Activity operation: an inventory of mainstream gameplay such as group buying, bargaining, and distribution!

Two boxers, "WeChat" and "Fission", the former dealt a heavy blow to the latter.

WeChat issued an announcement, focusing on dealing with the behavior of inducing people to share check-ins in Moments, and criticized many paid reading check-in products by name, such as the once popular Mint Reading, causing these products to issue announcements to cancel the behavior of check-ins in Moments.

This action of WeChat shocked the fission circle, operation circle, and marketing circle, and even caused panic in some industries, such as knowledge payment and education and training.

Many people are wailing that "fission is dead".

Public accounts in various vertical fields and various big Vs are also issuing various interpretations and predictions, warning that the customer acquisition model based mainly on fission is about to become a thing of the past, and urging everyone to focus more on products, services, and word of mouth.

What they said is right, because the large-scale popularization of fission gameplay has indeed allowed some people to make quick money, get traffic, and reap the benefits, but it has also destroyed the original healthy ecology and environment of WeChat and ignored the normal development and laws of business.

Therefore, when everyone is generally worried that fission may disappear from the stage of history, it becomes somewhat meaningful to review and summarize the fission gameplays we have used.

1. Two major categories of fission

The meaning of fission is actually very easy to understand, and it can even be elevated to a philosophical level. People often use the saying in the Tao Te Ching, "One begets two, two begets three, and three begets all things" to explain the essence of fission.

These are all over-interpretations. Fission is just a customer acquisition tool commonly used in operations and a common part of the operation process. There is nothing worth in-depth analysis.

So, what exactly is fission? To put it bluntly, it is old users bringing in new users, abbreviated as "old bringing in new users". To put it in a more fancy way, it is "viral spread" and "exponential growth".

However, in the two or three years when fission was popular, the ways of playing fission were indeed endless and dazzling. Every time a new way of playing appeared, a large number of followers appeared. Obviously, in such a situation, it is impossible not to be anxious.

So, what kind of fission gameplay have appeared? Let’s first make a broad classification and then interpret them one by one.

Regarding the gameplay of fission, I personally divide it into two categories, which are mainly based on the node judgment of sharing behavior, namely recommendation fission and invitation fission.

What is referral fission? Simply put, users can obtain material or spiritual incentives after sharing the communication carrier, without assessing whether the sharing actually brings in new users.

So what is invitational fission? This is easier to understand, that is, after users share the communication carrier, it is necessary to attract users, otherwise there will be no incentive.

Therefore, there is a very simple way to determine whether a certain gameplay is recommendation-based fission or invitation-based fission. It is to see at what link its incentive node is set. Is it available after sharing, or is it available only after sharing and bringing in users?

Of course, referral fission and invitation fission are only the primary classifications of fission. The two categories have more detailed divisions. Next, we will analyze referral fission and invitation fission separately.

2. Recommended fission gameplay

There are two main ways to play recommendation-based fission: one is forced forwarding, and the other is active propagation.

1. Force forwarding

The basic routine of the forced forwarding type of fission gameplay is to use demand or benefits as bait to force users to passively share, and they can obtain it after successful sharing. The more mature specific gameplays include community fission, check-in sharing, single-share fission and resurrection.

Community fission: users are forced to share after joining the group, and they have to take screenshots and send them to the group for review. A typical example is the book reading platform that has gained tens of millions of users through this gameplay.

Check-in and sharing: You have to share to your friends every day to count as checking in. If you persist for a certain number of days, the tuition fee will be refunded or you will be given a reward, such as various xx readings and xx words. This has now been rectified by WeChat.

Single-share fission: A specific product or part of it can be obtained for free after sharing, such as WeChat Reading’s “Share Free Audiobooks”.

Resurrection and level-breaking: Common in level-breaking game mini-programs, such as Marble King. As long as you share the mini-program to the WeChat group, you can get a chance to revive and continue the game.

1. Active Propagation

Active dissemination is a fission gameplay driven by user emotions, which is often called social fission. For example, by sharing the results of an H5 test, users can obtain spiritual rewards such as satisfying the desire to show off.

Common ways of actively spreading information can be divided into the following five categories:

Challenge: Users need to complete a specific challenge, such as drawing a picture. The more they complete, the higher their ranking and the more virtual rewards they will receive. A poster showing their achievements will be generated for them to forward. This is an honor-driven game. A typical example is the Guess the Picture Song.

Test type: It is very similar to the challenge type, but only requires some questions that are not difficult. The results are often an interpretation of the user's behavior, personality, etc. It uses psychological hints and belongs to self-promotion. It is a more common gameplay in H5 applications.

Public welfare: using people’s love and compassion as a means of driving communication. A typical example is the “Protect Chinese Rural Dogs” mini program that once went viral.

Personality: Users can adjust their own personal portraits, clothing, sleeping positions and other behaviors to meet the needs of self-realization. For example, the "Sleeping Position Competition" H5 produced by NetEase is a personality type.

Inventory type: Summary product gameplay generated by using big data of user behavior on a certain product, which is also honor-driven, such as Alipay’s “Annual Bill”.

The above is a summary of the main ways of playing recommendation-based fission. There are a large number of cases for each sub-game, and readers can search and compare them by themselves.

3. Invitational fission gameplay

The invitation-based fission gameplay has the most different classification standards among fission. It can be divided according to the mode or according to the scene. In order to make the classification more convincing, I use the fission classification method proposed by Yang Fei, the author of "Traffic Pool": compound interest, crowdfunding, and sharing.

1. Compound interest

The so-called compound interest refers to the mutual benefit between the two parties involved in the fission. For example, if you invite a friend to buy something, both parties will benefit from it. Based on the logic of reciprocity, the following ways of playing can be summarized:

Give one, get one: Invite your friends to buy or give it to them directly, and you will get the same benefits as your friends, such as free coffee from Rising Coffee, "apprenticeship" from Qutoutiao, and gifts for recommendations from VIPKID.

Mutual fission: Establish a binding relationship with the invited friends. As long as the friends consume, both parties will gain benefits. A typical case is the "U+ Driver" recruitment activity of Shenzhou Special Car, which recruited more than 60,000 drivers through this gameplay.

Individual benefits: Users can obtain them for free after sharing, and friends can also obtain them for free through sharing channels such as invitation codes. Reference cases are Himalaya's "Share to Listen Free" and "Millionaire Heroes" and other live quiz resurrection card games.

Group welfare: An upgraded version of individual welfare gameplay, it imitates WeChat red envelopes and is one of the main ways for apps to split. For example, there are red envelopes from food delivery platforms such as Ele.me, Luckin Coffee’s gamified coupons, and WeChat Pay’s social instant discounts.

1. Crowdfunding

The so-called crowdfunding means that users need the help of friends to obtain rewards, and the invitation fission is completed in the process of friends' help, that is, everyone helps me, which includes most of the paid fission gameplay, such as group buying, distribution, unlocking, bargaining, etc.

Group buying: A certain number of friends must pay or participate in order to obtain products (it can also be an opportunity, such as team lottery). This is currently the most suitable model for Chinese-style social relationships among acquaintances. A typical example is Pinduoduo. Of course, it is also gradually being used in other industries, such as the online education platform ahaschool.

Distribution: The most basic and most commonly used methods of playing, such as knowledge payment and social e-commerce. Users only need to invite friends to buy products to earn income, up to level two (level three and above are illegal and will be banned). A typical case is the marketing class of Xin Shi Xiang.

Unlock: Also known as the task treasure gameplay, the basic logic is that users have to ask a certain number of friends to complete a certain behavior (such as following a public account, adding a personal account, paying, etc.) to obtain rewards. It is one of the basic means for public accounts to increase fans. Other names are often used, such as support, likes, voting, etc.

Bargaining: A fission gameplay with a strong marketing nature. Like group welfare, it uses the logic of a lottery. It requires inviting friends to reveal the bargained price in the form of "bargaining". Its essence is "everyone helps me". It is another common means used by major fission players such as Pinduoduo and Taojiji.

Collecting cards: This can be seen as a variation of the bargaining game, except that it changes from "cutting the price once" to "turning the price over". You can either invite friends to turn the price over for you, or invite friends to participate and then turn the price over for yourself. It also requires help from others, such as the red envelopes for collecting cards on various apps during the Spring Festival, and Lian Coffee's invitation of people to open red envelopes.

Crowdfunding fission includes the relatively mainstream gameplay of fission at present, and it also has a relatively large creative space. Each sub-game method can be combined with each other, and it is the preferred direction for most fission players.

1. Shared

Crowdfunding is "everyone helps me", while sharing is "I help everyone". This type of fission takes advantage of the user's "altruistic psychology" and rarely emphasizes sharing of profits, but if it is added, it will be more driving force. Common shared gameplay includes the following:

Active recommendation: After purchasing a product, users will receive some rights and benefits that can be shared with friends. Users themselves do not have these rights and benefits, but if their friends claim them, they can get other incentives, such as Chaos University’s "Friends Free Courses". Different numbers of friends who claim the courses will receive different amounts of research value rewards.

Rights sharing: means that the user's rights can be directly shared with relatives and friends, such as the family account of Shenzhou Special Car, or the virtual products purchased and stored by oneself can be actively shared with friends, such as Luckin Coffee's coffee red envelopes.

Buy for friends: Users take the initiative to buy products and give them to friends. This is the most basic way to take advantage of the "altruistic psychology". Typical examples include Starbucks' "Say with Stars" and Fan Deng Reading Club's "Send Gift Cards".

4. Future Trends of Fission

At this point, we have basically reviewed the more mainstream ways of playing. We can see that although fission looks simple, it is full of creativity and richness. It is indeed a customer acquisition method worth investing in. However, some of them will inevitably harm user experience and product value, such as distribution and bargaining.

Therefore, when we choose fission, including continuing to use fission in the future, we need to consider whether your products and users can withstand or continue to withstand some of the negative effects brought about by fission, and whether they can be properly controlled. If not, we have no choice but to give up.

Regarding the development trend of fission, in addition to the need for users to exercise control as just emphasized, WeChat’s attitude is obviously the most critical, especially the centralized handling of check-ins in Moments this time, which will prevent fission from being too "rampant" in the short term.

As for the future development of fission, I have a few small insights:

(1) Fission will continue to exist and will continue to be a standard means, forming a corporate marketing arsenal with other customer acquisition methods, but no one will use it as the only means;

(2) From the perspective of fission classification, recommendation-based fission will gradually decrease (this trend has already emerged), invitation-based fission will be used more and more frequently, and some innovative gameplay will be born. Of course, it will also be increasingly strictly inspected, especially for product models based on WeChat;

(3) The community-based fission model will rise again, but the bonus period will be shorter, and it will become more difficult to obtain traffic from the circle of friends. The role of personal accounts as a fission carrier will continue to expand, which is in line with the trend of private domain traffic;

(4) Word-of-mouth fission based on product quality and service will be re-emphasized or even more valued, especially in the education industry which has been devastated by word-of-mouth fission recently. How to better inspire old users to bring in new users will become the focus of customer acquisition research;

(5) On the basis of ensuring product quality and good services, the refined operation of communities and personal accounts will empower fission.

The above is an inventory summary and trend analysis of fission. Whether it is WeChat or those of us who use WeChat dividends to develop, we should put user experience and value first. This is the essence of business and the premise of growth. I believe no one will object.

In this case, the rest depends on whether you can do it. Let us encourage each other.

Related reading:

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4. What you need to know about event operation | The basic process of operating online events

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Author: Dugushang

Source: Dugu Operation