Why do social traffic platforms flock to offline festivals?

Social traffic platforms refer to platforms that use social media as their underlying traffic source, such as Weibo, live streaming , short videos , dating communities, etc. In the past two years, these social traffic platforms have gradually become popular for creating offline festivals.

After Alibaba ’s Double Eleven online shopping spree, it now has its own offline plans. In June this year, Taobao announced that the third Maker Festival will be held in West Lake in September; during the May Day holiday, Douyu, which started out as an online e-sports company, also tried its best to promote an offline carnival, bringing e-sports offline. Recently, Meitu , a company that is focusing on the "social" field, also held a "Transformation Festival" on July 20, joining the ranks of social traffic platforms in creating festivals.

In an age when everyone is talking about Internet thinking, why do these thriving online platforms want to move their traffic offline? This inevitably arouses curiosity.

1. The reasons why online giants gather to create offline festivals

These "festivals" created by these big guys are different from the various small trade fairs we often see in the community. Although the time of these "festivals" such as creation festivals, transformation festivals, offline carnivals, etc. is not fixed every year and they are not for profit purposes, there are deeper reasons that are driving these social traffic platforms to carry out offline festival activities.

1. Online traffic is becoming less and less “real”

Since there is no face-to-face contact between users attracted through the Internet, there is inevitably distortion in data and user needs. Especially for "beauty" traffic such as short videos, live broadcasts, and beautiful pictures, now with various beauty tools and AI , true beauty requires offline scenes to "verify its identity".

If it is an offline scene, the window will be broken. Things that are truly powerful and truly beautiful will dare to be shown offline. Just like the large-scale face-to-face event that the Meitu Transformation Festival provides for online users, on the one hand, the user demand map obtained offline is more real than the virtual user data online, and this data is more valuable to the platform; on the other hand, based on common values, users can also experience the fun of dreaming together. For example, the exhibition hall has set up four selfie venues with different styles, black technology installations, amateur transformation services, etc. Users gathering together is also more conducive to creating new trend culture.

Whether it is to obtain data or lead trends, this requires the platform to actively create social scenarios to strengthen communication and contact between the platform and users and between users.

2. Social attributes are evident in the evolution of the platform

The commercialization of Douyu's e-sports live broadcast relies on the strong social relationship between users and live broadcasters. Therefore, the offline carnival is more based on e-sports games as a bond to strengthen the extension of the online social needs of users and Internet celebrities , thereby enhancing a sense of belonging.

Based on the stability and clarity of user genes, Meitu's product matrix reflects more of the demand for the appearance economy. For example, the established Meitu medical skin care platform and Meitu makeup have shifted the focus from virtual beauty to real beauty. This adjustment in direction has also led to greater demand for offline social interaction.

Moreover, Meitu is no longer just a tool, but a community with strong social attributes. For example, the Meipai short video app, which was launched in 2014, and the Meitu social circle, which was officially launched in May this year, are its explorations in the social field. Beauty and social interaction have become the labels of the Meitu system.

This is the same as the Taobao Maker Festival . The success of the Taobao Maker Festival is also due to the enhancement of social attributes such as Taobao Live and Alipay in recent years, which has transformed Taobao from a shopping website into a social platform.

The increasingly strong social attributes are the common characteristics of Douyu, Meitu and Taobao, and no other form of social interaction can compare with offline communication and exchanges. The characteristic that offline social efficiency is much higher than online is best demonstrated in the marriage and love industry. The full satisfaction of the needs of both parties must rely on offline.

3. Users’ expectations of the platform

In the past, users only needed to make themselves look better using Meitu XiuXiu and hope to buy cheap things on Taobao. But that is no longer the case. According to QuestMobile data :

• Meitu users usually like taking photos, fashion-related content, and shopping;
• Because young users account for a large proportion, and their characteristics of learning and demanding progress are also obvious;
• At the same time, they have the highest penetration rate in the social industry, accounting for 37.2%, and have strong social attributes.

Perhaps in the past Meitu was just a synonym for beauty tools, but now Meitu needs to help users express their desire to be good and beautiful. Young people's demand map is clearer and their personalized demands are stronger. After going public, both Meitu and Taobao need to shoulder more expectations. This change will inevitably require these social traffic platforms to adopt more ways to understand, cater to or lead this changing demand.

2. Why can online traffic be transferred offline?

Not every Internet platform that started online can successfully attract traffic offline. Creating a festival itself requires the coordinated support of multiple factors such as strength, reputation, users, and service capabilities. Comparing the "festival creation" behaviors of Douyu, Taobao and Meitu, we found several common features:

1. Offline festivals are organized by industry leaders with strong brand appeal

Brand appeal is a prerequisite for online and offline streaming, but having a brand does not necessarily mean having appeal. For example, if the Transformation Festival is given to a company with a single product form and a weak community form, it would not be very suitable. After all, there is still a certain gap between Meitu and its users and voice in the image industry. Therefore, this brand appeal consists of at least three dimensions:

First, a certain number of core fans . At the last Taobao Maker Festival, it was not too difficult to mobilize 108 top stores to participate precisely because there were nearly 10 million sellers in reserve. This kind of highly subjective and vertical activity would hardly be effective without the cooperation and support of hardcore fans.

Second, the product matrix and content ecology must have a certain degree of scalability , such as clear user portraits and multiple complementary product categories. The more vertical and precise, the better.

Data shows that women account for 67.5% of the image service industry, and Meitu has a typical clear user portrait. Nearly 90% of users born after 2000 are women. Therefore, there is great room for economic expansion. In terms of product ecology, from mobile phone hardware to application software such as the Meitu series and beauty camera, to short video Internet businesses such as Meipai, and even extending to the Meipu e-commerce attempt, Meitu is also centered around the "her economy" with a clear theme.

Third, there must be something different and better than other companies in the industry . It can be either a technological advantage, or reflected in the ecosystem, or the mastery of core resources. In short, there must be something unique and memorable to be appealing.

2. The main customer base is young people

Whether it is Douyu’s internet celebrities , the “strange” trends led by Taobao’s Maker Festival, or the appearance economy promoted by Meitu, all of them are labels and are synonymous with young people. Therefore, operational decisions must take into account the characteristics of this group, as shown below:

• They are easily influenced by their peers and have natural social attributes.
• The attention span of Millennials and Generation X is 15S, while Generation Z only gives businesses 8S of opportunity.
• He is very independent and likes entertaining things.

The future belongs to young people. Whether it is the Maker Festival or the Meitu Transformation Festival, the customer base for selection and accumulation is this group of young people. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly cater to and tap into the needs of this group of people. Expanding the offline social needs of young people is a more advantageous choice.

3. Traffic reengineering projects need to focus on users’ sense of belonging

In the future, offline and online will be equally important. In addition to building high-tech functions such as the Meitu Beauty app that allows users to conduct skin tests by taking photos online, and developing cutting-edge technologies such as voice and image recognition to enhance user convenience and the "high-end" experience brought by technology, the third level of Maslow's needs, "emotional and belonging needs", is becoming increasingly important to users. This kind of user psychological satisfaction based on social interaction may become the key to success for future racers .

For offline festival creation, which is a traffic re-creation project, how to focus on users’ sense of belonging. Xiangling believes that we can start from the following levels:

1. Marketing interaction must be empathetic, that is, users must gain something from the offline activities . However, to reach the level of providing services to users from the user's perspective, this requires a foundation.

For example, Meitu's annual beauty trend function is judged based on user data. These data will be refined to every detail of photo editing, such as lip color, eye shadow, eyebrow shape, skin color, APP matrix function preferences, and difficulties in taking photos, etc. The product carving is based on a basis. Therefore, the premise for users to gain something is to put yourself in the shoes of users and imagine their behavior over time.

2. The community label should be strong, that is, users can have a sense of group identity and dependence . Birds of a feather flock together. For example, Meitu is a super IP focusing on the concept of beauty, which has captured the pain point of women's love of beauty. Therefore, it has a broad mass base and rich social topics. It is obvious that Meitu attracts many women who love beauty, and it has strong economic labels and potential. .

3. Respect individuality , which means paying for it is worthwhile and satisfies some potential inner needs.

Last year's Taobao Maker Festival featured a "peculiar" style, such as Uncle Tongdao 's exclusive peripherals for the twelve zodiac signs, CONPCONP's trendy clothing and shoes, Tongshengyong Iron Pot Shop, and Lan Xiaoba's children's clothing customization shop. Although the themes still revolve around life, the difference is that the "108 Wonderful Shops" participating in the Maker Festival satisfied young people's curiosity with their creative angles. It was this creativity that highlighted the personalized pursuit of young people, attracted tens of thousands of people to watch, and a sense of identity and dependence was established, which in turn led to brand influence. This approach may be the basis for new retail to increase repurchase rates in the future.

In summary, the offline festivals created by these social traffic platforms at this point in time, on the one hand, reflect the trend of being forced to do so due to obstacles in monetizing online traffic, and on the other hand, it also demonstrates the platform's positive attitude of proactively communicating with users, understanding their needs and seeking solutions.

After consumers have met their basic and safety needs, they turn to social emotional needs and a sense of respect. This series of changes should really attract the attention of the platform. "Offline festivals" provide users with a space for communication in a closed ecosystem, while also enhancing the influence of the brand. The two are not isolated, but rather mutually beneficial.

This is a good move on the road of traffic social networking.

Author: Zeng Xiangling, authorized to publish by Qinggua Media .

Source: Science and Technology