Is the “Christmas hat” that is flooding the WeChat Moments an accidental “scam”? 5000 words to restore the whole incident

Around 10 p.m. on December 22, 2017, the WeChat Moments suddenly exploded. Everyone frequently @微信官方/微信官网 etc. asking for Santa hats , and almost all of the users asking for Santa hats were wearing Little Red Riding Hood.

The WeChat Index shows that it reached No. 1 on the entire Internet within 24 hours, and appeared in the Moments nearly 290 million times. There are now about 800 million Internet users in China, which means that during this period, 3 out of every 8 people are asking for Christmas hats.

Regarding this almost explosive screen-sweeping event, Qianqian sorted out and analyzed the reasons and key points for its spread, and tried to find the source of the event in order to form a deeper understanding of the case. Finally, he sorted out and summarized several aspects of the event that are worth learning from.

1. Analysis of the causes and key points of the spread

1. Analysis of the popularization process: How did this "scam" spread?

Just like many similar cases that have circulated on WeChat before, “Copy this message to the circle of friends... WeChat will...", but WeChat did help me realize this little wish of “wearing a Christmas hat” by relying on the social relationship chain.

Although it seems that some people will complain that these "cheated" users are stupid; but we might as well look at it from the user's perspective and classify users to better understand how the whole process happens -

The first type of user: ordinary users

I saw friends in the circle of friends asking for Santa hats on WeChat through @微信官方, and every little bitch who asked for a Santa hat got one: a cute, vivid and well-fitting Santa hat. As a cute and innocent ordinary user, even if they may have had doubts, they still chose to forward it due to various psychological influences such as curiosity and comparison. But after forwarding it, I felt conflicted: This scene seemed to have happened last year, but time makes us forget, and the past is gone forever...

After waiting for 5 minutes, the user finally believed it and was fooled. I was very anxious and confused. I had several choices at this time:

1. Tell everyone and your friends in the circle: This is fake! Don't believe it.
2. Delete the post on your Moments quietly and pretend it never happened.
3. Use various channels and methods ( Meitu XiuXiu ? Tiantian Pitu? Mini Programs ?) to photoshop Little Red Riding Hood onto yourself.

The second type of user: smart users

Even though I knew the news was fake, I still posted on Moments asking for a Santa hat, and I had prepared a profile picture with a Santa hat photoshopped on it. After posting on Moments, I modified the profile picture myself and then announced it to everyone - WeChat officials added a Santa hat to my profile picture!

Smart users come from various sources, including Detective Conan who sees through the truth at a glance and ordinary users who choose method 3 above and then turn into Detective Uncle Mori.

The third type of users: dedicated users

A few minutes after you posted on Moments, someone left a message to express their sadness at being fooled, or if you still didn't put on a cute and suitable Santa hat after a few minutes, someone will automatically and consciously photoshop a Santa hat into yours, showing their care and concern for Santa Claus and contributing their entire evening to the entire Moments.

The fourth type of user: merchants

The fourth type of users are not just individuals, but various businesses, etc. The main purpose is to help users put on Little Red Riding Hood by launching H5/mini programs around hot topics to increase the attention of public accounts and subscription accounts .

The following examples may help you better understand user psychology:

When my friend sent it to me, I thought it was fake and replied, “Then I’ll wait and see your hat.” After a while she said, “Look! There’s a hat!” Then, I foolishly told others on Zhihu that it was real o_O Later I found out that I was cheated, and started to cheat others.

Some netizens also said that they thought this was very cute. Many people know it is fake, but they still forward it, and then people who care about them or some kind-hearted person will help tap the picture. How cute is that?

Some students also pointed out a cruel fact: Christmas is here and single people are starting to get bored and look for fun!

In addition, for a small number of skeptical users——

If Tencent wants to do this, it is completely feasible from a technical point of view, and there may be motivation to do it. It is normal that some people think that the WeChat team has really made it.

2. Analysis of the key points of screen-sweeping — why did it become so popular?

This case is a viral spread that is popular in the circle of friends. It has the characteristics of explosiveness, low participation threshold, fit with holiday hotspots, fun, and high response .

Back to the main points of the Christmas hat screen:

① High explosiveness: The topic suddenly emerged around 10 pm on the 22nd, and suddenly spread rapidly in the circle of friends. Basically everyone could see more than 20 posts in their circle of friends.

② Low threshold for participation: For users, they only need to forward a sentence and someone may help them with photo editing. Even if no one responds, it is easy to edit one yourself. Photo editing software can do it in a few seconds, and you can even pretend that someone is paying attention.

③ Fit the hot spots: Holiday hot spots are easy to take advantage of and you won’t go wrong. Plus, it happened to be the winter solstice, a beautiful Friday night when Chinese families gather together to eat dumplings/glutinous rice balls. Friday and the holiday, plus the upcoming Christmas, made the kids immersed in a relaxed and joyful environment.

Various experiments have shown that a relaxed and happy mentality can make people more receptive and more willing to do things that they would not do when they are normally depressed. This has created a good atmosphere for both the disseminators and the recipients of the Christmas Little Red Riding Hood incident.

④ Fun: Before the upcoming Christmas, adding a festive Santa hat to the avatar is fun and interesting (e.g. a green Santa hat is a good example of a user’s “playfulness”) without making the user look ugly . Through photo editing, the user can also show a more beautiful side (e.g. adding a little red hat at the appropriate position, and the size of the little red hat brings out the perfect proportions of the little face, and one-click beautification and one-click makeup are also possible). This actually gives users great motivation to spread the message , resulting in very high-quality communication effects.

⑤Social needs: This is the most important.

• Curiosity about how to swipe the Moments, and the need for interaction (topics of conversation) in how to communicate;
• Friends who I haven’t seen for a long time, I will help you edit a picture and chat about your recent situation;
• Those who are too busy with work and have no Christmas plans, just send a message and naturally chat about Christmas plans;
• Parents and elders can also smile casually.

2. Source of the “Santa Hat” Incident

1. Original version 2015

It is a persistent rumor, the earliest version of which is as follows:

This reminds me of the top ten unsolved mysteries of the Chinese Internet :

Today is the birthday of Ma Huateng , president of Tencent. 100Q coins will be given to everyone. You need to send this message to more than two groups. I heard that five people have tried it. If you really have 100Q coins, send it to 4 groups and then check your avatar after 10 seconds.

2. So who was responsible for this "Christmas hat" screen-sweeping incident?

Regarding the source of this spread:

1. An unexpected "little prank"

An employee in charge of external access at Tencent SNG photoshopped a picture of a customer wearing a Santa hat. The customer then posted it on his Moments, and it went viral.

2. Marketing from a new media team in Nanjing

The following statement is quoted from the friend @万能大叔——

Clue 1: In fact, in Uncle’s new media WeChat community , a group member stood up last night and admitted that he was the one who did the screen-sweeping and posted screenshots of the background data. Lao Han said that this screen-sweeping incident came from "Zhang Zichuang" and he did not dare to promote it for fear of being banned by Tencent. The server started to crash many times last night. Probably because he was too busy last night, the uncle contacted Lao Han in the morning, but he didn't say anything as of press time. However, he admitted that he had done something similar last year and sent a link to the uncle again . The experience was very bad, and the other party's reason was that the server was stuck.

(A free promotion opportunity was missed)

Clue 2: After the uncle posted a message on his Moments asking for a Santa hat in the morning, several friends immediately sent him an application that could generate Santa hats with one click. This is Tiantian Ptu. When the page opens and authorization is granted, the WeChat avatar will automatically be put on a Santa hat, and there are multiple options. Click one button to generate and save the image. The routine is very clear. The most important thing is that the words "Tiantian Ptu" are also very eye-catching and directly expose the brand . The uncle’s WeChat avatar is wearing a Santa hat using this H5.

But the careful uncle discovered that this link came from QQ Space. Could it be that Tiantian Pitu was doing marketing on QQ Space? The uncle even went to QQ space for a stroll and found that there were indeed many tribes discussing the issue of wearing Santa hats, but he discovered that almost no one in his own tribe, which "Photoshops Every Day", was discussing it. Looking at this link more carefully, it turns out that it was made during Christmas 2015 . Therefore, Tiantian Ptu's H5 was obviously brought out again, but because it has the best experience and QQ Space belongs to Tencent, it once again caught the "east wind" this time and acted as a booster. But obviously, this year's east wind was not led by Tiantian Ptu.

Clue 3: Last night was probably a sleepless night for many new media practitioners. Everyone found that the Santa hats were all over the screen, and the people who were dotting the screen were very shy, which gave everyone the opportunity to take advantage of the situation or even counterattack , so everyone showed off their skills. The uncle found at least two WeChat accounts using the "Christmas hat" for promotion. One called "Egg and Shredded Pork Fried Rice" did it the best and even guided users on how to play it. The intention was very clear . It used the WeChat friend relationship chain and contempt chain to leverage social traffic and divert it. The only pity was that the photo-editing level was a bit poor.

Gameplay guide:

1. Save the Santa hat avatar and change it

2. Post to Moments "Give me a Santa hat @WeChat Official"

3. Self-evaluation: "Yes, I have changed it"

4. Successful deception

Coincidentally, last night, a secret organization called "WeChat Moments" claiming to be officially supported by WeChat also posted a picture of a Christmas hat with a QR code to attract traffic , but after paying attention to it, the uncle found that it was only teasing users and could not help users put on the hat. There seem to be quite a few similar "shameless" cases. ”

Referring to what @万能大叔 said, this event was originally a marketing activity of a new media team in Nanjing, but due to technical and other reasons, it did not achieve the expected publicity effect; but other new media teams quickly sensed the "potential energy" of this event, so they continued to fuel the event and benefit from it.

3. What can we learn from the “Santa Hat” incident?

After the above analysis and the efforts of the past few days, Qianqian feels that it is not easy to completely figure out the source of this "Santa Hat" incident; however, it seems that who did it is not so important - because this incident itself is not a new technology or a new way of playing;

But the "Christmas hat" screen-sweeping can indeed be said to be the right time, right place and right people, and this seemingly simple activity is not so easy to successfully replicate, so Qianqian tries to analyze what we can learn from it.

1. Taking advantage of the situation is always cheaper than creating it

The timing here is mainly holiday marketing . Christmas is coming and everyone wants to celebrate. Everyone wants to get some joy. So wear a Santa hat, which is cute and fun. Of course, you may say that there are also cases of self-promotion and screen-sweeping, such as Tencent Games and BMW. Think back, did they happen this year? The cost of creating momentum is too high.

So, perhaps for most people, what they should think about now is what to do on New Year's Day, Spring Festival and Valentine's Day ? For example, there was a previous H5 case of making a "fake marriage certificate" that went viral. After more than a year, people still ask almost every day how to make a fake marriage certificate. This shows how powerful this rigid demand and long tail are.

For example, the photo editing apps mentioned above that fueled the trend and the WeChat accounts that used "Christmas hats" for promotion, although they were not the initiators of the event, still benefited from providing users with photo editing services and guiding users on how to play the game .

2. Good ideas really need good technology

In addition to a smooth experience and not being blocked, "good technology" also includes the sense of ritual it brings to users, and how to use the power of users to form a viral self-propagation while helping users realize their little wishes. This is very important. The contempt chain is not formed naturally, it requires guidance , and even some "rumors" can be appropriately added, and then complaints and contempt chains will erupt.

As mentioned above, why do so many people believe this rumor? It is because this "rumor" itself is not a social event and will not hurt others. It is just for fun, so why not give it a try? Maybe there will be a miracle.

Of course, technical support is the foundation. If your idea is great but fails on the most basic server, it means you are completely unprepared.

As mentioned above, it may be the new media team of the initiator of this event. Because the server could not support it, the user experience was not good and they missed a good publicity opportunity. However, Tiantian Ptu, which had already created the "Generate Christmas Hats with One Click" H5 as early as 2015, still benefited a lot from this event due to the good experience shown by the WeChat Index.

3. Don’t you really want to take advantage of the potential of mini programs?

Since we have mentioned technology above, we must talk about mini-programs and light application mode here. WeChat can help you bear the pressure of the server and sharing issues . Why not use it? In fact, as long as the problem of attracting fans through mini programs and subscription accounts is solved, there seem to be ready-made cases.

For example, this time a small program called "Christmas Avatar" made a lot of money. When searching for the three words "Christmas hat" on WeChat, it is the first to appear. Most people also generate avatars through this program.

This is most likely due to the mini-programs, as WeChat has strong support for mini-programs. This can be seen in the search rankings . If there are functional requirements, mini-programs are searched first, followed by articles. The WeChat Index shows how large the traffic of the word Christmas is.

In addition, Qianqian believes that the reason why this activity is still spreading in the circle of friends is probably because WeChat’s evaluation mechanism for inducing content sharing is not effective, but WeChat has not made a major effort to refute this "rumor" that has been flooding the screen . Does this also reflect WeChat’s support for mini programs? Since mini programs are very suitable for meeting the functional requirements of specific scenarios, does WeChat also hope that this event can boost the popularity of mini programs?

4. WeChat can better leverage social chains

Truly good technology will leverage the social chain and form a new chain of contempt. This kind of traffic is huge, and it is an advantage that only WeChat has at present, which Weibo has completely none of.

There are many differences in the communication ecology of Weibo and WeChat. To give a simple example: if I am a big V on Weibo, I need to pay the platform for the "fan headlines" fee if I want all my fans to see the content I post, otherwise I may be blocked. This kind of marketing method and cost does not exist at all in the WeChat ecosystem, but can be seen everywhere on Weibo.

The author of this article @朱千千 is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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