How can brands “please” young people on Bilibili?

As time goes by, Generation Z is gradually becoming the main force of the social group, and Bilibili is the base camp of this main force. For any brand that wants to win the favor of Generation Z and impress Generation Z, understanding Bilibili can help the brand get closer to them and find new ways of marketing and promotion.

Another thing that has become as popular as live streaming recently is Bilibili (hereinafter referred to as B station) - because of its traffic, B station has finally turned over a new leaf and is now singing its praises.

Today, starting from Bilibili, I will talk to you about marketing to young people of Generation Z. (“Generation Z” or “Generation Z” refers to people born between 1995 and 2009) Considering that many friends are not familiar with Bilibili, the full article is relatively long . If you are very familiar with Bilibili, it is recommended to skip the first part.

1. What exactly is Bilibili? What is the difference between Bilibili and other video platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and iQiyi?
2. B station's success does not rely on technology, but on changes in thinking
3. This is an era of "telling the truth"
4. How should companies use Bilibili as a breakthrough point?

01 What exactly is Bilibili?

Unlike the "polarized" attitudes towards live streaming, people's understanding of Bilibili is still varied.

Most people who have not used Bilibili carefully think that "Bilibili = the second dimension". In their eyes, if you don’t dye your hair pink, you are not a fan of Bilibili. (“Second dimension” equals cartoons, so, Station B = “Second dimension” = cartoons)

On the other hand, as more and more hardcore stars and celebrities appear on Bilibili (Ju Zuo became popular on Bilibili first, Feng Timo joined later, and even Zhang Wenhong, the "hardcore professor" of Fudan University, did a simultaneous live broadcast on Bilibili recently), many people think that Bilibili is a live broadcast or recorded broadcast platform, which may have some good interactive effects when combined with barrage.

Assuming that Bilibili's success depends on these factors, then why can't "iQiyi, which has already launched the barrage function and purchased a large number of animation copyrights" attract young people from Generation Z? Therefore, I think both of these ideas are too one-sided.

I believe that Bilibili is a platform that gathers user interests through "video technology + hardcore content" . The combination of these two points is Bilibili's "moat" to compete with other video platforms.

A few years ago, B station was indeed mostly filled with cartoons and "ghost training" videos, but in recent years, with B station's strong support for content, real money investment in copyright funds, plus reliable and interesting fan operations, B station has almost achieved "breaking the circle" in the content field. It has successfully gathered a large number of popular video producers from all walks of life, which has become the most important cornerstone of the overall video ecology.

We all know that on the Internet, “people who create content” are the most important resource.

In order to let everyone know that "Weibo = Sina Weibo", Sina Weibo spent a lot of money to recruit celebrities to open accounts on the platform; Zhihu became successful by relying on a large number of knowledge-enthusiastic fans, otherwise commercialization today would be empty talk. However, in recent years, Bilibili has unknowingly overtaken them and recruited a large number of excellent domestic video content producers, making it like a more advanced "video version of Zhihu".

It would be even more frightening if this statement were said the other way around: for young people, when they want to get "free hardcore video content", there is almost no other place except Bilibili.

For example:

If it is just for daily entertainment, we can watch the 15-second Douyin and Kuaishou (although they also have longer videos, I believe that your original intention of opening them is still for those interesting and fun short videos).

Therefore, with only 15 seconds in length, short videos usually have the problem of too little information, making it difficult to explain some large and in-depth issues clearly.

At this time, we need a video website that can carry a larger amount of information. Bilibili has risen rapidly by relying on its precise positioning of young people of Generation Z and mature content.

Mainstream video websites represented by Youku, iQiyi, and Tencent Video themselves play the role of content producers and copyright holders, and the connections they establish with users are often "one-stop".

Since its inception, Bilibili has been building connections from "individual to individual". Ordinary people can speak out through an account (hereinafter referred to as "UP Master"), and users can also express their views to other users and UP Masters through video barrages. This will not only provide feedback to the UP host to improve the quality of the video, but also further increase the fun of the video and closely build the relationship between the UP host and fans.

Someone then asked, isn’t Bilibili just posting videos on a “WeChat public account”?

Yes, but the difference is that we have seen that Bilibili has developed a stronger "collective user concept" than other platforms. They can easily form camps spontaneously and often show unprecedented consistency in their attitude towards a certain thing.

The power of gathering the same kind of people together is terrifying. The spread of information and ideas among multiple small groups will become very fast and the effect will be very good. This is more like the Douban community (this reminds me of the new anchor "Teacher Luo", who was once jokingly called "selling mobile phones like a missionary", and is a typical example of the group effect).

In this way, a video website with the genes of Zhihu, WeChat, and Douban - Bilibili, has successfully created its own unique identity and gained a lot of traffic and recognition of its commercial value. So, it was targeted by brands.

But is Bilibili really that simple during its “traffic dividend period”?

02 The success of B Station depends not on technology but on changes in thinking

Let me first state my point of view: when companies make videos on Bilibili, they must not just shoot a set of advertising videos and then put them on Bilibili. Because the tastes of Bilibili users are really "weird", it is hard to imagine what your brand will experience in the hands of the Bilibili kids!

In the past, before the bosses took a fancy to Bilibili, the "8mou48" mobile phone brand had already been slaughtered by kids (the barrage battle scenes were too bloody, so I won't take screenshots one by one).

To borrow a comment from a child on an “848” mobile phone ad: “Excuse me, but none of your brands can look high-end in front of me!”

While making fun of the brand, they also liked and gave coins to the UP host.

Looking at them, you will find that the times seem to have changed. Kids of this era don’t buy into the marketing tactics of the past. What are they thinking?

They can accept advertisements, but their rebellious nature requires that the advertisements must be sincere enough!

Otherwise, they will use "ghostly" and "training" methods to make you sincere. They are using the "coins" in their hands to change the brand's attitude.

We have to admit that as "old people", we have been too deeply influenced by TV commercials in the past. We still believe that the beautiful, high-end and healthy life shown on TV is what advertisements should have.

Therefore, our traditional concept assumes a narrow definition of "video advertising": advertising is a high-level aesthetic of life! What’s important is that in our time, many brands became successful because of this, which further deepened our traditional thinking.

We believe that using “past success” to guide “today’s means” is the safest practice in marketing, so this subconscious mind is not easily changed.

"German craftsmanship, high-end luxury..." The screen is full of successful people selling you their concept of a good life; the same domestic sofa becomes high-end after going to Italy and adding a photo of a foreigner, and the price directly doubles. In comparison, the equally useful and effective "I will not accept any gifts this Chinese New Year, and the only gift I will accept is Melatonin" often seems very unfashionable.

As for Generation Z, they were born in the era of the comprehensive rise of the Internet and successfully avoided the baptism of TV commercials, so their values ​​are also very different from ours.

For them, who have mastered the Internet, it is easy to distinguish the true from the false from brands - whether it is imported or "made in Italy", they only need to check and they will know clearly. Simple and crude identity-based advertising is no longer applicable to them, and the trend of personalization has become increasingly obvious.

Believe it or not, the rapid rise of younger tastes is unstoppable.

(No longer worshipping foreign things, foreign brands are moving closer to China, and "national trend" has become a new fashion among young people)

How interesting is this generation of young people?

Take the UP host "Blue Sir" who has 400,000 fans on Bilibili as an example. In real life, he is a rich second-generation with billions of assets, but he is always unwilling to reveal his identity on Bilibili. In the end, because he didn't want to make videos that cater too much to the market, he lost 900,000 yuan in a year and a half. He had no choice but to return home to inherit billions of assets. Before leaving, he also released a farewell video of nearly 18 minutes.

From the behavior of "Blue Sir", and in connection with the cases a few years ago when Wang Sicong became famous for "buying a 200 yuan computer desk online", it is not difficult to see that:

In the past, rich people were afraid that others would think they were poor, so they wore all kinds of high-end luxury goods. But now, rich people are afraid that others would think they are unsophisticated, and even don’t want others to think they are rich. Technology, otaku, and individuality have become their new pursuits.

What this reflects is the change in young people’s attitude towards life, and this attitude towards life is carried over to their choice of brands.

03 Let’s be honest. This is an era of “telling the truth”

I never turn off the barrage when watching B station, because I like to understand the barrage as: the things that students secretly interrupted the teacher during class.

First of all, these comments are much more interesting than what is in the textbooks, and there are even many golden sentences. On Bilibili, we call these advanced comments "God Barrage".

Some of the conversations were supplementary to the classroom content - I witnessed with my own eyes a wild barrage player who gave several thousand words of annotations to a documentary.

Although most of the barrages are still useless nonsense, they all show the same characteristic: sincerity.

Yes, young people are increasingly fond of sincere brands.

B station fans used this set of boxing skills to beat the brand down to its essence, making the previously hypocritical brand value suddenly sincere. Therefore, brands such as "8某48" that did not want to tell the truth became the target of public ridicule.

Fortunately, some brands have finally figured it out in this situation.

Instead of being forced to be sincere by children, it is better to be sincere yourself. Compared with brands that put on airs, these brands actually have a lot of fun playing with children!

If your APP has just been updated and received tens of thousands of one-star bad reviews from naughty kids, what would you do?

Issue a statement crying that you are helping the children? (It’s just like “It’s for your own good that I ask you to wear long johns”) Or should we just remove the new feature immediately?

Due to the terrifyingly powerful online course function of the DingTalk APP, children took advantage of it and gave it bad reviews.

However, DingTalk's official Bilibili account not only discussed the matter without any hesitation, but also repeatedly spread the matter through videos of the product manager begging for mercy, teasing, animated rap, and ghost-like training.

Let the children post comments such as "rebellious son" and "afraid" while voting for the video. Some UP hosts even took advantage of the popularity and generated UGC...

The children’s complaints are genuine, and the brand has chosen to respond sincerely, so they don’t feel disgusted, and sometimes they even sympathize with the product manager.

During the video, the brand also indirectly expressed that these features are for the good of children. This is much more effective than issuing a statement to please children, right?

Alipay, the parent company of DingTalk, has also grasped the essence of the hobbies of Bilibili users.

Have you ever thought that a platform so closely related to finance and life would appear like this on Bilibili?

• The title of the campus recruitment video is " 【Tips】Is there any green leaf willing to plant in my recruitment bottle? 》
• After the UI upgrade, a video was released: "[Blue on Blue] You look so good in blue"

Everything Alipay did on Bilibili was to tell them, "This is really not an app for old people. We also know how young people communicate. Use it quickly, use it quickly, use it quickly..."

Of course, Tencent is well versed in this.

According to normal thinking, after Tencent opened an official account on Bilibili, it should at least give itself the title of "well-known domestic Internet company", right?

But their self-introduction is "The official account of Tencent, a well-known doll factory in Yuehai Street, Shenzhen (crossed out). Official information, confusing videos and benefits are updated from time to time. Welcome to contact us." The video content also carries out the official introduction to the end, promoting their own dolls every day.

Yes, they all use language and scenarios that are familiar to young people to build their brands on equal communication with users.

The success of a brand does not lie in moving past experience to another battlefield, but in adapting to the environment and connecting with trends.

Branding is so difficult, and only companies that “tell the truth” can “make a living” in front of the kids at Bilibili.

04 How should companies use Bilibili as a breakthrough point?

For companies that only have temporary communication needs, it is recommended to choose to work closely with UP hosts who are related to the field in which their brand is located. This method has lower communication cost on Bilibili, a content-based platform.

For example, OnePlus invited Robert Downey Jr. to be its spokesperson last year and created an "Iron Man" version of the joint model, hoping to spread its popularity among young people. Although OnePlus has a good reputation among young people, it usually only releases two generations of mobile phones each year, and the high-frequency promotion period only adds up to 3-4 months. They chose the B station UP host "Hardworking Lorre" for an in-depth cooperation, which is the highest and most cost-effective way to enhance the brand's benefits.

Of course, I know that you opened the article not to see how Bilibili advertises. We would rather study how Bilibili of our own brand should operate. In fact, successful Bilibili corporate accounts usually have their own set of output formulas.

1. Don’t be too arrogant, be humble

We have said a lot before about not putting on airs. Brands must communicate with users on an equal footing. Do not attempt to educate or deceive users, or create a false high-end atmosphere, and deliberately avoid sensitive issues about your own brand.

In addition, when we shot TVCs in the past, we always paid attention to "keep improving". The pictures had to be delicate enough and the content must not be exposed. If there were any exposure, the film would be ruined.

However, the videos on Bilibili focus on “speed”, with hot topics combined quickly, content outputted quickly, and interesting points coming directly and quickly.

On Bilibili, bloopers won’t ruin a movie, but if you’re slow, the movie will be ruined. If a certain brand shoots another "Wild Wolf Disco" today, kids will think you’re still living in the ArcheAge. Even if the video loses its sophistication and has flaws due to being produced so quickly, it may produce some unexpected effects once it is used in conjunction with barrage comments.

2. Make it something that fans can’t imagine

The rigorous Alipay is trying to be cute, Tencent is selling dolls, China Unicom customer service staff are all online to do the shoulder-shaking dance and connect with Mr. He...all kinds of dimension-breaking and cross-border things are really happening on Bilibili, and these can easily become topics of interest to Bilibili users.

When our brand appears on Bilibili, we must do something that fans will never expect. Companies need to consider how to package hard-core content under an interesting shell. For example, a mobile phone brand should not say that it makes mobile phones, but package itself as an "image processing factory" and update videos every day to spread how the brand spends huge sums of money to help fans become more beautiful. This will be much more topical than simply explaining the powerful photography function of the mobile phone.

3. Understand the popular video materials in real time and leave comments for users

If you still don’t know what “奧利格” and “AWSL” mean, it is recommended that you go to Bilibili to learn some lessons first.

Barrage is still one of the most powerful communication weapons of Bilibili today. We often see UP hosts say "If you like it, please leave comment 1. If you don't like it, please leave comment 2" when explaining a video. This is to stimulate and mobilize fans' "feedback enthusiasm."

When a brand produces content, it should also embed thread interruptions in different places. For example, words like "definitely next time" that encourage users to deposit coins stimulate users' desire to post barrages. When the barrages appear, the atmosphere is successfully created.

4. Brand personalized labels should be distinctive enough

"This is an era that emphasizes individuality. We need to create our own IP." The marketing department has probably heard this sentence many times. But in fact, those who really implement it in depth know that there are only a few companies like Tencent and Alipay that have unique advantages in this regard. Today we are talking about what to do if the budget is not so sufficient. China Unicom gave us some good inspiration.

China Unicom has shown us that we can do a good job on Bilibili with lower costs:

• First of all, China Unicom’s video played its biggest advantage - a large number of China Unicom customer service representatives with nice voices revealed their true faces. The appearance of a large number of beautiful and handsome China Unicom customer service staff finally solved the historical puzzle: "Who is on the customer service side?"
• Secondly, it successfully replaced the corporate image with the personal image. The fans of customer service representative "Zhao Junjun" have made a lot of contributions to the communication. We know that users are far more willing to share their personal images than corporate images , which forms a good complement.
• Finally, China Unicom is also at the forefront in terms of collaboration with trendy UP hosts. Actions like connecting with Mr. He show China Unicom's intention to reach out to the young group.

Of course, whether it is live streaming or playing on Bilibili. In the face of traffic, we still need to keep a cool head.

It doesn’t mean that a brand has everything just by having traffic display. Consumers’ demands are constantly increasing. How to satisfy the tastes of young consumers and communicate with them in depth in the mobile Internet era will become the next topic for enterprises.

Before entering Bilibili, please familiarize yourself with it first, otherwise... just ask the young people in your company first!

Author: Science and Technology Marketing

Source: Technology Marketing Theory