Analyzing the 6 major ways in which online education blind boxes are growing!

1. What is a blind box?

A blind box refers to a box in which the merchant places different items, and the consumer draws the item based on luck. The consumer is not sure what it is before receiving it. This randomized experience has become one of the most popular marketing methods today. Blind box originated from a paper box sales method in Japan. The box contains dolls and figures of different styles, and there are items inside the box. When purchasing, you cannot know what the box contains with the naked eye. Full of unknowns and uncertainties, this marketing model is deeply loved by the public.

2. Why does online education use blind boxes to achieve growth?

1. Blind boxes are mysterious and users are curious

The products in blind boxes are random, and users are not sure what they are before getting them. Uncertain things are more likely to arouse users' curiosity, and curiosity will drive us to explore. Online education wants to use this psychology to stimulate users' interest in participation.

2. Blind boxes take advantage of users’ gambling mentality and try to win big with a small investment

Looking at the blind box activities, you will often find that there are a lot of things set up in the blind box, and there will always be one that users are interested in. However, what the user wants in the blind box may not be available to the user. Users are naturally willing to buy lottery tickets and gamble, what if they win? There will be a strong sense of satisfaction. It is this gambling mentality that drives users to participate and stimulates their motivation to participate.

3. Blind box activities are relatively novel

Growth is becoming increasingly difficult for online education. You should feel that users are becoming less and less interested in conventional growth activities, so we are looking for more refined growth methods. Refined growth methods include more useful and interesting activities that can motivate users to participate.

4. The cost of blind box activities is relatively low

By analyzing the blind box activities of current online education institutions, it is found that all of them have set up grand prizes, such as the latest version of iPad, and the grand prizes are often set very small, often accounting for one in ten thousand, so the prizes given to users are often small prizes, so blind box activities can optimize costs at a relatively low level.

3. Types of activities in which online education uses blind boxes to grow

1. Public account mission treasure blind box fission

We all know about the fission of Mission Bao. It uses free physical and virtual content to allow users to invite friends to follow the official account. When the specified number of people is reached, they can receive the reward. For example, in a free book giveaway, you can receive the reward by inviting N friends to follow the official account. The gifts for common Taskbao fission are designated, while blind box fission uses a combination of different gifts to carry out fission. By inviting N friends to follow the official account, you can get a random gift box. Users are not sure in advance which combination they can get.

Case: Little Chicken Jiaojiao gave fans a gift box for Christmas

1) Project Introduction:

Xiaoji Jiaojiao was founded in 2007. Chengdu Shusheng Technology Co., Ltd. currently has Jiaojiao reading classes and Jiaojiao thinking classes. Using reading as a carrier, it cultivates the multidisciplinary comprehensive abilities of children aged 3-12 to "love reading, think hard, and be able to express themselves." Through the "three-in-one" teaching model of "online interactive classroom + online class teacher tutoring + offline supporting paper books", we can enrich children's knowledge, cultivate their abilities and improve their literacy.

2) Event details:

Xiaojijiaojiao is giving away learning gift boxes to fans for Christmas. It uses 9 different gifts as bait and conducts task treasure fission through the official account. Users can receive a random gift if they invite 14 people. This event was promoted through official accounts and private domain traffic to attract traffic to the Jiaojiao reading experience class.

3) Activity process:

(1) Scan the QR code to follow the official account

(2) Pop-up event rules and personal poster

(3) Post the poster to your friends or parents’ group

(4) After 14 people have helped, you can fill in the address and the gift will be mailed randomly

4) Points that can be copied:

(1) The product selection is very good, with products of all values, and they are all real objects, which is very attractive.

(2) Only 14 people are needed to obtain the qualification, so the threshold is appropriate, neither too low nor too high.

(3) The design of the event poster is very good, whether it is the color matching (the gift box is generally red) or the highlighting of the selling points (the value of 6488 is highlighted, and the specific prizes are listed)

(4) In process design, emphasis is placed on 100% winning rate to increase attractiveness. At the same time, it is emphasized that parents must pay attention to it and are not allowed to post it to the mutual aid group to reduce the situation of wool pulling.

(5) This event is held in conjunction with Christmas, leveraging the marketing momentum and meeting the conditions for gift giving.

2. Community Blind Box Fission

Community blind box fission refers to the use of blind boxes to attract users to scan codes and join the group. After joining the group, they need to complete designated circle and group posting tasks to get the blind box. The fission mechanism is very simple, it just replaces the fixed content with a blind box.

What needs to be noted in the community blind box fission is that the products must not be expensive, but should be low, try to be around 10 yuan. Another thing is to prevent competitors from intercepting traffic.

Case: Gaotu Classroom Christmas Super Surprise Stationery Blind Box

1) Project Introduction:

Gaotu Classroom is an online tutoring app for primary and secondary school courses under the American listed company GSX, providing online live courses in Chinese, math, English, physics, chemistry and all nine subjects for primary school, junior high school and high school. Adopting the teaching model of "famous teachers teaching + double teachers tutoring" and "7+6 efficient learning method", we design teaching for students from pre-class preparation, interactive learning, 1-on-1 homework correction, after-class tutoring and other aspects, and provide course video playback after class.

2) Event details:

Gaotu Courses has always been good at community fission and constantly creates new styles. After the blind box became popular, it used blind boxes for community fission. This event specially set up a stationery blind box, combining more than 10 kinds of stationery as bait, and then used the community to let parents complete the sharing task.

3) Activity process:

(1) Users scan the QR code and select a level to join the group

(2) Task prompt pops up in the group

(3) Forward the poster to the parent group according to the instructions

(4) Send the screenshot to the group, and the assistant in the group will prompt you to follow the official account

(5) Send the screenshot to the official account again. If it complies with the rules, rewards will be given. If it does not, conversion will be guided.

4) Reusable points :

(1) The mechanism is very cleverly designed. It allows users to send messages to three groups and keep them for three minutes. After three minutes, they cannot be withdrawn and will be kept forever.

(2) Guide people to follow the official account, rather than just posting it in the group to receive it. After following the official account, conduct official account marketing

(3) The social media copywriting is also clever, for example: the last stationery blind box of the year; completely free of charge, etc.

(4) The product selection is worth learning from. The pencil case is selected. There are more than 100 types of pencil cases, and the price of each type is not high, so the cost is relatively low.

3. Assisted blind box opening

Assisted gift box opening means that if users want to get a blind box, they need to invite friends to scan the code for assistance. It is similar to a lottery by liking the code. Users follow the specified process and enter the landing page to help the inviter click the assistance button. If users want to get blind boxes of different levels, they need to invite different numbers of people for assistance.

The key point of the design of the assisted blind box opening is that the process should not be too complicated, and the invited person does not need to do too much to help.

Case: Rise English Colorful Christmas Lucky Blind Box Opening

1) Project Introduction:

Rise English is a brand under Rise Education that focuses on quality-oriented education for children aged 3-18. Relying on the global high-quality educational resources of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Group (HMHG), Rise English uses English as a foundation to cultivate children's language and knowledge abilities, subject thinking abilities, character abilities, and future leadership, helping them gradually grow into international talents with comprehensive qualities. Rise English adheres to the quality-oriented education method and focuses on cultivating students' core competencies. It has created a set of English-based quality-oriented education product systems for all age groups aged 3-18. The system runs through both online and offline, including main courses, auxiliary courses, and home tutoring products.

As of now, Rise English has developed hundreds of campuses in more than 100 cities across the country, with more than 100,000 students enrolled at the same time and has trained nearly one million students in total.

2) Activity Introduction:

Rise English’s colorful Christmas lucky blind box opening uses the name of Christmas gift box opening as bait and sets up three levels of blind boxes, namely: primary blind box (Little Talent phone watch, Frozen suitcase and cash red envelope); intermediate blind box (LEGO Christmas building blocks, 3D super panda desk calendar and cash red envelope); advanced blind box (DJI drone, children's anti-fall water cup and cash red envelope). Each person can open 2 blind boxes. If you want to open different blind boxes, you need to invite a different number of people to scan the code and enter the activity page to help. With 100% winning rate, users can get a random gift in each blind box, not a fixed blind box.

PS: Each person who scans the QR code can also get 6 music-themed English lessons

3) Activity process:

(1) Scan the QR code to enter the activity page

(2) Click on the gift box and select one of the gift boxes to open.

(3) Click to invite friends to generate an invitation poster or link to post in Moments or groups

(4) Your friend can scan the QR code to enter the landing page and click Help to open the gift box to help, or you can participate in opening the gift box yourself

(5) After the assistance is completed, follow the prompts to add the teacher to receive the gift, or you can choose to open another gift box

4) Points that can be copied:

(1) The participation threshold for this gift box opening activity is that anyone can participate. The inviter only needs to invite a few people to scan the code. For the invitees, they only need to scan the code and click. There is no need to follow the official account or download the APP, which stimulates the motivation to participate.

(2) This activity has three levels. Users can upgrade and fight monsters according to their own strength, which increases the frequency of sharing. In addition, each blind box can get a minimum prize, with a 100% chance of winning, which stimulates the motivation to share.

(3) The prizes for this event are reasonably set, with both big and small prizes, and each prize comes with a cash bonus and a course. To claim it, you need to add a teacher, which increases the rate of participating teachers.

(4) Leveraging marketing opportunities, choosing the Christmas name and combining the timing to stimulate user interest

4. Retweet to win a blind box

Forwarding to draw a blind box means that if users want to get a blind box, they must first complete the forwarding task. After completing the forwarding task, they still have to rely on luck to draw it. The growth of such blind boxes is a dual lottery mechanism. One is that the forwarding lottery depends on luck, and the other is that the number you take away after winning depends on luck.

For this kind of forwarding and blind box drawing design, we must pay attention to the low threshold. If it is high, users will not participate, after all, it is a two-tier lottery mechanism.

Case: Xueersi Monkey Enlightenment Airdrop Christmas Blind Box

1) Project Introduction:

Xiaohou Enlightenment, produced by Xueersi, is an online education product that provides multi-disciplinary and interesting enlightenment courses for children aged 2-8. We currently have AI courses in multiple subjects including Chinese, mathematical thinking, English, etc. The Little Monkey AI class stimulates children's interest through fun animations and situational interactions, encouraging them to speak more, express themselves, and develop good learning habits.

2) Event details:

Xueersi Xiaohou AI class is using the name of Christmas to increase its Weibo presence. If users want to get a gift box, they have to follow Xiaohou Enlightenment Weibo, then repost the Weibo post about the event and talk about which teacher their children like. Ten parents will be drawn after December 30th.

3) Points that can be copied:

(1) The name of the event is very interesting. The Xueersi monkey acts as Santa Claus and airdrops Christmas blind boxes, which arouses people’s interest.

(2) Private domain traffic is combined with Weibo to increase Weibo traffic, and Weibo is also a source of public domain traffic growth in the WeChat ecosystem.

(3) The threshold for this activity is low, and users only need to like, follow, and simply comment, which leads to high user participation.

(4) The activity only selected 10 people, but it attracted many people to forward it, so the cost was relatively low.

5. Collect cards and draw blind boxes

Collecting cards to draw blind boxes means that if users want to get a blind box, they need to collect cards. Collecting cards is similar to the Alipay Ji Fu activity. You can get a blind box by collecting all the cards. There are several gifts in the blind box, which are shipped randomly.

What you need to pay attention to when collecting cards to draw blind boxes is that collecting cards should not be too easy or too difficult, and users can collect all the cards as long as the average customer acquisition cost is reached.

Case: VIPKid card collection campaign

1) Company Introduction:

VIPKID is an institution that focuses on online English teaching for children aged 3-15, providing one-on-one teaching by "pure" North American foreign teachers. We only use high-quality North American foreign teachers, international teaching materials, a pure English environment, and an immersive learning experience; through 1-on-1 online video teaching methods, we help children learn and master English more effectively.

2) Event details:

VIPKid's card collection campaign uses different gifts as bait, allowing users to collect cards in a variety of ways to obtain gifts. During the event, you can follow the instructions on the event page to follow the official account, invite friends to follow the official account, and take classes to obtain corresponding cards. The cards are randomly generated from 6 types of cards. Collect the specified number to redeem prizes (blind boxes)

3) Activity process:

(1) Click on the activity page of the activity program

(2) Click to get a card. You can get a card by sharing, following the official account, taking a class, and inviting friends to follow the official account.

(3) After completing the specified action, click to draw a card immediately. The card will be generated randomly.

(4) Collect five or six of these to redeem different gifts (including blind boxes)

4) Points that can be copied:

(1) There are various ways to collect activity cards. You can get cards by sharing, following the official account, taking classes, and inviting friends to follow the official account.

(2) Gifts are diverse and tiered, so users can get what they want, which can motivate users to participate

(3) The copywriting is very clever, especially the cards, which have themes such as appearance, promotion, and health, hitting the psychological needs of users.

6. Refer others to win a blind box

Blind box for referral refers to the use of blind boxes for referral activities, using the mysterious effect of blind boxes to stimulate the motivation of old customers to bring in new ones. The combination of referrals and blind boxes is still relatively new. We all know that referrals often adopt layers of incentives, and the combination of referrals and such layers of incentives should have a good effect.

Case: Little Beaver’s Double 12 big event, 0 yuan draw for blind box

1) Project Introduction:

Little Beaver Maker is a children's science and technology education brand that focuses on cultivating the STEAM technology qualities of children aged 3-9. It is a set of professional and systematic robotics courses that can be taken at home, jointly developed by multi-disciplinary doctoral students and experts in multiple fields. It is committed to improving children's diversified thinking ability and empowering them to "lead the intelligent era."

The course is in the form of recorded lessons, and the main course is the building block course, which develops children's intelligence and hands-on ability through building blocks.

2) Event details:

(1) From December 10th to December 25th, if you successfully recommend a new user to purchase a 29 yuan or 49 yuan trial class, you will be able to draw a blind box for free. Depending on the number of recommended people, the prizes in the blind box will be different~

(2) There are four tiers in total. In each tier, in addition to three prizes of equal value, there is also a super lucky prize of greater value than these three. After the user successfully recommends, one of the four products will be drawn and the prize will be random.

(3) In addition to gifts for the recommender, the recommended person also receives surprise benefits!

During the event period from December 10th to December 25th, all new students who sign up for the 29 yuan polar expedition or 49 yuan Mars expedition experience class for the first time will have a chance to draw a lottery with a 100% winning rate!

3) Activity process:

(1) The activity is promoted through official accounts or private domain traffic

(2) Users participate in the event by scanning the QR code on the poster

(3) Enter the event details page and click "Recommend Now" to display two course posters.

(4) Select the poster of the course you want to recommend and send it to your Moments or WeChat account to invite friends

(5) When a user scans the QR code to purchase a course, the recommendation is successful. The recommender participates in the blind box draw, and the recommended person (the course purchaser) participates in the wheel draw.

4) Points that can be copied:

(1) The activity is relatively new, using blind box lucky draw as a referral activity plan and leveraging marketing momentum (Double 12)

(2) The reward mechanism is cleverly designed, with rich gifts + tiered rewards + random draws + super lucky items

(3) The threshold is relatively low. Just invite one person to participate in the blind box lottery, and the user participation rate is high

(4) Two-way rewards: both the referrer and the referee can enjoy the benefits of the lucky draw

(5) Event packaging, from posters to event details page settings, is worth learning from

4. Key points behind blind box design

1. Product selection should be scientific

(1) Gifts should be varied. It is best if they can be combined into more uncertain gift boxes. Of course, the more mysterious they are, the better. Users have the strongest curiosity.

(2) The prices of gifts should vary. There should be small prizes of a few yuan as well as grand prizes of several thousand yuan. Grand prizes of one thousand yuan can stimulate the gambling mentality of users and allow them to try their luck in a small way, just like buying lottery tickets.

2. The threshold should be set reasonably

The threshold for blind box activities cannot be too low or too high. If the threshold is too low, users will think that they are all small prizes and their motivation to participate will decrease. If the threshold is too high, it will be difficult for users to complete it and their interest in participating will not be high. It would be better to set reasonable thresholds according to different types of activities and matching items.

3. Blind boxes should ensure a sense of mystery and fully mobilize people’s curiosity

If the blind box is fixed, there will be no sense of mystery and users will not have a curiosity. The more mysterious the blind box is, the stronger the user's curiosity will be, and the greater the user's motivation to participate.

4. Pay attention to the frequency of blind box growth

Blind box fission must not be done frequently. Blind boxes mainly take advantage of people's curiosity. If you do it frequently, users will understand the routines. It is best to do it at specific nodes, such as Christmas, New Year's Day, Children's Day and the beginning of the school season.

5. Pay attention to the publicity of blind box activities

(1) It would be better to use 100% winning rate in blind box fission promotion

(2) The growth of blind boxes needs to focus on highlighting the grand prize, which is worth thousands of yuan, such as an iPad, etc.

(3) The prizes on the promotional poster should be listed in a variety of ways to motivate users.

6. Other aspects

(1) Blind box fission must pay attention to calculating the normal costs and reduce costs by optimizing the prize combination. After all, the actual cost of each prize varies greatly.

(2) It is best to use real objects for blind box activities. Blind boxes with real objects are more attractive, especially combinations of physical objects with a large difference in value. Virtual materials are not suitable for blind box fission. Virtual materials can only reduce users' gambling and curiosity.

V. Conclusion

There are more and more blind box activities in online education. They are by no means limited to the blind box growth cases I listed above. There are more interesting blind box growth methods that we need to discover and try together.

Author: Terracotta Warriors

Source: Terracotta Horse Still Waiting for You