall will hold multiple markets, promoting trendy new products with distinctive Chinese features and intangible cultural heritage techniques. National specialty shops on Huaihai Road will launch various promotions in conjunction with major festivals. And Yuyuan's First Asia Jewelry will open a pop-up store with a limited time frame.

Also at Tuesday's opening event, an awarding ceremony for a batch of local brands that were newly recognized as Shanghai Time-honored Brands for 2023 was held.

Local authorities, including the Shanghai Commission of Commerce, along with the city's Market Supervision Bureau, the Cultural and Tourism Bureau, the Intellectual Property Bureau and the Commission of Economy and Informatization, announced the new batch of 104 Shanghai time-honored brands in January 2023.

These include well-known names like Hero pen and Guang Ming Cun restaurant, as well as brands that are being rejuvenated like Guoguang Harmonica and Shanghai Soap's Bee and Flower. It was noted that nearly half of these enterprises have an annual revenue exceeding 1 billion yuan (US$141 million), and the 104 brands have 20 intangible cultural heritage projects at the district-level or above.

The event also saw the participation of financial institutions and e-commerce platforms that collaborated with Laozihao brands to release a comprehensive financial service plan to support the innovative development of Laozihao.

Bank of Communications, for example, announced its first in-depth cooperation with Shanghai's time-honored brands, offering support in reform and development, solving difficulties, reducing costs and increasing efficiency, expanding markets, and promoting online and offline consumption.