Review of marketing cases in Q1 2022!

In a blink of an eye, three months have passed in 2022, which is Q1 in our eyes. In the past first quarter, there have been many interesting, referenceable, and reusable marketing strategies and some creative techniques. Below we will review the marketing cases worthy of attention in Q1 2022 and some thoughts on marketing directions.

In the first three months of 2022, we experienced important time nodes such as the Spring Festival holiday, the Winter Olympics and Women's Day. During this period, many marketing cases worth learning, thinking about and researching were born.

The following is a review and summary

1. Wanglaoji surname marketing

This case went viral on major social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Weibo. The main core idea was to launch various surname versions of herbal tea packaging.

There are several points worth learning from this marketing case:

The first is to launch surname jars. This idea tends to be personalized and customized, because the cultural symbol of surname is not unfamiliar to us. We have a certain basic understanding of surnames and the most important point is that they are differentiated and exclusive.

This shows that many users can find their own unique herbal tea packaging.

The second point is the time node

Wanglaoji launched the surname cans during the Spring Festival, and Wanglaoji’s “Lucky Culture” is particularly suitable for this important festival.

At this point, I think this is also an important reason why the Wanglaoji surname can was launched during the Spring Festival.

2. Brand new media and new gameplay

In Q1 of 2022, there were many operational cases of corporate new media accounts with a surge in followers, such as Lao Xiang Ji and Pan Pan. However, we found that the operation of these new media accounts is not just about brand marketing, but more about personalized and humanized promotion. For example, the recently popular Lao Xiang Ji is a typical representative. Lao Xiang Ji’s Weibo account is not entirely for brand promotion, but includes many unique expressions exclusive to Lao Xiang Ji, such as “嘎嘎达”, which is also a form of differentiated operation.

For example, Panpan’s official Xiaohongshu account directly posted screenshots of conversations between employees and their bosses, which eventually gained a lot of interactions and increased followers.

What insights does this give us?

In the construction of a brand's new media matrix, in addition to the effects of brand promotion and exposure, another very important point is brand personification.

Because in the context of an era where user attention is scarce, if we continue to blindly use hard advertising as in the past, the dissemination effect will definitely not be very good. However, if the official account has certain personality attributes, or can create a sense of contrast for users, then it will trigger dissemination.

3. Selection of brand spokesperson

The relationship between brands and spokespersons is gradually changing.

Now it is more like an investment relationship, the product matching relationship between brands and spokespersons is becoming weaker and weaker, and the spokesperson's personality attributes, traffic value, and social influence are becoming more and more important.

For example, Gu Ailing and Yuanqi Forest is a typical case.

Before the Winter Olympics, although Gu Ailing was very well-known, she was not known to the whole nation. However, when the Winter Olympics was held, Gu Ailing appeared in the public eye and the attention on her reached an unprecedented high.

The public began to pay attention to everything about Gu Ailing, such as the brands she wears and the brands she endorses.

At this time, Yuanqi Forest will be discussed by the public because there is another very important factor, that is, Yuanqi Forest signed Gu Ailing before the Winter Olympics, which also built Yuanqi Forest's social capital. Many discussions about Yuanqi Forest on social media tend to focus on Yuanqi Forest's successful bet and Yuanqi Forest's vision in choosing spokespersons.

This is actually a kind of investment relationship. The brand "invests" in the spokesperson. If the investment is correct, it will bring several times the return on investment.

4. New way to win prizes by forwarding

Every year, there are some phenomenal communication cases. The recent forwarding lottery is a typical case.

This campaign, which cost only 50,000 yuan to spread, generated more than 1 million reposts, which is worth learning from.

First of all, although it is a forwarding, it does not mean that the forwarding will lead to a random person receiving a 5,000 yuan red envelope. Although doing so may lead to a certain scale of dissemination, it does not generate topicality or discussion.

Let's analyze the advantages of this case:

First of all, there is the high-end packaging of the lottery. On the surface, it is a recruitment notice, but in fact it is still a lottery. The prize money is 50,000 yuan, which will be paid out in 10 months.

Why is it 5,000 yuan, not 6,000 yuan or 4,000 yuan?

Provide an external perspective: 5,000 yuan has a certain memory point, because 5,000 yuan is the starting point for personal income tax, so 5,000 yuan per month is chosen, and in many cities in China, many people's income does not reach 5,000 yuan.

Second, it is the user pain points and the mood of the times.

If an event is not accompanied by emotion, then it will be spread and will not receive attention.

Keywords such as paid leave, whether you want to go to work or not, etc. have hit the pain points of the public and the mood of the times, that is, working and lying down.

It is easy for the public to find resonance here. When users are struck by emotions, they will make some feedback to follow up on these emotions, such as posting on Moments, Weibo, Xiaohongshu, etc. These are all users' emotional feedback behaviors.

Third, minimum cost and maximum benefit.

This can be understood as the ratio of benefit to cost. Users only need to pay a very small cost to get a large benefit. The larger the ratio, the higher the user's tendency to act.

In this case, users only need to forward the message to potentially earn huge profits, which also tends to lead to many people participating in the forwarding, and eventually reaching millions of forwardings.

After this case became popular, many accounts imitating this case appeared, but they were all just the same recruitment copy. However, there is one account that is also worth learning. It is a forwarding promotion for giving away houses. It is also 50,000 yuan, but this 50,000 yuan is exchanged for a house, and in the end it also gained huge popularity.

This case also highlights a point: creativity comes from imitation, but advanced imitation is better.

5. International Women’s Day Marketing

Women's Day is very important for brands, but some brands do well while others are criticized. The most controversial brand in Q1 should be Mofashijia. On March 8, Mofashijia booked a lot of elevator advertisements with the copywriting being "No ads today. It's not easy for Chinese girls. You should also go to bed early.

Judging from this poster, users are not disturbed. Instead, the poster impresses them through language expressions that show concern for them. This "reverse operation" has caused many users to spread the message spontaneously.

However, it didn’t take long for Tianmofashijia’s elevator advertisement to be criticized by the public and became a hot topic because the content of the elevator advertisement was too “eye-catching”.

We can understand that this is a series of marketing actions taken by Mofashijia to promote its new products. However, if we think from the perspective of brand favorability, it is obvious that Mofashijia has not won the favor of users. Although users know that Mofashijia has launched a new product called Dolphin Skin Bionic Mask, they will not buy it. Users will only associate the elevator advertisement with the mask, and fail to highlight the selling points of the product and the core message they want to convey to consumers.

6. Brand’s sense of social responsibility

This is a recent change in users' attitude towards brands. Social responsibility has become a major issue that major brands should pay attention to. Whether it was Erke's donation last year or the popularity of White Elephant instant noodles this year, the core behind them is the brand's social responsibility.

However, a brand’s sense of social responsibility not only includes post-disaster donations and material donations, but also has many other directions to expand, such as environmental protection, green marketing, etc. These are all areas that brands should focus on in fulfilling their social responsibilities.

To summarize:

The overall review of the marketing cases in the first quarter of 2022 is also a learning process. Good marketing cases are worth learning, especially for students in the advertising and marketing industry. In an era when marketing budgets are getting smaller and smaller and user attention is becoming increasingly scarce, there are still so many excellent marketing communication cases. There must be something worth learning and drawing lessons from.