“Riding on the popularity” doesn’t work anymore? No, it was ruined!

At the beginning of the article, we are going to tell an ancient story. On December 6 last year, HIT-POINT, a company in Kyoto, Japan, launched " Travel Frog ", but the market response was lukewarm.

One month later, the Internet pushed it to the top of the App Store. I don’t understand why its social spread is so fast?

But marketers are very sharp and they quickly caught the hot spot:

That frog, that house, and that pond.

Then Burger King came to grab the hot spot

Next, Durex official Weibo came to Gank!

Fang Hongbo is here too

The yellow car is here too

Zhihu Liu Kanshan is here too

The biggest function of "hot spots" is to stimulate nerves . How do you feel when you see the white walls in your home every day? One day, a new work of art appears on the wall, and you will feel happy for several days. Later, the wall is painted yellow, and you will be excited for several days...

When you see a hotspot in just one place, you get stimulated, and when you see a hotspot in just two or three places, we also get stimulated. However, the current situation is that there are hundreds of media outlets on each BAT X platform, catching up on hot topics every week. Who is willing to give up on catching up on hot topics?

What we see is no longer "hot spots", but only "information". For information that is not particularly "precious", it is like looking at the white walls of your house.

Thousands of marketers are scrambling for the "hotspot", muttering to themselves "I have to take advantage of the trend, maybe it will become popular", and then put their own brand "XXX" on it and release it.

What we are actually doing is letting brands cater to hot topics! Use your own brand to create hot spots! This is a curse.

As a result, the “hotspot” itself is infinitely magnified and the “brand” itself is infinitely reduced. So I say: “Hotspot” marketing is dead.

This is what the market looks like. The hot spots are all the same, but “my brand” is all different. The result of the entire communication is that the hot spot is getting bigger and bigger, and "my brand" is getting smaller and smaller.

The "memory occupation" of the hot creative ideas of new brands is not as good as that of old brands. This shows that what we currently think of as "hot spot" marketing does not actually have much of a "memory occupying" effect.

From the user's perspective, "How many social hot spots can you remember that happened in the past month?" 60% of users said they could only remember 1-2. This is just asking about the hot spots themselves, what about the abcd brands behind them?

From a marketer's perspective, "Do you think leveraging marketing in the circle of friends is useful?" (Please understand "leveraging marketing" in a narrow sense as "hot spot" marketing here) The answer is fifty-fifty, and everyone seems very anxious, but it can be explained that for "hot spot" marketing, it must be processed through a certain way of thinking to be effective, and purely moving "hot spots" is meaningless. See below for analysis.

If “hotspot” marketing isn’t dead in front of you, can you capture it quickly and create it?

A friend @草莓君said in 2016, "I spent two months and failed four times in 'hotspot' marketing." (Below is part of the content)

1. Liu Shishi and Wu Qilong got married on March 20, 2016 (Sunday), and the next day, it was time to go to work. The event is still gaining popularity, so I had the idea of ​​writing a hot article about it. Because it is more personal and entertaining, the angle is relatively limited, so I finally chose to write in the direction of leveraging the brand, which not only combines hot topics but also conforms to the positioning of the official account itself.

But I was willing but unable to do anything. I had to complete the entire process of choosing angles, looking for information, finding pictures (I had no idea and looked everywhere), modifying and typesetting by myself. By the time it was published, it was already 9 o'clock in the evening. The popularity has long faded and few people are watching.

I realized that: 1. The relevant personnel must have keen insight and reaction ability; 2. Teamwork is very necessary; 3. The database of the relevant personnel must be strong enough; 4. The relevant personnel must have strong associative ability.

2. April 12, the great scientist who lives in textbooks - British physicist Stephen Hawking . Without any warning, a Weibo post published at 10:12 attracted responses from millions of Chinese netizens. Every time he refreshes the page, his Weibo adds tens of thousands of followers, and the hot topic is about to come!

I started working on it immediately and published several related articles at that time, but the content was generally simple, so I decided to write something more comprehensive and in-depth. However, it took me six hours to finish writing an article in detail, and after typesetting, it was published at 5 pm. During this period, articles once again flooded the market, and those without any outstanding features were left to sink into oblivion.

Realize: 1. Am I confident? Are you hesitating? 2. Am I fast enough? 3. How to quickly write an article about a sudden hot topic? 4. What should I do if I can’t find an angle to start in a short period of time?

3. On April 14, Kobe played the last game of his career, and the world was paying attention. From the retirement statement released in November last year, we can accurately calculate the day when Kobe will officially retire, and foresee the inevitability of the hot topic outbreak.

At this time, it is a competition of "release time" and "content attractiveness".

However, I only learned this information on the day of Kobe's game. Due to my interest, I never actively paid attention to basketball or even sports information, so I lost a lot of time. Then, during the writing process, I spent hours getting to know Kobe as a person. Finally, given the lack of basketball knowledge and the unfamiliarity of the protagonist, the sentimental angle was completely unable to express the proper emotions and the writing was stiff. The release time was already 5 pm, which was several hours after Kobe's last game ended, and the timeliness was completely misjudged.

4. On April 14, Descendants of the Sun reached its finale, sparking another wave of heated discussion. You may not have watched this Korean drama, but you must have heard of it. Its popularity lasted for more than two months, driving countless self-media people, joke makers, and operators crazy, and tens of thousands of articles flooded in.

However, there are very few who can really do a good job in hot spots, and most of them are drowned in the flood of enthusiasm. I am one of the losers.

As a fan of Han and an operator, it is most appropriate for me to write about such hot topics. However, for this Korean drama that changes its topic every few days and becomes a hot search, I did not catch the outbreak point in a specific time period, but just randomly chose the starting time; in addition, knowing that there are many hot articles from the same perspective, I still chose marketing analysis as the starting point. The article was published the day before the finale, and it should have been a climax of hot topics, but it was unexpectedly deserted and had a very poor effect.

If “hotspot” marketing isn’t dead in your face, can you differentiate between hotspot marketing and “hotspot” elements?

When I asked this question, I thought about it for a while. What is Hot Spot Marketing? What is the "hotspot" element? Does using too many “hot spot” elements constitute hot spot marketing?

I don’t think so. Hotspot marketing does not exist at all, so the “hotspot marketing” mentioned in this article has “hotspot” in quotation marks. It is not a special term, nor is it a marketing system.

For example, these common marketing systems include direct marketing, integrated marketing, word-of-mouth marketing, and Internet marketing . They are all multi-threaded and do not rely on a single element .

For example, direct marketing pushes a variety of promotional information to consumers through telephone, email, television, mailing catalogs, etc.

Another example is word-of-mouth marketing, which is to make the product distinctive, and then add various communication elements (including hot topics) (jokes, chicken soup, honest advice, etc.), and create various convenient conditions for users to spread the word online and offline.

Hot spot marketing is single-threaded - find a way to capture the "hot spot", match it with your own brand, and then push it. That's all.

So far, no scholar has proposed hot spot marketing.

It’s completely fine to catch some “hot spots” when you’re happy and not bother to catch them when you’re unhappy.

Therefore, to be precise, catching hot spots is called adding "hot spot" elements. Of course, it can also be called "hot spot" marketing , but it is definitely not hot spot marketing.

What is the purpose of adding a "hotspot" element? (Or, what is the role of "hot spot" marketing?)

• The first function is to add "hot spot" elements into the copy to make the copy fresh and dynamic; adding "hot spot" elements into products (such as ofo 's "Chinese Dream" series and " Minions " series, etc.) to make the products more vibrant , this is the basic function of "hot spot".
• The second function is to turn the "hotspot" itself into a carrier to carry a certain culture. This is difficult to do, and so far I have only found Durex that can do it. The answer will be revealed below.

If “hotspot” marketing hasn’t died in front of you, can you present the second function of “hotspot”?

To achieve the first function of "hotspot", it is very simple and anyone can do it.

For example, DJI drones, in the face of the popularity of the traveling frog, wanted to do some "hot spot" marketing, so they added a drone above the frog's yard and a drone on the hand of the frog sitting in the house, with the copywriting: "Since the advent of agricultural machinery, returning home to farm has become the wish of many frogs.", "I forgot that from that day on, I took the drone with me when I went out and cleaned the plane obediently at home."

For example, Wenshoumei’s air conditioner’s “hotspot” marketing for the traveling frog, added an air conditioner in the frog’s house, and then wrote a line of copywriting: “No matter where you travel, warmth is always at home.”

For example, at the beginning of the article, ofo’s “hot topic” marketing of the traveling frog was done by adding a frog to the ofo bike and then writing a line of copy: “The ofo bike sees the world and listens to the frog’s voice.”

Think about it, as a user, how do you feel when you see them? Do you have the urge to forward and spread it? My first impression is that it makes the product fresher and more vibrant. But I have no urge to repost.

Why is this happening? The root cause is that they simply added the "hotspot" element.

In other words, they just use the product as a carrier, then add the "hotspot" element, let the "hotspot" itself seduce users, and ultimately make users feel fresh.

But Durex is different! Although they also use products as carriers and then add "hotspot" elements, they do not rely on the "hotspot" itself to seduce users. Instead, they use the "hotspot" as a carrier to carry the culture of "sexual provocation." Use "sexual provocation" culture to seduce users.

You see, why isn’t Du’s main theme a warm and sentimental one? Tough guy route? Feminist route? He chose the "sexual provocation" route. Compared with the first three, the "sexual teasing" route has a long history, and it has been suppressed in China. "When it comes to dirty jokes, it's really exciting!"

I'll just post a few sentences for you:

"Strategies of the Warring States: Han Strategy II: The Chu Siege of Yongshi in May" states: "I served the king before him. He put his thigh on my body, but I was tired but not exhausted. He put his whole body on top of me, but I did not feel heavy. Why? Because it was more beneficial to put less. (Does it feel tiring to put one thigh on top? I do not feel tired when I put the whole thigh on top...)

In the Qing Dynasty's "Xiao Lin Guang Ji", the master said to the novice monk at night: "You can eat vegetarian food tonight." The novice monk asked: "What do you mean by vegetarian food?" The monk said: "It means not spitting." After that, the novice monk felt very painful and cried: "Master, I can't bear it any longer. Let's eat some meat quickly."

The "Ode to the Joy of the Intercourse of Yin and Yang between Heaven and Earth" by Bai Juyi's younger brother Bai Xingjian is so large in scale that I dare not write it out. It must be censored.

Therefore, in recent years, Du has acted as a warrior and promoted "sexual provocation".

Take a look at Durex's "sexual tease":

Last March, the red special edition of iPhone 7 was very popular. Durex came out with a copywriting, changing the phone on the red iPhone 7 poster to a condom, and changing “now presented in red” to “Red now”.

(At the end of 2017, Durex only sent one sentence) Have you figured out how to spend New Year’s Eve?

There were biology textbooks and a pile of tissues at the head of the bed, the computer was displaying images from 91pxxx.com, pictures of the dead brothers were hung on the wall, there were countless sex toys in the cabinet ready to be used, there were darts and targets downstairs ready to be launched at any time, and there was a fire hydrant to put out the fire. Everything was ready, except that there was no way out. (Durex modified the copy of the screenshot of Travel Frog)

After seeing Durex like this, I have always believed that Durex did not engage in "hotspot" marketing. It turned the "hotspot" itself into a carrier to carry a certain culture. This culture is called "sexual provocation", which uses "sexual provocation" to seduce users and stimulate dissemination from beginning to end.

If “hotspot” marketing doesn’t die in your face, it might turn your brand into a bonkers one.

“Hotspot” marketing is actually very difficult, and often there is only one win out of nine losses.

If we simply add the "hotspot" element but do not use the second function of the "hotspot" element, the amount of dissemination may be less than that of other ordinary copywriting. (Because currently too many companies and marketers are desperately trying to simply grab the "hot spots", which has caused the stimulation of hot spots to become dull)

For example, the "Traveling Frog Riding on the Hotspot" Weibo post by Burger King mentioned at the beginning of the article had 396 reposts and 116 comments respectively, while the average of the four Weibo posts above and below this one was 1162 and 403.

The number of reposts and comments on ofo's Weibo post "Lvwa is taking advantage of the hot topic" was 8 and 69 respectively, while the average of the other four Weibo posts above and below this one was 46 and 95 respectively.

(Zhihu) Liu Kanshan’s Weibo post titled “Lvwa is taking advantage of the hot topic” had 76 reposts and 95 comments respectively, while the averages of the other four posts above and below this post were 72 and 43. (slightly higher)

Finally, let’s take a look at Durex’s “Travel Frog Taking Advantage of Hot Topics” Weibo post, which had 22,687 reposts and 7,062 comments, while the averages of the other four Weibo posts above and below this one were 56 and 176.

The above data proves that for Weibo that fails to achieve the second function of "hotspot" marketing, the amount of hot-spot communication may be less than that of other ordinary copywriting. Under such real facts, if you still want to rely on "hot spots" to achieve results, there are only two ways: one is to push hot spots frequently, and the other is to capture hot spots widely.

Once we use these two methods, we will find that in order to implement them, we must organize and output the three core views of each "hot spot" marketing in a consistent manner and maintain consistency in the connotation (for example, Durex's consistent connotation: sexual provocation). Otherwise, the brand looks like a lunatic.

A brand is like a person. A person’s speaking style is completely different every time, his personality is weird, his temper is unpredictable, his pursuit of interests and sense of honor and disgrace are all confused. How can they communicate with each other? ?

The article ends here. I am not saying that “riding on the hot spot” is no longer effective, but I am saying that there are too many marketers using “hot spot” marketing nowadays, so much so that they are marketing the “hot spot” itself instead of the product/brand.

Moreover, the main force of “hotspot” marketing comes from “neural stimulation”. It would be good if you can catch the “hotspot” first every time. Otherwise, when the “hotspot” becomes “information”, what is the meaning of “hotspot” marketing?

Therefore, in the future, there will be more "hotspot" elements to enhance the vitality of content and products, or skilled marketers will give the "hotspot" elements a second function - turning the "hotspot" into a carrier to carry a certain culture.

The author of this article @朱小磊 is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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