Brand Marketing: Why is “What’s Peppa Pig?” so popular?

When " Peppa Pig tattoo, applause to the social people " becomes an outdated old joke ,

This British red pig has successfully returned to the Chinese people's attention thanks to a commercial for the movie "What's Peppa Pig?" and dominated the WeChat Moments last night .

△Not only in the circle of friends, but also on Weibo, this film was forwarded by Wang Sicong and liked by Han Han.

If nothing unexpected happens, this will be the first phenomenal screen-sweeping event in 2019 that crosses industries, circles, and does not sell negative emotions .

Full Director's Cut 8 minutes

Next, let’s get down to business: why is “What’s Peppa Pig” so popular?

1. What is "What is Peppa Pig"?

"What's Peppa" is actually a trailer for the movie "Peppa Pig Celebrates the New Year". The director is Zhang Dapeng, who is a very good commercial director. The Huawei moon "sand sculpture" advertisement that once caused a lot of discussion was created by him .

If you haven’t seen this screen-sweeping video yet, you can click on the short video below to feel the magic of a night of screen-sweeping video.

This time, "What's Peppa Pig?" actually tells a story about a Spring Festival reunion.

The scene begins with an old grandfather from the countryside calling his son on the mountain. The signal is bad, so the grandfather asks his grandson what gift he wants for the New Year, and the grandson says, "Peppa!" But because the cell phone signal was bad, the old man couldn't hear what his grandson said.

But Grandpa remembered the word "Peppa". This marked the beginning of his story of searching for "What is Peppa Pig?"

When he got home, he first looked up the words "wear" and "breed", but there was no "Peppa Pig" in the dictionary.

Later, in the village, he saw a broadcast on a loudspeaker, so he went to the radio station and used the loudspeaker to ask the whole village a "village-wide question" that touched the soul: "What is Page?" And he really "gained something."

An old man found a scantily clad, voluptuous live streamer named “Peggy” on his phone. The grandfather said, “You said you were doing this, but my grandson is only three years old!”

Grandpa still hasn't found Peppa, but he still hasn't given up.

In the store, he found a conditioner called "Peggy";

Also looking for a guy named "Page" who drives a truck;

Some chess players also told him: Could it be a game similar to checkers ?

finally! He heard from a neighbor that the third daughter-in-law, who worked as a nanny in the city, knew what Page was, so he went to knock on the door in the middle of the night.

It turns out Peppa is a "pig"!

"Little pig, red one"!

Still the pig in the cartoon!

Grandpa is determined to make a Peppa Pig for his grandson! He picked up his tools and after a quick chatter of clanging and pinging, he finally finished making it for his grandson.

However, when the Chinese New Year was approaching, I called my son again and he told me that he would not be coming back this year. The old man was very sad that the Peppa Pig he worked so hard to make could not reach his grandson.

Fortunately, there was a turning point. The son was coming to pick up the old man to go to the city to celebrate the New Year.

Finally, after placing all the local specialties he brought to his son's house on the table, he excitedly gave the gift for his grandson - a homemade Peppa Pig wrapped in red cloth - to his eldest grandson.

The moment the red cloth was lifted, the whole family showed an expression of "incredible" - the old man used the "blower" used for firewood in the countryside to make a pink Peppa Pig for his grandson!

Later, in the cinema with his family, the old man finally recognized the "Peppa Pig" he had been looking for for many days.

2. Why is Peppa Pig popular again?

Regarding this question, we interviewed Ms. Tian Fang, the short video course instructor of Mantou Business School and former deputy director of research and development of Dragon TV, overnight. She believes that an important reason why Peppa Pig continues to be popular is that it meets the social needs of China in this era.

China's middle class has begun to become the mainstream class, and what Peppa Pig shows is actually a very typical life of a Chinese family with two children.

This is the first basis for Peppa Pig’s popularity. It has the empathy gene that can be gained from most classes of families in China.

The second basis is the popularity of Peppa Pig's social person memes, which made Peppa Pig popular among young people. In addition to entertainment, it also satisfied the society's playful satire on the life of the middle class.

"What's Peppa Pig?", on the other hand, has found a delicate balance, reflecting the situation of some middle-class families while expressing this kind of humor through the way an old man asks questions throughout the film, "What's Peppa Pig?"

Finally, the grandfather’s words, “His father is a pig, his mother is a pig, his son is also a pig, and the whole family is a litter of pigs” successfully made Peppa Pig, a British country pig, localized in China.

The third basis is that it takes place during the Spring Festival of the Year of the Pig, which triggers people’s sensitive emotions about reunion, family, and parents.

These three foundations together become the major prerequisites for the popularity of "What's Peppa Pig?"

Teacher Tian Fang commented, "Peppa Pig is a very unique existence. It always finds unique ways to be introduced in China, and I think this time it is the most correct way to be introduced."

3. What can ordinary people learn from “What’s Peppa Pig?”

Can we copy Peppa Pig? The answer is obviously no.

Regarding short video shooting, there are now a lot of analyses and imitations of a shot, a routine, or a clip. However, the learning of these techniques can only lead to copying, but it cannot drive the top communication resources to go viral .

"I think the most important thing is to learn the underlying logic of creativity. IP has no size. A small IP, as long as it has a high-level idea, can be disseminated on the widest scale even if it only lasts for one minute ."

This is the view of Tian Fang, a teacher at Mantou Business School. She believes that a great thing about "What's Peppa Pig?" is that they have collected a lot of social insights, including the elderly asking questions in succession about what Peppa Pig is. In fact, we often encounter such questions in our lives, such as who is Elsa and who is Qiaohu ? And the old story about the elderly preparing everything for the New Year, but their children not coming home.

However, as a trailer for an animated series, why didn't "What's Peppa Pig?" choose a regular clip of an animated series' highlights as a trailer, but instead re-shot such an advertisement ?

This is actually the most brilliant part of "What's Peppa Pig?", because it is not the children who love to watch Peppa Pig that influence the box office, but their parents.

△This style of communication can obviously only influence children, not the parents who actually pay.

If you want to encourage this group of people to buy, you must plant the seeds in their subconscious minds.

For these parents, there is a headache during the special time of the Spring Festival, which is how to celebrate the New Year with their elderly parents.

What is Peppa Pig? clearly gave these people an answer:

In addition to using this kind of reverse thinking, the storytelling technique of "What's Peppa Pig?" is also very good.

The core scene of the film is reunion, but Teacher Tian Fang feels that one of the things this film teaches us is that " the best reunion is no reunion."

Last year, Chen Kexin shot the Spring Festival short film "Three Minutes" for Apple. It also used the distance of physical distance to show that parents and children cannot be reunited, and in turn highlighted the desire for reunion .

However, not having a family reunion does not fit in with the theme of the Spring Festival, so in the end the son brought his father to the city, and three generations of the family went to see Peppa Pig together.

The same technique is used. In a film with Peppa Pig as the protagonist, Peppa hardly appears throughout the entire film . The film is told through the old man's questioning. This contrast is not only better than having Peppa Pig appear all the time, but also becomes the most magical aspect of the film.

△Peppa’s grandfather, who didn’t know what he was, tried to paint the domestic piglet red.

“ The most basic structure of creativity is to find the greatest common divisor. ”

In the opinion of Teacher Tian Fang, the success of "What's Peppa Pig?" is due to the fact that it combines a lot of materials from the times, and finally presents it with a reverse thinking that goes against the grain, ultimately completing the first big screen hit of 2019.

Teacher Tian Fang is very excited about this case. She feels that "we who create content are increasingly aware that after the bubble fades, truly good original content will become more and more valuable.

Don’t follow the trend, don’t imitate, and only after you have passed the cognitive barrier can you truly create valuable content. ”

Source: Mantou Business School