Analysis of hot-selling cases in Internet operations

The past 2021 was a bit magical, a bit miraculous, and also had moments that witnessed history;

Internet supervision is becoming increasingly strict, and user growth has peaked. There has also been a trend of abandoning gatekeeping, making openness in the mobile era, breaking the boundaries of sieges, and interconnection the main theme of the mobile Internet. Looking back at the openness of the PC era, it was because of the 3Q war and the intervention of the state to coordinate that the proud Penguin Empire became open. In 2021, it is once again because of the help of the country that the openness of the mobile era has become a reality.

With the dual circulation policy, "going overseas" of the Internet has also become a key word. Douyin has become the world's most downloaded Android app and the first Chinese app to become the world's most downloaded app. It can be said that this year will go down in history.

Each of us has become a witness to the history of 2021!

Good fortune and bad fortune go hand in hand. In this special year, although the epidemic has caused many difficulties, it has also brought many opportunities. Difficulties and opportunities often complement each other. It is said that opportunities come to those who are prepared. I remember that in 2003, SARS was rampant, but after we survived, we got to where we are today, Alibaba and JD.com.

The following cases are extremely classic operational cases in 2021. It is a pleasure for us to learn and practice them from time to time!

1. Mini game: Synthesize a big watermelon

The first case that went viral this year was none other than the game of Merge Watermelons, which became popular overnight! The magic of fruit merging is simple but addictive to play, so fun that you can't stop playing. The game is themed with watermelon flavor, and you only need to collide the same fruits to synthesize them.

• [Operation time] January
• 【Operational Products】Synthesize Watermelon Game
• 【Operation Module】Product Operation
• 【Operation strategy】Game play video, game forwarding
• 【Growth Strategy】Self-propagation of game cases and recommendation in WeChat Moments

1. Brief Introduction to Operation

The game format is very simple, a simple H5. The main task of the player is to move the fruits and combine the same fruits into a larger new fruit. The goal is to combine a big watermelon. From the gameplay point of view, this game is exactly the same as 2048; the gameplay is simple, but it is magical enough and addictive. It’s extremely simple, the images are refreshing, but at the same time it requires some thought;

2. LeTV owes 12.2 billion, a miraculous case

The first case that went viral this year was none other than the magical case of LeTV owing 12.2 billion yuan!

Around the Spring Festival, major APPs launched the red envelope marketing campaign of "divide XXX billion". Douyin gave out 2 billion, Kuaishou 2.1 billion, Baidu 2.2 billion, Pinduoduo 2.8 billion... and so on. In short, they all wanted customers to see information points such as "wealthy", "charitable", and "giving back to customers". But to everyone's surprise, LeTV did the opposite and stood out with its LOGO icon that read "owed 12.2 billion".

• [Operation time] During the Spring Festival
• 【Operational Products】LeTV
• 【Operation Module】Product Operation + Content Operation
• [Operational Strategy] Entertainment-oriented solutions, differentiated output; prominently displaying the amount of RMB 12.2 billion owed on the LeEco APP LOGO
• [Growth Strategy] There is no obvious artificial growth strategy, mainly self-media dissemination and interesting self-dissemination in the circle of friends, and it has become a hot search on Weibo with almost zero investment

1. Brief Introduction to Operation

It only took one year for LeEco to go from being a prosperous empire to being a major debtor. To be honest, by 2021, many people might have thought that LeTV was about to go bankrupt. But unexpectedly, by the end of 2021, LeTV gave salary increases to middle-level managers who had previously had their salaries cut, indicating that LeTV's revenue was still good that year.

During the Spring Festival, all users have plenty of natural rest time, so there is the urgent need for "entertainment". This is the right time, and it is also a good opportunity for entertainment information to shine and flourish.

The Art of War says: The art of war is based on deception! During the Spring Festival, most platforms are thinking about competing with each other and making themselves look "good", so they spend a lot of money to attract users' attention and thus gain growth. However, LeTV is already in a lot of debt, so it certainly has no money to spend. If it comes to competing to see who has thicker thighs, it is definitely not as good as others. But on the other hand, if you compare who owes more money, then others will definitely not be able to compare, so in this case, just publish the unpleasant information of owing money;

Second, under normal circumstances, owing 10,000 yuan certainly doesn't sound good, but owing 100 million or 10 billion yuan is far beyond the scope of understanding of owing money in normal life. At this time, owing money is not just owing money in the financial sense, but it will become an event. If LeTV's 12.2 billion yuan was changed to a debt of 10,000 yuan, it might not necessarily make a bigger splash, but 12.2 billion yuan itself is enough to be a hot topic, and this information itself can attract users' sense of entertainment participation.

3. Henan TV’s content innovation

From the 2021 Spring Festival Gala dance program "Tang Palace Night Banquet" to "Qixi Wonderful Tour", and then to the Dragon Boat Festival Wonderful Tour and "Water Ode to the Goddess of Luo River", Henan TV's programs have frequently "gone viral", creating a wave of popularity for Henan programs throughout 2021, which has amazed audiences across the country time and time again.

With the significant leap in the country's economic strength, cultural revival has gradually become the mainstream, and the keyword "national tide" has been widely recognized in recent years. These programs and images, which are full of traditional Chinese cultural elements, allow the audience to feel the splendid Chinese civilization, and even more so, feel the seamless integration between the technological sense of the new era and Chinese civilization.

• [Operation time] During the Spring Festival, Chinese Valentine's Day, Dragon Boat Festival and other holidays
• 【Operational Products】Henan TV
• 【Operation Module】Product Operation + Content Innovation
• [Operational Strategy] Organic integration of national trend culture, innovative dance + modern technology
• 【Growth strategy】mainly word of mouth + self-media communication

1. Brief Introduction to Operation

The first classic program of the Year of the Ox is "Tang Palace Night Banquet" from Henan TV. Dance is a content-based product, but how to make this product, or content, perfect? Henan TV provided a solution: "National Tide"; through innovative dance forms and presentation aesthetics, it greatly satisfied users' understanding of modern technology and national tide culture;

However, product operations have their own life cycle. A hot search during the new product period cannot replace the overall potential energy, the so-called general trend. Henan Satellite TV also attaches great importance to this. Through a series of dance products and good content, it continuously promotes users' deep understanding and attention to Henan Satellite TV. Wave after wave of climaxes have combined to bring about a huge and stable amount of exposure.

4. Youku cross-border, "Country Love" blind box event

By 2021, "Country Love" has been broadcast for 15 years and 13 consecutive seasons. It can be said to be an evergreen series, and the classic characters in the play have become well-known and familiar, for example: Asian dance king Nicholas Zhao Si, when mentioned, there is the magical dance scene; in March, Youku APP launched the Country Love Blind Box, which brought together 5 classic characters, as well as a mysterious blind box version (Liu Neng).

• [Operation time] March
• 【Operational products】Youku APP
• 【Operation Module】Activity Operation
• [Operational strategy] Cross-border celebrity endorsements, limited blind box sales activities, and integration of "Country Love 13" series broadcast
• [Growth Strategy] Rural Love celebrity endorsement traffic + blind box activities + Tmall sales traffic + Youku advertising promotion

1. Brief Introduction to Operation

As a national hit drama with 13 seasons released for 15 consecutive years, Country Love has accumulated a wide range of fans, covering all age groups, both old, middle-aged and young, and both men and women. The stars in the drama have long been household names, so after the 13th season was released in March, it has a large number of views. At the same time, Youku has cross-border cooperation and used trendy, interesting, fun and fresh activities such as blind boxes to bring stars into the hands of ordinary users.

Coupled with the extensive traffic and publicity from Tmall and Youku, there will definitely be very good results.

5. Xiaomi changes its logo

In April this year, Xiaomi officially announced the change of its LOGO. It is said that the internationally renowned designer Kenya Hara personally designed the product, which took him nearly three years to design, and Xiaomi paid 2 million for it. But when the new logo came out, it felt like there was no change—it just went from a square to an oval. This sparked a very heated discussion.

After changing the LOGO, both media comments and user participation in the topic have achieved very high results!

• [Operation time] April
• 【Operational products】Xiaomi LOGO
• 【Operation Module】Activity Operation
• 【Operational Strategy】Xiaomi’s 10-year LOGO change
• 【Growth Strategy】Discussion and dissemination of topics such as #Press Conference Official Announcement#, #LOGO Design Concept#, #The Logo That Basically Didn’t Change Cost 2 Million#, #Is the Logo Worth It#, etc.

1. Brief Introduction to Operation

Xiaomi has always been a hot topic and user participation. Last year's Xiaomi press conference and the launch of Xiaomi 10 caused widespread discussion, and the product exposure was very high;

The LOGO that was changed in April this year caused a wide range of discussion, dissemination and exposure, mainly because the LOGO itself has not changed much. At first glance, it just changed from square corners to rounded corners. However, the information exposed online showed that this LOGO cost 2 million... From the perspective of cost-effectiveness, many people think it is not worth it, but Xiaomi actually changed it, so discussion arose and all kinds of interesting design drawings came out.

In just about a week, Xiaomi's new LOGO has been on the Zhihu hot search list and other lists. Judging from the results of the operation, the price-performance ratio is extremely good!

6. Mixue Ice City brainwash songs

There are brainwash songs every year, but this year the brainwash song must be "You Love Me, I Love You, Mixue Ice City Sweet". Friends who have been using TikTok or Bilibili this year will surely be familiar with this line of lyrics, and may even hum along uncontrollably.

• [Operation time] June
• 【Operational Products】Mixue Ice City Brand
• 【Operation Module】Content Operation
• [Operational strategy] Cute and magical content, and choose Bilibili for distribution
• 【Growth Strategy】 Mixue Bingcheng released song videos on Bilibili

1. Brief Introduction to Operation

Before there was Little Apple, and this year there is Mixue Ice City, Sweet Mi Mi; according to media reports, it has received 12.61 million views on Bilibili. In addition, there are many versions adapted by netizens that have exceeded one million views. The data on Douyin is even more impressive - when searching for the keyword "Michelle Ice City" on Douyin, more than a dozen related topics will pop up, including #Michelle Ice City Theme Song and #Michelle Ice City Sweet Honey. The playback volume of a single topic is as high as 5.4 billion+, and the cumulative playback volume has reached 10 billion.

Magical and brainwashing content can often be widely spread. Because this kind of content itself carries a "special" feeling, users are first curious, then infected, then forwarded on their own, re-created, and then spread again...

In addition, the platform of choice is Bilibili, which can cover more accurate potential users.

7. Termination of the contract with Hanshu

Corporate endorsement is one of the most frequent and positive activity strategies. However, the quality of a spokesperson often directly affects the development of the brand and business. Because of the influence of the entertainment industry the spokesperson is in, the corporate brand and reputation may rise or fall in an instant, so you need to be more cautious when choosing a spokesperson.

In 2021, when a certain incident was exposed, Hansu was the first to propose termination of the contract. This upright and reliable image immediately won the reputation and action support of the majority of netizens! It was on the hot search list on Weibo and Zhihu, and live streaming also saw a significant increase, so Hansu also enjoyed the traffic dividend. The live broadcast rooms that originally had dozens or hundreds of people were suddenly flooded with hundreds of thousands or millions of users, and the live broadcast business soared by 868%.

• [Operation time] July
• 【Operational products】Hansu brand and products
• 【Operation Module】Activity Operation (Brand Event)
• [Operational Strategy] Hanshu’s official announcement of contract termination
• [PR Strategy] The first to terminate the contract resonated with netizens and gained goodwill, and the brand was the first to announce the termination of the contract

1. Brief Introduction to Operation

This generation of netizens is very cute, and they often support their favorite brands with practical actions. After Hansu terminated the contract, it was able to quickly gain support from users. In essence, it was actually the release of users' inner sense of justice.

The concept of rule of law is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. In fact, the majority of users are looking forward to fairness and justice from the bottom of their hearts, but to be honest, the power of capital sometimes makes many ordinary users far behind. The unfairness and injustice caused by this capital monopoly are extremely disgusting and disagreed with by everyone, especially the traffic giants like Moufan. So when illegal facts occur, users are eager for justice to be upheld, but they are also worried that resources will be withdrawn, or the so-called "officials protecting each other" will lead to nothing being done.

Therefore, when Hansu took the lead and was the first to announce the termination of the contract, netizens felt a great resonance and goodwill. People's worries all come from uncertainty, but when this certainty is finalized, users will be excited. Moreover, Chinese brands like Hansu must be supported with practical actions.

8. Hongxing Erke Donation-Wild Consumption

The live broadcast business is very hot in 2021. I believe that Erke will definitely be among the most popular live broadcasters this year. In the face of natural disasters, companies’ giving back to society reflects their sense of social responsibility to their country and their people. When these two appear at the same time, it also shows the loveliness and sense of justice of this generation of netizens.

Erke donated 50 million yuan to Henan this year. Although this charity activity was a low-key one, it still won strong resonance and favor from the majority of netizens, who left messages saying "You donated so much, I feel like you are going to go bankrupt" and "You don't make much money yourselves, but you still donate so much. I'm afraid you will go bankrupt." Users were moved by the sense of responsibility of Chinese brands and expressed their willingness to support them with their feet by buying a pair of ERKE sneakers and going on a wild shopping spree.

• [Operation time] July
• 【Operational products】Erk brand and products
• 【Operation Module】Activity Operation (Brand Event)
• 【Operational Strategy】Charity activities, donations
• 【Growth strategy】Basically no artificial promotion, mainly relying on spontaneous self-propagation by netizens; #野性消费# topic spread

1. Brief Introduction to Operation

According to media data, Erke's sales on July 23 increased by more than 52 times, almost two months' sales in one day. Charitable donations often happen, but why did Hongxing Erke become popular? There are 4 core logics:

First, public welfare activities naturally create user favorability;

Second, Erke's sales in recent years have been average, and according to media reports, it has suffered losses. Despite such losses, it still donated such a large amount, which shows the company's sense of social responsibility and magnanimity.

Third, low-key charity activities, doing good deeds without being known;

Fourth, the sense of justice during the live broadcast, the host requires everyone to consume rationally.

The essential logic is the same as the case above: the user's sense of justice and goodwill. The more low-key you are and the more you hope that people will consume rationally, the more supportive users will be and the stronger their favorability will be. Hence the keyword "wild consumption" came into being.

9. The game "Black Myth Wukong" became popular

On August 20, 2021, on the first anniversary of the first demo broadcast of "Black Myth: Wukong", domestic game developer "Game Science" once again released a real-machine demonstration video of its ARPG game "Black Myth: Wukong", showing many details of the game in terms of graphics, combat, dubbing, etc.

After it was announced, it attracted great attention and discussion in a very short period of time.

In just a few days, it sparked heated discussions at Bilibili and was listed on Zhihu’s hot list and hot searches. Netizens were very excited when they saw it: If it’s the effect of the demonstration video, they will definitely buy it!

• [Operation time] August 20
• [Operational products] "Black Myth Wukong" game
• 【Operation Module】Product Operation
• 【Operation strategy】Game demo release, recruitment advertisement, B station placement
• [Growth Strategy] Anniversary self-deprecating animation + actual game demonstration video word-of-mouth self-propagation

1. Brief Introduction to Operation

Since its first release in 2020, "Black Myth: Wukong" has achieved results far beyond expectations. Even the game science team did not expect it. They originally just wanted to recruit more talents through the demo. But because the demo was so good, the aroma of the wine spread so well that it had already drifted outside the alley, so it ended up being the center of attention.

In August of this year, within just one week, Game Science struck while the iron was hot again, first releasing a series of self-deprecating animations, and then on August 20th, it released another bombshell: a real-game operation video! The picture was excellent and caused great spread.

The popularity of this product is the result of the heartfelt recognition of all users, because since the release of the demo, the team has basically not done any other promotion and it has been completely driven by word of mouth. As a user who has been playing games since childhood, I was also pleasantly surprised after watching the demo. The action design, animation smoothness, realism, 3D effects, sound effects, etc. are all first-class. The industry says that this is the first 3A masterpiece in China.

I can only say from the bottom of my heart: domestic users are the cutest people, and they are so eager for domestic stand-alone game masterpieces to be released. I also hope that the top three domestic game manufacturers will pay attention to the market for stand-alone blockbusters.

10. Dong Mingzhu: Creating the second Dong Mingzhu

In November, Dong Mingzhu said at an event: "We want to train a newcomer to become the second Dong Mingzhu." As soon as this was said, various voices came one after another, and the 22-year-old newcomer came into the public eye.

In order to attract everyone’s curiosity, the newcomer took the opportunity to launch live streaming to sell goods.

• [Operation time] November
• [Operational products] Gree brand, Dong Mingzhu's personal brand
• 【Operation Module】Activity Operation
• [Operational Strategy] Celebrity endorsement + live broadcast, the difference between big V and ordinary young people
• 【Growth Strategy】First, spread the word in public events → stimulate netizens’ curiosity and continuously search for new people → new people register live broadcast accounts → new people convert to live broadcast

1. Brief Introduction to Operation

Such cases are actually very replicable, for example: the second CEO of Alibaba launched by Jack Ma and the person who can replace him... When an important identity VS an ordinary individual, and a young individual, it will greatly attract the curiosity of netizens; as of now, this account already has many fans, the click-through rate of each video is also very objective, and the conversion in the live broadcast business is also very high.

11. Tik Tok Zhang goes viral

In November, a "Classmate Zhang" on Douyin quickly became popular. His simple videos recorded the most daily life in the countryside, including the daily necessities of life, such as firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea, showing every bit of life.

The video does not have any cool special effects, nor does it feature very good looks; it is just the most real fragment of life, but it has gained over 10 million followers in just over a month!

• [Operation time] November
• [Operational Products] Zhang’s personal brand
• 【Operation Module】Content Operation
• [Operational Strategy] Real life content, interesting editing, Douyin's support for agriculture, rural areas and farmers
• [Growth strategy] First, cold start of content creation → Douyin’s support and recommendation in agriculture, rural areas and other fields → word-of-mouth self-propagation → CCTV and other big V recommendations → explosive popularity and rapid growth

1. Brief Introduction to Operation

First, to achieve growth on a platform, one cannot do without the support of the platform. For example, Li Jiaqi from Taobao and Zhang Tongxue from Douyin both need the platform’s traffic to achieve greater growth.

Second, in terms of material selection, Zhang is from Northeast China, and all the life he recorded is about rural life. On the one hand, the Internet is flat, and people in cities are curious about rural life, and people who move to cities miss their hometowns. They can see their past lives through videos;

Third, the editing is quite professional, with a good integration of rhythm, intensity, editing clips, and music dubbing;

Fourth, the special lifestyle, in which pots and pans are thrown around, is simple, violent, direct and effective. Compared with the fast pace of life, there is always a sense of release. Watching the video is very relaxing. The content creation is quite good and can attract users' continued attention.

12. Kingsoft Document/WPS, Tencent Document/Meeting, DingTalk, Feishu, Enterprise WeChat

Li Bai's "To Li Yong", the great roc rises with the wind one day, soaring up to 90,000 miles. If you seize the opportunity, you can indeed soar to the top.

• 【Operation time】2021 whole year
• [Operational products] Remote office software products: Kingsoft Document, Tencent Document, WPS, DingTalk, Feishu, Enterprise WeChat
• 【Operation Module】Product Operation
• [Operational Strategy] Rapid product iteration, covering various scenario needs, industry solution promotion (such as education industry, Internet industry, etc.), using existing brand awareness, all-round publicity and promotion
• [Growth Strategy] Free of charge, cooperation with key departments and units/leading enterprises, and some high-quality educational resources directly giving away a full set of software and hardware equipment

1. Brief Introduction to Operation

The repeated epidemics in 2021 continued to affect the office mode of all walks of life. As the market demand for office software grew rapidly, Kingsoft Office, Tencent, Alibaba DingTalk, and ByteDance Feishu all seized this special opportunity and became leaders.

The above-mentioned products have different attributes, and there are natural differences in the operation of 2B products and Internet 2C products. The 2B business has a long customer acquisition cycle, high new customer acquisition costs, high product prices, and extremely high product replacement costs. However, once an industry scale is formed and in-depth industry solutions and vertical product solutions are bound together, it will form the power and speed of a snowball and form an industry-type moat!

Kingsoft Docs, Tencent Docs, and WPS are aimed at ordinary users. Based on their existing large user base, they are acquiring customers at a very fast speed through free strategies + various templates and promotion. DingTalk and Feishu are commercial enterprise-level 2B products that require integrated software and hardware solutions. Their products are often expensive. Once they are free and can be the first to win over the top corporate users in the industry, their leadership effect will be very prominent.

12. Metaverse

Live streaming was a trend last year, and by 2021, "Metaverse" has become the hottest trend; since Facebook changed its name to Metaverse, it has directly driven this product field in China and made it extremely popular. All companies are actively trying to seize the opportunity. On December 27, Baidu took the lead in launching the "Xiran" product and also incorporated the Baidu Create Conference into Xiran.

• [Operation time] The second half of 2021
• 【Operational Products】Metaverse Products
• 【Operation Module】Product Operation
• [Operational Strategy] Registering a Metaverse company/brand to take up a position in advance, Baidu takes the lead in launching the first Metaverse product in China
• 【Growth Strategy】Release products and make them available for download at the forefront of the Metaverse trend, and create media hype

1. Brief Introduction to Operation

Here we mainly talk about Baidu Xiran. As the first Metaverse product in China, this APP still has many bugs (I downloaded it myself and it worked), but it took the lead by following the trend of the first Metaverse. According to media reports, the number of downloads is still quite large, after all, it was only released a few days ago.

But the biggest reference point of this product is that they use version -X.0, not 1.0, 2.0... This gives them a huge buffer. This product operation strategy is really reliable. Not only can you seize the initiative, but you can also leave yourself enough room for upgrades and iterations, as well as strategic time.

Author: Zhao Feitan

Source: zhao-feitan