Estée Lauder Travel Retail Asia Pacific launches Year of the Horse campaign

Estée Lauder Travel Retail Asia Pacific staged its 2026 Year of the Horse campaign under the banner "The House That Gives," centring a large-scale flagship pop-up at CDF Sanya International Duty-Free Shopping Complex Block C that ran through 28 February. The campaign rolled activations across Macau, Hong Kong, Thailand and Japan, delivering travel-retail exclusives and experiential gifting across key regional hubs.

The campaign marked the brand’s eighth consecutive collaboration with China Duty Free Group and, for the first time, extended that partnership into the Lunar New Year period — a window GTR described as Asia Pacific’s most important travel and shopping season. Estée Lauder Travel Retail positioned the initiative as a regional festive platform, with multi-city pop-ups and in-store mechanics timed to the December–February peak travel interval.

Hainan served as the creative and commercial centrepiece. On 24 January celebrity Shao Ziheng appeared as guest store manager at Estée Lauder’s duplex flagship boutique within the Sanya complex, an appearance that linked online and offline gifting moments and showcased limited-edition New Year collectibles. TRBusiness’s summary of the activation emphasised that the Sanya Block C pop-up was the campaign’s focal point and confirmed the activation finished on 28 February.

Product exclusives were front and centre. Two CDF‑exclusive, limited‑edition Year of the Horse skincare gift sets were released: Glowing Skincare Essentials and Re‑Nutriv Ultimate Luxury Collection, both positioned to highlight the brand’s hero franchises and age‑reversal positioning. Shoppers at pop-ups could also enter prize mechanics offering a chance to win a travel‑exclusive full‑size Glowing Skincare Essentials set, while guaranteed gifts were distributed via on-site games.

Experiential services and artisanal keepsakes underpinned the gifting message. Dedicated service areas provided complimentary personalised skincare and make-up consultations, and in-store mechanics included fortune stick draws, spin‑the‑wheel games and a "FortuneDrawer" experience dispensing seasonal wishes and gifts alongside travel‑exclusive assortments. Bespoke keychain assembly, couplet stamping and live calligraphy were offered at pop-ups to create tangible keepsakes for buyers.

The campaign also crossed categories: Estée Lauder partnered with premium teahouse chain CHAGEE on a co‑branded beverage menu and exclusive lucky draw experiences aimed at younger, experience‑led consumers. On the retail calendar, the DFS Four Seasons Macau pop-up ran from 31 December to 28 February, and DFS Sun Plaza in Hong Kong operated from 12 January to 28 February, framing the campaign across the late‑December to late‑February travel period.

Separate but thematically related, La Mer — a sister brand within The Estée Lauder Companies — ran its own Year of the Horse travel‑retail campaign. La Mer’s initiative featured Master Ren Xinghang’s porcelain artwork Metamorphosis of Eight Steeds and immersive pop-ups at 14 locations across ten Asia Pacific cities, including DFS Macau Shoppes Four Seasons and King Power at Suvarnabhumi Airport, with travel‑exclusive sets aimed at revitalising travel‑stressed skin.

By anchoring a flagship Sanya activation, releasing CDF‑exclusive gift sets and layering consultations, craft stations and lucky draws, Estée Lauder Travel Retail APAC made The House That Gives a travel‑centric festive platform designed to convert seasonal footfall into collectible, personalised gifting moments across the region.