How does Bilibili’s interactive video marketing promotion work?

On July 8, Bilibili officially announced the launch of the "interactive video" function, and the concept of interactive video marketing began to appear in the public eye. For platforms, brands, and users, how to participate in this novel marketing method is a question we need to think about.

Yesterday, Bilibili announced the launch of the “interactive video” function.

Compared with the news flashes from major media, more people, including me, learned this information from the interactive video "Control the Square Aunties to Save Bilibili!" made by Bilibili UP host "Magical Lao Pi".

As of press time, this interactive video has become a popular video on the site.

The video itself is not a very creative idea, and the screen also has some cheap special effects, but the focus of the interactive video is not on these, but on the sense of participation tailored for users. In the old-fashioned rescue plot, users can determine the course of the story by selecting a character (the auntie in the square is one of the characters) and pressing different buttons, and ultimately end up saving Bilibili.

Does it sound a bit like a monster-killing game?

This highly interactive and immersive video of "Controlling the Aunties in the Square to Save Bilibili" indeed made some netizens comment that "playing games at Bilibili is just around the corner."

Just like the feeling that the game brings to everyone, many netizens commented that it is "super interesting" and "very magical", especially the setting that there is only a one in ten thousand chance of defeating the big devil, which makes many netizens unable to help but click the "task backtracking" button to play it N times. Isn’t it a bit like when you lose a game and want to play another round?

("Progress Backtrack" in the lower right corner)

(The screen is full of “I’m back” comments)

However, this exciting interactive video format is not original to Bilibili, nor is it the first of its kind.

On the road of interactive videos, excellent pioneers include "Black Mirror: Bandanaski" produced by NETFLIX; pioneers but still exploring such as iQiyi and Tencent Video have also taken action; and the interactive video function of Bilibili is currently only in the testing phase and is only open to UP hosts with more than 10,000 fans.

But there is no doubt that the arrival of the 5G era will bring new developments to the entire video industry. At the same time, the current dilemma of declining content interaction rates will further highlight the advantages of interactive videos - deeply engaging users and gaining their valuable attention, which is exactly what platforms and brands want most. But for now, the field of interactive video is still in its infancy and exploration stage both at home and abroad. Whether in terms of production process or business model, there is no mature and applicable experience model, and platforms and brands are all crossing the river by feeling the stones.

Although the production process and business model are still difficult to determine, the production cost of interactive videos has basic parameters. The workload of interactive videos is approximately five times that of ordinary videos.

In this case, if we want interactive videos to truly become an eye-catching and profitable form of marketing in the future, what do we need to pay attention to?

Platform follow-up: first look at the tone, then look at the tools

Let’s first take a look at why it was Bilibili’s interactive videos that became popular, rather than the pioneers Tencent Video or iQiyi?

In essence, it is determined by the platform atmosphere and the users who form that atmosphere. Bilibili’s three major advantages are its large number of young users, high user loyalty and its strong presence in barrage culture.

The official website of Bilibili previously revealed that the number of monthly active users of Bilibili has reached 101 million, most of whom are young netizens. Young netizens have a higher acceptance, popularity and spread of interactive videos.

Among Bilibili's more than 100 million users, the number of formal members has reached 49.3 million. Nearly half of the member users are enough to reflect the loyalty of Bilibili users. Loyalty is accompanied by a sense of honor, which drives more sharing.

Although the barrage culture has spread to major video websites, when it comes to the "barrage stronghold", Bilibili is probably the undisputed leader in China; and the sense of participation and interaction inherent in the barrage culture is not only an indispensable part of Bilibili's atmosphere, but also shapes the character of Bilibili users and affects their behavior.

Based on the above, "Manipulating the aunties in the square to save Bilibili" can gain user recognition and thus go viral. However, not every platform has similar soil, so when considering the seemingly eye-catching form of interactive video, the first thing you should consider is whether your tone is in line with it and whether your target users will accept it. After all, the production cost of interactive videos is not low, so it is better to measure the ROI.

Although the form of interaction remains to be discussed, the "humanism" revealed behind the interactive video is still worth learning.

Compared with the previous method of treating the audience as traffic and directly injecting hard advertising information, interactive videos restore the audience to people with "natural rights", use open plots to return the right of choice to the audience, and thus generate user connections, which is more humane and effective.

Of course, the platform needs to consider not only itself and its users, but also how to integrate more links in the content ecosystem to create greater potential energy.

Take the biggest complaint users have about interactive videos - lack of smoothness - for example. In the video "Controlling the Aunties in the Square to Save Bilibili", by clicking the "button", you can jump to the next corresponding branch. This branch requires buffering, which greatly affects the audience experience and gives a strong sense of jump out.

Users in the 5G era will only become more and more picky. How to provide UP hosts with standardized tools for content production and lower the production threshold for UP hosts is also something that the platform needs to consider. This can be seen in Kuaishou’s short video production tool “Kuaishou” APP, which greatly facilitates short video content producers.

Brand entry: game in the left hand, plot in the right hand

If a brand wants to get involved in interactive videos, it also needs to think clearly about its own tone and cost issues. The question is whether to play or not.

When Weibo was popular, everyone rushed to learn Durex's social marketing; when WeChat public accounts were thriving, everyone followed Mi Meng's style of advertising; Xiaohongshu, Douyin, Kuaishou, vlog... At a time when traffic is scarce, brands are trying every possible means and have tried almost all the so-called effective methods, but in the end, all of them failed.

Coincidentally, the two directions of interactive videos just happen to capture the young users that brands want most:

• If it is highly interactive, it will be more inclined towards games, and will attract a large number of young geeks who love games;
• If the main plot is, it will be more inclined to video, and it will attract a large number of pig girls who are addicted to film and television dramas.

Whether it is the sense of participation and control brought by gamification, or the sense of immersion brought by the open-ended plot similar to that of Korean dramas that are filmed while being broadcast, it is worth a try for brands.

The purpose of trying it here may be more inclined to empty-handed in "The Road to Corporate Marketing, How to Use Algorithms to Build Brands?" 》The “brand user test” mentioned in the article is not determined by the boss of Party A or the wild imagination of Party B, but relies more on the actual behavioral voting of users to determine the direction of the brand.

For example, in the interactive video "Control the Square Dance Aunties to Save Bilibili", the reason why Square Dance Aunties can be used as the title is actually, in a sense, a side effect of the early users' choice of characters. In other words, using users' behavioral choices in interactive videos (assuming the cost of interactive videos is controllable) as the behavioral basis for brands when launching large-scale advertising is a relatively reliable and efficient approach.

Don't be silent, just express yourself

What else do users need to do? As the most important link in the closed loop, the crucial step for users is involvement.

In a buyer's market where traffic has peaked, in a red ocean of brands competing for existing stock, users can make any choices; when there are no satisfactory options, they can express themselves freely, such as barrages, comments, or even complaints; the ubiquitous entrances to the Internet are your stage. The only thing you shouldn't do is give up your rights, become the silent majority, and then complain that this world that allows others to play by their own will is not to your liking.

The above is part of the marketing thinking about the interactive video launched on Bilibili~