The traffic pool of post-90s generation is getting bigger and bigger. How can advertisers seize the traffic trend?

Recently, Dior announced its brand ambassador for China. The new ambassador is the popular star Zhao Liying, which immediately sparked a huge discussion. Many people thought that this "Langfang girl wearing Dior" was marrying above her station and questioned whether Dior fans would buy Dior again.

Doubts and ridicule were so overwhelming that Dior CEO had to respond, saying that Dior appointed Zhao Liying as the brand ambassador in the hope of attracting more young consumers. "Although Dior is not a youth brand, we hope that young people will desire Dior."

Undoubtedly, even the usually aloof Dior has begun to reach out to young consumers, which shows that whether it can occupy the post-90s traffic pool to the greatest extent, activate the online value of the post-90s young people, and explore an efficient commercialization path has become a strategic high ground that brands and advertisers in the post-90s subculture track are vying for. This trend can actually be proven by the China Advertising Awards and the China Great Wall Advertising Awards which ended in the past two days. Many advertisers and advertisers who relied on marketing cases targeting the post-90s generation won major awards, and in app was one of them.

As we all know, the current competition environment for Internet social products is extremely fierce. The capital war behind the money-burning ecosystem and the platform bubble that blindly pursues traffic are increasingly becoming insurmountable growth bottlenecks for many Internet social products. As the largest photo social platform in China, in app has also faced such development difficulties. However, relying on its huge traffic pool of post-90s and many innovative product methods popular among young people, in app has taken a different approach and has opened up a feasible commercialization path, which may give birth to a new "source of fresh water".

Why do advertisers want to seize the traffic pool of post-90s?

In fact, seizing the traffic entrance of post-90s generation has become the core challenge in the second half of the Internet. Many leading commercial brands are quietly planning and seizing the traffic pool of post-90s. For example , Momo invited the "Honghua Club" to launch the "Get to know me through video" advertisement, Phoenix News client launched the first "news pop-up store", OPPO played scene marketing in App, the most active photo social application for post-90s, and so on.

The reason why these commercial brands are willing to continue to try to reach the post-90s generation is mainly due to the following three reasons:

1) The post-90s traffic pool has become the “new business card” of corporate brands

The growth of the post-90s generation is closely associated with the development of China’s Internet . The Internet is their way of life. If brands want to influence the minds of the post-90s generation, offline media is powerless. Brand marketing can only be expected to reach and reach them if it deeply touches the Internet.

Therefore, more and more big commercial brands have begun to adjust their marketing budgets, investing more funds in high-quality traffic pools that can influence the post-90s generation, and taking the lead in laying out the post-90s market. However, to capture the minds of the post-90s generation, it is not enough to rely solely on large-scale advertising coverage and brand reach. As a corporate brand, it is necessary to understand the subculture of the post-90s and post-95s, design product features, marketing activities , and product innovations from the perspective of Internet natives, and truly mobilize the emotions and perceptions of these post-95s naughty kids. If you fail to do so, you will become an "old man" in their eyes and will not be noticed. If you succeed, you will become their good friends. They will become the brand's most loyal "fans" by participating in a large number of efficient interactions with the brand, and the brand will also be given a high-growth corporate brand "new business card" due to the affiliation of these specific fans.

It is precisely because of this new business card that post-90s mobile application tribes such as in, Momo, A站, and B站have become the partners of commercial brands competing to form alliances with them - more than 90% of in's users are born after 1990, 60% of Momo's users are born after 1990, and A站 and B站 are almost entirely tribes of post-90s users.

2) Record-sharing culture becomes the social “passport” for the young generation

The post-90s tribe, which gathers on the Internet with a variety of mobile Internet applications, has formed a unique tribal culture and tribal discourse. For example, the barrage and ghost video culture of Station A, the funny entertainment culture of Kuaishou , the cute culture of in, and the two-dimensional comic culture of Kuaikan...

Each culture has its own unique language, rituals, and leaders, and these cultures belong to a specific age group - those born after 1990. People who did not grow up in the soil of Internet culture will naturally form a cultural barrier with this group. Whether it is the popularity of the two-dimensional culture or the prevalence of self-destructing reading , it shows that the environment around us is being changed by younger users. If brand marketers do not understand the culture of post-90s, cannot go deep into the post-90s tribe, and cannot output content that fits the post-90s online culture, it will be difficult for the brand to have a deep impact on the post-90s, and the problems of consumer generational gaps and brand aging will be inevitable.

A research report prepared by iResearch Consulting and in based on the product usage habits and preferences of post-90s users pointed out that posting cute photos and recording and sharing life has become a unique lifestyle of the post-90s generation. They especially like to invest a lot of time in posting cute photos, using pictures to record every bit of beauty in life, and using selfies to accumulate their own social currency, which has become the "pass" for the post-90s generation to exist in the Internet society. The UGC interaction and on-site interaction required by brands are both evaluated based on the maximum "sense of participation" of potential audiences. Only by fully understanding the new-age popular rules of the post-90s generation can we ensure that all kinds of marketing activities and business cases designed by the brand have a broad audience of young people.

3) The “toxic” consumption concept of the post-90s generation under hedonism

A survey conducted by a research institute shows that since people born in the 1990s spend most of their time on the Internet and social media , they spend a quarter of their income on online shopping, which includes not only physical products but also virtual spiritual products.

Not only do those born in the 1990s have little saving habit, but they have a strong sense of advance consumption and often spend the next two to three months' income in advance. The consumption behavior of mending three years' sewing is even rarer, and they are more likely to keep up with the generational updates of products and follow the consumption trends. Light luxury, minimalist and exquisite products often make them spend a lot of money. In general, the consumption concepts of the post-90s generation have long been liberated from the old standards of "cheap, affordable, and cost-effective" that they used to advocate. They have begun to pay attention to the quality of life and the identity recognition given by products. As long as the brands meet their psychological demands, they will find that their consumption concepts are really "toxic". They can spend money, dare to spend money, and of course they will spend money. In the future, only brands that can make the post-90s generation spend money can have a foothold in the market. This unique and independent consumption concept is changing the past rules for brands to realize commercial benefits. High premiums that deviate from the actual value of products and continuous consumption based on emotional nourishment are changing past business models.

Therefore, the generational battle for brands has already begun, and commercial competition has reached the era of seizing and cultivating the post-90s generation. It is no exaggeration to say that the future business success will be determined by those born in the 1990s. Therefore, it has become a general trend for companies to capture the traffic pool of post-90s generation in their marketing campaigns.

How can advertisers seize the traffic pool of post-90s?

The methodology for seizing the post-90s traffic pool is actually not difficult, and it mainly consists of two steps:

The first step is to find an effective post-90s traffic pool.

Generally speaking, the traffic pool mainly relies on three channels : celebrity IP, Internet applications, and offline advertising.

For the traffic of young people born after 1990, the IP traffic pool is controlled by top stars such as Lu Han , Zhao Liying, and TFBOYS, and the cost is relatively high; the search traffic pool has been led by Baidu for a long time, and the information traffic pool has been caught up by Toutiao, which can generally only be reached but cannot form interactive effectiveness; and offline traffic is not recommended for advertisers because it is relatively scattered; only Internet application traffic with social attributes can be accurately reached and interactively converted , and is the best channel for advertisers.

Efficient interaction is the fundamental reason why traffic pools dominated by post-90s people such as in, Station A, and Station B are popular among brand advertisers. Interaction can not only convey brand information, but also capture the minds of the audience, stimulate secondary dissemination during interaction, and achieve viral effects. However, it is not easy to achieve efficient interaction between brands and users. The post-90s generation is essentially a picky and difficult generation. Brands must constantly iterate on products and communications to cater to the preferences of the post-90s generation and gain their recognition.

The second step is to cleverly seize the traffic pool of post-90s.

We might as well use the classic case "Who is OPPO's photography KING" that won an award at this China International Advertising Festival to analyze and explain how to cleverly capture the post-90s traffic pool. This case is a scenario marketing service tailored by in app for OPPO. Because of this case, in won the 2017 China Great Wall Award Advertiser Award for Brand Building, the most typical online marketing case of the year for post-90s.

It is reported that OPPO R11 is a camera phone mainly targeting young women, with both front and rear cameras reaching 20 million pixels; while in is a leading domestic imaging social application, which has gathered nearly 100 million users born in the 1990s and 1995s, most of whom are young women. The combination of the two is naturally appropriate.

So, how can the two be cleverly combined?

I learned that before the marketing was launched, in tailored a theme marketing strategy for OPPO called "Who is the OPPO Photography KING" - inviting top stars Li Yifeng and Chen Weiting, who are loved by girls born in the 1990s, to participate. The two were the spokespersons for the front camera and rear camera respectively, representing the front and rear camera camps, and then called on in users to choose their own camps - if they are in Li Yifeng's front camera camp, they can take photos with the OPPO front camera and upload them for PK.

In addition, in has also planned a detailed and thorough promotion mechanism for OPPO: in order to gain wide participation in the event, in uses the best resources in the app, the world page and the in coin sign-in page, as hard advertising diversion entrances to guide users into the event H5; and in order to better cooperate with the event, in has established an in-site KOL resource library. In this interactive PK event, in mobilized 5 of the most influential KOLs to participate in posting pictures and released in customized H5, expressing their love for OPPO phones on the site and on Weibo, allowing the OPPO R11 brand and product information to be further exposed and deeply interacted with.

In addition, in order to increase secondary viral transmission , OPPO used the new R11 as the prize for this event to encourage user UGC, and in made stickers for users titled "Who is the OPPO Photography KING", which made girls who love taking photos, beauty and fashion trends excited and aroused strong enthusiasm for participation and dissemination.

In the end, with the help of the star effect of the two male gods, combined with the joint efforts of customized H5 + static stickers + resource recommendations + KOL graphic interaction + product rewards, this joint event was participated by more than hundreds of thousands of users, using theme stickers, photo sharing, sharing and other participation methods to help OPPO gain tens of millions of exposures on this platform where post-90s gather.

Indeed, the reason why the "Who is OPPO Photo KING" campaign was successful is firstly because OPPO identified the target traffic pool, and secondly because of its creative marketing planning and solid implementation, which enabled effective in-depth dialogue and interaction in a way that the post-90s generation likes. in app continues to stimulate young people's desire to express themselves and promote their enthusiasm for interacting with brands based on the demands of post-90s users through various gameplay and interactions such as stickers, AR magic camera, Pabei multi-person video group chat, and local party social interaction. In addition, in also uses the offline smart terminal redbox as a carrier to cover leisure, entertainment and other consumer life scenarios of middle and high-end urban people, and explore new retail scenario services that integrate online and offline. This will enable the platform, users, and advertisers to achieve a win-win situation in the process of monetizing the commercial value of the traffic pool.

It is worth mentioning that due to the excellent product and huge number of users, it is natural for in to be commercialized. According to the financial report, in's revenue in the first half of this year was 32.56 million, a year-on-year increase of 204.45% over the first half of last year. It can be said that this is very valuable, because in is one of the few social applications among all social apps that can be the first to achieve profitability in the short term.

It can be imagined that because of these post-90s young people, in has not only created a unique brand tone, but also expanded a broad commercial space - the foreign application of the same type, Instagram, was once sold to Facebook for US$1 billion. Therefore, as the value of the post-90s traffic pool grows, I believe that the commercial value of in will be comparable to Instagram and become a new benchmark for Chinese social applications.

To sum up, when the traffic pool of post-90s generation becomes larger and larger, the first thing advertisers need to do is to change their inherent thinking and be humble like Dior did. Then, you need to combine your own brand positioning, identify the traffic pool of post-90s generation and develop an effective marketing plan. Only in this way, "you will become friends of post-90s generation."