AI, robots, trendy toys... Who will secure the 'C-position' at the Spring Festival Gala?

'Is Miniso going to be on the Spring Festival Gala? Is Kayou also going to be on it?'

Recently, the 2026 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, the Year of the Horse, has one after another (this word means 'successively' or 'one after another' and is kept as is for contextual flow, but in translation, we convey the meaning) announced its partner brands. 'Qujie Business' has noticed that not only has the number of exclusively partnered brands increased this year, but the variety of partnered companies has also significantly expanded.

According to incomplete statistics, the number of strategic partner companies for this year's CCTV Spring Festival Gala has reached over 20, including social media platforms like Douyin and Kuaishou that focus on interactivity, as well as product partners such as trading cards, robots, and designated vehicle services. In recent years, the 'exclusive partners' of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala have gradually become more specialized and segmented, with categories like exclusive e-commerce partners, exclusive bullet comment platforms, and exclusive note-taking communities. This year, even an 'exclusive trading card partner' has emerged.

Image source: Weibo screenshot

It can be seen that, in addition to internet giants and traditional consumer companies, more and more hard technology and subculture consumer brands are targeting this annual national traffic extravaganza.

01. What are the big companies competing for at the Spring Festival Gala?

As the program with the highest global viewership ratings, the annual CCTV Spring Festival Gala is also a 'marketing arena' for major companies.

E-commerce platforms like Taobao, JD.com, and Pinduoduo were once core partners of the Spring Festival Gala. However, with the saturation of mobile internet traffic and these platforms having grown into national-level applications, e-commerce platforms have gradually faded from the Gala's sponsorship lineup. Younger social media platforms have begun to collaborate more closely with the Gala.

Kuaishou and Douyin's 'vertical screen viewing of the Spring Festival Gala' has cultivated users' habit of watching the Gala on their phones; Xiaohongshu has created an exclusive note-taking and real-life interaction community, guiding users to share moments from the Gala. The presence of the Gala on social media platforms not only aligns with the festive atmosphere and communication needs but also enhances user stickiness and engagement duration on the platforms. From 2024 until this year, this has become a standard feature of collaboration with the CCTV Spring Festival Gala.

Image source: Weibo screenshot

The CCTV Spring Festival Gala's impact on boosting daily active users is significant, especially for social media applications that aspire to reach a nationwide audience. Chen Rui, the chairman of Bilibili, has publicly stated that in 2025, Bilibili secured the broadcasting rights for the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, and the number of daily active users (DAU) on New Year's Eve increased by 20% year-on-year. 'Not only did we achieve user growth, but we also further broke through brand boundaries, proving that Bilibili can effectively host national-level content.' This year, Bilibili once again became the exclusive bullet comment video platform for the Gala and required Upowners to participate in co-creation.

The immediate growth effects have made the CCTV Spring Festival Gala a must-have scenario for major companies to acquire new users and boost engagement. This year, the spotlight of competition among internet giants has collectively shone on 'AI assistants.'

This year, AI applications such as Yuanbao, Qianwen, Wenxin, and Doubao have invested billions of yuan in Spring Festival marketing. The red envelope battle launched by Tencent's Yuanbao, Alibaba's Qianwen, and Baidu's Wenxin has already garnered nationwide attention before the Gala begins. Additionally, Qianwen exclusively sponsored four provincial Spring Festival Galas in Henan, Dragon TV, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu. ByteDance's Doubao also recently announced the launch of the 'Doubao Celebrates the New Year' campaign, which, in addition to distributing red envelopes, will also give away over 100,000 tech gifts and cash red envelopes integrated with Doubao's large model during the CCTV Spring Festival Gala.

Image source: Weibo screenshot

Internet giants like BAT are now re-engaging in 'Spring Festival marketing,' but the protagonists are their respective AI applications, which the industry sees as a direct charge towards competing for the 'super AI gateway.'

It is worth mentioning that before Doubao officially announced its appearance at the Spring Festival Gala, ByteDance also took the lead in announcing that Volcano Engine would become the exclusive AI cloud partner for the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. Volcano Engine will participate in program production and video broadcasting based on multimodal large models and cloud computing technology. On New Year's Eve in 2025, this collaboration was exclusively secured by Alibaba Cloud, meaning that the AI competition at the Spring Festival Gala has now extended from the application layer to the underlying computational power.

02. Liquor companies step back, new consumer brands step forward

Before internet giants intensively partnered with the Spring Festival Gala, traditional consumer companies were the most common presence at the Gala, especially liquor companies and home appliance giants.

This year, significant changes have also occurred among the traditional consumer companies appearing at the Spring Festival Gala.

Firstly, there has been a reduction in partnered liquor companies. The 2024 Dragon Year Spring Festival Gala was seen as the peak of 'liquor content,' with a total of nine liquor companies appearing on stage. In the advertisements before the Gala officially began, six were liquor brands, the highest number in history. However, as the liquor industry enters a cyclical adjustment, many liquor companies have had to shrink (this word means 'contract' or 'reduce' and is kept as is for contextual flow, but in translation, we convey the meaning) their marketing efforts, especially when facing the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, a 'sky-high-priced stage' that often requires investments of over 100 million yuan. As of now, only four liquor companies—Wuliangye, Yanghe Dream Blue, Gujing Gongjiu, and Langjiu Honghualang—have announced collaborations with the CCTV Spring Festival Gala this year.

Image source: Weibo screenshot

As liquor companies reduce their presence, new consumer brands targeting young people have begun to appear at the Spring Festival Gala. 'Qujie Business' has noticed that many brands collaborating with the CCTV Spring Festival Gala for the first time this year are relatively 'young' in terms of establishment time or cultural symbols of their products.

Dreame announced in January that it would become the 'Intelligent Technology Ecosystem Strategic Partner' for the 2026 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, becoming the first technology company to collaborate in a full ecosystem format at the Gala. Currently, Dreame's core business covers intelligent mobility, intelligent cleaning, intelligent home appliances, intelligent kitchen appliances, intelligent audio-visual, and outdoor living.

The presence of home appliance brands at the Spring Festival Gala is not new. However, in the past, companies like Midea, Haier, and Gree usually collaborated through zero-hour sponsorship for the countdown or long-duration advertisements, with relatively simple and direct exposure. 'Qujie Business' understands that Dreame is likely to integrate specific products into the Gala's dressing rooms and skits this year.

Image source: Weibo screenshot

In February, the CCTV Spring Festival Gala also officially announced 'Trendy Toy Partner' Miniso and 'Exclusive Trading Card Partner' Kayou, with these partnership titles also appearing for the first time this year.

Both Miniso and Kayou target Gen Z young people and subculture circles. These types of 'emotional consumption brands' have never appeared in the context of the Spring Festival Gala before. This year, both Miniso and Kayou have chosen to 'co-create IPs' with the Spring Festival Gala: Miniso launched a Year of the Horse trendy toy collaboration centered around 'Ma Youyou,' which will be sold simultaneously in global stores; Kayou customized 'Year of the Horse Collectible Cards' for the Spring Festival Gala, which will be featured in the program.

The mutual pursuit of 'breaking through circles' between the Spring Festival Gala and emotional consumption brands stems from their desire to connect with a wider audience. On the one hand, the Spring Festival Gala needs to use trendy toys and trading cards, as social currencies, to bridge the emotional gap with Gen Z. On the other hand, interest brands themselves also need to leverage a national-level stage to be seen by audiences outside their own circles.

Furthermore, the Spring Festival Gala's global broadcasting network can synergize with the international layout of new consumer brands. Over the past year, Miniso, Kayou, and Dreame have all accelerated their overseas expansion: Dreame's revenue from overseas markets accounts for nearly 80%; Kayou has entered the U.S. market, securing licenses from global IP giants like Hasbro and Warner Bros.; at a recent partner conference, Miniso's founder Ye Guofu stated his ambition to lead the company to become a global leading IP operation platform.

Image source: Weibo screenshot

For these brands, which are at a critical stage of global expansion, the Spring Festival Gala is not only a 'springboard for breaking through circles' in the domestic market but also a golden ticket oriented towards (this word means 'facing' or 'oriented towards' and is kept as is for contextual flow, but in translation, we convey the meaning) global Chinese and even the international market. The commercial logic behind this goes beyond simple holiday marketing and points towards a longer-term global brand-building strategy.

03. Who can replicate the 'Unitree miracle'?

Similarly eager to enhance their national recognition on the CCTV Spring Festival Gala stage are robotics companies. 'Qujie Business' has noticed that the number of robot brands performing at the Spring Festival Gala this year has reached six, including Galaxy General (designated embodied large model robot for the Spring Festival Gala), Songyan Power (humanoid robot partner for the Spring Festival Gala), Magic Atom (strategic partner for the Spring Festival Gala), Unitree Technology (robot partner for the Spring Festival Gala), as well as iFlytek and SIASUN Robot, which will participate in performances at sub-venues.

Unitree Technology became famous overnight at last year's Spring Festival Gala, prompting various robotics companies to flock to the Gala stage this year, even if it means paying 'sky-high' appearance fees. Some media outlets have mentioned that the quotes from robotics companies wanting to appear on the Spring Festival Gala range from 60 million to 100 million yuan, with some exclusive rights even reaching as high as 500 million yuan. This has led to such segmentation (this word means 'segmented' or 'detailed' and is kept as is for contextual flow, but in translation, we convey the meaning) prefixes in robotics company partnership titles at this year's CCTV Spring Festival Gala.

Image source: Weibo screenshot

For some startup robotics companies, 100 million yuan is equivalent to the comprehensive cost of their R&D team for an entire year. Most robotics companies are not yet profitable, so why are they willing to invest heavily to appear on the Spring Festival Gala?

Zhang Yi, CEO of iiMedia Research, believes that the Spring Festival Gala brings about hundreds of millions of levels of breakthrough recognition, which is visible to the naked eye. It significantly amplifies exposure for both the brand and capital sides. This kind of exposure often stimulates positive effects on valuation, financing, and even IPO expectations, while also more easily translating into rapid growth in orders. After performing at the 2025 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, Unitree Technology not only saw a surge in orders but also completed a Series C financing in the first half of the year, with investors including China Mobile, Tencent Investments, Jinqiu Fund, Alibaba, Ant Group, Geely Capital, and others. The financing amounted to several hundred million yuan, with a valuation reaching 12 billion yuan.

However, not all leading players have chosen to join this 'hundred-million-yuan gamble.' Zhiyuan Robot, a first-tier player in embodied intelligence, took a different approach by creating its own 'Wonderful Night of Robots' event to demonstrate its product capabilities and delivery abilities. Zhiyuan Robot's CMO Qiu Heng stated that it's not that they don't want to appear on the Spring Festival Gala, but their budget is limited, and they need to prioritize R&D expenses.

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