After reading 20,000 Weibo posts, let’s take a look at Durex’s marketing tactics

From the first well-known "Legend of the Shoe Covers on a Rainy Night" incident in 2011, to the recent Thanksgiving " brand alliance" incident that went viral on the Internet, Durex , the big brother and old driver in the field of leveraging hot spots, is still constantly creating new marketing hot spots and has even created a large number of self-media people with more than 100,000 followers.

Whether on Baidu or Weibo, as long as you search for the three words "Durex", its related searches will inevitably include "Durex riding on the hot topic", "Durex copywriting ", "Durex advertising" and "Durex official Weibo" . It can be said that Durex’s success in China is inseparable from social media marketing , especially the opening and operation of its official Weibo account.

The official blog, which has more than 2 million followers, is a place for Durex to interact and communicate with fans/consumers/potential consumers , and is also a place for advertising, brand display, and leveraging hot topics . Most of those phenomenal screen-sweeping copywriting were spread through Weibo, which is the headquarters of Durex’s marketing .

When I re-read the more than 20,000 posts on Durex's official Weibo, I summarized two major marketing strategies: fast, fierce and accurate marketing through leveraging trends , and interactive marketing that maintains a good relationship with fans. Although Durex's success is difficult to replicate, the methods and experience it used to achieve success are worth our reflection and learning.

1. Heartfelt interactive marketing to build a good relationship with fans

Durex attaches great importance to communication with its Weibo fans, which is a "user-centric" service concept. The huge fan base is the target audience of the product, including old users, new users, and potential users. Through positive interactions with fans, we not only maintain old users and attract new users, but also establish a good brand image.

In the process of dealing with fans, Durex uses a variety of marketing methods, including emotional marketing, interactive marketing, experiential marketing and so on. under. I would like to analyze in detail the methods and means used by Durex in interactive marketing :

The so-called interaction is the mutual action of both parties; and the key to interactive marketing is the give and take between users and enterprises, which is a two-way communication or action . Good interactive marketing should meet three conditions: first, let users truly participate and create a strong sense of participation ; second, let users get instant feedback when they interact with the company quickly, promptly and effectively; finally, allow users to share and spread the information, which has a certain degree of sociality .

Durex is well versed in interactive marketing. It uses Weibo, a highly social platform, to firmly grasp the psychology and attribute characteristics of fans, put aside its big brand airs, and mingle with fans. Let's take a look at how Durex interacts with its fans (consumers):

1. Fixed topics and random topics guide fans’ comments

If we observe Durex's official Weibo carefully, we will find that various fresh and hot topics are released every day waiting for fans to participate in the discussion. From advertising topics related to core products such as condoms, to user topics about emotions and gender, to daily topics close to life, Durex can always find entry points that are interesting, novel or heart-wrenching , and use a few simple sentences to guide the topic, which may resonate with fans , stimulate fans' curiosity and desire to explore , or arouse fans' performance psychology , thereby allowing consumers to respond and discuss actively, proactively and enthusiastically.

Example: Fixed topic

The topic #Du Jue Hu Shuo# (Figure 1) has been maintained until now. It is a fan interaction topic released by Durex at around 10 o'clock every night. It has a relatively fixed push time, fixed tags, and the description "Do you know Dudu? Do you want to get to know your Ta more deeply? Come and talk freely with Dudu~", directly inviting fans to participate. It involves a lot of hot topics that are of interest to young people and close to life.

#MostFans# (Figure 2) is a fixed topic that Durex has set up in the past. Its special feature is that it adopts the form of "topic + a fan's message" . After the topic is thrown out, a fan's remarks will be attached. It not only provides a reference for discussion for other fans, but also encourages other fans to boldly express their ideas with the voices of fellow fans. It is a good means of topic interaction.

Figure 1: #Eliminate Nonsense# Fixed Topic

Figure 2: #mostfans# fixed topic

In addition to the daily fixed topic discussions mentioned above, Durex will also release some random topics from time to time, in the same or similar format as the fixed topics. If brands or companies want to establish a good relationship with fans through interactive topics, there are a few tips:

• Set one or several fixed topics, and publish them at a certain time of "morning, noon, and evening", and set a fixed topic tag to cultivate fans' interactive habits.
• Based on the nature of the brand/product and the target audience, fully understand the habits, preferences and psychological characteristics of your fans/users, and select topics that best suit their age group and areas of interest.
• The introductory text for the topic should not be too long; one or two sentences are excellent; there must be obvious introductory words, such as: what do you think, what is it, what about you, tell me, etc., indicating that the author wants you to express your ideas.
• Be good at taking advantage of current hot topics and keeping up with trendy topics so they will never become outdated.

2. Reply to fans’ messages instantly and mingle with them

Durex attaches great importance to communication with fans, and its sincerity can be felt from its early Weibo posts. Under almost every Weibo post, Durex replies to individual fans' messages or likes the fans' replies. Although it is not possible to reply to every comment, it still helps a lot. First, the official leaving comments and feedback in the comment section shows that it is happy to interact with fans, which can further narrow the distance between each other and create an approachable image; secondly, it makes fans feel respected or valued , and get official recognition, so they will participate in discussions more actively.

Durex likes and replies to fans' comments

When replying to fans' messages, there are a few points that need special attention:

• If conditions permit (not many messages and plenty of time), you can reply to all messages to make your presence felt.
• If the number is large or time is insufficient, you can reply to only a few of them; but do not reply randomly. You can reply to the messages with the highest number of likes based on their popularity, or select a few interesting, fun, relevant ones, etc. to reply to.
• When you don’t want to or can’t reply, simply liking the fan message at the top is also a form of silent communication.

3. Mobilize fans’ enthusiasm for participation through rewarded interactions

The pursuit of interests is one of the most basic sources of motivation for people, and rewards can be used to motivate fans to the greatest extent. Durex naturally took advantage of this and held raffles from time to time in the form of "retweeting Weibo", and most of the prizes were Durex's own products. It not only distributes benefits to fans to attract more participation, but also promotes its own products.

Durex Weibo lucky draw event

In the process of doing rewarded interactions, there are a few tips I would like to share with you:

• The fan participation steps set for prize-winning interactions must not be too complicated, and the operations must be simple, such as only requiring one step of “retweeting a Weibo post”; otherwise, fans will give up participating due to the complicated operations.
• The setting of prizes can be based on the characteristics of the target audience and provide them with things that they are interested in; of course, giving away your own products as prizes is also a good choice.
• Ways of interactive activities with rewards are not limited to "retweet on Weibo" and "@X friends", but can also be product purchase discounts, solicitation activities, fan comment and like activities, etc.

4. The obscure poster design caused fans to speculate wildly

Once people's curiosity is aroused, they will try every possible means to satisfy their desires and find out the truth. Durex has taken advantage of fans' curiosity and competitive spirit to the extreme. Through the imaginative poster design, those seemingly plain pictures are filled with mysteries, and the poster itself whets the appetite of fans; coupled with one or two tsundere copywriting, such as: find the highlights by yourself, don't force it if you don't understand, it has a bit of provocation, which arouses fans' curiosity and arouses their competitive spirit, making them have to understand it.

The goal was achieved. Fans competed to guess, using their brains, eyes, mouths, hands and even the strength of their whole bodies to combine, decompose, imagine, associate and simulate in an attempt to solve the mystery. They also posted their opinions in the comment area. Fans also discussed with each other, which greatly increased the interactivity.

The two pictures below are Durex’s early posters and copywriting. I wonder if you all understand them.

Durex's posters contain hidden secrets (have you guessed them all?)

Use poster design to stimulate fans' curiosity and thirst for knowledge and achieve good interactive effects. Pay special attention to:

• The mystery behind the poster design should be both reasonable and unexpected, and should be able to withstand repeated scrutiny, rather than being illogical or unrelated.
• In order to arouse fans' curiosity to the greatest extent, you can directly release the picture without any text guidance or explanation, allowing fans to guess the intention of the poster or even the official itself.
• When posting a poster and adding copywriting to guide the fans, adding some teasing, provocative, arrogant, and misleading words can better stimulate the fans' enthusiasm for participation.

5. Scenario-based consumption experience, face-to-face interaction with consumers

Experiential consumption allows consumers to fully experience products and services in consumption venues created by brands or companies, personally feel the atmosphere created and the concepts conveyed by the company or brand, and use their own experiences to form satisfaction and loyalty to the company, brand, product and service. Situational experiential consumption is directly linked to consumers' lifestyles, giving their individual actions and purchasing opportunities more real psychological feelings and social significance .

It can be said that experiential marketing is one of the most popular marketing methods nowadays. In July 2015, Durex opened a venue called "AiR Air Condom Concept Supermarket" , which was open only from 20:00 to 23:00 on the evening of the 24th. Although it is just a concept supermarket, Durex has created a real consumer experience scene through lighting, furnishings, personnel, live broadcasts , etc., where consumers can purchase products directly. At the same time, celebrities such as Shen Teng and Qiao Bin were invited to introduce Durex AiR to consumers on site. This experience makes people feel like they are in the world of Durex, fully experiencing its design, atmosphere, services and products.

Durex concept supermarket map

Durex has many other experiential marketing methods. In addition to the concept supermarket, last year's "100-person trial" event, although it was criticized in the end, was also a new marketing attempt.

2. Fast, fierce and accurate marketing through leverage, passionate collision between posters and copywriting

When talking about Durex, how can we forget to mention the topic of leveraging hot topics! It is no exaggeration to say that when a hot topic breaks out, some people squat on the hot topic, while others specifically squat on Durex , taking advantage of the situation to gain the image of an old driver and become popular.

Durex has always been known for its “speed” in leveraging trends. When unpredictable and sudden hot spots come, it can send out high-quality posters and copywriting for leveraging trends within just one or two hours or even dozens of minutes. The posters and copywriting are to the point and so “accurate” that it is terrifying. The self-media people who worked so hard to catch up with the hot topics were both envious and impressed, while the onlookers were watching with great interest.

Of course, Durex's "fast", "ruthless" and "accurate" creation, in addition to its own experienced copywriting team, the two major skills of poster and copywriting creation are worth learning:

1) Directly use or change the product’s appearance/packaging/logo as a picture element for the poster

As the highlight of taking advantage of hot spots, the design of the poster is very critical. A thoughtful poster should not only fit the hot spots but also take the products into consideration, and also pursue speed. How can we create a satisfactory hot spot poster in the shortest time?

Through analysis, we can find that Durex is good at making use of its products. In addition to directly using the shape and appearance characteristics of the products in posters, it can also change the shape or appearance of the products through combination, splitting, twisting, stretching, grafting, etc., and then place them in posters. With this kind of creative approach, the materials are almost ready-made, and you just need to consider how to link the product to the hot topic.

1. Directly use the product appearance

The product shape and appearance remain the same, or are only enlarged or reduced in proportion. For example, in the preheating campaign before the official release of iPhone 7, Durex cleverly designed 7 Durex condoms of different colors and sizes as the main elements of the poster, representing that the new "Apple" phone belongs to the 7th generation, and simulating the background combination of the official website.

Directly utilizing the product’s appearance is a relatively easy method to operate, but it is also relatively difficult to stand out, and good creativity is required.

Apple 7 preheating poster

2. Transform hot-spot related elements into product image

Find representative elements in hot events , such as glutinous rice balls on the Lantern Festival, the vertical camera of the new Apple X, rings/roses on Valentine's Day , etc. Select key elements and make slight changes (stretching, bending, etc.) so that the shape of the product can be visually seen while maintaining the original properties of the elements, thus creating related associations and perfectly combining the hot spot and the product.

For example, Durex took advantage of the hot topic of Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize and stretched the top of the hat that symbolizes Bob Dylan a little bit. The whole hat visually took on the shape of a Durex condom when in use, which not only took advantage of the hot topic but also highlighted the product.

Bob Dylan wins Nobel Prize

3. Assemble products into hotspot related elements

That is the opposite of the second point above. It is to use one's own products to piece together and create an image of the main elements related to the hot topic , which also has two meanings.

For example, Durex took advantage of the 2015 FIFA Ballon d’Or by replacing condoms with gold ones and combining them into the shape of a golden football, symbolizing the Ballon d’Or while highlighting Durex as a product.

FIFA Golden Ball Award poster

Of course, Durex’s poster design uses more than just three techniques. Due to space and time constraints, I will not analyze the others one by one, leaving you to discover and summarize them on your own.

2) Directly quote or slightly modify the words and sentences related to the hot topic as copywriting to take advantage of the trend

If you want to quickly create copy that is highly relevant to a hot topic within a limited time frame, using ready-made hot texts is an excellent way. Many of Durex’s copywriting that leverages momentum is creative in this way.

The idea is roughly the same as that of poster design, that is, to be good at turning the keywords and sentences of the hot spots themselves into copywriting that takes advantage of the trend. The methods include: quoting the hot text completely without making any modifications ; keeping the original meaning of the hot sentences unchanged, replacing the original sentences with new sentences and language patterns (such as changing Chinese to English); splitting, reorganizing, and patching the hot texts to form new copywriting.

1. Swap the hot words between Chinese and English without changing the original meaning

It is a flexible and feasible way of creative copywriting. It is easy to operate. You only need to replace Chinese (English) with English (Chinese) with the same or similar meaning . In the process of transformation, it should not be just a simple change of language. You need to carefully consider what words can make the copy more outstanding. At this time, when changing to English, you don’t have to consider English grammar . When changing to Chinese, be good at using popular words or Internet language to make the Chinese copy more down-to-earth and more Chinese. Finally, don’t forget to make the copy relevant to the hot topics and combine it with the product.

The picture below is a poster that Durex used when Apple 7 released the red version. The Chinese copy on the official website of Apple 7 is "Now available in red" . Durex cleverly swapped the Chinese and English copy: it changed the Chinese copy of Apple into the English form "Red now" , which literally means "now red". With only two words, the copy is more concise and to the point, and also echoes the red packaging of Durex products, making it look unusually harmonious.

Durex takes advantage of the Red Apple 7

2. Split and reorganize hot text elements

This type of copywriting creation method first requires analyzing hot events and finding the most representative words or texts as the original material for leveraging copywriting. For example, when we leverage the 24 solar terms, the name of each solar term (Spring Equinox, Great Heat, Beginning of Autumn, Lesser Cold, etc.) is the keyword corresponding to the hot spot and can be used as elements for splitting and reorganization. Then, during the operation, Chinese characters can be split according to radicals , and English words can also be broken down into letters ; finally, they must be reassembled in a meaningful way to form part of the copy.

For example, in taking advantage of the hot topic of the merger between DiDi and Uber China, Durex used the English names of the two brands, "DiDi" and "Uber" , as the keywords of the hot topic, and through splitting and reorganizing, it became a new word "DUDU", which is not only the initials of DiDi and Uber, but also the abbreviation of "DO You" . It can be said that it is related to both the hot topic and the brand.

Durex takes advantage of Didi and Uber China merger

The article ends here. These analyses are far from enough to explain Durex’s marketing. Blind reference or imitation is ineffective. After a deep understanding of Durex’s marketing model, you must combine the characteristics of your own company, brand, and environment to explore a set of marketing methods or leveraging techniques that suit you.

The author of this article @草莓说事 is compiled and published by (青瓜传媒). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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