Universal formula for online event promotion and marketing planning!

In this article, the author will tell you about his understanding of the underlying logic of marketing planning, and demonstrate the universal formula for marketing planning that he has sorted out. Finally, he will review the "book throwing activity" of Xin Shixiang to combine and analyze the above-mentioned contents.

Last time, we looked at the underlying logic of marketing planning from Pinduoduo and sorted out the universal formula for marketing planning:

The universal formula for marketing planning = exploring user needs (internal and external motivations) + making use of advanced gameplay (creativity + form + technology + channel + motivation) + reducing user costs

What is the underlying logic of marketing planning from the perspective of Pinduoduo?

Let’s focus a little more on the online world: Should there be an “easy-to-use formula for online event planning” that even marketing novices can implement?

Yes, there is, just apply it and it will come out.

Online communication activity planning = clarifying the purpose of the activity (premise) + exploring user needs (internal and external motivations) + making use of advanced gameplay (creativity, form technology, channels) + reducing user costs

I will break down each formula item separately, and then review the classic "book throwing event" of New World (to be precise, this is an online + offline integrated marketing event, but I think its focus is on online promotion) to teach you how to use the formula specifically.

1. Clarify the purpose of the activity: think clearly before you can do it clearly

What aspects should you think about?

1. Consider the actual situation of the company, products, and users

Ask more whys:

• What problems are we facing at this stage?
• What user needs need to be met at this stage?
• Why do we need to do this activity? Is it necessary to do it?
• Is there a more cost-effective solution?
• What kind of strategy does the brand/product need at this stage to maximize the benefits of this event?

2. What current problems can the activity solve?

Different purposes can complement each other, but we must find the focus, focus on the big and let go of the small, grasp the most important purpose to design the details of the entire activity, in order to achieve the best activity effect.

• Is it the company’s strategic purpose, brand purpose?
• Is it to attract new customers? Convert sales?
• Testing or segmenting user groups?

3. How can the results of the activity be quantified? How to set it?

1. Tailor your goals based on the stage your company/product is in.
2. Goals need to be set in stages according to the progress of the activity, so that appropriate adjustments can be made during the execution of the activity based on the differences between actual results and goals.
3. Specify the target according to the target user.
4. Use data to clarify goals. The expected effects of online activities can be considered from several dimensions such as exposure, number of participants, downloads, PV, UV, etc.

2. Explore user needs (internal and external motivations)

1. What kind of users are you targeting?

It is not just about knowing gender, age, and region, but about seeing the essence through the phenomenon, analyzing users' personal information, purchasing preferences and other behaviors, and combining them with the characteristics of the product itself to ultimately determine the target audience for the activity.

2. What user motivations and needs are met?

1) Extrinsic motivation: money, vouchers, physical objects

The strength of this extrinsic motivation does not depend on how expensive it is, but on how relevant it is to your target users.

Relevance is determined by the concepts of practicality and accessibility.

It can be summarized in the following table:

Let me test you. Take a look at the following two pictures. Which one do you think is more attractive to users?

From the perspective of practicality and probability of acquisition: the Mask Festival is aimed at female users who love skin care and have a demand for masks, so they get the practicality.

Invite 5 friends to get a mask and gain 100% of the concept. The operation is simple and easy to understand, which reduces the user's thinking and action costs.

At the same time, it also satisfies the user's "autonomy needs" , that is, the desire to have a "sense of control" and to get good results through their own efforts, and they will definitely get them, making the user feel confident of winning.

The Hair Care Festival is mostly targeted at women at home, and the biggest gift is an iPhone, which is not so relevant to the event and the users. And the way of sharing it with friends is to get "the right to participate in the lottery", and the chance of winning is really too low when you calculate it with your fingers .

Rate it:

So when setting extrinsic motivation, be sure to consider how attractive your prize is to users? Is it related to the event? Is it really useful to users? What is the probability of getting it? (Of course, this has to be balanced with the cost)

2) Intrinsic motivation

The most commonly used are social influence and relevance , such as: gaining recognition from others, shaping one's own personal image, increasing one's capital for showing off and sense of accomplishment, etc.

Then there is the psychology of reciprocity , which means that favors must be repaid. If the other party does me a favor, I subconsciously want to give something in return. It will lead to forced giving of unnecessary things, and it will be difficult to refuse.

Just like when you go to a shoe store to try on shoes, and the salesperson enthusiastically recommends 10 pairs of good styles, kneels on the ground to help you change your shoes, and enthusiastically pours you water, it should be difficult for you to not buy a pair of shoes, right? ）

In addition, there is curiosity about novelty, love of fun, nostalgia, fear of loss, sense of mission , etc.

It is difficult for people to avoid these intrinsic motivations implanted in their brains and minds after rational thinking; it is natural. Therefore, when planning an event, we must grasp the user’s intrinsic motivation.

For example: In the following activities, users’ herd mentality and reciprocity psychology are used respectively.

(Taking advantage of the herd mentality of users, including the marquee of "XX users have participated in group buying" displayed on the Pinduoduo purchase page, this is also the meaning)

3. Utilize advanced gameplay

Including: creativity, form, channel, etc.

In addition to the ability to run the process, what is more important is the user experience in the process.

Is there timely feedback? Is the user path clear? Does it conform to user operating habits? What kind of reward mechanism and sharing mechanism are used ? You can refer to the gamification design method here.

channel:

The basic skill that must be mastered is familiarity with various platforms : for example, platforms for commonly used activities such as Weibo, WeChat, Douban, Zhihu, etc., you need to understand their characteristics, rules, etc.

To sum up, the publicity channels basically consist of two steps. To flatten a piece of land, first find the awesome explosives, then position them properly, and finally detonate them intensively.

1. The first step is to find the cold start group and reach them accurately. Seize super nodes, key figures, seed users, etc., and find the explosives to detonate;
2. The second step is to control the rhythm of dissemination and detonate intensively.

Try to release at a concentrated time to ensure the "density of communication" and control the rhythm of communication.

5. Reduce user costs

To be precise, it is to make users feel that their "gains" are greater than their "efforts" .

1) Monetary cost

For example, when it comes to money spending, mobile data traffic, and mobile memory consumption, users are more sensitive to these costs and tend to be conservative.

2) Learning (understanding + thinking) cost

Brainpower spent. Users hope that all activities and gameplay are easy to learn and in line with their natural usage habits. Remember, users are lazy.

Therefore, when it comes to interactive forms, don’t over-pursue creativity and special effects, or use unexpected “anti-user habit” operating methods. For example, designing a bunch of click buttons that slide up, down, left, and right, will confuse people and complicate the activity.

If the path of the activity is deep, be sure to provide steps and guidance in the product design.

The content should be straightforward and easy to understand. If there are very professional terms (such as "Jungian psychology test"), be sure to give explanations, otherwise it will be difficult to understand. If it is a test question, remember to control the difficulty appropriately and don't make it difficult for users.

Innovation in activity gameplay is of course welcome, but in order to reduce the cost of understanding for users, we can make the presentation more situational, so that users don’t have to think, they can just be involved and put the activity into the situation.

For example, "NetEase Drama Queen Julia" uses the character of an intern to bring users into the workplace, which makes it easier to trigger emotional resonance.

3) Time cost

The activity requires users to pay continuous attention for a certain period of time. If the time is too long, they will not remember it; if it is too short, they will not know it .

In summary, users’ continuous attention to an activity should not exceed 3 days. If they have a strong desire to participate, it will last for a week. The fission activity can be extended appropriately. H5 is best controlled within 3 pages, and no more than 10 screens at most.

4) Decision-making/Trust Cost

Give endorsement, a credible activity, and the activity rules should be as transparent as possible; for users, if there is a brand I trust or someone around me endorses it, I will be more willing to believe it

5) Action Cost

The best approach is to be simple and crude, with fewer steps and less energy consumption. If the operation is complicated, it is easy to give up.

6) Social cost + image cost

That is, the degree of mobilizing others, including the number of people needed, the energy and material required from others, etc. Users like to do things that are conducive to increasing their own charm and image. Asking too much for social resources from others can easily lead to the perception that personal reputation is damaged.

3. Dismantling the “Book Throwing Activity” of Xin Shi Xiang

Now that we have covered the practical stuff, let’s analyze the “book throwing activity” of Xin Shi Xiang! The logic is still split according to the formula:

Online communication activity planning = clarifying the purpose of the activity (premise) + exploring user needs (internal and external motivations) + making use of advanced gameplay (creativity, form technology, channels) + reducing user costs

1. Clarify the purpose of the activity (premise)

Let me first talk about the background of the New World's "Book Throwing Campaign":

1) A hot event has occurred (so you can take advantage of it)

"Harry Potter" actor Emma teamed up with Books On The Underground to launch a book sharing event on the London Underground. She dropped 100 books on the subway with handwritten notes inside, hoping that more people would read her favorite books, and called on everyone to go treasure hunting on social media.

2) Having similar experience and resources in the early stage (so there is a user base and knowing that users have such preferences)

Xin Shixiang had previously launched a library drifting activity , where one could get a refund after reading four books for 129 yuan. The activity attracted the attention and participation of many literary and artistic young people, so it accumulated certain experience and resources.

Many fans left messages in the backstage of New World, hoping that similar events could be held.

So, Xin Shi Xiang seized the opportunity, contacted the person in charge of the London Underground Reading campaign, and further optimized the idea.

Purpose:

I think the essence is to focus on brand communication (expanding the influence of the New World IP), focusing on brand purpose, and at the same time being able to divert traffic to the official account.

Quantifiable expected goals:

Because the activity I analyzed is of the nature of brand promotion, the reverse reasoning focuses more on the influence and exposure of the activity.

Let me ask you a question here: do you think the number of user participation is an important indicator of this event? Think about it first, and we’ll answer it later.

Activity data results:

The public account quickly reached over 100,000 followers, the number of views on Weibo hot searches exceeded 200 million, and there were nearly 200,000 discussions (the activity should be expected to generate exposure on WeChat and Weibo platforms).

2. Explore user needs (internal and external motivations)

Extrinsic motivation: The activity does not provide any tangible rewards, so this part is ignored.

Intrinsic motivation: It must be said that the intrinsic motivation of the activity was well grasped and was constantly emphasized during the implementation process.

Unknown and curious: I have never tried to drop a book in a subway station, so I don’t know what would happen; or what if I happened to pick up a book in a subway station? Isn’t it fun?

Reciprocity: Throwing my books out to others gives me a sense of altruism; and I can also receive books from others, forming a reciprocal relationship.

Sense of mission: The original intention of the activity is to "make crowded subways and boring cities different", and you have the responsibility to do this cool thing

Celebrity Endorsement:

• Emma Hermione initiated a book sharing activity on the London Underground, which brought the activity a star halo and endorsement.
• Invite celebrities such as Huang Xiaoming, Xu Jinglei, and Zhang Tianai to participate in the event and endorse it;
• Writers such as Cai Chongda and Zhang Xiaohan participated in the book drop; there were also endorsements from cross-border brands: Beijing-Hong Kong Metro, Hainan Airlines, and Didi Hitch.

Social influence:

Build a personal image: Even if you don’t really take action, forwarding a message shows an attitude of “I love reading, I advocate being different”, which can win the resonance and interaction of friends. For those who really take action, it can be used as a capital to show off.

Sense of accomplishment:

The event promises that Toutiao will publish the book-losing stories of the first batch of participants and put them on the Toutiao APP for more people to see.

3. How to play the activity

1) Creativity

Topic: #I prepared 10,000 books and dropped them on the subways in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and places you passed by#.

The idea of ​​dropping books and book drifting is not new. The problem is how to launch it in different cities simultaneously, so that people can have a greater sense of participation in the activity and the data and process of the entire activity can be recorded and tracked .

For example: How do I know where my book is now? To whom did drifting come? What do they think?

This is the difficulty.

How the form satisfies creativity is very important.

Xin Shixiang used a very simple exclusive QR code to solve this difficulty.

2) Activity form

Xin Shixiang has prepared a free tool kit for each person who loses books, including promotional stickers, book-specific QR codes, message paper, etc. On the one hand, the "Book Throwing Campaign" promotional stickers play a role in promoting the event as a whole.

On the other hand, users can feel involved in the process of attaching unique QR codes to their books and writing messages.

Users are also invited to become event organizers in their cities to further stimulate their sense of participation, accomplishment and mission.

The entire activity uses the book’s exclusive QR code as the activity record carrier.

After scanning the QR code, you can enter the above page to participate.

You can also see the drift of books:

Updates for each book:

Xin Shixiang itself released 10,000 books, which caused a small-scale effect and also created a reference example for participating users (Xin Shixiang officials should have subsequently released nearly 30,000 books).

User participation process:

a. Become a book thrower and participate (scan the code to apply for the toolkit - select the book you want to throw away - paste the book's exclusive QR code and leave a message) - interaction and progress feedback (scan the book's exclusive QR code to register your information, and then track the book's drifting trajectory) - action (go to the corresponding book throwing point to throw the book away) - share (@ your friends who love reading on WeChat Moments or Weibo, continue to spread the fun)

b. Become a book collector

Participate (scan the code to view the book drop points in your city - see stickers with "Book Drop Campaign" on public transportation) - Interact (scan the book's exclusive QR code to view the message from the book dropper, leave your own information, and continuously track the drifting trajectory of the book) - Take action (put the book back on the vehicle after reading it and continue drifting)

c. Become an event organizer in your city

Connect with Xinshixiang through the WeChat backend: Through a QR code, all users participating in the #ThrowingBooksCampaign# are connected , the process and effects of the entire activity are visualized, and with various endorsements, a complete activity landing page is formed.

This itself is also a good publicity and exposure tool for the event.

3) Channels

a. Sina Weibo

The campaign #ThrowingBooksCampaign# was launched and it became popular among opinion leaders in the early stage. Celebrities, big Vs, public transportation service providers, media, publishing houses, etc. spread it on the platform.

The earliest initiators of the event were Huang Xiaoming, Zhang Jingchu, and Xu Jinglei, and the total number of fans on Weibo of the three of them has exceeded 70 to 80 million.

b. WeChat public account tweet: "I prepared 10,000 books and left them in the subways in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and places you passed by"

Reduce the cost for users, or in other words, make users think that their "gains" are greater than their "costs".

The WeChat tweet has made it very clear: what should be done? Who is doing this together? How to participate in book dropping?

But you can see that it takes me at least three days to apply for the tool kit, wait for Xin Shi Xiang to mail it to me, think clearly about which book to choose, put stickers on the books and write messages, and finally go to the subway station or Didi car to drop off the book.

Due to the complexity of the activity itself, Xin Shixiang can only reduce the user's understanding cost in terms of how to operate it.

They were even very thoughtful and made animated graphics to show users how to participate, but the action and time costs for users themselves are really high.

4. Reduce user costs

How to solve this problem?

This involves the user's intrinsic motivation, which is to make the user feel that his "gains" are greater than his "efforts" .

What do you get?

Whether it is a sense of mission for loving books and sharing them, or the ability to show off that I am a "special person" by sharing them on WeChat Moments , or the improvement of my image and social influence , or the "curiosity" about the matter, or the "endorsement call" from celebrities.

Let me invest this time and energy, judge it, and feel that it is worth it . In addition, the process is participatory and interesting, so I am willing to do it.

But the event itself was not the tone for mass participation, that’s for sure.

5. Activity summary, questions and reflections

At the beginning I asked a question: Do you think the number of user participation should be included as an important indicator of this activity?

I don’t know what your answer is.

I don’t think so, and it was not included in the initial activity goals . I think the exposure on the Weibo and WeChat platforms is the most important, such as the entire event integration page, exposure of related tweets, exposure of Weibo topic volume, etc.

Because this is a brand promotion communication.

Facts have proved that the amount of user participation was indeed not very high , so Xin Shi Xiang subsequently added more submissions, increasing the number from 10,000 to 30,000.

As mentioned before, this activity is creative, innovative and simple in form (solved by a QR code), and it enables user participation.

However, no matter how simple the activity process is, the time and action cost required from users is really not low, so there will be user participation, but not large-scale user participation.

So, was the event a success?

I don't think so.

Looking back at the goal, the goal of this event of Xin Shi Xiang is brand exposure, rather than hoping that the event will attract 10,000 users and then divert 20% of attention to the official account. Over 200 million exposures is already very impressive.

Giving users the right to participate increases engagement, but the level of engagement is really not that important.

In terms of exposure, a brand event with basically zero investment can achieve this exposure effect and attract so many celebrities and platforms to endorse it, which is really awesome.

All platforms appeared on the event promotion landing page that users saw after scanning the code as an endorsement, and also received high exposure.

How come this doesn't cost money?

Because Xin Shi Xiang’s public relations capabilities are really strong , I guess that although it didn’t cost much money, the cost of communicating with various celebrities on various platforms must be high.

However, celebrities and platforms are naturally willing to endorse it, as it can create their own high-quality "reading, charity, and style" image and also provide additional exposure.

Why not do it? It’s a win-win situation!

As for the source of books, there are 6 publishing houses, and what they have is books.

If you were to take advantage of this event and get so much exposure, would you do it?

The worst case scenario is that Xin Shi Xiang can get the book at a very low cost.

Activity Questions:

With this idea in mind, the uncontrollable factors in the activity are really harmless.

• The loss of books is uncontrollable : someone can take the books directly without scanning the code to record their whereabouts. Now I see only more than 2,800 books left, and most of them have been lost.
• The cooperation partner finalized a large amount of work: Xin Shi Xiang and Shanghai Metro failed to reach an agreement on the issue of "books lost in the subway", resulting in the cleaning staff directly cleaning up the books.

In fact, connecting with the transportation platform is difficult in itself. If we finalize them one by one, this activity will definitely fail. But if you make a trade-off, the event has been promoted, and the cost of the books has been paid, in exchange for the simultaneous outbreak of activities in multiple locations, it is worth it!

To be honest, I also admire Xin Shixiang's courage to think and act.

Some things are beneficial to the public and can be implemented directly, which involves communication with official platforms. It is not known how many hundreds of years it will take for this to be done. If it's not a big deal, you might as well seize the opportunity and do it quickly before they react.

Summary

The universal formula for marketing planning = exploring user needs (internal and external motivations) + making use of advanced gameplay (creativity + form + technology + channel + motivation) + reducing user costs

Based on the universal formula of marketing planning (as above), we derived the basic formula for online event planning:

Online communication activity planning = clarifying the purpose of the activity (premise) + exploring user needs (internal and external motivations) + making use of advanced gameplay (creativity, form technology, channels) + reducing user costs

Each formula item is broken down and explained.

Finally, the case of the “book throwing activity” of Xin Shixiang was reviewed and analyzed. Let us apply a formula.

In fact, there are thousands of activities, but there may be only one underlying logic. Summarizing is not a result, but a necessary process for “better optimization”.

This is my summary, why don’t you try it too? Online event promotion and marketing planning formula!

Related reading:

1. How to make a good APP online activity promotion plan?

2. Online event promotion: Grasp these 5 points to increase user engagement

3. Online event promotion, 100,000 users in seven days!

4. How to make a good online event promotion plan?

5. The event promotion planning process is not clear? Come in quickly!

6. Event promotion plan | Key points about event design and traffic considerations!