Xiaomi makes its annual TV appearance during China’s CCTV New Year’s Gala

Up-and-coming phonemaker Xiaomi broadcast a one-minute TV advertisement during last night’s CCTV New Year’s Gala, the annual program that’s known to occupy Chinese living rooms at the start of the Lunar New Year.

Xiaomi seldom engages traditional advertising, opting instead to build buzz through social media and online forums. As a result, Xiaomi’s popularity makes the TV spot itself somewhat of an event, not unlike how Americans will look forward to certain superbowl ads.

Set to rousing violins, the ad captures a dancer, a skateboarder, a rockstar, an athlete and other do-er types generally owning it, all while a narrator espouses the sort of glittering, call-to-action nonsense that one expects from an ad such as this one (translation ours):

Our name is youth. As we chase our dreams, we don’t stop moving forward. We explore. We transform ourselves. We go all-in. Our time has come.

It’s a tonal shift from Xiaomi’s ad during the previous year’s CCTV New Year’s Gala, which happens to kick ass.

Xiaomi, along with Tencent’s WeChat, is one of the few brands that Chinese companies have begun marketing overseas in hopes of gaining loyalty among the young-and-hip consumer segment. Early in January the company confirmed it would launch its smartphones in Singapore this year, which will mark the company’s first entry into a multi-lingual market.

(Editing by Paul Bischoff)