How to do cross-border marketing? One article explains

Hello everyone, today’s topic is very big - cross-border. As for myself, I have crossed over many times, from studying to job hunting.

So, today I will use this topic to share with you how we should understand "cross-border", " marketing " and "scenarios", and how to break through our own platforms and complete popular cross-border marketing events.

1. How to understand cross-border?

1. Three ways of cross-border

Cross-border is a big word. Generally speaking, there are three main ways of cross-border: cross-border of people, cross-border of products, and cross-border of IP.

① People’s cross-border

Is it considered cross-border for an actor to make a movie? Not really, but if an actor sings or becomes a director, it is cross-border.

I majored in music and bel canto in my undergraduate studies, but I studied film and television in graduate school. My work experience, from starting my own film and television company, to doing public relations, to working in online media, to investment, and now in marketing, has been a process of continuous cross-border work.

These professions seem to have nothing to do with each other, but in fact there is a hidden connection between them.

② Cross-border products

People who work in marketing or market will definitely pay close attention to the field of "cross-border". In recent years, when talking about cross-border marketing, what comes to many people’s minds are: high frequency, very fun, and very trendy.

Here are a few familiar examples of cross-border products:

It looks like a Rio cocktail with Liushen Cooling Oil flavor, as well as Rio wine with shampoo flavor and Rio wine with Hero Ink flavor.

As a symbol of childhood memories, White Rabbit collaborates with many brands and conducts cross-border marketing. For example, the Smell Library has White Rabbit perfume, White Rabbit lipstick, etc.

Luzhou Laojiao is more exaggerated, launching a wine-flavored perfume.

Product cross-border plans are always very interesting, but have you noticed that, no matter how the products cross borders, they still maintain the appearance of the original products. They are just grafting a brand that everyone has recognized attributes onto a new product .

③ IP cross-border

The cross-border of IP is actually the cross-border between products and content. For example, the collaboration and joint products between Uniqlo and Marvel were extremely popular at the time, and many people rushed to buy them. For example, the cooperation between the Palace Museum and cosmetics brands has attracted a lot of attention and has also brought a lot of sales.

Through the above three ways of cross-border, we focus it into a real cross-border. What is this real world? I summarize it as: the boundary between private domain traffic and immersive experience . To put it simply, when you pick up your phone, you should raise your head.

Nowadays, mobile phones have become an organ of the human body. People usually get information from them, so the online traffic is very large. Gradually, the marketing strategies and techniques of many brands have gradually begun to combine online and offline, and eventually returned to offline.

This is also what I want to talk about today: cross-border: from online to offline, but with the addition of scenarios. Because the cross-border we are talking about is a cross-border with real boundaries.

2. Crossover from online to offline

In 2018, there was a very classic cross-border marketing case: "Dedao" held an offline book launch for Xue Zhaofeng's new book "Xue Zhaofeng's Economics Lectures". The slogan was very down-to-earth "A vegetable market, an economics classroom".

From this slogan, everyone knows that it happened in the vegetable market. Moreover, it chose a popular venue - Sanyuanli Vegetable Market. People who love gourmet food go to Sanyuanli Market regularly to buy some ingredients.

It is located in the city center. All old business formats have been cleared out. The products and dishes inside are very expensive. The people who come here are high-end people, white-collar workers, and some foreigners.

Regarding the origin of this matter, the marketing director of "Get" made a very beautiful sharing. He said that this is a very simple lecture note that can allow everyone to understand those seemingly profound economic terms from the perspective of daily life and to get to know those economists who seem to be far away from us. There were several problems at that time:

First, Professor Xue Zhaofeng has online courses, so there are fans on site; second, when the new book is released, the author himself must hold a press conference; third, the author needs people other than these fans to know about "Xue Zhaofeng's Economics Lectures".

Combining the above three points, we found a very clever combination point, which brought a seemingly high-end book to an offline vegetable market. Interpreting many of the stalls in this vegetable market from an economic perspective creates a very practical economic sensory experience on the spot.

Professor Xue Zhaofeng set up a stall nearby and told everyone that this stall was to sell his lecture notes, and he used some economic principles to convince everyone to buy them.

Ultimately, this was not a book signing or a book launch. Because it brings an event that seems very lofty to the common people, and then builds a bridge between the two sides in the simplest way.

The whole event was completed in one go and was so successful that we should give ourselves some inspiration from it: when we are thinking about cross-border, we must consider the several indicators hanging above.

First, it is extendable.

Why are Xue Zhaofeng’s lecture notes suitable for being placed in the vegetable market, but not Zhou Qiren’s? Because Xue Zhaofeng's lecture notes themselves contain the hope of "allowing more people who do not understand economics to enter the cognitive field of general economic common sense through very simple common sense", and thus constitute a basic information point that extends from online to offline.

The brand director of "Get" used the word "signal" to describe it, which is to make it easier for everyone to understand the many common signals that link brands and scenarios.

When we want to do cross-border scenario marketing, we must first look for paths that can be extended.

Second, it can be expanded.

"Expanding the list" is slang used by the post-00s generation, which means expanding the friend list on QQ Friends. Combining the previous case, the goal is to find new fans in addition to online fans.

The reason why it is held in Sanyuanli Vegetable Market is that when such an event occurs here, it can influence a very large circle of elites in the surrounding area. To put it bluntly, it is more "fan-attracting".

These people may not have been fans of "Get" or Professor Xue before, but the experience and influence of the entire offline event can ultimately help them capture a high-net-worth group with strong paying ability: they can buy courses directly online and books directly offline.

Third, it can be detonated.

When we choose to do offline activities, we must choose to present those persuasive and eye-catching ideas clearly in front of everyone.

For example, the "get" action:

Surround the entire vegetable market with a large number of visual elements to make it rich in information; shoot advertisement-like posters for the stall owners and hang them in the vegetable market with a scale of three meters by four meters, so as to prove an economic common sense for each stall.

This arrangement makes everyone who enters the vegetable market feel brightened up. They all check in and take photos, and immediately share the little information they have obtained.

When an offline activity idea has these two factors, it will naturally trigger some online hot spots. Of course, a rich offline event will have many comprehensive factors to gradually trigger these hot products.

For example, inviting some cross-border celebrities to the scene to have some personal experience, asking them to buy bundles of vegetables, bargain, etc., will form a very rich element of this event and become an important feedback for long-term online dissemination.

Fourth, the second curve can be used.

You may have some understanding of the second curve and the second curve of growth, but if we break it down to brands, what is the second curve that a brand is focusing on?

When you reach out to an offline scenario, is it possible to let its influence spread to the next event, or make this brand an independent brand and produce another dimension of impact?

Based on this, "Get" later held some more interesting new book launch events, continuing to use this cross-border offline communication method.

Every bit of the arrangement in the case of "Get" was undertaken with scattered creativity, such as putting the new book launch in the vegetable market, the selection and final decision of the vegetable market, and inserting a sign in the meat to tell others the message I want to convey...

In fact, from extension to expansion, and then to ignition to the second curve, it’s all about product effect.

3. Everything can be exhibited

When we choose to cross borders, when we want to build a scene offline, there is a basic creative point: everything can be exhibited.

No matter what brand crossover we do, whether it is online or offline, commodity or virtual, we must first trust the uniqueness of our brand’s identity and advantages, and establish a belief in our hearts: it can be exhibited.

Next, let’s look at some very strange exhibition cases in cross-border marketing.

Case 1: Love Museum Exhibition

Durex has a marketing campaign that combines online and offline marketing, called the Museum of Love. In this museum, many love-related objects are exhibited, and these objects are connected to real love stories.

This is indeed a creative idea, because every object in the love story is not just an object, we have given them emotions. Durex uses this opportunity to extract these things to showcase its own ideas.

The idea is to lock in a main theme while finding some elements that may resonate with many people and can be exhibited.

Case 2: Shoes: Pleasure and Pain Exhibition

Is this exhibition about shoes? No, it’s “joy and pain”.

The event is a collaboration between Taikoo Li from Beijing to Chengdu and even more cities, and a national museum in the UK. The exhibits focus on the shoes people wear on their feet, with more than 140 pairs of shoes coming from all over the world.

This national museum specializes in collecting groundbreaking design items and brands in the fashion industry from around the 18th century to the present, and displays the evolution process to everyone.

Shoes are an object that is closely related to everyone, and only the person who wears the shoes knows whether they are comfortable or not, so we used the concept of "pleasure and pain", which is a point very close to our sense of touch.

Case 3: People’s Daily’s Time Museum

The People's Daily Time Museum exhibits the life in small lanes and alleys from the founding of New China to the present. It contains thermos bottles, Hero ink, fountain pens, as well as desks, alarm clocks and other objects that can evoke resonance.

The reason why it is defined as a time museum is to connect with people’s emotions and make itself appear to be the spokesperson for the people’s overall speech and emotions.

Case 4: Dream Plus Space Office Emotion Exhibition

When I was working on Dream Plus Space, I was very interested in this cross-border concept, so in September 2016 I also held a cross-border exhibition called the Office Emotion Exhibition: one part was an exaggerated display of many emotions in daily office work, and the other part was an interactive session.

We filled the office with ocean balls, and everyone can jump in from the desk at the door. There is a photographer next to you who will help you capture the moment you jump into the office.

We also collaborated with a headphone brand at the time. Everyone could choose a music related to their working mood, then put on headphones, write, draw, or throw out graphics that represent their emotions on a five-meter-long whiteboard. In the end, more than 400 people participated.

4. Implicit factors that can be exhibited

After reading the above cases, you will find that it is not difficult to hold an exhibition, but there are some hidden factors in each exhibition:

① Observer’s perspective

The observer perspective means that you have to withdraw from the immersed state of the activity, which is very critical. Because only when you step away from the exhibition and stand from the perspective of an observer, it will be easier for you to resonate with all the people who may come to your scene .

② Can be appreciated

To be appreciated, simply put, means that when you only get 5% of the information about something, you will be attracted to it and stop.

It can also be said that one layer of information may contain another layer of information. The way it is displayed can be interpreted, and it is definitely beautiful. Because of this, when you stop, you will look at the exhibits with an appreciative attitude.

It's like a museum, they shine a beam of light, put a backpack there, you put on headphones and listen to a love story. This is actually an information interaction that you are appreciating.

③ Serious

The requirements for any offline activities cannot be sloppy. Every tiny element of every exhibit presented to everyone must be able to contribute to the signal and sincerity you want to convey, and let everyone feel your attitude.

2. How to cross boundaries?

1. Break through the dimensional wall

Breaking through the dimensional wall originally refers to two-dimensional anime characters breaking through dimensional limitations. Here, we can interpret it from multiple dimensions.

Case 1: Brussels Motor Show

In 2012, the Brussels Motor Show broke the boundaries between online and offline and closely integrated the two.

MINI is going to launch a new car at this auto show. How will it showcase its new car? A slope was made and the car to be exhibited was tied to the slope with a rope.

The key to it is that you follow my Facebook page online, check out my homepage, and then "like" our new car page.

Every time you click "like", you can fan the flame, which means I can use my enthusiasm to light a fire for you, and whoever burns the rope in the end will own the car. In the end, the car was actually won by a fan.

The core concept here is: I want to find the boundary in the middle of "cross-border" that allows everyone to continue to connect with this brand .

It has two paths. One is the number of people who go offline to attend the Brussels Motor Show; the other is those who may be concerned about the launch of new cars and come here, see that there is such an event, and can follow it online.

Case 2: IKEA Rock Climbing Wall

There was a series of activities on IKEA's 30th anniversary: ​​a climbing wall was set up in front of a cathedral in France, and furniture was hung up with ropes and stood up. Then some climbing tentacles were installed in the middle of the furniture so that everyone could climb up.

As you climb up, you will find that you have close contact with all the furniture. Such offline activities, firstly, have aroused the enthusiasm of a large number of people to try and see if they can climb up quickly; secondly, they have given everyone a signal that IKEA can be used in this way; thirdly, such offline scenes will be widely spread online.

Case 3: Mafengwo’s Internet celebrity wall activities in 12 countries

Mafengwo has brought 12 walls, where people from all over the world frequently check in, into real life at fashionable landmarks in Sanlitun, Beijing, and several other cities.

The core of this action is to get everyone to take pictures! I think it's very clever. Although inkjet printing is simple, it transcends the dimensional wall, breaks the boundaries of time and space, and allows more people to interact from the perspective of the brand.

2. Three dimensions of breaking through the dimensional wall

① Find a penetration signal

When breaking the dimensional wall, it is very important to find a penetrating signal.

What is the penetration signal of MINI? It's the rope and the fire underneath it; IKEA's penetration signal is to stand up something that normally seems to be able to only lie flat on the ground; the hornet's nest's penetration signal is to turn the world's impossibility into possibility and bring it to you.

② Grasp some points to trigger the user’s real feelings

When we go offline, we have to imagine that we are facing real people! They have eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind, sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch, and each of them is a person with three-dimensional perception.

Therefore, we must grasp some points to trigger their very real feelings. Whether using vision, hearing, or taste, you must trigger it and amplify this experience and feeling. This is a key to breaking through the dimensional wall.

③ Deeply rooted in people’s hearts

To win people's hearts is how to make others stand on our side. People may be able to listen to what you say, but it is very difficult to get them to stand on your side.

However, only when it is deeply rooted in people's hearts can it gain everyone's recognition and acceptance. So how can we win people’s hearts?

First, there must be a spiritual core that you want to convey.

For example, Zhihu’s Unknown Clinic has been established in many places, including large shopping malls, schools, parks, etc., and has now been commercialized. For such online content, how does it land offline? Create a comprehensive scene.

Let’s take a small example related to this: “Unknown Clinic” designed dozens of small grids, each grid corresponding to a different scene and theme, but the logic is the same - all come from questions on Zhihu. The question above may be: Is there a way to make people happy with just one sentence? What is the most touching love story you have ever heard?

When seeing these, people will automatically enter the question-and-answer mode. If they think something is particularly good, they will click "like" next to it. They will also take a small card and scan the code to see other people's answers on Zhihu.

In fact, this is a way of using branding to surround people and make you stand on its side.

Another very critical factor is that they also made a lot of things inside that can be taken away, such as prescriptions, medical manuals, etc., so that the entire experience and information interaction timeline is extended until you leave.

What the “Unknown Clinic” wants to convey is: You can know everything from me.

Second, the venue is big enough.

The place here is big enough, not in terms of space, but in terms of its ability to encompass everything and accommodate a variety of different contents.

For example, the first Taobao Maker Festival. The person in charge of the Maker Festival selected 72 very niche but exquisite small shops on Taobao, including those selling fonts, bow ties, succulents, oil-paper umbrellas, and various experiences.

They created a physical store for each of these 72 small shops - from online stores to real stores. For example, a small shop selling succulent plants has a very small door at the entrance, and you have to go in before you can find yourself surrounded by succulents. This is actually a very transcendent sensory experience.

Another example is "This is Street Dance", the entire scene layout is very youthful, it is eager to capture the young group, it hopes to use these symbols to impress the young group. Overall, this was a relatively successful large-scale event.

After the Taobao Maker Festival was completed once, it became an event that must be held every year. What it wants to convey is: We also have niche culture here! We also have a youth culture! There are subcultures too!

Third, it is transferable and can be copied.

As "Unknown Clinic" is produced season after season, everyone will find that its unique content begins to have special topics and is themed; after the Taobao Maker Festival is produced season after season, more and more brands have taken the initiative to join in the presentation process of the Taobao Maker Festival.

3. What is a scene?

Speaking of this, there is actually a big word that we have not mentioned frequently before - scene.

How to understand the scene? Is it true that the more traffic the better, and we should go where there are more people? Is it better to be more open, so that everyone can come in at any time? Is it true that the more diverse the better, as long as it can cover all types of users? The answer is definitely not one-size-fits-all.

Let's look at some examples of scenarios:

First, elevator advertising.

In a collaboration with Xinchao Media, a mattress company set up a mattress scene in the elevator and continuously aired TVCs (commercial films) to teach people how to interact with the mattress, and to make people willing to interact with this very comfortable mattress when they go home and leave the house.

Second, subway advertising.

The interactive content operation characteristics of music apps are very suitable for subway scenarios, such as NetEase Cloud Music’s deployment in subways. NetEase Cloud Music spread the comments in the music all over the subway, and also found some people with sad expressions to take photos there, which caused a sensation on the entire Internet.

Why choose the subway? Because people in the subway are all in a hurry and have uneasy hearts. They may be thinking about the difficulties they encountered at work today, or they may be thinking about how to face their families.

At this time, they may inadvertently see music reviews on the subway, which may trigger their emotions or make them have an epiphany, leaving a deep impression on them.

I give these examples to tell you that different brands have different appeals. You need to find the attributes of your own audience. More importantly, when you are creating a scene, you must consider how to make your brand and the people in this scene communicate more appropriately.

Next, let me give you a more in-depth example:

At the end of 2017, we opened an office space (which could accommodate 1,200 people), and my boss gave me a task: organize an event to get people to line up at the door.

I was thinking at the time, regardless of why everyone has to queue up to enter the office, the key point is that only with an access card can one enter a high-end office building. How do people queue up in a high-end office building?

To this end, after staying there for a month, I decided on the theme of the event "Rhythm of Zao Festival" and found 32 brands willing to cooperate with us. Rhythm is a signal, and the signal we hope to convey to everyone who resonates with it is "we understand your rhythm."

We have three dimensions to build such an activity:

First, everything can be exhibited.

What are we going to exhibit? It's rhythm. Rhythm can be the rhythm of the city, the rhythm of people's lives, and can also be divided into fast pace and slow pace. No matter how you divide it, as long as you can grasp the details in the rhythm and grasp the stories in the rhythm, you can use your rhythm scenes to attract the public to watch and participate.

Second, amplify the experience.

What is the Amplify experience? It’s all about finding your own rhythm.

Because our work is made up of different rhythms, we divided the entire office area into fast-paced and slow-paced areas, called the leisurely area and the serious area. These two areas have different fun things, and you can choose according to your needs.

Third, we hope to create an activity that touches people’s hearts.

Rhythm is not something that everyone can just play around with and be done with. Since we are going to organize such an activity, we must first investigate and consult with relevant people about their understanding of rhythm and their demands.

Then, there will be several concentrated interaction points throughout the event, and the time arrangement for the interaction must also be planned in advance.

If you want to win people's hearts, you must start from people, from their hearts.

What was the outcome of this activity? Integration of product and effect.

In a space in a high-end office building that requires access control to punch in, there were 1,200 people participating and interacting in two days; there were more than 300,000 online communications and interactions, and there were 32 partners. Finally, we created an image that this is an office that combines comfortable working and can adapt to various work rhythms.

In addition, we monitored a data during the entire activity, and I will tell you about it in detail.

First, for scenes, we don’t want to be big and comprehensive, but more selective.

We must find a group of people who can truly evoke empathy in this scene or who can understand his emotions.

The 1,200 people we monitored at the time were participants who received the event keys on site and registered our accounts in real time. From this perspective, we cannot say that it is an absolutely successful case, but what we can share with you is how we connect creativity, brand effects and scenarios.

The second point is that since we have already done it offline, we must fully utilize the sense of conflict in this space.

The walls, floors and surfaces of this space appear to be a very three-dimensional space, so we need to use this to add creativity to create a sense of conflict in this space and give people a deep impression.

Third, choose a scene that you can immerse yourself in.

Why are many brands willing to cooperate with us? Because in our space, there are at least two to three hundred residents staying here for eight hours a day, so there are more opportunities to interact with your online and offline content.

Therefore, it is also a very immersive and exclusive way of communication. Therefore , when you have the opportunity to build a cross-border scenario, you must first choose a brand and scenario that suits you to convey accurate signals and then build your cross-border marketing scenario .

Author: Notesman

Source: Notesman (ID: Notesman)