Understand these 5 types of activity classification to make operations more efficient

Clarifying the purpose of an event should be the prerequisite for a successful event. Why do I say this? Because the more targeted and purposeful the activity is, the more targeted we can be in creating activity gimmicks, conceiving activity details, setting participation thresholds, etc. In addition, it is also possible to more clearly estimate the number of participants, make activity budgets and ROL estimates, etc.

Speaking of activities, let’s first talk about the “big and comprehensive” activities that cover all aspects. Will the effect of such activities that focus on everything and take all dimensions into consideration necessarily be the same as expected?

1. A large and comprehensive activity that covers all aspects is actually lacking in all aspects

"Big and comprehensive" activities generally include 2-3 activity objectives, and target 2-3 groups of people, and there is no strong connection between them. Unprofessional superiors or knowledgeable clients often make such requests.

When you encounter this kind of problem, first you need to stand firm and try to convince the other party and understand their core needs; secondly, propose two plans in a short period of time and let them choose; finally, use your professionalism to convince them, reach a consensus, and then improve the activity plan.

Let me tell you a story first, sharing a failed case of mine. The general process of the matter is as follows:

The opening ceremony of an offline experience shopping mall, where the items sold are high-consumption, low-frequency, rigid-demand items that young people consume once in their lifetime. Party A requires that the day's activities have the following two indispensable basic purposes:

1. Maximize brand exposure - fully hype the brand to make it famous in Xi'an and even the whole country;
2. High conversion rate and high consumption on the opening day - sales on the day of the event are required to reach 20 million. In addition, there are other ancillary event purposes.

In the era of mobile Internet , especially the younger generation born on the Internet, people are increasingly relying on the consumption model of "understanding the brand - online search - similar comparison - choice to buy".

Knowing the particularity of Party A's products and brand appeal, I made an activity plan that focuses on "brand exposure" and supplemented by order conversion . First, it is recommended to complete the information collation and aggregation of the brand's " keywords " one month before the opening, so that users can search for things online, thereby increasing their familiarity and trust in the brand; secondly, at the same time point, complete the construction of the PC website/mobile mall, so that users can have a better online consumption experience.

Then, 10 days before the opening, I set up the following process:

• Conduct specific “flash mob” and “performance art” marketing events 7-10 days before the opening;
• Hot topics on Weibo, watered-down articles in public media, and hype topics;
• Official response 5-7 days before opening;
• The first 3-5 days of the offline scene layout are used to attract people;
• The event was advertised hard in the first 3 days. The event was divided into an indoor and outdoor venue on the day. The outdoor venue had scene guidance and product catwalks, with the purpose of attracting traffic ; the indoor venue was designed with promotional activities such as flash sales, treasure hunts throughout the event, buy-reduction and cashback, and other order conversion activities.

However, this activity did not succeed in convincing Party A. The other party cut off online marketing links such as event marketing , topic hype, as well as content aggregation and online shopping mall. We added direct advertising in the circle of friends the day before the event and indoor and outdoor venue settings on the day of the event.

Ultimately the event failed. On the day of the event, there was little traffic in the mall. Less than 200 people entered the venue of more than 20,000 square meters. Due to the incomplete development of the online mall, poor user experience , and the small number of people on that day, the transaction volume was less than 10 orders. The single-mode direct advertising in the circle of friends has not yet reached the whole of Xi'an, let alone the whole country.

The purpose of this negative example is to say that the purpose of an activity must be concise and clear , and that an activity that attempts to cover everything is often "lacking in everything" .

The above content shares a short story from my own experience, which illustrates the importance of having a clear purpose for the activity. Generally speaking, if the purpose of an activity is particularly clear and it is successfully implemented, it can also have a driving effect. Therefore, don't aim too high for everything, and initially extend your thinking with a focused activity purpose.

2. According to the purpose of the activity, the activities can be divided into the following categories

So, according to the purpose of the activities, what categories can the activities be divided into?

Based on my experience in hundreds of online and offline activities , as well as referring to the opinions of other great experts, I have roughly divided them into these five categories. Of course, it may not be accurate, welcome to criticize, welcome to add:

2.1 Brand exposure activities

As the name suggests, this type of activity aims to increase brand exposure and enhance users' brand familiarity. Generally, direct conversions are less considered. This type of activity is suitable for new brands going online, or when the brand has a certain degree of popularity and is in the stage of awakening users. In terms of form, it can adopt event marketing, hard advertising investment and other methods.

There are many successful cases among them, some of which are from a long time ago, such as Vancl in 2010. The light box advertisement of "Love XX, love XX, I am not XX, I am XX", the nickname bottle of Coca-Cola in 2013; recent ones like "Baiqueshen advertisement", " Pepsi 's micro -film "Bring the Joy Home: The Monkey King's Family", "YSL Star Lipstick", " Durex live broadcast of hundreds of people trying on products", etc.

The common point of these activities is that although they did not directly carry out a large number of conversions and monetization, they set off a wave of forwarding on social platforms such as Weibo and WeChat Moments, forming a viral marketing trend in a short period of time, making the brand quickly known. Today, due to limitations on the topic and length of the article, I will not make a special analysis of this type of case. If you are interested, you can continue to pay attention to Zhu Zhu’s later chapter on “Brand Exposure Activities”, which will provide a detailed analysis of such well-known marketing events. At the same time, we will combine our own event experience to recommend several low-cost and effective online and offline event techniques.

Durex trial live broadcast with hundreds of people

2.2 New customer acquisition activities

This type of activity is mainly aimed at increasing the number of new user registrations, user activation rate, and attention rate. Most commonly seen in the download and promotion of APPs and public accounts. In terms of time, it can be divided into short-term marketing activities and long-term routine activities.

Short-term marketing activities use application functions and carefully planned marketing events to quickly conduct viral marketing and attract a large number of new customers within 2-3 days. Among them, the more famous cases include: the series of activities such as "pk Wu Meiniang" and "My Elementary School Graduation Photo" of daily photo editing, and the "Plato's Character Analysis Method" which was popular in the circle of friends last year.

Plato's character analysis method

Long-term activities are common in activities launched by some apps for new users. Attract new customers by using methods such as old customers bringing in new customers and exclusive benefits for new users. For example, NetEase’s overseas shopping offers exclusive special prices for new users, Meituan ’s new users get a one-cent special price, Ele.me ’s new users get an instant 15 yuan discount, and ofo red envelope sharing, etc. Similarly, due to space limitations, we will not conduct a detailed analysis of individual cases this time. In the later "Activity to Attract New Customers" chapter, Zhu Zhu will combine well-known cases and his own experience to conduct specific activity analysis.

2.3 Promotional activities

This type of activity is mainly aimed at awakening dormant users, improving user activity and thus reducing user churn rate. This type of activity emerged in the early BBS era in the form of online activities such as essay writing, picture posting, and building grabbing. In recent years, local apps, local public accounts, and local communities have also adopted some offline gatherings, local parties and other offline activities to transform users' "weak relationships" into "strong relationships"; similarly, e-commerce and lifestyle apps will also use some daily check-ins, support coupons, and points malls to increase user opening rates and cultivate user loyalty.

2.4 Traffic generation activities

This type of activity is a form of activity that diverts traffic from online and offline user pools to another new user pool. From a broad perspective, it can also be considered a type of new user acquisition activity. There are many forms of online activities. In my opinion, any activities published on other platforms with their own logos or unit names are considered traffic-generating activities. Commonly seen in banner ads or other commercial cooperation activities.

The other is a form of activity that WeChat businesses and offline physical stores like to use. They often use free social tools such as WeChat Moments and Weibo to attract users into the store with opportunities such as "huge discounts at low prices" and "free small gifts in the store" and wait for opportunities to induce them to make secondary purchases.

2.5 Conversion and monetization activities

This type of activity is aimed at increasing sales and promoting monetization. Usually the advertising format adopted is Baidu Alliance and offline light boxes and subways. The event copy is also simple and direct, with less sentimentality and directly hitting the discount theme. Commonly seen in e-commerce apps, such as " Tmall Double 11 ", " JD 618", " VIPSHOP 's Double 10 E-commerce Festival"; Suning.com 's offline advertisement "How can one day be enough? "No.1 Store's "One day is not enough, three rounds of 50% off are enough" and " Gome 's Black Friday" both belong to this type of activity.

3. After the purpose of the activity is clear, what needs to be done?

After clarifying the purpose of the activity, we will do the following tasks. First of all, we need to segment the users of this activity to clarify their age groups, including middle-aged and elderly users, users born after 1990, and primary and secondary school students. Generally speaking, the way of participation in activities for middle-aged and elderly people should be simple and clear, and the rules of the activities should be clear; activities for those born after 1990 should be interesting and personalized; and the procedures for primary and secondary school students should be clear and practical.

Secondly, it is necessary to "package" the activity according to the purpose of the activity and the characteristics of users. The so-called "packaging" here means finding some activity gimmicks that are easy to spread, with appropriate thresholds and interesting activity processes. The explicit purpose of the activity is hidden in a series of "packaging" to make it fun and interesting for users to participate.

Finally, once the event rules, processes, and gimmicks are finalized, the PM needs to divide the work and follow up on the project among the copywriting team, design team, and business team. It is recommended here to clarify the project's time nodes, responsible persons, and corresponding progress, and hold regular progress meetings to summarize issues and advance the project.

Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising

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