The archive · Content & Film · Marketing decision · 2024–2025
Kuaishou films a wheat farmer's dream journey — 400M+ exposure
When a 64-year-old farmer told streamer Da Bing 'after the wheat, I go south', Kuaishou funded the trip and filmed it as a 16-minute documentary
Kuaishou (快手)
What it had to solve
Kuaishou needed to convert a viral live-stream moment into deeper brand value at year-end: strengthening its warm, real community image and raising the reputation of its exclusive streamer Da Bing.
How it works
In late 2024 a 64-year-old Henan farmer who had farmed since age 13 joined streamer Da Bing's Kuaishou livestream and asked, with 5,000 yuan, a tricycle and a tent in mind: 'After the wheat is planted, I go south' - she wanted to see Xishuangbanna before she got too old. The line, spoken like poetry by a woman with a primary-school education, moved millions and made her known across the internet as Granny Mai Zi (Wheat Granny).
Kuaishou's move was to treat the viral moment as a responsibility, not just content. Da Bing had the platform reach the woman, and together they turned an impractical tricycle plan into a 3,000-km escorted journey: routes planned, work-for-stay lodging arranged, friends recruited to protect her along the way. Kuaishou's We studio documented the entire trip and released it as a 16-minute documentary in early December 2024, in a joint launch with CCTV.com.
The film avoided melodrama, and that restraint became its power: audiences read Granny Mai Zi as every mother who postponed her own dreams, and called the project the warmest event of 2024. Kuaishou reported 400M+ total exposure, 281M measurable interactions, 40M+ plays, 19 hot-search appearances, and thousands of user-made follow-up videos across Douyin, Xiaohongshu, Bilibili and WeChat.
The documentary later won the 2025 Golden Mouse grand prix for best communication effect and two 2025 DIGITALING Awards golds, was selected as an outstanding online audiovisual work of Q1 2025, and its subject was invited to appear on CCTV's Spring Festival and online Spring Festival galas - an outcome that turned a platform marketing case into a piece of national cultural memory.
Why it lands
- The idea refuses the playbook of quoting a viral line and selling merch: it invests real resources in the speaker's actual dream, so the brand's warmth is verifiable.
- Sixteen minutes of quiet documentary in a short-video era was a deliberate risk that paid off - the format signaled sincerity and gave the story room to become a shared cultural moment.
- The reach is documented and unusually broad: 400M+ exposure, 40M+ plays, 19 hot-search entries, CCTV.com co-release, and invitations for the subject to appear on national Spring Festival galas.
- The project aligned the platform, its exclusive streamer and a real person into one narrative, showing how an ecosystem can convert a spontaneous human moment into long-term brand equity.
What it did
Kuaishou-reported results: 400M+ total exposure and 281M measurable interactions, 40M+ plays, 19 hot-search entries, official WeChat video posts passing 120K likes, shares and hearts, plus thousands of user-made follow-up videos; the film won the 2025 Golden Mouse (金瞳奖) grand prix for best communication effect and two 2025 DIGITALING Awards golds.
What you can take
When a community produces a genuinely moving moment, the strongest move is to take the story seriously - fund the dream, document it truthfully, and let the audience call it the year's warmest event.
Since then
After its December 2024 release the documentary kept compounding: provincial and national media covered it, People's Daily used its footage in year-end montages, and Granny Mai Zi was invited to CCTV's Spring Festival galas. It was selected among outstanding online audiovisual works for Q1 2025, won the 2025 Golden Mouse grand prix and two DIGITALING Awards golds, and became Chinese marketing's reference case for brand as a container of social kindness.
Sources
- 快手纪录片《种完麦子我就往南走》，与大冰连麦发起的圆梦接力 (case entry with results)
- 《种完麦子我就往南走》2024温暖大事件纪录片 (2025 Golden Mouse case)
- 2025金瞳奖深度复盘：十大案例拆解品牌如何用情绪价值引爆增长 (Case 2: Granny Mai Zi)
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