B station brand joint marketing strategy!

In a world where everything can be co-branded, co-branding seems to have become something that no longer surprises people.

As young people become the mainstream consumer users, is co-branding a win-win model that breaks down circles and brings consumers closer, or is it just a marketing gimmick to create topics and exchange traffic?

On Bilibili, what kind of collaboration can achieve the effect of 1+1>2?

The underlying logic of brand co-branding

Information dissemination has evolved from television media in the past to social platforms today, and from the era of crude advertising that looked the same to everyone to the era of personalized advertising that is different for everyone.

Not only are consumers faced with more and more advertising information, but the costs paid by brands for communication have also increased significantly. Collaboration is an excellent way to break the original user circle and create a topic for brand communication.

At the same time, as consumers' demands continue to increase, it is far from enough for products to simply meet practicality. They also need to be personalized to meet users' psychological needs.

Figure｜Consumer Psychology

In the survey of "Qingshan Capital 2021 Year-end Consumption Report", Generation Z pays more attention to identity recognition in consumption, and a sense of belonging can break through everything . People have high demands for cultural consumption that is rich in spirit, value and quality. Consumption is more personalized, scenario-based and "grass-planting-oriented", and they pay more attention to self-value-added.

When a brand or IP that already has a sense of belonging and identity interacts with other brands, the freshness and personalization it brings are more likely to hit their interests, that is, the desire for novelty and difference, thereby stimulating consumption and orders.

Therefore, as consumer demand changes and marketing forms diversify, more and more brands are joining the ranks of joint marketing, shaping users' minds through KOL recommendations.

Co-branded products have a large audience on Bilibili. According to Feigua data (Bilibili version), within 90 days, there were 4,600 videos related to "co-branding" on Bilibili, and many of them had over one million views.

Figure｜Feigua Data B Station version

For brands, every collaboration is a new opportunity to expand user base and spread the brand. Finding the pain points that can stimulate user consumption psychology can bring about efficient conversion.

From users to traffic

There are various forms of collaboration, the most common ones include brand collaboration, brand designer collaboration, and brand IP collaboration. In different scenarios and products, completely different effects can be produced.

The essential purpose of cross-border collaborations among various brands is to activate social traffic through collaborations, drive dissemination or bring in sales conversions . How to add value through collaboration between different brands, magnify the advantages of cooperation, and extend brand power needs to be analyzed from three dimensions.

Figure｜Joint foundation

Users: Commonalities between brand tone and consumer groups

Half of 2021 has passed. If we talk about the most successful IP co-branding case this year, it must be the grand carnival between miHoYo and KFC at the beginning of the year.

On March 8, 2021, miHoYo's famous game "Genshin Impact" and KFC launched a dream collaboration. As long as you buy the "Genshin Impact Teyvat Fun Bucket" for 59 yuan through the official designated channels, you can get a "Genshin Impact Another World Taste Gift".

In addition, Genshin Impact also designed a very topical segment with KFC:

If you purchase the Genshin Impact meal offline at any of the 16 designated theme stores nationwide and tell the waiter the code "Meet in another world, enjoy delicious food", you will receive a pair of linkage badges. Moreover, this badge is limited to 90 pairs per store per day, attracting fanatical Genshin Impact fans to queue up in front of KFC all night.

Picture｜B station @六二二同学w video screenshot

How successful was the event?

Offline, gamers from all over the country set up tents in front of KFC, and hundreds of people stayed up all night to queue up just to "compete" for the 90 pairs of badges every day . Some people even wanted to grab character standees and window stickers.

Online, Bilibili has as many as 50 pages of videos related to "Genshin Impact × KFC" , and the number of views of many videos related to the event has already exceeded one million.

Figure｜Search results for Genshin Impact × KFC on B Station

The unprecedented grandness of this event stems from the commonalities between the brand and consumer groups.

There are more than 6,700 KFC stores in China, which is a very large offline social scene. Moreover, as KFC's core consumer group, Generation Z users have a natural fit with game players and ACG culture enthusiasts.

Figure｜Feigua Data-KFC User Portrait

Similarly, as one of the most popular games at the moment, "Genshin Impact" has achieved tens of millions of MAUs as early as the month of its release in September 20. The huge user base and common consumer groups have made this joint event win at the starting line.

The commonalities between brand tone and consumer groups are the basis for cross-border joint cooperation. Only a higher degree of fit can maximize the benefits for both parties.

Products: harmonious integration, complementary advantages

In terms of products, OPPO and the animation IP "Detective Conan" recently launched a co-branded mobile phone "OPPO Reno6 Pro+ Conan Limited Edition", which is a classic example of harmonious coexistence and complementary advantages .

In this limited edition phone, in addition to changing the phone box to the style of the Maori Detective Agency in the animation, it also comes with a number of small accessories that contain Conan's classic symbols, and launches two deeply customized themes in red and blue styles. The dial interface, text messages, status bar and other system UIs, as well as more than 70 commonly used APP icons have been customized, which is full of sincerity.

Picture｜Official account @小白测评

The expression form of products such as mobile phones is relatively simple. By linking with other IPs, the products can be given more design elements, which can enhance their personalized attributes and attract the attention of fan groups.

For IP, linking with consumer products can also bring new life, evoke users' emotional memories and increase the commercial value of IP.

This time, OPPO mobile phone was particularly successful in promoting the collaboration on Bilibili. Through the barrage cloud aggregated by video analysis of Feigua Data (Bilibili version), it can be seen that users have a very high degree of recognition for this collaboration.

Figure｜FeiGua Data-Video Analysis Danmu Cloud

This sincere joint work attracted the attention of fans and was sold out in online channels in less than 30 minutes after it went on sale.

Image: Weibo @OPPO

Traffic: mutual traffic and topic creation

In terms of traffic , the collaboration between two different brands or IPs is aimed at breaking through the circle and radiating their own brands to the users associated with each other . Then, we conduct customized content marketing based on product attributes, deliver content precisely on platforms that match the product’s target audience, and achieve communication with fans.

In the two joint cases mentioned above, good benefits were achieved in terms of traffic. After OPPO released the video in collaboration with the UP host of Bilibili, it quickly topped the popular list of Bilibili in just a few hours.

Including the promotional content released by OPPO Blue V, according to FeiGua data (Bilibili version), its video dissemination effect is far beyond the past average level.

Figure丨Feigua Data-Video Analysis

In other categories, joint products of sports brands such as Anta and 361° were promoted through zettaranc, the top UP host in the sneaker section of Bilibili. Excluding the early football jersey videos with a smaller audience, the average video playback volume reached 512,000, which is enough to show users' interest and attention in joint products.

Picture丨UP host @zettaranc joint product video

The fundamental purpose of joint marketing is to integrate the culture of each brand IP, break down the barriers between the two, give full play to their respective advantages , and achieve an influence effect of 1+1>2 through product innovation and topic dissemination.

Summarize

For a long time, brand co-branding has been accompanied by various controversies. Every year, countless brands choose co-branded marketing, but there are very few cases that can be truly remembered and have a long-term impact on brand building.

In most cases, collaborations between brands cannot generate additional added value in terms of product functionality, quality, etc. Sports brands’ shoes will not become more durable just because they have anime elements; mobile phone brands will not double their performance or take clearer photos just because they add sports car designs.

After the user's sense of novelty wears off, how to tap into the core competitiveness of the product, allow consumers to get more surprises from some details, combine IP elements and products to make people's eyes shine, and create a sense of surprise and sincerity, may be the elements that an excellent co-branded product should have.

Only in this way can we better enhance consumers' awareness of the brand.

Author: Feigua Data B Station Version

Source: Feigua Light Number