Setting benchmarks, segmenting, review of Tik Tok content marketing in 2018!

In the blink of an eye, the mobile Internet has been developing for ten years. From artificial intelligence coming onto the stage to gradually entering people's lives, all trends have changed too fast.

At the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019, various summaries and predictions came one after another, accompanied by anxiety about the uncertainty of consumer growth, which reminded me of a saying of Charlie Munger: "The macro is what we have to accept, and the micro is what we can do something about."

The PC era has been replaced by mobile Internet, and artificial intelligence has gradually come onto the stage. All trends are changing too fast, just like at the end of 2018, many people felt sorry for the closure of many newspapers, but in fact, user needs have never changed, just like I once saw two pictures. At a city station, a group of people waiting for the train were reading newspapers in 1916. In 2016, it was still the same station, and a group of people waiting for the train were looking at their mobile phones. Times have changed, tools have changed, but the need for reading has always been there. Therefore, good content is the basis for connecting brands and users, but it manifests itself differently in different eras.

Just like Tik Tok became popular and short videos became a trend, a 24-hour "Beautiful Life Image Gallery" was built in July 2018, and some people gained 1 million followers on Double 12, and some people had a turnover of 23 million. By the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019, the Tik Tok Good Products Alliance was launched, recommending good products through short video content. Such content marketing is already extraordinary.

Let’s first review Douyin’s “good stuff strategy” in 2018:

1. Setting a benchmark: Beautiful images, expressing a beautiful life

In July 2018, a 24-hour "Good Life Image Gallery" was born, expressing good things through short video content. In the first season of groundbreaking screenings, Douyin focused its creative inspiration on the good thing that witnesses every beautiful moment - the Chanel J12 watch.

Video diaries spanning 12 beautiful moments and restoring 12 stages of Chanel J12's life are released one after another.

In the first season, @美好影像志 gave users the feeling of "art in life", and in the second season, @美好影像志 locked the "good stuff" on the "Montblanc Smart Watch SUMMIT 2", which combines Swiss high-end watchmaking craftsmanship with cutting-edge technology, and used videos to convey the beautiful daily life of the users of "smart good stuff", allowing everyone to appreciate and feel the life attitude of the young generation represented by "technology in life" that never stops exploring and moving forward.

"Tik Tok x Montblanc" created a total of 6 videos, which were screened from October 15 to October 20, 2018.

When Yang Yang transforms into a young man who realizes his dreams in the city, he enjoys the convenience brought by cutting-edge technology in the bustling city and always maintains beautiful expectations for the future in his spiritual world. This "youthful" concept of a better life hidden behind the objects is expressed through videos and conveyed to more users, from cognition to recognition.

@BeautifulImage’s strategic highlights:

1. Setting a benchmark: Each season represents carefully selected good products, from Chanel in the first season to Montblanc in the second season. The brand and content production are highly consistent, and the artistic and scene-based presentation has formed a benchmark effect for Douyin's good products.
2. Emotional identification: Through two seasons of recommending two good brands, it feels like Douyin hopes to decode and implement the positioning and label of "good life", and through the creativity of short video content, let users establish a connection between Douyin and their own "good life".

2. Segmentation: Eat, drink, play, shop and enjoy a good life

In 2018, in addition to @美好影像志, Douyin continued to dig deep into "good things" in various segments, in the "eating, drinking, playing and shopping" segmented life scenes related to everyone, through the expression of "content + scene", from the "feeling state" of watching short videos in front of the mobile phone screen, to everyone participating in it, joining in the beautiful life, and becoming a real "enjoyment state".

1. Food and Drink Series - Food Season: China Douyouwei, City Taste Fat Bureau

Various delicacies, trendy drinks, store visits, internet-famous restaurants, local specialties, hometown flavors... Food short videos related to foodies are very popular. "Food" is the top category among Douyin's many content categories. 70% of users on the platform are interested in food. The social attributes of food itself and its rich and diverse presentation forms will trigger a wave of participation from the whole people.

Wang Blueberry, Jungle House, Peng Yuyan of the errand world, Xiang Xiang's Battle, the fragrant little roast chicken, Pot Cover wer, Wang Xiaochao who can sing rice, Li Yimeng EMOO and other 8 talents created the "Tuwei Tiantuan" creative video in different styles, and made interesting connections between the food in poverty-stricken areas and Internet celebrity food in Country Garden's "Protecting the Taste of Hometown" public welfare plan.

As of December 17, 2018, the four major topics of "Fresh, Sour, Spicy and Sweet" on Douyin in China had a total of 678 million VVs, among which the topic "Sweet to the Heart" related to a better life had 260 million VVs, and the topic "Spicy to the Heart" representing young people's love of excitement had 240 million VVs.

On December 18, Douyin's "Food Season" officially went offline, creating an immersive "City Taste Festival" in Guangzhou. The offline event was an experience scene for Douyin users to participate deeply, and the "food + fashion experience" generated food UGC content to share on Douyin.

1. Fun-Travel Season: Have fun traveling

During the National Day holiday in 2018, Douyin launched an exclusive travel season called "FUN Travel and Shake It Up". Ctrip Travel discovered the trend of "using Douyin to record a wonderful travel life" and worked with Douyin to co-build IP and beautiful content based on travel. During the entire National Day golden week, PGC content participated by top influencers stimulated more UGC interactions, with a total of 4.47 billion views, more than 1.6 million video shares, 105 million video likes, and 1.414 million likes for the official IP account... (This data is released by the official account of "Douyin Advertising Assistant")

Before the National Day holiday, many people were attracted by the creative H5 "FUN Travel New Species" launched by "Tik Tok x Ctrip Travel" and the page UV exceeded 1 million within 3 hours of its launch.

1. Shopping series - from "TikTok shopping cart" to "TikTok good products alliance"

After talking about "eating, drinking" and "fun", shopping content related to "buying, buying and buying" consumption has also become the focus of major platforms and brands. 2018 is the year of short videos and social networking. Various hot theories have blown to major platforms. Weibo, which is based on the booming celebrity economy, is a typical representative. In addition to advertising, monetization through the combination of content and merchandise has become the upgraded standard for content creators.

On December 11, 2018, Douyin officially launched the shopping cart function. Users who meet the entry requirements can apply to open a Douyin shopping cart on their own. Recently, Douyin handed in its Double 12 report card: on that day, the platform facilitated more than 1.2 million orders, and the transaction volume of the top 50 accounts exceeded 100 million.

On December 28, 2018, Douyin Good Goods Alliance launched and initiated a competition topic #新年好物抖起#, lowering the threshold for applying for a shopping cart...

Douyin officially stated that as of now, 190,000 Douyin users have opened shopping carts. Among these users, there are ordinary people who became famous by accidentally shooting Douyin videos, celebrities who came from other platforms, and Taobao shop owners and Taobao girls who came from e-commerce backgrounds.

Let me share two cases first:

Case 1: Chinese-style men's clothing store "Gu A Xin" has 600,000 Douyin fans and a monthly turnover of about 1 million

A Miao youth named Yang Chunlin founded the "Gu'a Xin" traditional Chinese style men's clothing store using his Miao name as the brand. In July 2018, @古阿新 launched the Douyin shopping cart to boost Taobao store transactions. Basically, all products on Taobao have been added to the Douyin shopping cart. There are currently about 50 SKUs and a monthly turnover of about 1 million. The transaction volume of Gu'axin increased by 170% on Double 12.

"Currently, the conversion rate of Douyin fans to Taobao is 10%, and 60-70% of the sales in Taobao stores come from Douyin. Our ranking in Taobao's traditional Chinese men's clothing area is now getting higher and higher." Yang Chunlin said that in the past week of Double 12, the store's average daily sales were 60,000 to 70,000, which is five or six times more than last month.

Case 2: "Qijiu Naoye" Douyin live broadcast 330,000 people online, 10 million transaction volume

As a leading emotional IP, @七姨脑爷 has more than 30 million fans. The interesting and emotional short videos he created have become the favorite of a large number of fans. During the Double 12 period, @七姨脑爷, who opened the Douyin shopping cart, tried Douyin live broadcast for the first time. One reason was that the timing for content shopping guides was ripe, and the other was that he wanted to take the opportunity to give back to his fans.

From product selection and investment promotion, content traffic generation, to live broadcast rehearsal and operation and maintenance and other tasks. On the day of Double 12, @七姨脑爷 started broadcasting at 7pm and ended at 1am the next morning, a full 6 hours. It is reported that the peak number of people online during this live broadcast was 330,000, and the total transaction volume exceeded 10 million.

@七姨脑爷team said: " Content consumption conversion comes first, and traffic comes second. The conversion rate depends on the matching degree of product selection, product characteristics, and sales skills. Product selection requires analysis of fan portraits; product cost performance depends on the team's negotiation ability; in addition, Douyin is different from Taobao's sales scene, and the overall content planning and influencer skills are also very important."

Strategic highlights of “segmentation”:

1. Integration of multiple online and offline scenarios;
2. Experts’ PGC inspires fans to create UGC content;
3. "Content + consumption" conversion first, traffic second: unified planning, operation and maintenance.

By "setting benchmarks and making segmentations", Douyin is constantly "turning the vision of recording a beautiful life into reality". The obsession with "good things" and helping more users discover and encounter beauty through short videos and live broadcasts are the values ​​that a platform carries.

Sorting out Douyin's content marketing cases related to a better life this year, it is through the strategy of "good things + good content" that users are inspired to explore good things, which becomes the driving force for sharing good things and forms a viral effect. This is the overall picture of content marketing from brand to user:

Wei Jiadong/Original drawing

In the content marketing chain, you can use short videos, live broadcasts and other content expression methods, and in terms of strategic application, you can create a "emotional, interesting, useful, and high-quality" tone. There are many short videos on Douyin that meet these four points, such as the "emotional and interesting" @七姨脑爷 example above, the "high-quality" Chanel Beautiful Image Journal, and the "useful" short video content released by @老爸评测...

We have talked about so many cases, topics, and results about short videos, good things, and content marketing. What impact and significance do they have on the industry?

First, the strategy of “emotional, interesting, useful and high-quality” for short video content and good things.

In 2019, more brands may join in the creation of short video content. If it simply becomes an "instruction manual" when associated with the brand, it will obviously not resonate with users and it will be difficult to stimulate user participation. Therefore, "good things + good content" is a good combination.

Second, KOLs have become important influencers in consumer channels;

We generally divide KOLs (opinion leaders) into "opinion-oriented opinion leaders" and "sales-oriented opinion leaders". At different stages of the consumer channel, the role of KOLs, as well as the content and rhetoric they disseminate, will stimulate consumer conversions. For example, as mentioned in the previous article, the TikTok influencer @七姨脑爷 recommends products through product selection and live streaming, and completes transactions.

Content marketing focuses on the insight and creativity of "content", "marketing" is the conversion process, and "sales" is the result. As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, the user's needs have not changed in essence, but what has changed?

First, cognition is changing. User consumption is upgrading. What is upgrading is cognition. People need good things and a better life.

Second, tools are changing, whether it is reading and browsing, social tools, or communication media.

Therefore, under the unchanged essential needs, we create more suitable content, use appropriate tools and media to reach users until they convert. This cycle will create one brand after another.

Tik Tok, which has been deeply engaged in content development, has become colorful.

Source: Wei Jiadong (weijiadong2013)