The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2022
Meituan Waimai's 'Mom Loves Flowers' film wins 17 golds by casting real moms
Instead of a scripted tearjerker, Meituan and S.G. Advertising (胜加) filmed real Chinese mothers' flower prints, avatars and emojis — 110M Weibo reads, 17 golds.
Meituan Waimai (美团外卖)
What it had to solve
In spring 2022 Meituan Waimai's flower-delivery business asked S.G. Advertising (胜加) for a Mother's Day campaign that did not look like the many carnation-and-tears ads. The team had about a month — while Shanghai's COVID-19 lockdown kept everyone working from home — so the whole film had to be conceived, cast and directed remotely.
How it works
Every Mother's Day in China, brands compete with carnation-and-tears films. In spring 2022, Meituan Waimai's flower-delivery business briefed S.G. Advertising (胜加) for something different, with roughly a month to deliver while Shanghai's COVID-19 lockdown kept the team at home — no studios, no big shoots, everything decided over video calls.
The answer was an observation about real Chinese mothers: they love flowers. Flower-patterned sheets and clothes, flower phone wallpapers, flower avatars, flower emojis — the evidence was everywhere. Instead of writing mothers a scripted drama, the agency filmed non-actress mothers in their own lives, weaving many small scenes into one recognizable mom ('ten thousand moms, one mom' (万妈归一)), with copy paced like a nursery rhyme.
The film ran before Mother's Day 2022 and spread because it made viewers say 'that's my mom' and send it to her. Its Weibo topic drew 110 million reads and a top-15 hot-list position; it passed 12 million plays and 140,000 interactions on WeChat Channels, with more than 100 million total social exposures.
The campaign continued to win awards long after the holiday: golds at the 2022 Digitaling Award (数英奖) in short video and copywriting, a 4A Creative Awards 2022 entry, and in 2023 the Golden Eye Award (金瞳奖) commercial-short-film Grand Prix. By November 2023 it was credited with 17 golds and multiple Grand Prix and category awards in Chinese shows — evidence that a true cultural insight beats invented sentiment.
Why it lands
- The insight was already true in culture — flower-loving mothers — so the film needed no invented drama or hard product claims to feel relevant.
- Real non-actress mothers made every viewer recognize their own mom, converting a brand film into something people forward unprompted.
- The 'ten thousand moms, one mom' structure gave dozens of tiny moments one emotional arc, so the film felt universal and personal at once.
- It ended at the obvious action — send mom flowers on Meituan — so sentiment translated directly into the flower-delivery business the client needed to grow.
What it did
The Weibo topic drew 110 million reads and a top-15 hot-list spot; the film earned 12 million+ plays and 140,000+ interactions on WeChat Channels and more than 100 million total social exposures. It won the 2023 Golden Eye Award (金瞳奖) commercial-short-film Grand Prix plus category golds, and by November 2023 had collected 17 golds across Chinese industry awards.
What you can take
Look first for the audience's real, half-noticed habits: when the insight is already visible in everyone's mother, real people on screen make viewers forward the ad themselves.
Since then
The 2022 film became one of Meituan Waimai's most awarded brand contents: golds at the 2022 Digitaling Award (数英奖) in short video and copywriting, a 4A Creative Awards 2022 entry, and in September 2023 the Golden Eye Award (金瞳奖) commercial-short-film Grand Prix — at the same ceremony where S.G. Advertising (SG胜加) was named the year's commercial-short-film agency. By November 2023 the campaign was credited with 17 golds and multiple Grand Prix and category awards across Chinese shows, and it entered agency case studies as an example of observational-insight work.
Sources
- Meituan Waimai Mother's Day short film 'Mom Loves Flowers, We Love Her' — project page with brief, execution and results
- 妈妈爱花，我们爱她 — S.G. Advertising case article with 2023 金瞳奖 submission note
- 2023 金瞳奖: 胜加 named commercial-short-film agency of the year; Meituan's 'Mom Loves Flowers' wins Grand Prix
- 4A Creative Awards 2022 winner entry: 妈妈爱花 我们爱她 (online film, 60–300s)
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