How has the way fast-moving consumer goods advertised changed?

The online video ecosystem is changing rapidly, and these changes have also brought many insights to fast-moving consumer goods advertisers . How should the advertising methods of fast-moving consumer goods change according to changes in the environment? The author of this article analyzes four major changes in the online video ecosystem and explores the opportunities and challenges facing fast-moving consumer goods advertisers in this media environment.

At the beginning of last month, Luckin Coffee officially announced that Liu Xuxiu, who had just left the island of Chuang 2021, would be the Luckin iced coffee recommendation officer, and the advertising film "Luckin YYDS! 》 was subsequently released.

In the video, Liu Luxiu continued his style of "not wanting to do business" and repeated monotonous advertising slogans to the camera with an expressionless face. The advertisement has been online for nearly a month. Mr. Li’s high popularity has opened up new sales channels for Luckin Ice Coffee. Fans’ purchase photos can be seen in the super topic every day.

"The actor in this commercial has no acting skills or expressions, it's very extreme, I like it very much." commented one netizen. The continuous BGM and the brainwashing "YYDS" become boosters of the advertising video. The unexpected cross-border cooperation accurately grasps the social psychology of rebellion and curiosity, and also strengthens the fashionable and youthful brand tone.

As of June 2, the Weibo topic #瑞幸冰咖啡推荐官利路修# reached 130 million views, and the video "瑞幸YYDS! 》The number of views on Weibo has reached 8.54 million, and the number of views on Bilibili has exceeded 1.9 million.

Image source: "Luckin YYDS!" on bilibili. 》

Of course, what we are going to talk about today is not Mr. Li or iced coffee, but how fast-moving consumer goods brands like Luckin Coffee, which are widely present in people’s lives, can adapt to the rapidly changing online video ecosystem and use new media to effectively reach and attract consumers.

This issue of Quanmeipai brings you a compilation of articles to analyze with you the four major changes in the online video ecosystem, and explore the opportunities and challenges for fast-moving consumer goods advertisers in this media environment.

1. FMCG products have long relied on video advertising

Fast-moving consumer goods (CPG, Consumer Packaged Goods, also known as Fast-Moving Consumer Goods) refer to commodities that consumers use and consume frequently in their daily lives and need to be updated and replaced periodically. They generally include food and beverages, clothing, beauty and personal care products, tobacco, alcohol, and over-the-counter drugs.

Although the entire fast-moving consumer goods market is huge, competition within the industry is fierce because consumers have low switching costs between homogeneous products and loyalty is difficult to maintain. In addition, consumers' purchasing behavior is influenced by multiple factors such as channel convenience, shopping atmosphere, and personal preferences, and purchasing choices are often impulsive and emotional.

This product characteristic makes the industry highly dependent on marketing and advertising.

Compared with durable goods, the investment in marketing and advertising of fast-moving consumer goods often has an immediate effect, and marketing investment and channel investment will have a greater impact on sales. Therefore, fast-moving consumer goods companies often report huge marketing expenses. For example, Procter & Gamble's advertising expenditure reached US$7.33 billion for the entire fiscal year ending June 30, 2020.

As an expressive audio-visual medium, video can fully mobilize the user's senses and give the user a strong sense of involvement.

Therefore, from John Lewis’ heartwarming Christmas advertisements every year to Coca-Cola’s creative stories, and from the various silky chocolates in China to the chewing gum that keeps your breath fresh for ten years, fast-moving consumer goods merchants have been exploring how to use videos to strengthen brand narratives and enhance consumers’ brand stickiness.

1. Four major changes in the online video ecosystem

In the past decade, fast-moving consumer goods advertising has gradually shifted from television to online videos. As the user scale of the online video industry continues to expand, this trend will become more pronounced in the next decade. Therefore, it is particularly important to fully understand online videos.

In April this year, Facebook pointed out in a report provided to advertisers that the online video ecosystem is undergoing four important changes: users' attention is becoming more fragmented, the importance of relevance is highlighted, the content itself has become a purchasing and consumption scenario, and advertisers can build multi-dimensional memories around brands.

2. User attention is increasingly fragmented

As online streaming further divides the market of traditional cable TV, users' video consumption behavior becomes more diverse.

A global market survey from Ipsos shows that 81% of people say they watch TV programs with advertisements every week, 84% watch YouTube videos every week, 67% watch videos on social media such as Facebook and Instagram every week, and 60% and 39% watch videos on Netflix and Amazon Prime every week, respectively.

The survey also found that young people use traditional media such as television less frequently and are more inclined to jump between different content on different platforms. They watch news and TV series on TV, get beauty and fashion information on Instagram, and browse pet-related content on Facebook.

This diversity is also evident in the domestic media market. As far as the domestic market is concerned, brands’ video distribution channels include both specialized video platforms, such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and Bilibili, as well as instant messaging or social platforms that have successively developed the video field, such as WeChat, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu. Different platforms also correspond to different user characteristics and content tones.

3. Users pay more attention to privacy and expect to see customized content

In the past, fast-moving consumer goods advertisers needed to follow the logic of market segmentation, grouping people with similar attributes into a sub-market and looking for brand information and media channels that could connect with that group.

Today, platforms allow advertisers and brands to show consumers content that is highly relevant to their context and interests, and consumers even expect marketing content to be relevant to their own lives. For fast-moving consumer goods, personalized video content can also make the brand stand out from a crowd of homogeneous products and create a deep memory point.

In addition, consumers have a clearer attitude towards privacy data, and they are more aware of the boundaries of privacy data and the importance of protecting privacy. At the same time, some consumers will choose to reasonably give up some privacy in order to obtain customized information of certain value.

Although consumers remain cautious about data sharing, when the means of data acquisition, storage and utilization are open and transparent, they will be motivated by the benefits provided by platforms and merchants and allow some of their information to be obtained.

Image source: Innovid

Although users attach great importance to privacy, they are also willing to reasonably give up some information such as the content of their likes and gender in order to obtain customized information of certain value. In a survey of American consumers by advertising company Innovid, 23% said they were more willing to share their information with brands than they were two years ago.

In terms of the types of information users are willing to share, more than half of consumers are willing to share their likes and gender information, and receive advertisements customized based on this information; but only about 10% of users are willing for businesses to obtain information such as their income, occupation, and browsing history.

4. Content itself becomes a purchasing space and consumption scenario

Fast-moving consumer goods brands used to be able to influence users’ in-store consumption behavior only through advertising, but with the rise of online videos and e-commerce, the time and space distance between marketing content and purchasing behavior has been greatly reduced.

Users can directly add their favorite items to the shopping cart of the e-commerce platform, and can even place an order while watching video content, integrating media and shopping malls into one. In a Facebook survey of 25,000 people worldwide, 49% of users said they had purchased goods during online live broadcasts.

The immersive experience and embedded shopping functions of videos can often strengthen users' willingness to consume and effectively stimulate their direct purchasing behavior. When a brand has already had a certain appeal to consumers, fewer jump steps can save consumers’ time and psychological costs in purchasing, thereby increasing the probability of purchase. This is not difficult to understand. In front of anchors with strong sales capabilities, the entire process from product promotion to ordering is often done in one go.

For fast-moving consumer goods brands, the shopping atmosphere and purchasing environment are no longer uncontrollable factors that rely on distribution channels. Instead, they can become an important tool to promote the improvement of advertising conversion rates.

5. Advertisers can build multi-dimensional memories around their brands

Online videos can include video content of different styles and forms. From a practical perspective, the connotation and extension of the concept of online video are richer.

The same material can be made into long videos presented on Facebook Watch and IGTV to establish valuable connections with consumers, or it can be edited into short videos presented in the information flow to attract consumers' attention. Similar video content can be adjusted and re-created according to the characteristics of the platform to maximize the value of the content.

Diverse platforms, creators and media formats provide video users with abundant choices and also offer fast-moving consumer goods advertisers diverse marketing ideas. Advertisers can use videos to achieve multiple goals, from brand building, enhancing consumer stickiness, and improving conversion rates.

Multi-format, all-round online videos allow advertisers to build a multi-dimensional, comprehensive brand image in the minds of consumers. These images will connect with consumers in different situations and guide consumers to buy.

2. Opportunities and Challenges for FMCG Advertisers

Data shows that advertisers from different industries are actively embracing video advertising.

According to QuestMobile data, among various advertising forms, video information flow is growing faster. In 2020, the proportion of short video information flow advertisements increased from 31.1% in the first quarter to 36.6% in the fourth quarter, and the proportion of video information flow advertisements increased from 6.4% in the first quarter to 22.6% in the fourth quarter. The volume of graphic and text information flow advertisements has been compressed, and video has gradually become the mainstream advertising form.

Emerging communication media also represent different user groups, connection methods, technical logic and consumption scenarios than in the past. For fast-moving consumer goods advertisers, online video is not only a form of digital media, but also a rapidly changing ecosystem full of opportunities and challenges.

Undoubtedly, the rapid development of online videos provides opportunities for fast-moving consumer goods advertisers.

First of all, video marketing methods have more options.

The connection methods and usage scenarios of different online videos vary, from the 30-second Super Bowl halftime ad with an advertising fee of US$5.6 million to the Vlogs recorded spontaneously by consumers, from brand documentaries and micro-films directed by big-name directors to the pan-entertainment videos in the life area of ​​video platforms, video marketing methods are constantly innovating, and the available forms, content and channels are becoming more and more abundant.

Secondly, advertisers can integrate resources for combined delivery.

It can not only achieve wide coverage of advertising information with the help of traditional mass media, but also form a competitive advantage through precise combination of delivery; it can not only use top anchors to quickly convert traffic into sales, but also use vertical KOLs to cultivate consumers' long-term trust and reputation. Different resources complement each other and together form a complete brand story.

In addition, as users spend more and more time on videos, online videos will unleash greater potential in brand marketing. Richard Breitengraser, CEO of VOID Media Group, said that in 2021, the average person will spend 100 minutes a day watching videos. He believes that compared to general online videos, online live streaming has even greater potential.

On the other hand, the new online video ecosystem has also brought new challenges to fast-moving consumer goods advertisers.

The rules and operating logic of video platforms are not unified or even fixed, which increases costs and risks in operations. For example, the recommendation algorithms and underlying logics of different video platforms are different. Video content that has a better distribution effect under the social relationship recommendation algorithm may not necessarily become a hit on other platforms based on tag recommendations.

In addition, the abundance of choices also means that the difficulty of precise delivery has greatly increased, and advertisers need to spend more money to select delivery channels and accounts.

For example, video bloggers on Xiaohongshu are divided into amateurs, amateurs with thousands of fans, KOL experts, and artists and celebrities. Advertisers need to conduct in-depth research on the operating logic and indicator system of the video platform in order to ensure that the delivery channels are consistent with the brand marketing goals. In addition, the platform’s traffic incentive policy will also have a certain impact on advertising effectiveness.

3. What should fast-moving consumer goods advertisers do?

The online video ecosystem is changing rapidly. These changes have several implications for fast-moving consumer goods advertisers:

1. View online video as an ecosystem

Online video is not just a form of media, but an ecosystem with elements such as platform logic, product rules, and user characteristics. Fast-moving consumer goods advertisers need to conduct in-depth research on platforms, channels and users in order to achieve alignment between brand tone and marketing matrix. Advertisers should also integrate resources, optimize video delivery combinations, maximize the value of materials, and enrich the content ecosystem around the brand.

2. Embrace diversity and improve distribution efficiency through data-driven decision making

Different video platforms have gradually formed their own content ecosystems, and related data have become increasingly complex. With the help of professional data agencies, brands can obtain more objective decision-making basis in terms of platform matching, account research, account selection, content optimization, etc., and achieve precise control over the delivery effect.

3. Effectively use data while protecting user privacy rights

Users' protection of data privacy and demand for personalized information are in a dynamic and contradictory relationship. Advertisers need to strike a balance and be cautious about issues related to data privacy. Advertisers can proactively disclose the methods and permissions for obtaining data, and return the power to choose whether to disclose information to consumers in order to gain their trust.

In short, online video will become a battleground for fast-moving consumer goods advertisers. If they want to tell a good brand story among many products and gain consumer recognition, fast-moving consumer goods advertisers need to re-examine the relationship between brands, consumers and online videos.

Author: All Media

Source: Quanmeipai (ID: quanmeipai)