Brand & Product
Six themes and many brands are linked into one clear route that invites viewers to come and explore, and shows how Digital Life Week relates to their own lives.
01 / Background
Shanghai Digital Life Week spans six themes: New Product Market, Lifestyle Services, Integration & Empowerment, Silk Road Goods, Quality Livestreaming and Taiwan Selections. The promo had to introduce the event, show the participating brands, and present “digital consumption” as everyday services viewers can experience for themselves. With a dense list of brands and offers, the key to this film was keeping viewers with it all the way through.
The film first uses the Bund, a metro station and street stalls to show the event is in Shanghai, then has a beam of light fly out of a passerby's phone and land on the venue, the West Bund Dream Center. It then unfolds the six sections in turn (new products, services, integration, Silk Road, livestreaming and Taiwan goods) and closes with a string of smiling faces and the key visual, telling viewers to head to the West Bund Dream Center on May 20.
02 / Creative Highlights
With many brands involved, the film opens on Bund street scenes and the Shanghai city theme before moving into digital imagery. A familiar place gives all the information a shared backdrop, so however the brands switch later, viewers know it's still one city event.
Quickly introducing new products, services and livestreams can easily turn into a pile of scattered shots. A colorful icon matrix first sums up the six themes, and a corner badge then keeps showing which section each part belongs to, so even at a fast pace viewers know which kind of consumer need each set of content addresses.
The tech packaging only links things together; the real content is concrete: a rider delivering food to a family at dinner, a host holding up a product in a livestream, a customer biting into a pineapple cake at a Taiwan goods stall. The lychee sequence cuts straight from picking in the orchard and fresh fruit held in the hand to a customer choosing lychees in a city store, turning “linking origin to table” into a route you can see. The closing string of smiling faces leads into the opening date and venue.
03 / Scene Breakdown
The Bund, a metro station, a café and a pan-fried bun stall first establish everyday Shanghai, then a beam of light flies out of a passerby's phone, travels through the streets and lands on the venue, the West Bund Dream Center.
An aerial shot of the Bund and Lujiazui cuts to Bund street scenes and “Shanghai, a city forever moving toward the new.” The camera then pushes in fast and rushes into the city.
Tapping a phone at a metro gate, a barista making pour-over coffee, scanning to pay at a pan-fried bun stall: three shots flash by with “Every second, tens of thousands of purchases happen here.”
A young woman by the street looks down at her phone, and a wisp of light drifts up from the screen. The band of light spreads along the intersections of Nanjing Road and Xujiahui, and finally flies toward the buildings of the West Bund.
The event logo lights up over the West Bund with the opening date; after passing through a tunnel of light, the picture settles on the West Bund Dream Center reflected in the water, with “2026 Digital Life Week: New Ways to Enjoy Digital Life.”
Before the main sections, each of the six themes is previewed with one image, and they finally come together in a theme matrix so viewers know what's coming.
A new product market with a row of white tents, and a young man spinning a virtual sneaker on a touchscreen; then a four-way split screen of housekeeping, bathing assistance, a delivery rider and a family at dinner.
In a virtual digital-human livestream, the host introduces products; a finger opens the interactive panel of a smartwatch, and points of light scatter outward.
A Silk Road Goods stand displays tapestries and dates as a foreign exhibitor talks with customers; then a fully lit livestream studio and a data screen, followed by high-mountain tea and pineapple cake gift boxes.
Six colored blocks of light rise over the city at night (New Product Market, Lifestyle Services, Integration & Empowerment, Silk Road Goods, Quality Livestreaming and Taiwan Selections), with “Six Themes, Two Weeks to Shop the World” in the middle.
From here, the film covers brands section by section. Each section opens with a title card, its badge stays in the top-right corner, and each brand gets only about two seconds.
An AI interactive zone at the market and the Tesla stand, with two cars parked amid the crowd; then a young man curled up on a sofa scrolling his phone, with a “New Releases” chart floating beside him.
Magnolia blossoms, silk and a vintage suitcase set off Shuangmei Yurong's new products; then the scene moves to the CDF Sunrise hall, where customers browse at the counter.
On the left, a housekeeper stands at a door with her tools; on the right, a delivery rider hands a meal to a resident. In the next shot, a Tuhu transporter carries a race car past the Bund.
A FlashEx courier hands a cardboard box to a young woman; a Dingdong Maicai rider stands at the door while a family sits around the table eating inside.
“Integration & Empowerment” is the most abstract theme. This section breaks it down into a few visible things: food delivery, an appliance store, a street-district event and the journey of a single lychee.
After the title card “Integration & Empowerment · Connecting the Future,” a split screen shows a rider delivering food on one side and, on the other, a crowd holding up phones in front of the Taobao Instant Commerce Double Five Shopping Festival board.
In a Suning.com store, customers gather around TVs and refrigerators; then comes the stage of Douyin's Heartbeat Street, with the audience below cheering with raised hands.
A grower in a straw hat reaches up to pick lychees, followed by a close-up of the fruit held in a palm; the next shot cuts straight to a city store, where a woman picks lychees at the shelf.
Silk Road Goods uses the port and a signing ceremony to say “setting out from Shanghai”; Quality Livestreaming takes the camera into stores and livestream studios.
An aerial shot of a container terminal, with containers stacked beneath gantry cranes and the line “Silk Road E-commerce, Setting Out from Shanghai”; then a Silk Road e-commerce livestream, where a host holds up a nesting doll to introduce specialties from around the world.
An open suitcase on the grass is packed with beauty products from Kaijie; in a meeting room, Chinese and foreign company representatives shake hands on a deal; dock workers watch containers being lifted.
Customers line up at the checkout in a Laiyifen 15th-anniversary store; inside a livestream studio, two hosts hold up a shirt to show the fabric to the camera.
In a Kuaishou livestream, a host holds up skincare products to explain the deals; finally, Laomiao gold bangles and chains are displayed on a black stone stand.
The last section covers goods from both sides of the Strait, then the film pulls back from the night view to people's smiling faces and closes on the key visual with the date and venue.
Ganso chilled zongzi on lotus leaves, zongzi-shaped lanterns floating on a lake, then visitors walking past Want Want's “Childhood Classics” stall.
At a Taiwan high-mountain tea stall, a young woman lifts a cup and takes a sip; in the next shot, another customer bites into a pineapple cake with a satisfied smile.
The camera pulls back from the West Bund to a night view of all Shanghai, with lights stretching along the Huangpu River.
A young woman carrying shopping bags, a father tapping a screen with his child, an older person using a phone with help from a volunteer, a couple taking a photo: after this string of smiling faces, the key visual announces May 20 at the West Bund Dream Center, and the event officially kicks off.
04 / Storyboards & Final Frames
Arranged in the order of the finished film. Each shot starts with what it shows, followed by the frame approved before video generation. Ready-made footage supplied by the brands, text-only captions and motion graphics are not included.
Shot 1.1
An aerial shot of the Bund and Lujiazui at dawn, with sunlight coming from behind the towers, setting a bright tone for the whole film.
Shot 1.2
The gates, signs and passages of a Shanghai metro station, as young people tap their phones to enter.
Shot 1.3
A barista makes pour-over coffee by the window, while customers behind look at their phones and laptops.
Shot 1.4
An over-the-shoulder view of a customer holding up a phone to the stall's payment code, as pan-fried buns steam in the pan.
Shot 2.1
A young woman by the Bund looks at her phone, and a wisp of light carrying data particles rises from the screen.
Shot 2.2
Both Nanjing Road and Xujiahui look like the real streets, with the band of light stretching along the road and linking consumption across the city.
Shot 2.3
In the early evening while it's still light, the buildings of the West Bund Dream Center and their reflections in the water are clear, so viewers recognize the venue at a glance.
Shot 3.1
White tents line the plaza; a young man spins a virtual sneaker on a touchscreen to see the new product's details.
Shot 3.2
A housekeeper making a home visit, a caregiver washing an older person's hair, three generations at dinner, and a delivery rider in the bike lane, combined into a split screen.
Shot 3.3
A light-toned virtual livestream studio, with a digital-human host explaining products beside them and the caption “Virtual Digital-Human Livestream” below.
Shot 3.4
A finger reaches toward a glowing button, while a panel beside it shows the smartwatch's specs.
Shot 3.5
A round display stand in a tent holds Central Asian tapestries, an incense burner and dates; another shot shows a foreign exhibitor talking with customers at the stand.
Shot 3.6
A livestream set with fill lights and cameras in frame, then a cut to the studio's data screen.
Shot 3.7
High-mountain tea tins and pineapple cake gift boxes on a wooden table, in warm light.
Shot 3.8
Six colored 3D blocks of light rise over the city at night, with the event name and “Six Themes, Two Weeks to Shop the World” in the middle.
Shot 4.1
The AI interactive zone at the market, with people lining up in front of screens to try it out.
Shot 4.2
Two cars parked side by side on the stand, with visitors gathered around them.
Shot 4.3
A young man sits on a sofa scrolling his phone as a new-release chart interface floats beside him.
Shot 4.4
Magnolia blossoms, silk and a vintage suitcase set off the century-old brand's new products.
Shot 5.1
A rider hands a meal with both hands to a resident opening the door, both of them smiling.
Shot 5.2
A red transporter carries a race car past the Bund, with the Oriental Pearl Tower behind.
Shot 5.3
A FlashEx courier hands a cardboard box to a young woman at the entrance of a residential compound.
Shot 6.1
In front of an event board by the Bund, young people hold up their phones to claim coupons, drinks in hand.
Shot 6.2
In an appliance store, customers gather around TVs and refrigerators.
Shot 6.3
In three shots: a grower reaches up to pick lychees, a close-up of the fruit in the palm, then a customer choosing lychees in a city store.
Shot 7.1
A host holds up a nesting doll, with specialties from many countries behind and labels below reading Russia, Thailand, Brazil and Argentina.
Shot 7.2
In a meeting room facing Lujiazui, Chinese and foreign company representatives stand and shake hands.
Shot 8.1
Orange gift bags are piled up in the store as customers line up at the checkout.
Shot 8.2
Two hosts display a shirt in a livestream studio, with a camera and fill lights set up in front.
Shot 8.3
In an orange livestream studio, a host holds up skincare products to introduce limited-time deals.
Shot 9.1
At dusk, a ring of zongzi-shaped lanterns floats on the water as a pleasure boat glides through the middle.
Shot 9.2
The stalls match real booths from past Taiwan goods markets: customers taste high-mountain tea and pineapple cake at the stalls.
05 / Results
We delivered a 1:58 4K (3840×2160) landscape promo used to promote 2026 Shanghai Digital Life Week before it opened, plus a 10-second teaser for silent playback on outdoor big screens and a version of the first 30 seconds.
Case Study
On May 20, 2026 Shanghai Digital Life Week opened at the West Bund Dream Center.
Six themes and more than twenty participating brands, each with its own new products and deals.
The organizer needed a promo that could go out before the opening: one that shows what the event offers and makes people want to go and explore.
We edited AI-generated visuals together with brand footage supplied by the organizer and delivered a 1:58 4K promo.
01
The hardest part of this film wasn't the visuals but the amount of information.
New Product Market, Lifestyle Services, Integration & Empowerment, Silk Road Goods, Quality Livestreaming and Taiwan Selections: more than twenty brands sit under these six themes. Shown one after another, viewers would lose track by the third.
So we gave them a “map” first: after the 17-second opening, a quick-cut sequence flashes each of the six themes, then they come together in a colorful theme matrix.
After that, each section opens with a title card, and however fast the brand shots cut, the section's badge stays in the top-right corner. Viewers always know which area they're “browsing.”
Six colored blocks of light float over the city at night, with “Six Themes, Two Weeks to Shop the World” in the middle.
The matrix also went through a revision. In the first version the light blocks looked cartoonish; the client wanted something grander, so we placed them over the city at night, made the blocks three-dimensional, and added the line “Six Themes, Two Weeks to Shop the World” in the middle.
02
The phrase “digital consumption” means little to viewers.
But tapping in at a metro station, a pour-over at a café, scanning a payment code at a pan-fried bun stall: every Shanghai resident has done these.
So the opening starts with these images, paired with the line “Every second, tens of thousands of purchases happen here.” Then a beam of light drifts out of a young woman's phone by the street, spreads along the intersections of Nanjing Road and Xujiahui, and finally lands on the venue, the West Bund Dream Center.
These images had to hold up to locals' eyes. The station had to be a real station, so we regenerated it based on a Shanghai metro station; the Nanjing Road street signs and the style of the payment codes were also checked against the real thing. Delivery riders always ride in the bike lane and hold meals steadily with both hands. A promo needs to convey a positive image of the city, and none of these details could be wrong.
The time of day at the venue, the West Bund Dream Center, was also adjusted. The earliest image was at dusk with projections on the buildings; we changed it to early evening while it's still light, so the building outlines and their reflections in the water are clear and viewers can tell at a glance where it is.
The band of light rises from the young woman's phone, crosses Nanjing Road and Xujiahui, and flies toward the West Bund.
03
Within each section, every brand gets only about two seconds in the film.
Two seconds can't fit an introduction, only one action. We found the action that best represents each brand: for Tesla, two new cars side by side on the stand; for Dewu, a young man curled up on a sofa scrolling a new-release chart; for Tuhu, a transporter carrying a race car past the Bund; for Dingdong Maicai, a rider at the door while a family sits around the table eating inside.
Products that appear on screen have to match the brands' real products. Where they couldn't, we made them generic, unbranded products to avoid misleading viewers.
One split screen covers two services, and the next shot moves to the Tuhu transporter.
04
Words like “Integration & Empowerment” and “Silk Road Goods” are easy to understand on a poster but hard to show on screen.
Our solution was to find a route you can see. For “linking origin to table,” we filmed a single lychee: a grower reaches up to pick it in the orchard, a close-up as it's held in the hand, and the next shot cuts straight to a city store, where a customer is choosing lychees at the shelf.
For “Silk Road E-commerce, Setting Out from Shanghai,” we started at a container terminal, then cut to a Silk Road e-commerce livestream and a signing between Chinese and foreign companies.
For the Taiwan Selections section, the client provided on-site materials from past Taiwan goods markets and wanted the images to stay close to the real booths. We rebuilt the high-mountain tea and pineapple cake stalls based on these materials, with customers tasting tea and cake, just as visitors would see them on site.
Taiwan goods stalls rebuilt from real booths: customers taste high-mountain tea and bite into pineapple cake.
05
It took about 12 days from receiving the event plan to delivering the final version.
On the first evening, we produced a sample of the first ten-odd seconds to set the direction, then adjusted shot by shot based on the client's feedback. In post-production we replaced all shots with versions generated in 4K, checked the on-screen text frame by frame, replaced shots with lower image quality, and delivered the 4K final version before the opening.
Besides the 1:58 main film, we also cut a 10-second teaser and a version of the first 30 seconds. The 10-second version plays on outdoor big screens without sound, so the on-screen text has to explain the event on its own.
06
A promo for a shopping event can easily become a moving poster: brand names flash by one after another, and viewers remember nothing.
This film took a different approach: it draws people in with everyday scenes familiar to Shanghai residents, then uses a theme map to fit more than twenty brands into six sections, with just one action per brand.
AI let us get dozens of scenes right in about ten days: dawn on the Bund, lychees in the orchard, gantry cranes at the docks, fill lights in the livestream studio.
And what viewers remember is simple: on May 20, go explore the West Bund Dream Center.
FAQ
This film first runs through the six themes with a quick-cut sequence and a theme matrix; after that, each section opens with a title card, and the section badge stays in the top-right corner. Each brand is shown through a single action, such as Tesla's two cars on the stand or Tuhu's transporter passing the Bund.
Yes, but they have to be checked shot by shot. In this project, the metro station was generated from the gates and signs of a real station, the Nanjing Road street signs and payment code styles were checked against real life, and delivery riders ride in the bike lane; the Taiwan Selections stalls were rebuilt from on-site materials of past markets.
About 12 days. On the evening we received the event plan, we produced a sample of the first ten-odd seconds, then revised shot by shot based on feedback, finally replacing everything with 4K versions and checking the text frame by frame. It was delivered before the opening on May 20.
This project delivered a 1:58 4K (3840×2160) landscape main film, plus a 10-second teaser and a version of the first 30 seconds; the 10-second version played silently on outdoor big screens, with on-screen text explaining the event on its own.
Approach
We first broke the event copy into a city opening, a theme preview, six sections and a key-visual close, wrote the visuals and captions shot by shot, then marked which shots would use brand footage from the organizer and which would be AI-generated. The West Bund Dream Center is set in the early evening while it's still light; the metro station, Nanjing Road street signs, payment codes and rider uniforms were all checked against the real thing, with riders in the bike lane; the Taiwan Selections stalls were based on on-site materials from past markets.
The six-theme matrix was made as 3D blocks of light rising over the city at night, with “Six Themes, Two Weeks to Shop the World” in the middle. After that, each section opens with a title card, and the section badge stays in the top-right corner. All shots in the final film were generated in 4K, and the on-screen text was checked frame by frame.
More Work
Ideal for brand launches · public-sector communications · cultural-tourism campaigns · IP transformation · event openers · earnings visualization · social campaigns · AI workflow development
