Why Lunar New Year is a real sale for AI video creators
Lunar New Year is the biggest holiday of the year for a huge share of the world, and it is not one day. The celebration runs from New Year's Day to the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day, and the shopping run-up starts weeks before that. Every business that serves an East or Southeast Asian customer base promotes through the whole window: restaurants and bakeries, Asian supermarkets, tea shops, jewelers, salons, gift shops, malls, and online brands with a global audience.
Most of them end up with a generic red template and a stock dragon. That is the opening for you. A creator who already sells [AI Christmas videos](/blog/how-to-make-ai-christmas-videos) or [AI Diwali videos](/blog/how-to-make-ai-diwali-videos) has the production skills. What changes is the rules: the writing, the zodiac animal, and the name of the holiday all have to be right for the client's customers, and AI gets every one of those wrong by default.
The one rule: never let the AI write the greeting
AI video models generate text the same way they generate texture: they make something that looks like writing from a distance. In English you get misspelled shop signs. In Chinese you get characters that do not exist, which every Chinese-reading viewer catches in under a second, and the same goes for Korean and Vietnamese. A lantern covered in fake characters is not a small flaw. It tells the client's customers the business did not care enough to check.
- Prompt the scene with no text at all. Tell the model the lanterns are plain, the banners are blank, and the scene has no lettering or symbols. Then add the greeting in your editor with the approach in [how to add captions to AI-generated videos](/blog/how-to-add-captions-to-ai-generated-videos).
- Get the greeting from the client, in writing, in the exact script and wording they want. Do not translate it yourself and do not copy it from a random image. Have the client or someone who reads the language approve the final frame.
- If a shot needs real calligraphy, a real couplet, or a real shop sign, photograph the real thing and animate around it, the method in [how to turn a photo into an AI video](/blog/how-to-turn-a-photo-into-an-ai-video), or composite it on its own layer the way the club handles logos in [AI logo animations](/blog/how-to-make-ai-logo-animations-for-clients).
- Before delivery, pause on every frame where writing could appear: lanterns, banners, red envelopes, storefronts in the background. If something looks like a character, blur it, crop it, or regenerate the shot.
Get the zodiac animal right: 2027 is the Year of the Goat
Every Lunar New Year carries a zodiac animal, and clients love leaning into it. In 2027 that animal is the Goat, which English sources also call the Sheep or the Ram, because the original word covers all three. That is a real decision, not a trivia point. A Vietnamese bakery and a Chinese tea shop may picture different animals, so ask the client which one their customers expect and stick with it across every cut.
Then treat the animal as a character, not a one-off generation. If it appears in several shots, it has to look like the same animal every time, which is the same problem covered in [how to keep Higgsfield characters consistent](/blog/higgsfield-character-consistency). Build a small reference set of the animal first, a few angles, one style, one palette, and generate every shot from those stills. A cute, stylized goat in soft gold light reads as festive. A photoreal farm animal in a restaurant ad usually does not.
- Decide the style before the first prompt: paper-cut, soft 3D, ink-wash illustration, or a stylized mascot. Do not mix styles across the set.
- Keep the animal's motion simple: a turn of the head, a hop, a walk through a lantern-lit street. One motion per shot, the rule in [Higgsfield Seedance 2 motion prompts: a practical guide](/blog/higgsfield-seedance-2-motion-prompts-guide).
- Do not generate a dragon by default. A dragon dance is a real part of many celebrations, but a generic dragon in a Goat year says the creator did not look at the calendar.
The Three-Beat Set: one production, three moments
The Three-Beat Set is the club's structure for a Lunar New Year client package. You build one base world for the client, then cut three deliverables, each tied to a moment the business already promotes. The expensive part, a clean on-brand scene and a consistent zodiac animal, happens once. Everything after that is editing, which is why the set can be priced well above a single holiday clip, the logic in [how to price AI video services for clients](/blog/how-to-price-ai-video-services-for-clients).
The Three-Beat Set
| Beat | What it is | How you make it |
|---|---|---|
| Shopping cut | The run-up offer: gift boxes, set menus, preorders, extended hours. Runs in the weeks before New Year's Day | Base scene of the client's product or space in red and gold, slow push-in, empty space for the offer text added in the edit |
| New Year's Day cut | The greeting post for the day itself, short and warm, carrying the client's approved greeting | Same base footage with the zodiac animal entering the frame, lanterns glowing, greeting composited as real text |
| Lantern Festival cut | The close of the season on the fifteenth day: lanterns, a last offer, a thank-you to customers | Night version of the base scene, lanterns rising or swaying, a bowl of tangyuan if the client is a food business |
Deliver each beat in the formats the client actually posts, a vertical cut for Reels and short-form plus a square or horizontal cut if they run ads or email. The format details are in [AI video aspect ratios explained](/blog/ai-video-aspect-ratios-explained).
When to pitch and deliver for Lunar New Year 2027
Count back from New Year's Day. With Lunar New Year on Saturday, February 6, 2027, the shopping cut should be live by mid January, which means your production has to be done before then. December is also your busiest month for Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year clients, so book Lunar New Year work early or it gets squeezed out.
Lunar New Year 2027 production calendar
| When | What you do | Why then |
|---|---|---|
| Early December | Pitch the Three-Beat Set to restaurants, bakeries, Asian supermarkets, tea shops, jewelers, salons, and brands with an East or Southeast Asian customer base | They plan Lunar New Year promotions before the December rush, and almost nobody pitches them this early |
| Mid December | Collect photos of the space and product, the approved greeting in writing, the holiday name they use, and the zodiac animal style. Build the base scene | The written greeting is the asset that keeps the text right, so get it during onboarding |
| First week of January | Assemble all three beats, check every frame for fake writing, send for one round of feedback | Leaves time for revisions without crowding New Year's Day |
| By mid January | Deliver all files with a posting note: which cut goes up when, through the Lantern Festival on February 20 | The shopping run-up is already underway, and the client should be scheduling, not waiting |
Fold the greeting and photo requests into [onboarding a new AI video client](/blog/how-to-onboard-a-new-ai-video-client), so the assets that keep the set accurate are in hand before you generate anything. If you have no Lunar New Year clients yet, make one Three-Beat Set for an invented restaurant and post it through the holiday. It becomes proof for next year's pitch, the approach in [how to build an AI video portfolio with no clients](/blog/how-to-build-an-ai-video-portfolio-with-no-clients), and the local businesses that react to it are the ones you pitch with the outreach in [AI video for local businesses](/blog/ai-video-for-local-businesses).
Inside the Higgsfield Income Club at higgsfieldincomeclub.com, $9/month, creators share the seasonal prompts, the client pitches, and the package structures they use for every holiday on the calendar, Lunar New Year included. See the [pricing page](/pricing) for what is included. Pick three businesses near you that serve an East or Southeast Asian customer base and send the pitch this week.
Short, practical drops on income paths, prompts that work, packaging for views, and getting paid. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Frequently asked questions
When is Lunar New Year in 2027?
Lunar New Year 2027 falls on Saturday, February 6, and the celebration closes with the Lantern Festival on Saturday, February 20. Because it follows the lunar calendar, the date moves every year, so confirm it before pitching for any other year.
What is the zodiac animal for 2027?
2027 is the Year of the Goat. English sources also call it the Sheep or the Ram, because the original word covers all three. Ask your client which animal their customers expect and keep it consistent across every cut.
Can I put Chinese characters in my AI video prompt?
No. AI video renders Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese text as convincing-looking nonsense, the same way it garbles English. Generate the scene with plain lanterns and blank banners, then add the client's approved greeting as real text in your editor.
Is it Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year?
It depends on the community. Chinese New Year, Lunar New Year, Spring Festival, Seollal in Korean communities, and Tet in Vietnamese communities all describe the same season but are not interchangeable to the people celebrating. Ask the client which name they use and use it everywhere.
What is the Three-Beat Set?
It is the club's Lunar New Year client package: one base scene of the client's product or space, cut into a shopping-season cut, a New Year's Day greeting cut, and a Lantern Festival cut. One production, three deliverables tied to moments the business already promotes.
Who buys AI Lunar New Year videos?
Businesses that serve an East or Southeast Asian customer base: restaurants and bakeries, Asian supermarkets, tea shops, jewelers, salons, gift shops, malls, and online brands with a global audience that promote through the holiday season.
Last reviewed by David on October 9, 2026
