01 — Snapshot

02 — The Challenge

The first-year festival needed to build an audience from scratch, sell tickets and fill its vendor market. I led creative and marketing, managed the budget and direct reports, negotiated with the venue, suppliers and sponsors, and presented the post-event recap.

03 — Market & Audience

Large-scale lanterns made in Zigong anchored the festival’s positioning as a cultural night out. We reached the general public, prospective LA-area visitors and local vendors. Chinese-language media and general LA audiences had separate calendars and copy.

04 — Creative Strategy

We tailored the message to each group: lantern spectacle and cultural tradition for awareness, a night out for ticket buyers, and a booth opportunity for vendors. The campaign used video, Reels, carousels and static images.

05 — Media Buying

• Awareness · Reach and video views, with separate LA-area and national ad sets, creative and budget splits.
• Ticket sales · Drive local and culture-interested audiences to the ticket link.
• Vendor recruitment · Reach local small businesses and food vendors for booth sales and partnerships.

Each Meta campaign had its own objective, audience, creative and KPI so we could optimize and report on each goal separately.

06 — Results

The expo opened on schedule and ran for a full month, with 66 lantern sets and about 140 food vendors, plus merchandise vendors. With the team, I secured stage sponsors, most market booths and a Fantuan partnership. Opening guests included the Chinese Consul General in Los Angeles and U.S. Congresswoman Judy Chu. Coverage included Xinhua, CGTN, China Daily and Global Times.

View the festival planning & spatial design case ↗

07 — Skills Shown

Brand launch · Audience segmentation · Meta campaign structure · Bilingual marketing · Vendor and sponsor recruitment