The marketing logic behind Liu Genghong’s sudden popularity!

How popular is the Liu Genghong phenomenon ? After finishing his fitness live broadcast in the morning, Liu Genghong's Douyin fans officially exceeded 40 million, reaching an astonishing 45 million. What’s crazy is that on April 20, Liu Genghong’s Douyin followers exceeded 20 million, and one day later, on the evening of April 21, it exceeded 30 million. In other words, he gained 10 million followers in one day, which is amazing. Liu Genghong has become a top internet celebrity like Li Jiaqi. All this happened during the lockdown in Shanghai due to the epidemic. It is most appropriate to describe him as " an overnight sensation ."

Who is Liu Genghong? If you search on Baidu, you can find some introduction about him before he became famous: a male singer, songwriter, host and actor from Taiwan.

What we are discussing today is not the home fitness exercises that he led everyone to do and made him famous on the Internet, but the unique Chinese business and marketing phenomenon reflected behind him.

What is PGC? Profession Generated Contents are contents generated by some professional organizations and authoritative figures , while UGC are contents generated by ordinary consumers and the general public. In today's era of universal marketing , this boundary has become very blurred. The era of personal brand influence has arrived, and the influence generated by personal brands may exceed that of some professional organizations and media. All this is due to the emergence of short video media, which has captured the attention of the general public.

Take the entertainment industry as an example. In the past, celebrities were packaged by a public relations company, got business, gained fame and realized commercial value through a star-making agency or a celebrity agency. But now, the influence of these agencies on traffic stars may have weakened, because a new word has emerged between "celebrity" and "ordinary people", "Internet celebrity", the full name is "Internet celebrity", abbreviated as "Internet celebrity".

Before he became famous, Liu Genghong was just an ordinary little star who was not very popular. He was not a top star. It was not an agency or a star-making organization that made him famous, but himself. Rather than calling him a "star", "Internet celebrity" seems to be a better explanation for his current phenomenon.

From the perspective of social influence , the content they produce can be browsed, watched, and even imitated by countless fans. For example, when you open your WeChat Moments every night, half of your female friends may have become "Liu Genghong girls," and the screen is overwhelming. Whether it is Douyin, Xiaohongshu, or Bilibili or Weibo, it is full of videos of Liu Genghong's shuttlecock exercises. Even the square dance in the park has been replaced with "Compendium of Materia Medica"...

Liu Genghong has promoted home fitness behavior and changed the daily behavior of the general public. I am afraid that not many people can achieve such an influence.

What is the marketing revelation for brands ? Brands can consider launching their own influencers, professionals with authoritative voice in a certain field. They can be employees of the company, specially hired consultants, or consumers or clients with whom the company has in-depth cooperation. The influence of influencers can be increased through the company's own platforms. The influencers can be allowed to speak for the brand and their professional abilities can be used to drive the brand's professionalism, ultimately achieving the goal of enhancing brand power.

Because he works the hardest and he strives very hard, his success comes from the persistent output of high-quality content every day.

Liu Genghong, who showed off his agile posture and worked very hard in the live fitness show, is already 50 years old. In the live broadcast room, he was doing vigorous exercises while shouting "come on and move". The super strong and intensive fitness movements, as well as Liu Genghong's constant encouragement like a 1V1 private trainer, made netizens feel more fit. Many netizens said that "watching the live broadcast is like getting a shot of chicken blood." A Shanghai netizen said: "All the depression during the epidemic was polished away in this hour!"

“Why are you so popular and not others?” This question can also be asked to the brand itself: Why do others buy your products instead of your competitors’?

You want your customers to feel more than just the success of your product itself. In addition to diligently producing content day after day, you need to trigger a deeper emotional resonance with your customers and meet their spiritual needs. This means that the focus of your content will not only be the product itself, but the spirit and energy represented by the brand. Products and services that can meet the spiritual needs of users can generate higher premium space. Otherwise, it is easy to fall into price wars and channel wars, competing for customers by lowering prices and competing for channels. This is brand-damaging behavior.

Grasping the pain points of users , consistently outputting content, leveraging the power of the platform, and continuously enhancing brand influence, brands can cultivate their own professional opinion leaders and continue to speak for the brand. This can become the main direction of marketing in 2022. I will also continue to pay attention to Liu Genghong and observe his further actions in the future as a top Internet celebrity .