How did "Nezha" gain 15 billion traffic on Douyin without spending any money?

"Nezha" has grossed over 3.5 billion yuan, rising to seventh place in China's box office history and is still rising.

The editor has noticed that many people have analyzed the reasons for the popularity of "Nezha", such as the script was revised 66 times, 20 outsourcing teams were exhausted, Jiaozi gave up medicine to pursue a career in art... and so on.

But few people examine the value of this phenomenal film from the perspective of an entertainment marketing platform. Today, let’s be more focused and talk about the marketing of “Nezha” on Douyin.

Nezha received 15 billion views on Douyin, with Li Xian contributing 310 million alone

Last Friday, Douyin officially released a set of data, which was quite amazing:

1. The number of views of topics related to the movie "Nezha" exceeded 15 billion, among which the topic #Nezha: The Devil Boy Comes to the World exceeded 5.7 billion times, setting a new record for the number of views of movie marketing topics on Douyin;

2. 40 top-tier artists transformed into Nezha, and a single sticker video received over 20 million likes and 310 million views. A total of 7 million stickers of the same style as the movies have been submitted, with more than 1 million submissions per day, breaking the record for the total number of submissions and the daily number of film and television stickers on Douyin.

3. It appeared on the hot search list 40 times, including 22 times in a single week.

The editor focuses on the second point. More than 40 artists including Li Xian, Luo Zhixiang, Deng Ziqi, anglebaby, Guan Xiaotong, Liu Yan, Pan Changjiang and others used the same stickers as Nezha to shoot Douyin videos to promote the movie.

Among them, @李现, who is currently the most popular, opened a Douyin account and dedicated his first Douyin video to Nezha. This video received more than 21.64 million likes, nearly 3 million comments, and over 310 million views.

Thanks to this short video, Li Xian’s number of Douyin fans soared from several million to 21.413 million, making him the number one on the Douyin idol list.

Of course, it’s not just celebrities. Nearly 7 million netizens on Douyin have shot short videos with the same stickers to endorse "Nezha", setting a new record for sticker submissions in the film and television category.

"Nezha" actually didn't pay Douyin a penny for advertising, it only authorized the IP

So the question is, with such huge traffic, how much advertising fees did the movie "Nezha" spend on Douyin? I’ve been browsing Douyin for the past month and Nezha has dominated my screen.

Unexpectedly, the answer he got from Douyin was 0, which aroused his curiosity even more.

Then why did Li Xian dedicate his first Tik Tok video to Nezha? The uncle learned from Douyin that this sticker of Douyin was authorized by the IP of the movie "Nezha". Why didn't the film company give this IP to Kuaishou?

My understanding is that the Tik Tok platform, the movie "Nezha" and of course many celebrities and KOLs are actually leveraging each other's momentum, because Nezha is becoming more and more popular. In the end, it is hard to say who borrowed more from whom. It's a win-win situation for all three parties!

Let’s talk about specific marketing techniques.

The marketing methods of Nezha on Douyin are actually nothing new, including:

1. Open the official account @小爷纳吒;

2. Create multiple original short videos;

3. Authorize TikTok IP and make the same stickers.

In terms of communication effect, @小爷纳吒’s official Douyin account has released a total of 72 works, all of which are original videos. The main content includes but is not limited to behind-the-scenes stories, director interviews, trailer warm-ups, film feedback, hand-painted pictures, voice actors’ appearances, etc., and of course, also includes leveraging popular topics such as “雨女无瓜”. The official Douyin account has received a total of 15.906 million likes and 1.398 million followers.

But these are actually child's play. I think the most successful marketing tool for Nezha this time is the three same stickers on TikTok, especially the first one that is cute. Details are given below.

"Stickers" have become the most popular short video marketing, and IP co-construction is a new trend

BGM and stickers are the two most successful products of Tik Tok marketing. The former has ignited countless music, resulting in uncles now singing Tik Tok popular songs in bars or even on the subway, while the latter has become the main form for users to follow hot topics and conduct secondary creation and publish short videos.

However, from a commercial marketing perspective, music has great limitations, which has allowed stickers, which are more visual and interactive, to overtake and become the most popular means of short video marketing.

Sticker culture has also become one of the most important cultures of short videos.

The uncle found that Douyin’s popular stickers are not only highly accepted by users, but people also do not think that they are advertising for a certain event or brand. Instead, they think that they are fun and interesting, can increase the fun of the video, and even follow the trend.

Douyin launched the sticker feature in 2017. In fact, stickers are not original to Douyin, but come from Faceu, which is also owned by Toutiao. However, this feature has been promoted on short video platforms such as Douyin that focus on entertainment marketing.

At that time, stickers were mainly used to cooperate with the challenge, which was the best-selling resource on the entire Douyin network, but stickers gradually became a school of their own and became the application with the highest user participation. Statistics show that the top three stickers on Douyin in 2018 were: three-screen, white kitten, and rain control. Among them, the usage of three-screen was 54.26 million.

Entering 2019, taking Nezha as an example, stickers and IP co-creation of content has become a new trend.

Nezha itself is a big IP, so it is natural for everyone to dress up as Nezha. After the IP was customized for the movie, the two versions of Nezha, the cute and cool, plus the handsome Ao Bing, can release the users' enthusiasm for participation and stimulate the "sense of showing off" in everyone's hearts. Look how cute and cool I am. Combined with the high reputation of the movie "Nezha", the two form a virtuous circle, promoting and building momentum for each other.

For example, Li Xian, in fact, I don’t understand why he didn’t promote his own "Dear", but instead dedicated his first Douyin to "Nezha". According to my analysis, there may be several mentalities:

1. Li Xian does not think that he is promoting "Nezha", but he needs to show his cute and adorable side to his fans, because Weibo cannot provide such an opportunity.

2. If the first point is to promote your own work, it seems too commercial and utilitarian. Anyway, since "Nezha" is popular and it is a Chinese animation, you can support it.

3. The first video after opening a Tik Tok account is usually a self-introduction, but how to make it different? Li Xian chose to wear a cute "mask".

Unfortunately, Li Xian’s second Douyin video was “sold” to a sports brand. Although the blurry collection of photos also received 9.82 million likes, it was obviously far less than Nezha’s one. Once again, it proved that his choice was right.

Of course, Tik Tok’s AI algorithm for facial recognition is really amazing. I personally tried out a few stickers. Not only did the stickers capture and locate facial expressions very well, but especially Ao Bing’s dragon horns, which could appear very three-dimensional in the picture from the side angle. This is a perfect combination of AI+AR. Technological advances provide quality assurance for sticker marketing to become a hit.

For divorce, go to Weibo; for product promotion, go to Douyin

Therefore, the editor believes that the popularity of "Nezha stickers" on Douyin is a milestone in short video marketing, and it is also the key reason why "Nezha" can go viral on Douyin without spending a penny on promotion.

This is something worth thinking about for all marketers, including those in the film industry: Can you get 15 billion traffic on Douyin without spending any money?

Obviously it's difficult, unless you think the movie you made is better than "The Return of the Great Sage" and "Nezha".

So, don’t be “cheated” by the uncle’s headline.

The editor is not encouraging you to do marketing without spending money. On the contrary, you should spend more, especially on the Douyin platform, to grab the resources (non-hard advertising) opened up by Douyin as early as possible.

According to data released by TikTok, in 2018, 44 of the top 50 box office movies were marketed on TikTok, and TikTok has become the main battlefield for movie marketing. From this perspective, it is much better than Weibo, which requires money for everything.

In 2019, this trend has become even more obvious, as the saying goes, "If you want to get a divorce, go to Weibo; if you want to promote products, go to Douyin."

But what I want to emphasize in particular is that film promoters must be clear-headed and never equate spending advertising money on Douyin with a sharp increase in box office sales. Of course, the most basic thing is to ensure the quality of the film, which is the cornerstone of content marketing. Otherwise, it is better to spend the only marketing expenses on brushing up Douban ratings, such as "Shanghai Fortress".

To sum up, the core issue is how to spend the same amount of money more effectively! I hope that after reading this article, you will at least remember one thing: "Oh, the uncle said that we should plan more on the stickers."

Finally, let me say something regretful.

On Tencent Video, there is actually an IP that is very popular. The animation is called "The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation", with 2.35 billion views, and the TV series is called "The Untamed", with 4.5 billion views. Wei Wuxian played by Xiao Zhan and Lan Zhan played by Wang Yibo have attracted countless fans, including this straight man like me.

Unfortunately, this IP belongs to Tencent. You know the relationship between Tencent and Toutiao, which results in there being no stickers of Wei Wuxian and Lan Zhan on Douyin at all, although both stars love playing with stickers.

The result is that even Xiao Xingchen can only take advantage of Ao Bing's popularity on Douyin... Do you think "Nezha" can't be popular...

Author: Uncle

Source: Almighty Uncle