HKJEBN — Designing
A Behaviour-Led Seasonal Retail Experience

Client

HKJEBN

Industry

FMCG & Retail

Agency

HKJEBN In-house

Turning Seasonal Demand Into A Customer Experience System

Every Lunar New Year, HKJEBN’s pistachios became one of the most anticipated seasonal products in Hong Kong.

Demand was so strong that products often sold out within hours.

For the business, this created operational pressure and unpredictable demand peaks.

For customers, it created frustration, uncertainty and fear of missing out.

The challenge wasn't awareness.

People already wanted the product.

The challenge was creating a better experience around demand.

This project explored how brand storytelling, customer behaviour and participation design could transform a seasonal product launch into a structured customer experience that people actively looked forward to every day.

The Opportunity

Most seasonal campaigns focus on generating attention.

This one focused on managing anticipation.

Rather than simply promoting pistachios, we looked at the customer journey behind the purchase experience.

Customers weren't asking: "Should I buy pistachios?"

They were asking: "Will I be able to get them before they sell out?"

That shift reframed the project from a promotional campaign into a behavioural design challenge.

Insight

Scarcity can create excitement.

But without structure, it also creates anxiety.

The opportunity was to transform uncertainty into a predictable ritual that customers could participate in together.

Instead of competing for products, customers became part of a shared seasonal experience.

Product

Customers

Promotion

Experience

From Product Promotion To Daily Participation

Rather than announcing availability, we designed a simple daily engagement mechanic around a fixed Lunch Time release time.

The experience combined:

Anticipation
Participation
Community interaction
Reward

Customers began returning every day at the same time.

What started as a product update gradually evolved into a recurring behavioural habit.

The campaign wasn't driven by media spend. It was driven by people showing up.

Creating Characters People Could Relate To

To bring the experience to life, I developed a playful storytelling system inspired by familiar Lunar New Year culture.

The "Three Little Calves" represented different customer personalities and shopping behaviours:

Busy Calf - Always prepared and never misses an update.

Lazy Calf - Usually arrives late and hopes there is still stock available.

Joyful Calf - Acts on impulse and enjoys seasonal surprises.

The characters provided more than visual decoration.

They gave customers a way to see themselves in the story and created an emotional layer around the campaign that extended beyond product messaging.

Designing For Real Customer Behaviour

What made the campaign successful was not the artwork alone.

It was the combination of:

Consistent timing
Community participation
Social sharing
Behavioural triggers
Clear customer reward

As participation increased, customers naturally began reminding friends, sharing updates and reinforcing the daily ritual themselves. The campaign effectively transformed customer anticipation into a self-sustaining engagement system.

Results

Commercial Impact

HKD $80M+ seasonal revenue
1.8 million units sold
Record-breaking Lunar New Year performance

Customer Engagement

231K organic reach
31K comments and shares
Up to 62.5K reach per post
Zero paid media investment

Community Behaviour

Customers created recurring phrases such as:

"See you at Lunch"
"Sold out again"
"Tomorrow again"

These behaviours demonstrated that the campaign had evolved beyond content into a shared community ritual.

Promotion Teaser

Early Bird Promotion

Product Launch

Reflection

This project reinforced a principle that continues to shape my work today:

People rarely engage with brands because of marketing.

They engage when brands create experiences that fit naturally into their lives, behaviours and routines.

The role of design wasn't simply to communicate a message.

It was to connect a business objective with real customer behaviour and turn that connection into a repeatable experience.

As participation increased, customers naturally began to remind friends, share updates, and reinforce the daily ritual themselves. The campaign effectively transformed customer anticipation into a self-sustaining engagement system.

My Role

Consumer engagement strategy
Campaign concept development
Behavioural participation design
Visual identity system
Social commerce activation
Team leadership and creative direction

Led a team of three designers from concept development through execution.

Behaviour-led DOOH Extension (AI-Assisted)

Extending a 2021 digital campaign into a 2024 AI‑driven spatial system

In 2021, the Lunar New Year Organic Growth Campaign was built around a behavioural engagement loop — anticipation → check‑in → participation → reward.

In 2024, I revisited the original system and explored how it could scale into DOOH and spatial environments using AI‑assisted creative workflows.

This extension demonstrates how a digital‑first behavioural mechanic can be translated into public‑space triggers, creating a seamless experience across digital, social and physical touchpoints.

Translating Behaviour into DOOH / Spatial

Instead of treating DOOH as a standalone format, the extension reframes it as part of the same behavioural system: