5 major brand communication routines: Analyzing the New Oriental annual meeting program screen-sweeping incident!

On January 25, Beijing New Oriental School’s annual meeting program “Liberate Yourself” swept the circle of friends. The program revealed many problems in New Oriental’s internal management that need to be solved urgently.

Let’s watch the video first and experience this bold and humorous annual meeting program.

After watching the video, I really admire the courage of these guys. They risked being fired by confronting the management. It can be said to be a large-scale criticism scene at the beginning of 2019 at New Oriental. The leaders on the scene might not be able to remain calm!

1. Was this intentional on New Oriental’s part?

The answer is yes.

According to media reports, at the beginning of 2019, Yu Minhong, chairman and president of New Oriental, wrote five consecutive emails to all senior executives. Almost every letter mentioned the problems existing in the management, and the wording of each letter was harsher than the last. Later, the media articles were deleted.

The problems of New Oriental’s management have always been a topic of conversation in the industry. Teacher Yu is not on the front line and cannot see many things. This criticism of the management also demonstrates the determination to tackle the management's work style issues.

"Liberate Yourself" is the annual meeting program that was born in this context.

Since the program can be performed and publicly released, it proves that it has been internally reviewed by New Oriental. Moreover, the video was forwarded and approved by Yu Minhong himself and internal employees.

The courage to boldly expose the problems exposed by the enterprise and the use of this light-hearted and humorous presentation format aroused cheers from the employees on site.

Employees can tell the truth, which is an improvement made by the company after learning from its mistakes.

The program was called the best program of the annual meeting by netizens, very creative and meaningful. Judging from the reactions of the audience, their thoughts were also reflected. This is a shot in the arm for employees' concerns about future management chaos.

In November 2018, Yu Minhong apologized after being criticized by the All-China Women's Federation for making inappropriate remarks about women. The response at that time was also very enthusiastic. The presentation of the "Release Yourself" program was actually an act of establishing a positive image for myself.

It is said that "family disgrace should not be made public", but New Oriental not only exposed its own internal problems, but also condoned the widespread dissemination of the video and made it public. In a very humorous way, they made everyone realize that New Oriental is a brand with a very strong attitude , and turned its shortcomings that are difficult to express into positive public relations potential, which deserves applause.

After this incident, the editor realized that today’s users are tired of mindless public relations whitewashing, and this kind of heartfelt self-deprecation may become the mainstream of PR in the future.

As an aside, a few days ago, there were a lot of articles complaining about Baidu search, but I won’t comment on them here. But it is obvious that the traditional public relations evaluation system with Baidu Index as its core is collapsing.

A cruel reality is that the communication model of "traditional media publication + Baidu inclusion" has been subverted . Users are spending more time on social media, and many users are accustomed to reading news in WeChat groups and Moments, and "Free Yourself" became popular on WeChat and Weibo.

2. Why can you swipe the screen?

1. Good material is the basis of communication

This is a video of about 5 minutes. Although it is a little longer than 5 minutes, it still falls into the category of light video . This kind of light content is more in line with people's current reading habits.

In short, good material can go viral on its own and does not require large channels and exposure in the traditional sense, because the medium it relies on is people.

The annual meeting program is based on the popular online song "Desert Camel". The brisk dance and boldly rhymed lyrics, coupled with the magical melody, are eye-catching.

Therefore, in terms of the choice of material form, the richness of information transmitted by video is far greater than that of pictures and texts, and it is the best carrier in the mobile Internet era. This trend may become more obvious with the development of 5G networks.

2. User forwarding

Why was "Free Myself" so widely forwarded by netizens?

(1) Curiosity

Why is it called the best annual meeting program? Why do we complain about our leaders? Why does New Oriental expose so many management problems? These are all driven by user curiosity, making you want to click on the video to find out.

(2) Sense of Identity

Many people working in the workplace will also have this experience: the inaction of their superiors, the bureaucratic atmosphere, and the decision-making on paper... will have a certain impact on their work enthusiasm and performance.

The lyrics criticizing the managers' actions also reveal their helplessness. After the whole song was sung, it received extremely high praise from netizens, quickly swept the circle of friends and became a hot topic on Weibo.

(3) Differentiated creativity

The annual meetings of ordinary companies are nothing more than praising the leadership for good management, the team's outstanding achievements, and promising a bright future... these are the "routine" operations.

However, New Oriental’s annual meeting program directly turned into a large-scale criticism scene, infinitely magnifying the psychological shadow area of ​​​​managers. This also adds a different touch to the company's annual meeting at the end of the year, which is held to maintain the relationship between employees and leaders.

(4) Workplace resonance and cognitive differences increase

If you want to make a video or an article a hit, you should first determine one thing: what kind of human nature do you hope to understand and convey in order to resonate with the user circle you want to reach? This is the core of going viral.

The underlying resonance in the video is the dissatisfaction of the subordinates with the bureaucratic style of their superiors, who only talk on paper and do nothing practical.

Work hard, but what if there are results?

In the end, I can't beat those who write PPT.

When asked about his performance, he never tells you directly.

Take out the PPT and talk nonsense.

I have made several mini programs and even apps.

Just do it and don't worry about the results.

You left after you gained your qualifications, leaving only the mess and filth behind.

I moved to a peer organization and got promoted.

What is integrity and character, what is professional ethics,

Only sings madly for RMB

The mess was never fixed, and the bragging never stopped.

The previous PPT continues to be in vain

I have never been to a front-line job, and I have never answered a customer service call.

Talk nonsense in the name of employee users

Everyone is rushing to do repetitive things, but few are innovative.

They call it "continuity" but are actually afraid of taking responsibility

…

If the insight is in place, it will stimulate users' enthusiasm for participating in screen swiping.

Please note that the shift from curiosity to identification, the harmonious atmosphere of the company's annual meeting and the employees' large-scale complaints about their leaders have created a conflict that is constantly escalating. People who watch the video will be impressed by these brave and daring young people while laughing, and will develop a good impression of New Oriental's attitude of facing its own problems, adding a strong stroke to the brand public relations.

(5) Establishing correct values

The video does not just complain about the leadership. In the second half of the program:

Working day and night, running so hard,

Only by achieving results can you live up to yourself.

There are too many lost paths ahead, but if you persist, you will have a breakthrough.

If you do things right, your horizons will grow.

Education is very serious and must not be fooled.

Being responsible to students is the foundation of everything.

Although the road ahead is long, there is still strength in my heart.

Don't forget the hope in despair.

Problems will not disappear, they can only become stronger.

A great person will never be at a loss no matter where he is.

The New Year brings new atmosphere, and the passion is still boiling.

Believe that gold will shine sooner or later.

The video finally conveys the message that education is a very serious matter. Whether it is the superiors or the executive employees, they must take it seriously and be responsible to the users. This is the attitude that educational institutions should have.

In the workplace, although we may encounter interference factors such as poor management from upper levels, we still must not be discouraged, but must work hard, make achievements, and be responsible for our work.

The positive ending is also a factor that prompted netizens to forward the post. After all, we all hope that the education industry can get better and better, and we also hope that we can overcome difficulties and create brilliance in the workplace.

3. Thoughts on screen swiping

As super apps, WeChat and Weibo have not only increased the speed of information transmission from the speed of sound to the speed of light, but also upgraded the power of information diffusion from a grenade to an atomic bomb. This is because everyone has become a medium and hundreds of millions of people can transmit information at the same time. This pulse-like superposition effect can explode instantly.

Just like the WeChat incident yesterday, it was just a bug that lasted for a very short time, but it quickly swept the Moments and became a hot topic on Weibo, the so-called "sweeping the screen overnight." Apart from WeChat Moments and Weibo, no other platform can achieve such dissemination power.

(1) Screen swiping is an important means of leveraging huge and free social traffic, which is completely different from the model of gaining exposure and traffic by spending money on hard advertising.

(2) Screen swiping not only helps brands gain traffic, but is also the best way to win user reputation and mindshare. Active sharing behavior is a recognition of the brand, which is something that advertising cannot do.

(3) Screen-sweeping is not just the job of the creative planning manager and the public relations director. The first person responsible for screen-sweeping is the CEO, and the second person responsible is the product. This is a collaborative task.

Many brands have greatly improved their reputation through some screen-sweeping cases (Jiang Xiaobai, NetEase, Peppa Pig...); of course, there are also brands that have suffered unprecedented crisis public relations due to the screen-sweeping of negative events (JD.com, Didi, D&G, Quanjian...), but the large-scale self-deprecating public relations screen-sweeping like New Oriental is still eye-opening.

In the eyes of operators, there are tricks everywhere, which is why we have to get involved as soon as there is a hot topic.

Source: Operation Xiaokaxiu