Inventory and analysis of the top ten best-selling marketing cases in 2019!

2019 is coming to an end. Looking back on social media this year, marketing hotspots of various brands have emerged in an endless stream.

From the popularity of "What's Peppa Pig?" at the beginning of the year to the "2017~2019" screen-sweeping at the end of the year, these marketing cases not only aroused heated discussions, but the brands behind them also made full appearances in front of the public.

So, what are the popular marketing cases in 2019? What marketing tactics do they use and what marketing inspirations do they give us? Let’s take stock of it today.

1. What’s Peppa Pig?: Family Marketing

What was the most popular marketing case in 2019? The screen-sweeping "What's Peppa Pig?" should be ranked first. This pink little pig has captured the hearts of the public at the beginning of the new year.

"What's Peppa Pig?" is a movie promotional video. It tells the story of an old country grandfather who is looking forward to his son's family returning home for the New Year. The grandfather calls to ask his grandson what gift he wants for the New Year. The grandson says he wants Peppa Pig, but the grandfather doesn't know what Peppa Pig is, so he begins a journey to ask the villagers what Peppa Pig is.

The process of questioning was hilarious, but in the end, grandpa finally figured out what Peppa was, and then used a blower to create a "hardcore Peppa".

As soon as the film was released, it became popular on social networks, generating 230 million views and 1.6 billion reposts on Weibo, including from big Vs like Wang Sicong and Han Han, making it a phenomenal hit.

Why is “What’s Peppa Pig?” so popular? Behind this, there is certainly a reflection of the gap between urban and rural areas, which reflects the reasons for the social anxiety of the Chinese people. But more importantly, it hits a special time node - the Spring Festival, which touches the hearts of many people who yearn for their hometown, relatives, and family reunions.

Blower Peppa won't impress little kids, but it will make adults who never return home feel guilty.

For those who work away from home, the development of transportation network has shortened the distance between us and our hometown and loved ones in terms of time and space.

But it cannot be denied that in today's "mobile China", many people still have concerns about distant places. Therefore, at the beginning of every year, the joke "Mary, Tony, Director Li, and Director Wang before the New Year became Cuihua, Shitou, and Goudan after returning home" will become popular on the Internet again.

Mountains, villages, old people, children... Although some plots may be exaggerated, the combination of this series of symbolic elements can piece together familiar memory fragments in people's minds, thereby triggering strong resonance among the public and hitting the emotional nerves of countless people.

People miss their families more during the holidays. In the past two years, "What's Peppa Pig?" is not the only marketing case that has become popular around the Spring Festival by playing the family card. At the beginning of 2018, the Spring Festival short film "Three Minutes" shot by director Chen Kexin for Apple also swept the social circles and media. The popularity of these two short films is without exception because they touch upon the homesickness of people living in cities.

Now, as we are approaching the 2020 Spring Festival, heartfelt family marketing is timely. Brand owners can try to launch family-related products, copywriting and advertisements. If the story is well told, it may become the next "What's Peppa Pig?"

2. Starbucks Cat Paw Cup: Cute Pet Marketing

Have you ever risked your life for a Starbucks cat claw cup in your life? Fans of the cat claw cup have fought hard.

On February 26 this year, Starbucks launched the spring version of the "2019 Starbucks Sakura Cup", one of which was a cute pink "cat claw cup" that quickly became popular on the Internet.

In order to get this cup, some people lined up at the entrance of Starbucks overnight and even set up tents. It took less than two minutes from the store opening to the cups selling out. What’s even more exaggerated is that some people fought in front of the Starbucks door because of grabbing cups, and a full-scale physical fight broke out.

Not only offline, after the cat claw cup became popular, the Baidu index, Taobao search volume and WeChat index of the online cat claw cup also rose sharply, and a situation emerged where "a cup is hard to come by" both online and offline.

Even after the cat claw cups were sold out, consumers’ enthusiasm for buying them remained unabated. On the second-hand e-commerce trading platform, the price of the cat claw cup was driven up from the original price of 199 yuan to 1,800 yuan. What followed were imitation products from merchants, with prices ranging from 65 yuan to 120 yuan.

Every year during the cherry blossom season, Starbucks launches limited edition themed cups to suit the occasion, which has become a tradition. But compared with the Sakura Cup in previous years which did not cause any waves, this year's Cat Claw Cup successfully "went viral".

A careful analysis of the reasons why the cat claw cup became so popular shows that in addition to the commonly used hunger marketing tactics, Starbucks has also done a very good job in gaining insights into its users and catering to new consumption trends.

In recent years, there has been a cat-loving craze in society, and more and more people are becoming "cat slaves." Especially among the post-80s and 90s people who are labeled as empty-nest youth, older, unmarried, and office workers, keeping cats has become a fashionable lifestyle.

In order to raise cats, cat lovers not only spend money on food and clothing, but also feed their pet cats with expensive cat food. Sharing cute cat pictures in social circles, celebrating birthdays for kittens, and taking photos have become an important part of the daily life of "cat slaves". In order to serve their "cat masters" well, cat slaves devote a lot of financial resources, energy and emotion.

Starbucks has clearly noticed this new consumption trend.

Starbucks' light luxury brand style and petty bourgeois lifestyle positioning are aimed at the urban middle class, especially the young middle class represented by those born in the 80s and 90s. This customer base has a high degree of overlap with people who love cats.

Targeting this user group and consumption trends, Starbucks launched cat-themed coffee cups, which quickly stimulated the strong consumption desire of this group and successfully achieved precision marketing.

In the advertising and marketing circle, this is not the first time that cute pets have been used for marketing. In 2018, Xin Shixiang and Pacific Insurance cooperated to launch an H5 "Test Your Cat Personality", which became very popular.

It can be seen that the cute pet economy represented by cats is on the rise.

According to statistics, people born in the 1980s and 1990s are the main force of this economy, among which those born in the 1980s account for 31.8%, those born in the 1990s account for 41.4%, and singles and childless people account for a total of 65.2%.

Young people who go out to work, whether single or living alone, will inevitably want to have a spiritual sustenance. For them, cute pets are a good choice. Using cute pets for marketing is also easier to attract users' attention. Therefore , brands may want to give marketing a try centered around cute pets.

3. Platinum Travel Photography and SoYoung Medical Beauty: Brainwash Marketing

When it comes to the most controversial advertisements in 2019, Platinum Travel Photography and SoYoung Medical Beauty are definitely not to be ignored.

One is "Go wherever you want to take photos", and the other is "A woman is complete only when she is beautiful". The emergence of these two brainwash advertisements quickly swept major elevators across the country, leaving many people "in agony" in the elevators. There are constant controversies regarding these two advertisements in society.

Although this type of advertising is very offensive to some people and has been widely criticized on social media, brand owners love this type of advertising. Because we have to admit that this type of advertising does bring huge exposure to the brand and also magically implants the brand's advertising slogans into the public's minds.

As a local brand in Xiamen, Platinum Travel Photography became a nationally renowned wedding travel photography brand because of this advertisement. SoYoung Medical Beauty, which was initially well-known in a small circle, also quickly opened up the national market because of its brainwashing advertisements.

There are so many elevator advertisements, why have these two advertisements become so popular? We can try to analyze the reasons behind it.

In a closed space like an elevator, consumers only stay inside for a few seconds to more than ten seconds. If an advertisement is too long, consumers will definitely not have time to watch it. Therefore, the task that elevator advertising needs to accomplish is to make consumers remember the brand in the advertisement in a very short time.

But it is not easy to make the public remember it in a short time.

The advertisements of Platinum Travel Photography and SoYoung Medical Beauty use a group of people shouting within 15 seconds, and then repeating it continuously, bombarding the user's senses and making a very impressive impression.

This type of advertising is effective for companies that urgently need to increase their visibility in the early stages, but it may not be suitable if you want to improve your reputation in the later stages. Therefore, if companies want to use this kind of brainwash advertising, they need to think carefully.

In addition, the popularity of brainwash advertisements has also brought popularity to Focus Media, a communication medium that had previously been neglected by brands.

As 36Kr's analysis said, in the current media environment, it is difficult to find an advertising scenario as efficient and accurate as an elevator, which directly outputs brand awareness and provides mandatory advertising reach to target users through exclusive use of life scenarios and a large number of advertising terminals.

Judging from the phenomenal brand cases in recent years, many marketing campaigns are driven by offline to online, promoting the spread of social topics across all channels.

In this context, as an entrance to occupy offline traffic, Focus Elevator Advertising has actually become a must-have option for marketing. Therefore, brands should also re-understand the marketing value of Focus Media.

4. Kindle: Self-deprecating marketing

How to make instant noodles fragrant? Maybe you could try Kindle.

As the leader in the e-reader industry, Kindle is a household name.

For readers, when they first buy a Kindle, they can still read with great interest, but over time, the habit of reading with Kindle may gradually be abandoned. Then using Kindle as a lid for instant noodles has become the main use of some Kindles, and the "instant noodles joke" has also become popular on the Internet.

Kindle also seemed to realize its own "tragic" fate, so it decided to go all out. In March of this year, it took the initiative to launch the advertisement "Cover Kindle, noodles taste better", officially certifying this advertisement and admitting that it is just an auxiliary tool for eating instant noodles.

As soon as this advertisement was released, it quickly became a hot topic among netizens. Some netizens even extended the discussion to say what kind of e-books are better suited to what kind of tastes? He made fun of himself and played memes with netizens, which tickled their funny bones and won praise from many people.

Not only in the advertising copy, but also in other aspects, Kindle has played the instant noodles joke to the extreme. On this year's World Book Day, Kindle and "Inconvenient Noodle House" opened a "Convenient Library" pop-up store and released a series of "Written Matching" posters, vowing to carry out the slogan "Cover with Kindle, noodles are more delicious" to the end.

Self-deprecation has become one of the mainstream marketing methods for many brands . For young people, there is nothing wrong with high-end, serious and dignified brand promotion, but they always feel that there is a distance between them, which makes people stay away from it.

Self-deprecating can not only attract public attention and spark discussion, but also establish a people-friendly image for the brand and quickly narrow the distance between the brand and young people. This marketing method is low cost but very effective.

This year, Joyoung rice cooker’s “Rice Still Smells Fragrant” and Kris Wu’s song “Big Bowl of Wide Noodles” also cleverly used self-deprecating marketing methods, which won the public’s favor and made many people “turn into fans”. For brands, this marketing method can be used as a reference.

However, the points used for self-mockery should be harmless ones. If you make fun of yourself blindly, it is very likely that the self-mockery will turn into "real mockery".

5. White Rabbit: Cross-border Marketing

In the past two years, White Rabbit has become an internet celebrity. In 2018, White Rabbit cooperated with the national skincare brand Maxam to launch White Rabbit lip balm, which was sold out within a period of time.

On May 23, 2019, White Rabbit teamed up with the Smell Library to launch a series of products including White Rabbit Milk Candy Shower Gel, Body Lotion, Hand Cream, etc., which quickly became a hot topic on Weibo and sparked heated discussions among the public.

The Scent Library that we chose to cooperate with this time is also a brand with a unique style. For example, this brand has made a perfume with the scent of boiled water. The two brands have similar tastes when they meet, so it is not surprising that they both make White Rabbit-scented perfumes and shower gel products.

As a national time-honored brand, White Rabbit is the childhood memory of many people. The accumulation of time has made this brand a household name.

However, as time went by, many factors, such as the single taste and the emergence of competitors, made White Rabbit's market performance much worse than before. In the public's perception, White Rabbit seems to have become a candy that only the elderly eat, and the memory of White Rabbit among the growing younger generation is also sealed deep in their minds.

But sealing does not mean forgetting. It is a natural high-quality IP with its own nostalgic feeling.

In this cross-border marketing, White Rabbit appears in front of consumers in a new posture, not to let consumers know it, but to awaken their deep memories. The bigger the imagination and the further the cross-border, the more it can stimulate the public's excitement. The introduction of new, unique and special products is in line with the psychological and consumption needs of young people today.

In fact, this kind of cross-border marketing has become a new form of national marketing that is gradually gaining popularity.

Forbidden City cosmetics, Luzhou Laojiao perfume, Mayinglong lipstick, People's Daily x Li Ning... In recent years, many traditional brands have launched "old city renovation", cross-border collaborations, and launched new domestic products represented by new manufacturing, which have been well received by the public and formed a rolling "national trend".

"Being able to preserve the classics and become an Internet celebrity" has become the marketing motto of some traditional brands.

6. BMW and Mercedes-Benz: Marketing by attacking each other

In May, Dieter Zetsche, global president of Mercedes-Benz, officially retired. Its old rival BMW released a video, which was called a spoof but was actually a tribute. This move can be described as "extremely cool".

The theme of the video is "Zetta's last day at Mercedes-Benz headquarters." In the crowd, Dieter Zetsche shook hands and said goodbye to his former colleagues, took photos, returned his work badges, and, amid warm applause, got in a Mercedes and left the headquarters building for the last time. Looking at the headquarters building getting farther and farther away, Dieter Zetsche seemed a little reluctant to leave.

Stimulated by the melodious and pure farewell music, the audience had no time to be moved before the camera turned and the words “free at last” appeared on the screen. Dieter Zetsche drove the stylish BMW i8 away with the roar of the car.

Is this the Mercedes-Benz president's retirement, the time to let go and finally drive a BMW openly?

It was not until the end of the video that we realized that BMW was paying tribute: "Thank you, Mr. Dieter Zetsche, for our inspiring competition over the years."

It was supposed to be a resignation ceremony for the president of Mercedes-Benz, but BMW used it to show off its presence. Not only that, their subsequent interactions on Weibo also made people smell the scent of love.

BMW China released this short film on Weibo, not only tagging Mercedes-Benz, but also captioning it "Mercedes-Benz for a lifetime, BMW by your side." How could Mercedes-Benz be willing to be teased? While forwarding the message, it also swapped the front and back sentences of BMW's copy to "BMW is by your side, Mercedes-Benz is your lifelong love."

Although it is a spoof of Mercedes-Benz, it is hard to hate BMW for this move, because the diss you and the tribute to you are real, and it is just an advertisement for itself. As a result, BMW not only won recognition from the automotive industry, but also achieved a win-win situation in terms of BMW brand voice and reputation. For the spectators, it is also a pleasure to watch big brands love and hate each other.

Long time ago, Mercedes-Benz and BMW had been "running out" each other from time to time, and they had been doing so for a century.

For example, when BMW celebrated its 100th anniversary in March 2016, Mercedes-Benz issued a congratulatory poster: "Thanks for 100 years of competition. The first 30 years without you were really lonely." While complaining that BMW was too young, it also told the public that Mercedes-Benz was the world-recognized inventor of the automobile, 30 years ahead of BMW.

BMW's counterattack was even more brilliant. It used the phrase "You were born before I was born, and I was born when you were old" to show that it is in its prime and Mercedes-Benz is out of date.

There are many competitors like BMW and Mercedes-Benz that are fighting each other, such as Burger King VS McDonald's, Coca-Cola VS Pepsi, Apple VS Samsung... Every industry has the situation of "stepping on" competitors and "praising" itself.

The cleverness of this kind of mutual marketing lies in that it can greatly increase brand exposure, attract mass traffic, and give the brand more opportunities to be exposed in market competition. The humorous and wise form will not only not lose popularity, but will also increase a wave of goodwill. In the process of love and hate, Mercedes-Benz and BMW have each won a group of fans and even CP fans, thus achieving a win-win situation.

7. UNIQLO x KAWS: Hunger Marketing

At 0:00 on June 3, UNIQLO and KAWS’ latest joint UT (Uniqlo T-shirt) was released simultaneously online and offline. This time, the competition was not just based on finger speed online, people rushed directly to Uniqlo stores, and the chaos was unprecedented.

Subsequently, the two topics #Uniqlo co-branded products were snatched up# and #All members are KAWS# quickly topped the hot search list.

In fact, people are already accustomed to various joint UTs of Uniqlo, but what makes people so obsessed this time is actually KAWS.

Here I would like to give you some basic information about KAWS. He is an American street artist and a representative of street graffiti art. What really made KAWS famous was his graffiti adaptations of existing cartoon characters. He changed the eyes of cartoon characters such as Mickey Mouse, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Snoopy into two "Xs", which quickly became popular once they were released.

The collaboration between UNIQLO and KAWS dates back to 2016, and since then UNIQLO has released KAWS co-branded UT twice a year. But previous releases did not cause a frenzy of buying.

What makes young people so crazy about the co-branded UT released this year? Two important reasons are: first, scarcity stimulates purchasing demand; second, affordable prices.

This is the last collaboration series between UNIQLO and KAWS. The “limit of two pieces per person for the same pattern and style” gives people a whiff of hunger marketing. On the day of the sale, a video of the crazy rush to buy in UNIQLO offline stores was uploaded to the Internet and caused heated discussions. Such multiple publicity and promotion has, to a certain extent, exacerbated the scarcity effect, created an atmosphere of supply being less than demand, and thus created a huge demand for rush buying.

Uniqlo, with its discerning vision, has seized the critical juncture of the rise of fashion culture and has rapidly risen with the help of KAWS, the IP of a top fashion brand. Not only that, the fact that a fast fashion brand and a high-priced trendy brand jointly launched a UT that only costs 99 yuan has also given more ordinary consumers the urge to consume.

Many times, the focus of internet celebrity products is not the product itself, but its scarcity, as well as the social interaction and sense of accomplishment brought about by posting photos and videos on social media. By collaborating with top fashion brands, using hunger marketing, and setting affordable prices, Uniqlo has taken scarcity and a sense of achievement to the extreme.

8. Fuling Zhacai: Leveraging Marketing

“Life has been so good lately that we can eat pickled mustard tuber whenever we want”, “It’s Fuling pickled mustard tuber, not Fuling pickled mustard tuber”, “The standard for the rich – Fuling pickled mustard tuber”... This summer, Fuling pickled mustard tuber, which was mocked by Taiwan’s “celebrity” Huang Shicong as being unaffordable for mainlanders, became a big hit by leveraging marketing opportunities.

Let’s first review Huang Shicong’s “Zhacai Economic Theory”: On August 7, in a political talk show in Taiwan, Huang Shicong said that mainlanders always eat zhacai with instant noodles, and when the sales of zhacai increase, it shows that people’s living standards are high; but recently even zhacai can’t be afforded, so the stock price of Fuling Zhacai has fallen. What’s even more ridiculous is that Huang Shicong mistakenly pronounced “Fuling Zhacai” as “Pei Ling Zhacai”.

After mainlanders could no longer afford tea eggs, they are now unable to afford pickled mustard tubers either. After this video was uploaded to the mainland, it quickly became a hot topic on Weibo. In less than two days, the number of readings of the topic on Weibo reached nearly 700 million. Netizens started to create their own works with the themes of "Can't afford pickled mustard tuber" and "Show off wealth by eating pickled mustard tuber".

When the incident had fermented to a white-hot stage, Fuling Zhacai came out to express its position. Key points: 1. Not only can we afford the food, we can also afford the gifts; 2. You called my name wrong; 3. We also sponsor marathons.

Later, the official Weibo account of Fuling Zhacai posted a screenshot of the express delivery, saying that it had sent two boxes of "precious" Zhacai to Taipei on August 11, and said, "Thank you for teaching the pronunciation of the Chinese word 'Fu' in a humorous, witty and self-deprecating way. We can afford it, and we can also let everyone in the "Critical Moment" program team eat it. Thank you again for your contribution to the popularization of China's thousand-year-old Zhacai culture and the promotion of Chinese language and culture!"

Fuling Zhacai’s response not only advertised its own brand, but also expressed patriotism, killing two birds with one stone! In this hot topic, Fuling Zhacai basically "wins without any effort" because no matter how it responds, it will attract a lot of attention.

For brand owners, how can they cleverly take advantage of this unexpected hot topic to promote their brand?

• Based on correct values

Strictly speaking, the "Fuling Pickle Incident" was a relatively sensitive political event. No matter how the response is, it must be based on correct values ​​and express a firm political stance. The response of Fuling Zhacai clearly expresses patriotism.

• quick! quick! quick!

In Stephen Chow's movie "Kung Fu", the Fire Cloud Evil God said, "All martial arts in the world are invincible, except for speed." This sentence is also very applicable to marketing by leveraging hot spots. Because hot topics are time-sensitive, grasping hot information at the first opportunity is of great value to brand communication.

• The topic should be interactive

Hot information itself has a sense of "user participation", so you must fully consider the sense of user participation when riding on hot topics, and let users regard your brand as a topic, so that this wave of riding on hot topics can be considered successful.

Just like in this hot event, "eating pickled mustard tubers to show off wealth" is very interactive and participatory, triggering a large number of netizens to self-deprecate and forward.

9. Audi: Marketing Mistake

Compared with the close interaction between Mercedes-Benz and BMW, Audi finally found a new CP in November. Although it was a misunderstanding, it made the onlookers and a large number of friendly competitors who were busy taking advantage of the situation to get some attention very happy.

On November 13, Audi placed an advertisement on WeChat Moments, but Infiniti's commercial was inserted instead.

Afterwards, Tencent Advertising issued an apology letter, stating that it had conducted internal investigation and processing as soon as possible.

Although the error was corrected, the heated public debate caused by the "oolong incident" itself, coupled with the "godly assistance" from netizens and friendly companies, escalated the incident into a large-scale phenomenon-level dissemination.

Volvo Cars was the first to jump out and called out to Audi on Weibo: Please invest for us too.

Audi’s official Weibo account also responded promptly: I understand your thoughts and will reply to you later. What started as a misunderstanding turned into a big party in the automotive industry, with other brands starting to check in in the comments under Volvo's Weibo post. In addition to the protagonist of the incident, other car brands also made their presence felt to some extent.

The response from Infiniti, another protagonist in the incident, made netizens exclaim “Love it, love it”. Not only did they directly @Audi on the official Weibo account, but they also used their own logo to spell out the Audi logo.

Regarding this marketing blunder, Audi should firstly thank Volvo for its "teasing", and secondly, the way both parties responded. There was no slander or malice, but instead, there was a sense of encountering a soulmate and appreciating each other. This quick and appropriate marketing operation not only earned a lot of popularity among passers-by, but also greatly improved the brand's favorability.

10. 2017 → 2019: Nostalgia Marketing

At the end of the year, it is particularly easy for people to fall into reminiscing and comparison. Just recently, in early December, #Comparison between 2017 and 2019# became popular.

Regarding the changes in the past two years, friends have expressed: In 2017, I still had a melon-seed face, but now it has been upgraded to a double-layer watermelon face; in 2017, I was a Shamatte, but in 2019, I don’t even have the capital to be a Shamatte (I’m almost bald); in 2017, the results were written on paper, and in 2019, the results are written on the waist...

Of course there are some things that remain unchanged, for example, I was poor two years ago and I am even poorer now; I was single two years ago and now everyone I see is good-looking (still single).

As of now, the topic #从2017到2019# on Weibo has been read over 1 billion times.

What many people don’t know is that 2017→2019 was actually a carefully planned event by Weibo at the end of the year.

With less than 20 days left until 2020, it’s inevitable that everyone will fall into year-end anxiety. This form of participation only requires two pictures, and you will relieve your anxiety by seeing a lot of silly emoticons through self-deprecating humor.

You also have one more opportunity to post selfies. You will open the QQ space or hard drive that you have not used for a long time, find old photos, recall the scenes when the photos were taken, and then post the photos with special emotions.

Whether it’s the previous aging challenge, ten-year comparison, or the recent 2017→2019 challenge, these hot topics actually have the same underlying logic, which is to focus on nostalgia.

Modern people live a fast-paced life with great pressure. Nostalgia allows people to temporarily escape from the present and find an outlet for their emotions in their own spiritual garden to gain comfort and relieve stress. After all, when people think of the past, more often than not, good memories come to mind.

For brands, catering to consumers’ nostalgia, actively stimulating consumers’ nostalgic behavior, or projecting nostalgic feelings onto products or brands can not only arouse consumers’ emotional resonance and promote purchasing behavior, but also shape the brand’s image, allowing people to combine the brand with memory and remember the brand.

The above is an inventory and analysis of the top ten "phenomenal" marketing cases in 2019. I hope it can be helpful to everyone. Finally, which of the above 10 marketing cases do you like best? Welcome to share with everyone in the comment area~

Author: Mantou Business School

Author’s public account: Mantou Business School (ID: mantousxy)