A guide to marketing and screen-sweeping on Bilibili’s “Houlang”!

During the May 4th Youth Day not long ago, "The Next Wave" launched by Bilibili successfully swept the screen and triggered a lot of discussion. This article will talk about the marketing event of "The Next Wave" from the perspectives of content, rhythm, and public opinion points.

This year's Bilibili is very good at marketing.

Standing behind the May Fourth Youth Day, the actions of major social media platforms are somewhat mediocre, because under the catalysis of the May Day holiday, the consensus of various platforms is: large-scale offline lifting of isolation and encouragement of travel are not the best online marketing nodes.

But why did Bilibili rely on "The Next Wave" to sweep the screen and become the subject of heated discussion on the entire network? From the perspectives of content, rhythm, public opinion and other aspects, we reviewed "everything" about the "Houlang" marketing event.

"Take an unconventional approach" to create popularity

Data shows that as of January this year, Bilibili, a mainstream social media platform, had only 130 million monthly active users, accounting for 1/5 of the monthly active users of the up-and-coming "TikTok" platform.

According to Bilibili's fourth-quarter 2019 financial report, total revenue increased by 74% year-on-year to RMB 2.0078 billion, achieving three consecutive quarters of growth. However, the net loss was still as high as RMB 387.2 million, which marked the eighth consecutive quarter of loss since its listing in the United States in March 2018.

Under the dual influence of internal and external pressures, breaking the circle is a necessary measure for Bilibili: finding users, inspiring empathy, creating trends, and increasing popularity.

According to statistics from the Weibo Big Data Platform, Bilibili's user base is still mainly composed of the young generation under the age of 25. It is a perfect time to attract traffic by triggering "empathy" and accumulating energy to "hit the mark" during the festivals of the mainstream groups.

For example, in 2009, Taobao created a new commercial festival through the hype of “Double 11”.

Although the purpose and results of Bilibili’s “Youth Day” marketing are different, the process seems to be similar: using the method of “creating popularity” at the node to achieve cultural recognition among a large number of users. Ultimately, the “May Fourth” momentum is “fake”, but the value of propaganda is real.

Through the "youth image remix" of young people, combined with the encouragement of young people from a third perspective, starting from the perception of target users, stimulating resonance of the times, and ultimately creating a beautiful content marketing campaign. As of May 6, the number of views of "The Next Wave" on Bilibili has reached 1209w+.

The nodes are short and the pace needs to be fast

If the content of "Houlang" is the core, the dissemination channels and rhythm are the extension of B station's marketing , and also the most exciting part of this marketing event of B station.

As intensive users of social media, young people pay less attention to fragmented information. Unlike the "Luo Yonghao live streaming marketing" we analyzed before, short, flat and fast information is more suitable for Bilibili's marketing rhythm.

Using Weibo as the publishing terminal and main battlefield for public opinion, WeChat, Zhihu and other platforms as in-depth content discussion areas, and short video platforms as secondary creation, short reviews, and spontaneous discussion terminals, we will tighten the rhythm, increase the popularity, and open up the entire link of social media platforms.

The overall rhythm is as follows:

On May 3, without any "warm-up", Bilibili directly released the video: it collaborated with important media outlets such as CCTV News, Guangming Daily, China Youth Daily, Global Times, Beijing News, The Paper, and Observer.com to release an official video.

Subsequently, official Weibo accounts of media including Bilibili, Guangming Daily, The Paper, and Beijing News released the news.

B station official micro

Guangming Daily Official Weibo

The Paper

Before the news broadcast began, Bilibili's "Houlang" commercial was broadcast on CCTV-1 and was closely forwarded by various Weibo influencers. These include official media such as People's Daily and the Press and Publicity Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, and knowledge-based KOLs such as Thinking Focus. At this time, B Station's "Houlang" has already created a climax on Weibo.

At the same time, WeChat Moments also "exploded" simultaneously, and Bilibili and "Houlang", which represent the attitudes of young people, became the social hotspots of the night.

On May 4, WeChat self-media such as "Chuangyebang" published content analysis articles on the promotional video. On the same day, Bilibili's WeChat Index and Baidu Index saw a sharp increase.

Weibo is the largest public opinion platform in China and the core area for the fermentation of this marketing content. The number of readers of "Houlang" on the 4th was close to 90 million.

As for other short video platforms, taking "Tik Tok" as an example, the hashtag topics #Hou Lang and #奔涌吧后浪 have attracted many self-media secondary creations and content discussions.

The peak popularity of the entire network is 27.76, which is about 9 times the average popularity.

By accurately grasping the marketing principles, the overall communication rhythm is clear and smooth:

• First, the core channels gather traffic and implement omni-channel integrated marketing . With Weibo as the main battlefield and other content platforms as auxiliary, users are repeatedly stimulated to move from passive viewing to active discussion and creation, and to participate in mass communication.
• Secondly, in the selection of self-media , from central media to regional media, vertical KOLs, and marketing accounts, they are all pervasive, firmly grasping the current user paths while improving the quality of their own traffic.
• Finally, the content at the end has also become a link in the marketing chain . Public opinion is shifting towards deeper content, allowing users to evolve from "watching the fun" to "deep thinking."

"Fearless" praise and criticism, aiming to break the circle

Unlike Bilibili's New Year's Gala, "The Next Wave" received mixed reviews. The topic of "the next wave" and "the first wave" sparked more discussions, and the end point of the conflict was also the origin of the heated discussion at the end.

Motivation and passion have nothing to do with right or wrong, and culture and values ​​are not absolute. Bilibili has its own attitude, not to please or flatter, but to use its own perspective to connect with users on special holidays.

Under brand marketing, new groups' perception of brands is getting weaker and weaker. Only by continuous attempts and strengthening their own values ​​can users gain a deeper understanding. If even the prelude cannot be achieved, subsequent recognition and cognition will be even more difficult.

According to Qimai data, on May 4, Bilibili APP jumped 25 places into the top 10 in the iOS overall ranking.

Data source: Qimai Data

On May 6, three days had passed since the release of "Hou Lang", and its related keywords, hot content, and promoted content were still at the top of Zhihu's hot searches. By breaking the circle and gathering volume, Bilibili's marketing goals have been initially achieved, which is also the part that other brands should digest when doing marketing.

Bilibili has set a goal of reaching 220 million MAU and exceeding 10 billion in revenue by 2021. It is not just the young people who are flocking to it, but also Bilibili's ambition to break out of its circle and achieve breakthroughs in commercial value.

Author: Micro Broadcast Easy

Source: Weibo