People's Daily Opens a "Time Museum" Themed Taobao Store — Our Company

Event background

Founded in 1948, People's Daily has long been seen as rigorous, serious, and authoritative. In the internet era, however, traditional print media face a make-or-break moment, and People's Daily also faces an aging audience. In 2015, People's Daily New Media was established; today its official Weibo account has more than $12,500,000 followers. During the 2017 Two Sessions, the People's Daily app launched an H5 titled "Two Sessions Call You to Join the Group Chat," using group chat and Moments-style interaction to draw users into the sessions experience—its first breakout New Media product. Also in 2017, to mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of the army, People's Daily and Tiantian Pitu released an H5, "Travel Through Time: This Is Me Defending the Nation." Users could upload a photo to generate a personalized military portrait; within days, views exceeded $138,888,889.

In recent years, as "guochao" (China chic) rose, People's Daily began crossing categories to reach younger audiences. In May 2019, People's Daily New Media announced a Li-Ning collaboration including hoodies, T-shirts, and bags. It also built a creative experience space, "Youjian Guochao Hall," in Beijing's Sanlitun, drawing large numbers of young consumers.

Marketing event

On July 26, 2019, People's Daily announced on Weibo that its New Media official Taobao store was live. To build buzz, the official Weibo also ran a follow-and-repost giveaway to clear shopping carts. Posters showed this was not a one-off gimmick: it partnered with many domestic brands to present nostalgic memories. The store theme was "Time Museum," focused on nostalgia. August "series newspaper" products included a Dabao journal gift set, an Elvis Radio gift set, an M&G notebook gift set, a NetEase Cloud vinyl record, and a Mimi Foods backpack.

For the 40th anniversary of reform and opening-up in 2018, People's Daily had already launched a "Time Museum" as a touring pop-up on mobile display vehicles. To celebrate the 70th anniversary of New China, it continued the theme with a "Time Museum" pop-up caravan at Beijing's Blue Harbor, telling the story of 70 years of change in clothing, food, housing, and travel through exhibition.

Marketing analysis

Marketing strategy

As a traditional IP with 71 years of cultural history, People's Daily's strong official background long conveyed authority, rigor, and orthodoxy. That same image widened the gap with young people. To connect with them, People's Daily New Media combined online and offline campaigns that reached urban youth who theme propaganda once struggled to touch.

People's Daily has long stood for mainstream Chinese values. Opening a Taobao store and co-branding with heritage labels signaled official media support for domestic brands and youth culture. More playful, everyday communication helped it win recognition among a new generation.

Marketing methods

Nostalgia never goes out of style—especially around the 70th anniversary of New China. Online, People's Daily and classic domestic brands built the "Time Museum" Taobao store, giving traditional media reach to those brands while injecting new energy. Offline, it upgraded the "Time Museum" pop-up with caravans, high-speed rail, and cruise ships as carriers, showing 70 years of progress in mobile form. To amplify reach, it launched the Weibo topic #TimeMuseum and a set of hand-drawn time stories that resonated. It also ran a time-story call for UGC. Stars such as Li Xian, Bai Yu, Ma Yili, and Hu Xia added traffic and visibility.

Whether online history scenes strung by memory or immersive offline theme spaces, People's Daily's cross-border collaborations showed a fun, trendy side of an official account. Pop-ups, short video, and livestreaming deepened emotional resonance and reached consumers' hearts.

Marketing goals

In planning, design, and distribution, People's Daily moved away from grand-narrative propaganda and focused on how everyday life changed over 70 years of New China. Creative pop-ups let people re-experience and witness those changes, triggering memory and empathy for lasting impact. The campaigns also helped make the People's Daily image younger.

User profile

In the print era, audiences were mostly middle-aged and older. That has changed. As of August 2019, People's Daily's Sina Weibo followers exceeded $12,916,667; its WeChat official account reached 20 million fans; app downloads topped $33,333,333. On new-media platforms, most users are students and young office workers aged 20–35.

Marketing results

On July 26, a Weibo giveaway for the Taobao store launch earned $5,278 reposts and $2,917 comments. By August 12, the #TimeMuseum topic had $115,277,778 reads and over $519,444 discussions.

Incomplete counts show more than $83,333,333 people interacted with Time Museum topics across Weibo, WeChat, the app, Kuaishou, Douyin, and related platforms, with nearly $416,666,667 discussions network-wide—"Time Museum" became a widely praised hit.

Behind this screen-filling case sits the People's Daily New Media team, often called a "hit factory." In the first ten months of 2018 alone it launched multiple hits including "China Is Awesome" and "China Has Me."

What secrets sit behind such products? Let us review this strongest October "nostalgia hit" and see how a breakout is made:

New formats

Creative ideas that see the big in the small

Building "nostalgia" centered on ordinary people

Unlike a cold traditional "museum," the "Time Museum" used creative pop-ups tied to classic scenes of clothing, food, housing, and travel over 40 years, making memory tangible and interactive so people stepped into living, touchable history—awakening pride as if riding a time machine, with art and tech for immersive sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch.

1. Even lining up may not get you in—"a new internet-famous check-in landmark"

In chilly Beijing, a splash of China red—"Time Museum"—stood in trendy Sanlitun. Crowds queued; pinwheels in hand formed a striking sight.

There were self-employed visitors who had "gone into business" and taken an early train from Tangshan; young people who waited four hours only to hear they might not get in; a seven-year-old wanting bubble gum and stickers; young white-collar workers curious about the previous twenty years; elders past seventy wanting another era portrait; foreign friends who love China and Chinese culture. Clearly, "Time Museum" had become a new check-in landmark.

After 4–5 hours of patient waiting, visitors entered a "time tunnel" of major headlines People's Daily reported over 40 years and began a journey through four decades of reform. In the cold wind, staff handed out warming packs and pinwheels.

2. "Time Grocery Store"—reliving a childhood favorite place

The "Time Grocery Store," styled as creative shelves, revived a beloved childhood stop: the first individual business license, the mainland's first Coca-Cola fridge, seasonings, groceries, and famous liquors once bought with coupons, plus White Rabbit candy, Beibingyang soda, stickers, shuttlecocks, and toys kids rushed to buy after school—irresistible to adults and children alike.

Besides "buying," visitors could play the "southeast-northwest" paper game, customize time travel, and relive childhood.

3. "Wonder Room of Time and Space"—mirroring home changes

A grandmother recalling in the "Wonder Room" sighed: then a cramped home defined by the "four big items"; now a bright three-bedroom apartment with everything needed. Mirror contrasts let people jump through time and feel how family life changed.

Today parents worry about kids glued to phone games; then, playing a Famicom even once was a child's greatest joy.

4. Old Beijing "scenes"—custom time memories

Sound can move the heart more than visuals alone.

Hutong cries, vendors' calls, scissors-and-knife grinders' songs... "old Beijing sounds" echoed with yellowed photos. The "sound museum" and image show condensed citizens' life and woke unique memories of old Beijing.

Old times could be heard and seen—and made into special objects. A "time printer" could produce a personal People's Daily edition or a custom time bottle as a memory keepsake.

5. "Years Traffic Bureau" + "Golden Years Wall"—recording your growth

People say time is short and the years are long; how we travel is one of the best records of those years.

Now: shared bikes, metro, high-speed rail, planes—"fast speed." Then: Flying Pigeon bikes and monthly tickets—"slow speed."

The "Years Traffic Bureau" used miniature landscapes to show the years as a speed race. When visitors used a "time vending machine," face-scanned for a custom green-skin train model, and more, the contrast felt sharper.

Besides transport, TVs grew up with us. Once a luxury, now multi-screen. The "Golden Years Wall" played 40 years of favorites—The Bund, Calabash Brothers, Stories from the Editorial Office, Ikkyu, and more classics. Many guessed every title.

6. "Era Photo Studio"—PK your parents' same-style portrait

Today everyone shoots and shares; then a photo was a solemn ritual. The "Era Photo Studio" restored reform-era photo scenes and showed how clothing changed.

Like childhood hide-and-seek, visitors joined a "time treasure hunt," collecting four old items before taking a commemorative photo.

From young people dressing as their parents for same-frame PK shots, to a couple marking their 40th wedding anniversary in 2018 posing again, antique cameras and modern gear witnessed ritual "era portraits" that captured bright spots of the age.

7. "Listen to Time" + "Music Era Show"—sing and leave your voice

People's musician Xian Xinghai said music is life's greatest joy. Music filled this exhibition: the "Listen to Time" viral wall inside, and the outdoor night "Music Era Show" LIVE, left people immersed, happy, and moved.

The music wall featured cassette and vinyl. When familiar melodies played—Little Tigers' "Love," "A Spray of Plum Blossoms," "Longing," "At Least There's You," "Tian Mi Mi," "Tomorrow Will Be Better," "Youth Training Manual," and more—era memories poured out.

Visitors could leave words in a "time phonograph" or write from the heart and speak with time.

"Cherish time," "For the rest of life, you are enough," "Time does not age; we do not part"... heartfelt messages thanked the past and hoped for the future. These gathered public voices may become part of a "Time Museum" theme song heard across the country.

Sanlitun nights lit up with the era music show. Autumn-winter cold could not cool passion for music. Producers and singers performed LIVE, chorus classics like "Fairy Tale" and "Super Star," tasting time through song and saluting the era.

8. "China Has Me"—glory from another angle: "Time Has Me"

Time is a mirror of every person's growth. In an inverted "China Has Me" photo zone, keywords such as "ten-thousand-yuan household," "self-employed," "moderate prosperity," and "common prosperity" helped each visitor find belonging and pride for eras they lived.

New distribution

A "carrier fleet" of channels

Building nostalgia through story emotion

Creative work is only part of success; distribution matters. "Time Museum" ran like a carrier fleet—warmup, breakout, climax—linked and escalating into nationwide discussion and participation.

1. Warmup: "counting forty years" from many angles, sparking nationwide nostalgia

Nothing records an era like music—universal and resonant. On October 20, People's Daily posted across Weibo, WeChat, and the app: "4 seconds per song, 40 songs—how many can you name?" From 1987's "Hometown Love" to 2018's "The Most Beautiful Expectation," year-by-year hits ignited social nostalgia.

A single Weibo post topped $2,777,778 in reads and video plays; WeChat reads passed one million. Top comments were "tears," "memories," "nostalgia"—the move truly hit home.

Once music opened the mood, the open topic "If I had a Time Museum..." extended it. Sixteen stars across generations—Yang Yang, Han Xue, Su Bingtian, Hui Ruoqi, Liu Tao, Cheng Fangyuan, and more from the 1990s to 1960s—cheered and raised a second wave.

Offline, street interviews in Beijing—"If you had a time machine, which year would you return to?"—sparked a third wave as children, delivery "brothers," and people of every trade and age told their time stories.

People's Daily New Media also invited hands-on play with the H5 "Cross Over! My Time Museum," assembling 40 years of memory, and co-created a "Time Disco" H5 with NetEase Cloud Music—multi-angle, multi-channel nostalgia.

2. Breakout: activating "time stories" for UGC, online–offline screen takeover

Every campaign needs a spark; in mobile social media it is getting more people to act.

Knowing this, People's Daily New Media used short video and "time stories" to drive participation. It called young users on Douyin and joined Kuaishou for #MyTimeMuseum, collecting old objects from 40 years of life, reaching second-, third-, and fourth-tier cities and $93,611,111 rural users—massive UGC. Pagers, watches, language notebooks, small bills, and more: Kuaishou alone passed $4,166,667 participants. Even foreign friends joined and visited in person.

Corporate media joined in: the official Weibo launched #TimeMuseum; over 30 blue-V accounts linked. Topic reads passed $59,722,222 and discussions $383,333.

3. Climax: public sharing and viral spread, thousands of media reports, dual-line dominance

From warmup to breakout, built-up energy peaked October 26–30 as the offline "Time Museum" exploded—the campaign climax.

Thousands queued 4–5 hours daily to check in, then shared freeze-frames and stories via Weibo, Moments, short video, and livestream. Memories pulled more people in—a loop of participate–share–participate again–share again.

On site, visitors left notes and phonograph messages: over 3,000 cards and 600 voice notes of moving sincerity.

Many praised the event under #TimeMuseum: worth the trip, childhood memories revived; some who froze four hours still said "worth it"; others felt warmed by staff; many called it meaningful and looked to the next forty years.

There were regrets too: some waited a day and could not enter; many who traveled far never reached the front and asked for an extension—proof of love for "Time Museum."

It stayed a hot topic for days, dominated social platforms, and won coverage and praise from China.gov.cn, CCTV, Beijing TV, Beijing Daily, and thousands of press, TV, online, and self-media outlets.

Third-party data: positive feedback hit 99.21%; hot themes included "motherland," "life," "experience," "that was me," and "positive energy."

Summary

Depth and warmth behind the Time Museum

This year marked 40 years of reform and opening-up. Regions and institutions held memorials large and small; only "Time Museum" became a true hit and screen-filler—for two reasons: depth that sees the big in the small, and warmth that puts oneself in others' shoes.

People's Daily's Today Talk column "Why the Time Museum Touches Hearts" wrote: it unpacks the grand narrative—this is 40 years of the nation, of the family, and of everyone striving for a better life. China has me; time has me. Through the tunnel, people cherish the uncommon path walked together and marvel at China's miracles close at hand. That depth moved visitors on site.

Warmth showed in New Media's new image and stance. Inside the museum, People's Daily was no longer a cold official symbol but a flesh-and-blood "person" with worries and joys:

"He" arranged a surprise newsroom tour for visitors who missed opening hours;

"He" comforted a Weibo user who lost a custom paper and promised a replacement;

"He" even stepped from behind the screen onto the second-floor stage and sang freely.

Overall, "Time Museum" is People's Daily New Media's user-centered innovation, holding to two words—"true" and "new": true feeling, and exploratory innovation—driving users together to deliver a lived-in immersive experience and heartfelt viral spread.

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