9 major trends in short video content marketing in 2020

In 2019, all good things came at the right time. In 2020, may more good things come as promised.

In 2020, under the epidemic, it seems that all the good news in the Internet field comes from short videos and live broadcasts.

As early as February, Douyin released its annual data report, officially announcing that its DAU had entered the 400 million era. Douyin has become the best stage for users to record their lives, connect with the world, acquire knowledge, and spread culture. At the end of the report, Douyin made a poetic ending: "In 2019, all good things come at the right time; in 2020, may more good things come as promised." This double entendre not only expresses the original intention, but also points out the way forward.

At the end of the month, Kuaishou, the Internet company known as the "most suitable for the Spring Festival Gala", finally won the Spring Festival Gala red envelope project after pursuing the Spring Festival Gala for three years. It tried to use the new form of interaction "like" to enhance the brand concept and refresh the perception of Kuaishou. On February 21, Kuaishou officially announced that its DAU exceeded 300 million.

As we all know, in the development history of the domestic Internet, in any sub-sector, as long as there is an APP with a DAU of over 100 million, everyone will think that the pattern has been determined. The history of two apps with DAU exceeding 300 million in the same field was created by short video platforms. There is no doubt that in 2020, short videos will continue to be popular, and the industrial chain related to short videos will become more segmented and mature.

Not long ago, Mars Marketing Research Institute (ID: huoxingyanjiuyuan) released the "2020 Short Video Content Marketing Trend White Paper" with the support of Kas Data. This article is the final chapter of our interpretation of this report. It aims to explain to everyone: 9 trends in short video content marketing in 2020. I hope that in 2020, it will be you who creates a historical brand in short video marketing.

If you still haven’t obtained the full report, you can follow the official account and reply: 2020

Trend 1: The concept of short video "platform" is becoming blurred: from entertainment to social networking and shopping

As short video platforms become more and more "unfocused", the concept of short video "platform" becomes blurred. Different people perceive and understand short video platforms based on different needs and motivations, and the concept of platform is expected to be redefined.

Take Kuaishou as an example. Many people used Kuaishou in their early years, and most of them used it for entertainment. Now, quite a lot of people install Kuaishou based on social and shopping needs. This can be understood as: downloading Kuaishou in order to gain "social topics" and get along with people around you; using Kuaishou in order to be able to live stream consumption on Kuaishou and find "good things at the source and at the lowest prices ."

Compared to men who prefer to watch jokes and beauties for entertainment, female users prefer to stay in the live broadcast room of their favorite e-commerce anchors to shop. Among them, there are still a large number of people who have not been favored by the "cat and dog era", and Kuaishou has become their mainstream shopping platform. For brands, if they want to better embrace lower-end users, win better market reputation, and obtain better sales channels, they must seize opportunities and do something.

Trend 2: The imbalance between the supply and demand of influencers still exists: no matter how many influencers there are, there always seems to be a lack of an ideal type

According to tracking by Kas Data, there are more than 180,000 celebrities with more than 100,000 fans on the seven major short video platforms, but the 80/20 rule still exists in this field. Not only that, the imbalance in the supply and demand structure of influencers is increasing.

From the supply side, Kas Data statistics show that in the fields of appearance, plot, talent, food, etc., both the number of participants and the traffic obtained have already shown a red ocean situation, while small and specialized fields such as technology, tourism, finance, as well as seed evaluation and regional accounts still have great opportunities;

But from the demand side, the "red ocean" on the supply side does not mean that the demand side is met.

Taking the beauty industry, which has a large investment volume, as an example, we can see that in 2019, the number of beauty influencers on short video platforms increased, and the number of "beauty + light plot" creators also increased. The popularity of beauty content has actually reached its upper limit. But for advertisers, they still face the situation of "no one to advertise to". Analysis of the reasons: First, the number of top beauty IPs is scarce, and the threshold for cooperation is high; second, there are few professional influencers who can be repeatedly placed; third, there is the problem of "being inflated with likes and volume", and advertisers are worried about the real effectiveness of influencers in promoting products; this situation is more serious in industries such as 3C digital, maternal and child products, where there are more influencers. The small number of top influencers in vertical categories and their poor professionalism have affected advertisers' enthusiasm for continued placement.

▲ Differences in supply and demand of short video KOLs in 2019

Trend 3: Celebrities are upgrading their participation in brand marketing: from participating in marketing to participating in selling goods, from customizing content to customizing dramas

In 2019, according to Kas Data statistics, the number of celebrities on the Douyin platform increased by 1.65 times compared to the same period in 2018. More and more celebrities are appearing in brand short video marketing, tailoring content for brands. Many celebrities have also participated in brand challenges and become topic initiators.

In 2020, the cooperation between celebrities and brands will be more comprehensive and diversified: from high-frequency participation in brand short video marketing to high-frequency participation in live broadcast sales, from customizing single video content for brands to customizing small theater/series content.

At the same time, we will see that more and more "celebrity + independent IP" accounts appear on Douyin and Kuaishou platforms (such as: the account @Nengnengshu starring Liu Neng, the account @WorkingQueen starring Liu Yan) , relying on their natural traffic advantages and exquisite content production, becoming a bright supplement to short video platforms. This type of account is expected to be "strongly bound" to the brand. From the perspective of commercial cooperation, it is entirely possible to move away from the traditional film and television drama cooperation model, focusing on naming and implantation, and can achieve sales goals, but this type of cooperation often requires platform support.

Trend 4: The cost of short video seeding continues to rise: To seed, you have to be deep enough

The multi-pronged approach of short videos and live broadcasts, which has spawned traffic celebrities, grass-planting celebrities, and product-selling celebrities, is expected to quickly mature a white-label brand and complete a journey that traditional brands may take several years to complete in just a few months.

However, creating popular content is essentially still a money-burning game. As the number of "players" increases, users are active in multiple topics, and users' recognition of grass-planting ads improves, the cost for advertisers to plant grass through celebrities will continue to rise.

Therefore, it is recommended that brands look at the value of short video marketing rationally. If they go ALL IN on short videos, they must ensure: continuous delivery, extensive use of KOLs, large budgets, and innovative gameplay, so as to form user memories and attract users to "get on board." The budget is recommended to be over 10 million.

Trend 5: From “people bring goods” to “goods support people”: the field of live streaming goods is moving towards segmentation, and live streaming hosts also enter industrialized production

The marketing words of the year in 2019 can be described as live streaming and selling goods. Li Jiaqi has single-handedly made several domestic beauty brands into the pride of domestic products; and Simba, who is committed to allowing fourth- and fifth-tier users to live a life of first- and second-tier users, not only became the number one in terms of annual fan growth on Kuaishou, but also constantly broke his own live broadcast records, with the highest record of sales in a single show exceeding 600 million. During the Double 11 period, he guided a total transaction volume of 2.1 billion. However, when analyzing the core logic of live streaming sales, compared to the influence of "people", the Mars Marketing Research Institute believes that the importance of low prices and good products cannot be ignored. It still takes hard work to guard the house. In 2020, we will see:

First, while the influencer ecosystem of "large and comprehensive" product categories has been basically established, many influencers with professional qualities and expert endorsements will emerge based on niche industries and niche interest circles , such as anchors selling Lolita clothing and figurines, who will take the center position in niche circles with their strong appeal;

Second, live-streaming hosts, like short-video influencers, have entered the era of industrialized production. Although it is difficult to recreate top IPs such as Li Jiaqi, Viya, and Simba, relying on the strong supply chain, product selection/cutting capabilities, and celebrity incubation management system behind these companies, it is also possible to create multiple live-streaming hosts who are good at selling goods in niche areas, and through the synergy of multiple live-streaming hosts, bring about a transcendence and increase in total sales. For example, Simba’s company Baga Entertainment Communication has signed contracts with several anchors on Kuaishou who already have a large fan base and whose ability to bring goods cannot be underestimated. Among them, five have made it into the top 50 list of sales experts in the "Double 11 Off-site Talent Agency TOP List" released by Taobao Alliance. In the live broadcast room of Simba’s apprentice Dandan on March 18, according to tracking by Kas Data, the sales of a single live broadcast exceeded 100 million .

This means: In 2020, it is not just one person but a team that is expected to take down Simba.

▲Anchor of Baga Entertainment Media

Trend 6: Marketing changes: 2020 is the first year for brands to build their own content and influencer matrix

In 2019, in the field of short video content marketing, large-scale brand players are likely to take two actions.

On the one hand, from the perspective of KOL investment, we should strengthen the ties with high-quality influencers and deepen the cooperation with influencers from "shallow" to "deep". Specifically, it can be reflected as follows:

1) From inviting influencers to participate in marketing communications to inviting them to participate in product development, product promotion and other aspects, creating more value through deeper cooperation;

2) From simple project-based cooperation to inviting KOLs to become brand friends, providing long-term support for brand launches, festival promotions, and traffic generation. When brands get closer to MCN agencies and influencers, and even build their own teams to be responsible for influencer placement and operation, and even participate in the creation of influencer video scripts, it becomes inevitable to go to "intermediaries" for placement;

Second, from the perspective of own assets: the brand will also strengthen its internal cultivation. By cooperating with MCN or building self-team, we can incubate and cultivate our own influencers to ensure the initiative in "marketing" and "sales" at major nodes, and ultimately help the brand to settle in the private domain.

These two actions will lead to a shrinking customer base for short video marketing companies, and a transformation in the value differentiation of short video marketing companies : from "KOL agents" to "service providers", from participating in the full-case marketing of KOLs to participating in any link such as shooting, operation, live broadcast, and data services, and continue to create value for brands through the "specialization in a profession" model.

▲2020: Changes in social media content marketing, source: Mars Marketing Research Institute

Trend 7: Say goodbye to anxiety and strengthen private domain to build a brand moat

The popularity of online influencers in 2019 has made it possible to achieve product-effect integration and explosive sales as soon as products are first released in a live broadcast room.

However, top IPs are limited. For many brands, especially innovative brands, it is extremely difficult to gain the favor of top IPs. And for those brands that use a large number of influencers to promote their products, it is often difficult to convert the personal influence of the influencers into brand influence.

Therefore: First, strengthen the operation of own channel stores (including new traffic channels and Taobao channels), and achieve new sales through high-frequency live broadcasts and fan operations; second, strengthen the sedimentation of private domain traffic (from various channels) and personalized and IP-based operations, which will become the focus of brand marketing in 2020.

Only in this way can we integrate products into consumers' daily lives, build commercial multi-scenario penetration capabilities, and play a role in consumer reminders and scene awakenings; only in this way can we extend the life cycle value of a single user, say goodbye to brand anxiety caused by rising customer acquisition costs, overall decline in traffic growth, uncertainty in online influencers' sales, and cultivate long-term competitiveness.

▲Typical paths for private domain operations, source: Mars Marketing Research Institute

Trend 8: Data empowers content marketing and content e-commerce to increase value

In 2019, we can see two phenomena. On the one hand, internet celebrities fade away quickly, user interests quickly jump and migrate, and the life cycle of celebrities is further shortened . The meaning of controlling and locking prices (of celebrities) in the past to reduce cooperation costs has decreased, and it is more difficult for brands to select celebrities to invest in . On the other hand, it has become a trend for celebrities to "brush up their traffic". Taking the "Chasing Wooden Birds 2019" campaign initiated by Douyin as an example, in two months, a total of more than 1.27 million accounts suspected of brushing up their traffic were banned . This means that the value of data is being amplified whether it is involved in the selection of influencers or in tracking and monitoring.

At the same time, as advertisers’ demand for bringing goods moves downward: data can also help brands better understand the ability of influencers to bring goods, and analyze video sales data, live broadcast sales data, etc., to better achieve “people-goods” matching. Kas Data is also about to release open source products to better serve the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain in the era of short video/live streaming e-commerce.

Trend 9: Big brands continue to grow, white brands rise: KOLs are the backbone

As user consumption returns to rationality, e-commerce channels become more segmented and expanded, and lower-tier channels open up, market opportunities and space for big brands and white-label products will be further released. As the hub for delivering brand information, KOLs will all participate in this.

In 2020, MCN agencies/influencers under them that have high-quality celebrity resources, incubation capabilities, and content monetization capabilities are expected to live better. This is due to:

1) Advertisers' willingness to invest in KOLs continues to increase. With the rise of e-commerce influencers, KOLs can take on the responsibility of attracting traffic and exposure as well as achieving conversion results.

2) KOLs can realize diversified monetization: They are expected to transform their traffic and content capabilities into e-commerce capabilities. In addition to selling products, building their own (Taobao) stores and creating their own brands have become new ways for KOLs to realize monetization.

Judging from the advertising orders received by KOLs of different fan bases: top influencers are still very popular and are indispensable partners in brand promotion, node marketing, product preheating, etc.; but the value of tail KOLs and KOCs will be deeply explored, and they will become the most economical and practical choice for big brands to maintain brand popularity and for white-label products to achieve sales conversions. There will be more cases of white-label products that have reversed their brand and sales through the collective resonance and screen-sweeping of tail KOLs/KOCs.

▲Kas Data: KOL marketing value of each fan base, source: Mars Marketing Research Institute

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We have always believed that there is no question of when short videos will enter the market. There has never been a strong company that can stay at the top of the wave forever, and any intruder has a chance. This is the unique charm of this track.

From the perspective of content creators, we can see that in 2019, many excellent MCN brands and celebrities in 2018 have quietly gone away, and the list of those standing in the center of Douyin and Kuaishou seems to have changed. Affected by the platform's traffic distribution and the rapid shift of user attention, MCNs standing at a high position may not be as easy as everyone imagines at this moment.

From the brand perspective: short videos/live broadcasts have rewritten the traditional brand building path and shortened the distance from brand planting to conversion. For brands/white-label brands, as long as you dare to gamble and innovate, you can also be the Huaxizi, PROYA, and Banmu Huatian in 2019, either revitalizing a brand or creating a new one.

2020, spring is here and flowers are blooming, I hope you are with me!

Author: Mars Marketing Research Institute

Source: Mars Marketing Research Institute