How do brands develop and create marketing IP?

If a mature brand still has no representative marketing IP or sustainable projects, it is probably a bit of a failure. The mindset of broadcasting one advertisement for a year should be transformed into the mindset of completing three major projects in a year.

Brands still need to communicate with users on a daily basis, so this part should be assigned to the operations department rather than the marketing department. Especially for Internet brands, many people are worried about how to divide the work between operations and marketing.

Personally, I believe that the operations department should do a good job in daily user maintenance and communication, while the marketing department should focus on marketing IP and major projects.

Then comes the role of advertising. Previously, advertising was based on brands, including brand TVCs and posters, and then media placement.

Now, to advertise based on marketing projects.

The logical hierarchy is roughly like this: brand - IP project - advertising, for example Tmall - Double 11 - Double 11 advertising.

Advertising between projects will be more meaningful and powerful, and with clearer goals and actions in the communication process, it will be more effective.

So regardless of the size of the budget, marketing is about projects, short-term, high-intensity communication, and preferably a sustainable marketing IP.

Next, let’s talk about the role of marketing IP in the entire marketing system, and how brands develop and create marketing IP?

Below, enjoy:

Marketing IP, big ideas on the Internet

In the past, the advertising industry talked about big ideas. In the golden age of "Mad Men", a big idea could influence the potential of a brand for years to come. In today's Internet age, it is rare or simply not feasible.

The great ideas that can be seen nowadays basically rely on luck. Most of them are considered to be great ideas during the planning and creation stage and will definitely go viral. However, once the content is released, it is found that the natural reading volume is more than 3,000, which is very embarrassing. Some friends have to bite the bullet and get it to 100,000+. There are a lot of such contents, which flop as soon as they are released.

We need “big ideas” that are more reliable and controllable.

The marketing content that is closest to big creativity now is IP-based marketing events. I have talked about many similar IP cases, such as Tmall’s Double 11, Taobao’s Maker Festival, Tencent’s 99 Charity Day, Baidu Boiling Point, etc. Even Apple’s press conference meets the characteristics of marketing IP.

First, it is more focused and can fully explode in a short period of time. A large project can spread and interpret the brand from multiple dimensions, and have full and three-dimensional communication with users. In-depth communication is more efficient.

Second, it should be sustainable, once a year, or once at regular intervals based on demand, to form IP awareness and help users have expectations. Sustainability means growth. I have written before about the 99 Charity Day, and the amount of donations and the number of people have broken records every year.

The third is scale. Whether selling 50 million or 300 billion, both are on Tmall Double 11, which sets the marketing ceiling higher. It has to be big enough to be called a big idea. You can start small to verify that the input-output ratio is positive, and then as public awareness accumulates and people participate, the scale can grow larger and larger.

In a complex and fragmented communication environment, communication must be sufficiently focused, have continuous awareness, and be as large-scale as possible to allow more people to participate. Only then can the brand enter public opinion and fully communicate with consumers.

In short, developing marketing IP now is the correct marketing path. For traditional brands and consumer industries, you can try this path.

Therefore, for mature brands, marketing IP is a must.

Tencent charity, marketing IP expansion

Next, let’s talk about cases, talk about marketing IP from 0 to 1, from what angle to approach, how to spread it more quickly, and what can be left behind.

Last year I wrote about Tencent’s 99 Charity Day, which I thought was fantastic. This project has brought China’s charity marketing cases to the level of top-level commercial marketing. It breaks the perception that charity marketing has no budget and is unprofessional. Good charity requires more professional communication.

However, Tencent Charity only has 99 charity days. Although the scale is large, the cycle is too short, and many good charity projects have not received sufficient attention. Therefore, the team decided to continue to expand new marketing IPs based on the successful experience of 99 Charity Day, recommend more key projects, and consolidate Tencent Charity’s brand awareness of “doing good things together”.

For the first test, we chose the Spring Festival campaign, combined with WeChat red envelopes during the Spring Festival to increase exposure, create a public welfare version of New Year’s Goods Street, and promote the “monthly donation” model to get more people involved in charity and do good things together.

Next, let’s talk about the birth of a marketing IP, from what angle to approach, how to develop it, and how to accumulate it.

Insight into

Let’s first talk about how to set up a project and successfully obtain the project budget.

Must have discovered something and found a clue to the solution. The essence of marketing IP is solution thinking, not creative thinking. A marketing IP must become a solution.

Tencent’s charity team found that the Spring Festival is the peak period for nature donations throughout the year. Data insights show that people are more willing to donate during the Spring Festival.

Since the Spring Festival itself is the peak period for nature donations, why not take advantage of the situation and organize a big event? This reason is enough to establish the project and obtain the budget.

All marketing IPs from 0 to 1 must find real user insights to see if there is a natural basis for this matter. The more accurate the insights are, the higher the communication efficiency will be.

Communication is about following the trend, never about changing it.

Leverage key nodes

Most marketing IPs are based on special dates or time periods, such as Double 11, 618, New Year’s Festival, etc.

If the insight entry is to borrow the potential energy of users, then the key node is to borrow the potential energy of society.

Tencent Charity chose to take advantage of the Spring Festival. I have previously talked about how Spring Festival marketing broke through the offline circle. As a festival of reunion, it just fits into Tencent Charity’s theme of “Doing good things together”.

Another clever point is that they chose to take advantage of the New Year Goods Festival and package charity into special New Year goods.

The main content of this campaign is the public welfare version of "New Year's Goods Street", with 12 key projects, including care for children in difficult circumstances, free lunch, veteran sponsorship, care for mothers in difficult circumstances, etc., as well as natural public welfare such as protection of endangered species.

These high-quality projects will be transformed into special "New Year's Goods Stores". After entering the New Year's Goods Street, users can choose the corresponding store to make donations. Turn public welfare donations into a New Year's goods store, without any pity, and hope that everyone can do good deeds happily and without burden.

At the same time, this communication mainly promotes "monthly donations", just like an automatically renewed VIP membership, with a monthly donation, which will encourage more people to persist in doing charity and bring about lasting changes.

Putting aside the public welfare attributes, here is a little marketing trick: use specific points to bring in bigger business.

There are only 12 main projects in this campaign, but using these specific points can drive the sustainable business of monthly donations. Specific points are more actionable.

New rituals of precipitation

If there is a standard for successful marketing IP, it should be creating new rituals.

There are many festive rituals during the Spring Festival, and the most recent innovation is the sending of WeChat red envelopes online. So, is it possible to make online donations for charity and turn it into a new New Year ritual, starting the new year with charity donations? I think the opportunity is great, and it would be a great merit if it could be accomplished.

First, there is a tradition that the older generation has to go to the temple to burn incense, and perhaps the younger generation will evolve this ritual into making donations to charity, all in the hope that the new year will be smooth.

Just like giving out red envelopes during the Chinese New Year, making donations to charity during the Chinese New Year is an iteration of the old and new rituals.

The second is the main entrance, the entrance to Tencent Charity, which is on the WeChat payment page. It is easy to find once it is mentioned, making it convenient for everyone to donate.

At the same time, Tencent Charity, as a public welfare platform, has included projects from the best public welfare organizations in China, and everyone can choose from them.

Third, it needs to be widely disseminated and exposed so that everyone knows that charitable donations can be made on WeChat. Five red envelopes with public welfare concepts were made, and four celebrities were promoted as public welfare officers. They were launched online before New Year's Eve as a medium for exposure.

From the 99 Charity Day to the New Year Project, the correct way and path to do charity have been popularized to the public.

I hope that in a few years, making a donation during the Chinese New Year will become a new custom.

To sum up

Back to the strategic level, marketing only deals with projects, not daily activities.

Most companies have operations and marketing departments. If the two departments must be divided into two parts, the operations department is responsible for daily communication with consumers, while the marketing department is responsible for creating marketing IP and big project-based ideas.

Of course, not all brands have to create marketing IP.

New brands whose popularity has not yet reached saturation may still need brand TVC to expand their popularity, but for mature brands, brands whose popularity has already reached saturation need more big creative projects.

So, let’s focus on how to create marketing IP.

Many people think it is a good idea, but don’t know where to start. Through the interpretation of Tencent's public welfare cases, we can see how a large IP project is entered, developed and then settled.

When I wrote about 99 Charity before, I lamented that it is rare for a charity brand to be so professional in its marketing. This New Year marketing, which has opened up a new battlefield, is equally professional.

Start with real insights. A project cannot come out of thin air. There must be real user insights to prove that communication in this direction is indeed feasible before the project can be established. Tencent Charity saw that natural donations peaked during the Spring Festival and took advantage of the situation to expand its business.

Taking advantage of key nodes, some create festivals, while others take advantage of festivals. The Spring Festival is the festival with the most rituals. We use celebrity red envelope covers for mass communication and special New Year stores as the carrier, and promote the "monthly donation" model to launch the entire Spring Festival campaign with clear logic and a clear path.

Sediment new rituals. Rituals are users’ expectations and consensus. Successful marketing IPs all have certain ritual behaviors. If we can do charity work during the Chinese New Year, it will not only be a ritual for marketing IP or brand, but also a new year custom for the new generation of young people.

Making a marketing IP successful is like starting a business. You need to have a clear idea, but it may not be an IP at the beginning. It may be a project, and it may not be big. But the potential of a good project is sustainable growth and eventually it will settle into a successful IP.

We found that almost all successful marketing IPs are planned and led by Party A, and Party B only participates in content creation and dissemination.

Does this mean that many second parties have not yet evolved beyond traditional big ideas? In fact, we can provide Party A with some great project-based ideas.

Another point is that most successful marketing IPs are concentrated in the Internet or pan-Internet brands, and traditional consumer brands seem to have little concept of marketing IP.

My personal opinion is that mature brands of mass consumption that have not yet evolved can actually think about some big project-based creative ideas. Advertising films only provide exposure and their communication value is relatively limited.

Marketers should focus more on big projects and less on small daily tasks.

Author: Yang Buhuai

Source: Yang Buhuai