2022 Automotive Marketing Report!

The subsidy policy that has been maintained for 12 years has started the countdown to its exit, which means that my country's new energy vehicles have entered the stage of full market competition from the policy support stage. The protective shield of domestic car companies is slowly "falling off". The domestic new energy market will face more fierce impacts from foreign and joint venture car companies such as Tesla, BMW, and Volkswagen, and market competition will become increasingly fierce.

From the perspective of the overall market environment, domestic independent brands still have great advantages. Traditional independent brands such as FAW and BYD and new brands led by NIO, Xpeng and Ideal account for 78% of the domestic market as a whole.

The overall environment of the new energy market is turbulent, and the situation of car companies and consumers is also changing. Data from Xinyi Interactive Jindouyun shows that the two mainstream new energy vehicle series, pure electric and hybrid electric, have gradually matured from 2017 to 2021, and the models have become more abundant. From the perspective of sedan categories, the launch of medium and large and large sedans is constantly meeting the diverse needs of the market.

The competition in the market is a war to occupy the minds of users. However, the capacity of the user's mental hard drive is limited. How should Chinese new energy vehicle companies win the battle for the user's mind and efficiently seize the market?

The "China New Energy Vehicle Brand KOL Marketing Research Report" jointly released by Weibo and CAAC Automotive Marketing Research Institute and specially supported by Xinyi Interactive explains the following five major trends.

1. From big screen to small screen, from "highbrow" to "singing with the people"

As media formats change, automobile brands’ content expression methods and communication channels also change accordingly. From print, radio, and television media to vertical portals, social media, self-media and other channels, all are thriving and coexisting.

Overall, auto marketing has roughly experienced an era of transformation from distribution, leads to content:

• Automotive Marketing 1.0: Distribution-driven, focusing on the expansion of offline channels and the promotion of ground activities, and keen on TVC advertising, which is the so-called "big screen era".
• Automotive Marketing 2.0: Focusing on obtaining leads, obtaining contact information of potential customers through portals and vertical websites, and guiding them into stores.
• Automotive Marketing 3.0: In the era of self-media, content is used as a lever, and one-way information indoctrination is no longer carried out. KOL content and social media are used as levers to pry into the minds of users, which is the "small screen era".

From the evolutionary path of automobile companies’ marketing, it is not difficult to find the marketing trends of online, content-based and socialized marketing. At present, online advertising expenditures in China's automotive industry are rising year by year, while offline advertising expenditures are gradually being compressed. Among online channels, vertical media and social media spending account for more than 50%.

It can also be seen from the transaction platform data of Weibo that car companies are increasingly enthusiastic about social media marketing and KOL marketing. Compared with 2020, the number of Weibo’s automotive brand cooperation in 2021 increased by more than 60%, the number of orders placed increased by more than 51%, and the amount of orders placed increased by more than 71%.

The brand's "injection" of KOLs and social media is essentially complying with changes in users' car-purchasing process. In the era of mobile Internet 2.0, KOLs and social media run through and play a key role in the links of attention, interest, purchase, and loyalty.

According to the data from the Juliang Suansuan report, about 31% of consumers who have purchased new energy vehicles learned about them online and purchased them offline. About 35% of potential buyers plan to learn about products online and purchase them offline. In addition, 49% of consumers learn about car brands and models through short video platforms and KOL content.

KOLs are becoming brands’ “trust agents” for consumers thanks to their professional content and influence on their fans.

In summary, the trend of online, content-based and socialized automobile marketing is unstoppable. From big screen to small screen, from "highbrow and unpopular" to "singing with the people" is an irreversible development trend.

2. Compared with marketing events, slow cognitive development is the real mental water storage

It takes time for water in a pond to wear away a stone.

In the past, 5-7 ad impressions were enough to trigger consumers’ purchasing decisions. But today, even after dozens of touches, consumers perceive very little.

Only by persisting in long-term and high-frequency word-of-mouth promotion can we influence and change the minds of consumers.

Data from the Weibo trading platform shows that daily promotion accounts for nearly 40% of brand promotion needs, followed by forwarding, diffusion and other feed-based communication needs, accounting for more than 16%. Deep cultivation on platforms such as Douyin and Weibo accounts for more than 10%, and breaking marketing events such as music and games only account for 7%.

Judging from the investment throughout the year, it is basically stable. April 2021 was the peak period for launch in the past two years, which coincided with the Shanghai International Auto Show.

Overall, Chinese new energy vehicle brands have developed the habit of normalizing and standardizing KOL marketing.

3. All-touchpoint seeding is the only way to occupy the mind

The complexity of social media platforms and fragmented user usage scenarios have caused users' attention to be extremely distracted and it is difficult to form cognitive barriers.

In the past, only one centralized touchpoint, television, was needed to establish connections with consumers. Today, brands must establish at least 5.2 touchpoints, including decentralized touchpoints such as WeChat, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu, otherwise consumers will easily "lose contact."

Data from the Weibo trading platform shows that only 19% of Chinese new energy vehicle brands choose to launch on a single platform, more than 42% choose 2-3 platforms, and more than 38% choose 4-6 platforms. It can be seen that cross-platform cooperation has become an inevitable choice for brands.

In addition, Sina Weibo has the largest share of 52.8%, Tik Tok has the strongest money-making power at 51.7%, Xiaohongshu has the fastest growth in investment with an increase of more than 658%, and the number and amount of Kuaishou and WeChat platforms have both decreased.

4. From fan portraits to content portraits, interest circles must be established and strengthened in multiple dimensions

The target users of new energy vehicles have diverse and widely distributed interests. They love cars and life even more, and have strong interests in pets, food, travel, sports, etc.

Only by intercepting traffic from all interest circles and starting from different content angles can we continuously strengthen user mental cognition.

Data from the Weibo trading platform shows that in 2021, only 20% of the orders were placed in the automotive vertical category, and the amount placed was 29%. The rest were cross-vertical accounts, involving various types of accounts such as jokes, news information, entertainment and audio-visual, fashion and wear, beauty and cosmetics, games, travel, IT Internet, emotions and psychology, and talents.

From a growth perspective, the number of gaming accounts grew by the largest amount, at 4,300%, while finance and technology accounts grew by 2,000%.

Taking a BYD investment project as an example, by building a circle of financial experts and analyzing the topic from an economic perspective, it attracts high-net-worth individuals, investors, and people who pay attention to finance.

Overall, China's new energy vehicle brands are mainly a combination of automotive verticals and general interest circles, and a multi-dimensional circle "encirclement and suppression" strategy has become a trend.

5. Adapt to local conditions > Seeking a sword by carving a boat

The user characteristics, content preferences and traffic attributes of each platform are different, so the cooperation strategies of automobile brands in selecting KOLs on each platform should also be adapted to local conditions. This report found the following trends:

Douyin's marketing content is quite rich in forms. In addition to experts in automotive, life and comedy content, experts in quality life such as entertainment and audio-visual, beauty and cosmetics, and experts in professional knowledge such as maternal and child care, finance and digital are high-quality choices.

The content of Xiaohongshu's new energy vehicle brand cooperation is basically consistent with the distribution of the platform's advantageous content. At the same time, the interactive data is relatively scattered. Automobile verticals, feminine content, funny, emotional content, etc. are widely disseminated and users have strong communication capabilities.

The popularity of Zhihu's "new energy vehicles" content has no significant correlation with the number of followers of the answerer. The content and form of the article are more likely to influence the user's mind. The authority of cross-field and single-field answerers is basically the same. In brand cooperation, the answerer's professionalism in the field is given priority.

Bilibili has a wide range of automotive content cooperation areas, including new energy vehicle evaluations by top and mid-level influencers, as well as popular science knowledge, daily life, technology, animation and other content at the mid-level and low-level levels, which have stronger communication capabilities with users, are more cost-effective and suitable for brand cooperation.

CAAC Automotive Marketing Research Institute once pointed out in a report that times are changing, the market is changing, new competitors are rushing in, and the consumption concepts and behaviors of the new generation of users are changing, which urgently needs to be re-examined. Under the combined influence of such multiple marketing variables, past business rules and marketing rules are being rapidly rewritten. It has become a general trend for brands to face users directly and build a new marketing approach with "users as the strategic focus."

The business world is relatively fair. Whoever can master new ways of playing and adapt to the new era faster will be able to stand out in the midst of change and gain the favor of consumers.