Five elements and methods of operating Alibaba events!

I have worked in almost all types of operations at Alibaba, and the one I worked in the longest was event operations . I joined Taobao on the Double 12 day. Although I didn’t do anything that day, I stayed up until midnight with my colleagues. I witnessed the cheers of the whole building when the sales volume broke the milestone. I felt everyone’s tension and excitement. It really gave me a thrill. What greeted me afterwards were various overwhelming activities, in which newcomers grew rapidly. But there are also confusions, such as——

1. Why do e-commerce platforms love to hold events?

It was quite fresh at the beginning, but gradually I felt that the activities were too frequent and the format didn’t change much, so I started to get a little bored. The frequency of the activities I organize on Fliggy is once a week for a small event in the hotel category, once a month for the integrated event of the travel division (hotel, air tickets, vacation, tickets, etc.), and once every three months for a big promotion led by the marketing department (such as summer promotion, National Day, New Year, Double 11, etc.). The forms of activities are mainly to drive sales through interest points such as price reduction, discounts, and free benefits. A few are fun, interesting, and novel brand promotion activities.

During my first year of event operations, the thing I particularly couldn’t understand was – why do e-commerce platforms love to hold events? At that time, it seemed that most of the activities were the same old stuff, the products were still the same products, the merchants were still the same merchants, there was this activity now and then, the only difference was the themes and discount gimmicks. Could they really win the hearts of consumers?

Another confusion is that the peak during the event is often an artificially formed transaction peak due to the suppression of purchasing power during the warm-up period and the overdraft of purchasing power after the event. The values ​​before and after this peak are often lower than the average sales of the store when there is no event. Each event also consumes a lot of energy of the merchants. Do events really help merchants? Later, I gradually understood the significance of some activities to the platform, merchants, and consumers:

For the platform, holding activities is a training session for the entire team, as well as an encouragement and boost to team morale. Alibaba is particularly convinced of this. Many problems are not exposed when there is no large amount of traffic. These problems include system stability, product experience, merchant cooperation, and operational efficiency. Especially for operations, the activities are under a highly tense state, and the grasp of processes, grasp of details, and handling of crisis events are very challenging and training.

Generally, newcomers can improve greatly after participating in a few activities. Of course, holding events also has other benefits for the platform, such as improving user activity, increasing sales, and boosting brand influence, but for a mature platform like Alibaba, repeated training for the team has more far-reaching significance. It is these peaks one after another that have gradually pushed up the overall operating level and platform size, establishing its undisputed leader position in the e-commerce field.

For consumers, giving themselves a reason to buy something has become an emotional need that they never tire of. After long-term cultivation in offline physical shopping malls, users have developed conditioned reflexes: they need to buy things during festivals, when seasons change, and on their birthdays... In short, giving themselves a reason to buy things has become an emotional need that they never get tired of. E-commerce should naturally provide fresher and more novel reasons, cooler products, and more value-for-money prices to meet this demand, so that consumers can happily shop. It doesn't matter how much they can save or whether they can get rid of things.

It seems that this is a win-win for all three parties. I am also surprised that every time you think an activity goal is impossible to achieve, you can basically achieve it after trying your best, and even surpass it next time. It feels like both the team and myself are growing rapidly. That feeling is wonderful and magical, and very fulfilling.

2. How is the event operation position defined and what are the required abilities?

Event operation refers to the operation of activities of different nature and purposes, including planning, preparation, implementation and review. Compared with the "silent and subtle" effects of content operation and user operation, event operation is more explosive and can improve certain indicators in the short term.

Different natures usually refer to: conversion-oriented or communication-oriented. There is also a popular saying in Alibaba: is your activity about selling goods or setting the tone?

Different purposes include: increasing transaction volume; increasing the number of new users; increasing daily active users; increasing UGC volume; increasing average order value; increasing brand favorability, etc.

They have their own focus, but they also have a lot in common. The difference is that the former is more online activities, while the latter is a combination of online and offline. The former is mainly responsible for sales and conversion rate, while the latter is mainly responsible for user growth.

Combined with the event operation capability requirements of other companies, we can extract the key words: creativity, planning, resource integration, data analysis, communication skills, and stress resistance. Taobao, Tmall, Xiaohongshu and Mobike mentioned above are companies with large amounts of their own traffic, and their activities can be carried out by relying on existing users and self-media dissemination. However, in addition to the above-mentioned capabilities, start-up companies are also required to have the ability to attract traffic to run events. The free or low-cost way to attract traffic is usually done on social media.

Every activity has a first priority purpose.

Every activity has a first priority purpose; don’t try to have everything. The purpose of the activity is to serve the current operational strategy. I remember that one year Tmall’s major strategy was to enhance fashion sense. This seemingly vague goal, when it came to Tmall clothing, was to increase average order value through a series of activities. Please note that indicators such as brand favorability, transaction volume, and conversion rate are not mentioned here, but the focus is on the single indicator of average order value. Because this is the indicator most positively correlated with fashion. If consumers can and are willing to buy international first-line brand clothing on Tmall, the average order value will naturally go up, and the platform will naturally appear more fashionable. Therefore, the activities during that period were not aimed at promoting Taobao brands that are well known to the public, but rather a selection of internationally renowned brands, trendy labels, and cutting-edge products. Merchants were not forced to offer discounts, but the activities were presented through celebrity endorsements, limited-edition gifts for purchases over a certain amount, and content provided by fashion bloggers. During this period, the conversion rate may be slightly lower than that of pushing Taobao brands, but this is tolerable. The wise thing to do when setting KPIs is not to try to have everything, but to focus on one indicator for a period of time. In this way, operators will not be at a loss and don’t know what to do.

Next, let’s talk about the ability requirements for event operations:

Event operation is usually the most easily perceived operation method by ordinary users outside. Because of its rich forms, wide integration of resources, relatively large momentum, instant feedback, and easy sense of accomplishment, young new operators are more willing to try and like it.

As usual, we look at the market's requirements for event operation capabilities from the event operation recruitment JD (job description) of popular Internet companies. The following are the event operations of Xiaohongshu’s maternal and child category and Mobike’s event operations JD.

There is a close relationship between event operations and marketing:

Many small companies do not have a marketing department. In this case, all activities, big and small, are under the operations department. Slightly larger companies will have a marketing department. Event operations also involve organizing events, and the marketing department also involves organizing events. What are the connections and differences between them?

Coincidentally, I myself have experience in transferring from Fliggy event operations to Tmall’s marketing department. The marketing department is very large, and both the integrated marketing and brand marketing groups I have worked in both need to organize events. In daily work, event operations often serve as the interface between the operations department and the marketing department to participate in event planning. Event operations are the type of operations that are most closely related to the marketing department and are easiest to transfer to. What is the main difference between them?

Different levels of activities have different leaders. Tmall has an activity grading system, which is divided into S, A, B, and C levels from large to small. At that time, the integrated marketing group in the Tmall marketing department where I was located only undertook S-level (Double 11, 618, Spring and Summer New Fashion, Autumn and Winter New Fashion) and some A-level activities (New Year’s Goods Festival, National Week, etc.). Other regular activities are led by the event operators of their respective categories. By participating in the event rating meeting, you can obtain traffic resources allocated by the marketing department.

Different types of activities. The event operations and integrated marketing team of the marketing department are good at converting traffic into purchasing power during events. They pay special attention to data, and their goals are specific and easy to measure. Most of the activities are held online. The brand marketing department of the marketing department is better at doing activities and event marketing that do not focus on sales KPIs and pay more attention to communication and reputation. The activities are held both online and offline, and the proportion of offline activities tends to increase. The marketing department is responsible for long-term brand value and continuously creates, delivers and enhances these intangible values. Nowadays, people are pursuing the integration of brand and effect more and more. When brands make external voices to attract traffic, they usually have on-site activities to undertake conversions, so the combination of the two roles is very close.

Most people are more aware of what the marketing department does. These cases are more likely to spread on social media and are easier to see in offline landmark buildings or busy neighborhoods, such as the "Sangcha" pop-up store project of Ele.me and NetEase News and the subway art exhibition of Taobao. For merchants, holding events is the most efficient way to acquire new users. Here I said new users instead of new customers, there is a difference. Customers are those who place orders to purchase, and users are those who express interest in you by placing orders, browsing, collecting, adding to cart, etc. Businesses today are not as profit-driven as before; they understand that consumers need to be cultivated. It is definitely not as efficient to just rely on daily maintenance and accumulation a little bit at a time as to take out some profit points, package them together with the profit points of other merchants into a bigger profit point, and work together to attract potential users. It is also possible to enjoy the platform's traffic subsidies (free traffic) or red envelope subsidies (the red envelopes or subsidies issued by the platform to consumers are used in their own stores). The profit at that time may not be large, or even a small loss may occur, but in the long run, you will be in contact with more potential customers, who may repurchase in the future after buying once. Although they did not buy today, they may buy later because of a certain Weitao content or the next event. Alibaba's algorithm will remember that a certain type of people like your products and make multiple automatic machine recommendations. These positive impacts are far greater than the actual transaction volume on the day of the event and should not be underestimated.

We also often see some H5s that go viral, such as Tencent’s Children’s Gallery, which is said to have taken three months to create. Many of the cool cases we see are led by the marketing department, and some even spend a lot of money to hire external creative teams or event execution teams to complete them. If you are doing event operations in a startup company, I suggest you start with down-to-earth online or offline conversion-oriented activities. Those popular cases can be used as examples to stimulate your imagination, but the workload is huge, so do it within your ability and don’t try it lightly. As a boss, don’t get carried away and always look at “other people’s” things and see how great they are, hoping to replicate them in your own operations. In fact, it is difficult to do this if the company has not reached a certain scale and the team has not reached a certain level. Can you name a few event marketing efforts that were done by unknown companies?

Next, I will tell you how a day of Alibaba event operations is arranged.

Event operations are generally in a tense state where the previous event has not yet ended and the next event has to be planned, always creating an atmosphere on the website that is full of business and shopping desire. In the past, there were not so many intelligent product recommendations in Taobao’s resource positions, and most of the banner positions were filled with activities, so the frequency of activities was high. A typical day of event operation looks like this:

Next, we will talk about the five most basic elements of an event. Regardless of whether you are in a large company like Alibaba or not, you need to master these elements as long as you are running an event.

Activity rhythm

No one would think that it is enough to release the event on the day it starts, otherwise you can only rely on luck. Even if you hold a traditional offline event, you will receive flyers or text messages in advance to inform you of the upcoming event. Experienced operators have a strong sense of rhythm, which is part of the art of operations. The feeling is different from sales. Sales are transactions with immediate results, while event operation is like setting up a game. The first few moves may not show any results, but in the end it will come naturally and be completed in one go under control. It will receive all the applause and flowers, but it is difficult for outsiders to see every detail of the process.

The rhythm of an event is usually divided into: momentum-building period (optional), warm-up period, formal period, fermentation period (optional), and ending/encore/review period. There are things to do at every stage and responsibilities to shoulder. It is not just a process.

Momentum building period: usually 5-10 days before the warm-up period begins. The focus of work during this period is to release a PR draft to reveal some highlights of the event. The complete trailer will be released in the next stage, which is to keep it half-hidden to whet the appetite. Some "shills" can also be found to liven up the atmosphere, in an effort to arouse users' speculation and attention. Companies that don’t have that much appeal generally remove or weaken this stage. After all, information in the online world is too explosive and users won’t be that patient with you for long.

Warm-up period: usually 3-5 days before the official period. The focus of work during this period is to announce the highlights and benefits of the event, which on e-commerce websites means exposing event products, playing games, drawing prizes, receiving coupons, adding items to favorites and shopping carts, etc. Among them, the amount of collections and shopping carts is what we pay most attention to, because this is the most likely to be converted into sales in the official period. For other types of activities, this stage may involve registration and ticket sales, striving for all-round exposure. The warm-up period for Tmall Double 11 reached 10 days. The more important the event, the more energy will be focused on the warm-up period.

Formal period: usually 1-3 days. The focus of work during this period is transformation. For e-commerce websites, it is about controlling product selection, ensuring a smooth shopping process, and converting traffic into sales to the greatest extent possible. For offline brand communication activities, the main focus during this period is to convert users into fans and make the on-site experience exceed expectations. Please note that it is not about meeting expectations, but exceeding expectations, which can stimulate people present to promote you on social media. When we organize offline activities, it is never just for the few dozen to a hundred people present, but we hope that this point can spread to the online world and form a secondary communication.

Fermentation period: E-commerce activities usually do not have a fermentation period, but this stage is particularly important when doing event marketing. The biggest difference between event marketing and general activities lies in whether it can achieve great results with little effort, ignite quickly, and cause wide dissemination at low cost. The official period is just to ignite a fire. If this fire does not spread, the influence will be very limited. Therefore, during this period, many KOLs and commentary media will be invited to package the points worth spreading in the official period, and play up various angles to continue to hype this matter. The voices on the Internet are likely to be louder than what you see in person, and the purpose will be achieved.

Epilogue: The event definitely does not end at the official stage, my dears! Even if you don't have a fermentation period, there should be an end. The significance of the epilogue cannot be ignored. Internally, it is a review and summary to draw lessons (the specific review report will be discussed in detail in Section 5.9); externally, it is an announcement of the successful conclusion of the event, packaging the highlights and explosive points of the entire event, and doing a good public relations. Tmall did a great job at the end of Double 11, with sufficient external voice and highlights, and the site also used the remaining traffic for return promotions.

Promotion page at the end of Double 11

In Alibaba, except for S-level and A-type activities, other regular activities generally have a warm-up period of 4 days + a formal period of 3 days, and can be completed in one week. The official period will be held on Wednesday to Friday when the website traffic is the highest.

The gimmicks and benefits of the event always appear together

Gimmicks and profits are a natural match and always go hand in hand. This is similar to what we usually call the theme of an event, but it is divided into two words: gimmick and interest point. The main purpose is to remind everyone that the theme of the event must be "both hard and soft".

Gimmick: It is the soft part, finding an eye-catching reason for your event. For example, holidays (such as Valentine's Day), anniversaries (such as anniversaries), milestones (such as 1 million registered users), hot events (such as the World Cup), etc.

Benefit point: the hard part, the benefits that users can enjoy. For example, discounts, cash back, one person gets the meal free when two people travel together, increased user benefits, etc. Many people have misunderstandings when it comes to setting interest points. The points of interest should be sharp enough without being illegal. One thing we often do at Alibaba is to put out the budget, for example, a budget of 1 million, and then call together relevant people to brainstorm how to spend this one million to appear super cool and attractive. The choice we often face is between small benefits that everyone can enjoy, or large benefits that very few people can enjoy. Although some friends said that the former makes people feel that there are real benefits that can be obtained, and the latter has too low a probability and they are unwilling to participate. However, through our repeated experiments, we found that in most cases the latter can attract more people. For example, "10% off all items" is not as good as "0.1 yuan flash sale", and "10 yuan off for purchases over 100 yuan" is not as good as "iPhone 8 Plus for the highest spender". On Weibo, Internet celebrities often give out prizes to attract fans to forward their posts. The effect of giving out prizes varies greatly, for example, there are two ways to give out prizes:

A: Retweet the Weibo and get a brand name lipstick for free. 100 lucky winners, the brand will be randomly selected.

B: Retweet the Weibo and a lucky fan will be picked to buy you lipstick for life. All 100 brand-name lipsticks will be given to you.

In fact, B will have better effect. It is topical and can easily attract the attention of a wider audience.

"Soft and hard tactics" is also the golden rule for making banners. The banners we see on web pages are basically a combination of the two. Gimmicks + profit points + popular pictures are the guarantee of banner click-through rate. Find out what the gimmicks and benefits of the following two banners are?

The gimmicks and benefits of different banners

Think about it: What would happen if an event only had gimmicks but no benefits? What if there are only benefits but no gimmicks?

What are the ways to play the activity?

The gameplay is the link between the gimmick and the interest point, and it is also the amplifier of the activity. A good way to play should be novel, fun and easy to operate. The gameplay actually shows the influence of "scarcity", one of the "six elements of influence", on people. The way to play the activity is not to let you get the benefit points for nothing, but to give them to you after you do something fun and interesting.

Examples of gameplay: visiting the brand street, catching cats, red envelope rain, fission red envelopes, collecting five blessings, collecting stories, sharing photos, having X people scan the code for you, collecting likes, knowledge quiz, etc. In fact, many of them are old wine in new bottles. They are not particularly innovative or original gameplay. They just change the visuals and copywriting based on the previous logic, which makes it easier for users to get started.

In the first few years of Tmall Double 11, there was no method of “visiting the brand street” to draw coupons. At that time, the coupons were just placed on the page and people could claim them at will. Now "shopping on the brand street" has almost become a standard feature of Double 11. In fact, Potian (head of Tmall’s marketing department), who proposed this gameplay, was under tremendous pressure. On the one hand, Double 11 needed new growth points, highlights, and gameplay; on the other hand, he was worried that this gameplay would attract some people who found it troublesome. The results were surprisingly good. Later, Tmall developed many small games for merchants to use in their own stores. The principle is not to actively give coupons and red envelopes to users, but to wait until they participate in an interaction before giving them. Not only does the same person play more times, but they also share the game with people around them, which greatly motivates users during the warm-up period. The coupons that users receive after paying for the results of their labor are also more likely to be used during the official period.

Regarding event operations, this is roughly what I do at Alibaba. Next, I will talk to you about how to expand event resources through external resources and how to build momentum for events. I will also reveal to you the three directions for event advancement that I have extracted from doing event operations at Alibaba. Students who are interested can pay attention to my next article.

Author: Ponyfish

Source: Ponyfish