Getting Started Guide to Short Video Promotion!

From the traditional "two Weibo" to today's "two Weibo and one Douyin", it is not difficult to see that short videos have not only become an important way of mass entertainment, but also an important position for brand marketing.

Of course, there is more than just TikTok as a short video platform. Kuaishou, Bilibili, Xigua Video, Pipixia and other platforms all have huge short video traffic worth tapping into, and short video functions are increasingly becoming the underlying functions of Internet products. If the short videos (such as Meipai and Xiaokaxiu) that were all the rage in 2016/2017 were the "+" short videos, then today's Tik Tok and Kuaishou are the "+" short videos era. It can be found that community products such as Xiaohongshu have also introduced short video information flow recommendations and joined the short video army.

The Shiqucechuang team collected case data and conducted research and analysis on short video marketing, and issued a "Short Video Marketing Guide", which allows you to quickly get started with short video marketing from 0 to 1.

Who is watching short videos?

Before doing short video marketing, we first need to understand the short video user portraits and user preferences.

Overall, the gender ratio of short video users is relatively balanced, but shows a clear young trend. Users under the age of 35 account for as high as 79.8%, of which those under the age of 24, 25-30, and 30-35 account for 28.5%, 24.9%, and 26.4% respectively, with a relatively even distribution.

There is a saying in the industry that "Kuaishou in the north and Douyin in the south", but with the further popularization and development of the short video industry, the regional and population differences between Douyin and Kuaishou are not as great as in previous years. In general, the southern user group represented by Guangdong is more active, which may also be due to climatic reasons. The active time for watching short videos is before going to bed (8pm to 10pm).

Although the content of major short video platforms is becoming increasingly similar, surveys show that 72% of users use at least two short video apps at the same time. With the popularization of mobile Internet in recent years, users in second-tier cities and lower-tier markets are the main force of short videos.

Naturally, short video sales are the topic that brands are most concerned about. Judging from the early popularity of Peppa Pig watches, new trendy toys, Answer Tea, and Supreme, short videos have a strong potential for sales. However, for a long time, the sales of short videos have been mostly limited to low-priced trendy toys and travel-related products. The high-priced short video sales model still needs to be explored.

Judging from the user portrait of product conversion, nearly 40% of the consumption is below 200 yuan, which is more suitable for fast-moving consumer goods brands, but 200 yuan may be a hurdle. In addition, nearly half of users (45%) will place an order directly, while 55% of users will search again before deciding to buy.

The traditional consumer decision-making process is divided into five steps: "demand generation - information collection - comparison and evaluation - decision to purchase - use and evaluation", while short video shopping simplifies shopping decisions into three steps: "curiosity - trial - use and sharing". It is not difficult to find that short video sales conversion contains certain impulse shopping factors.

According to the research of Shiqu Creative Department, "high quality" and "authenticity" are the main factors for users to choose products in short videos. Among the categories of goods sold, "food and beverages", "apparel and shoes", and "beauty and personal care" are the top three categories, and products that are "fast, good, and cheap" are always the most likely to be purchased by users.

It is worth noting for brands that through data insights, the Shiqu Strategy and Creation Department found that in the process of short video self-media delivery, the effects of mid-level and tail accounts are generally better than those of top accounts. Mid-level accounts on the two major platforms, Douyin and Kuaishou, receive the most investment, while top accounts on Bilibili receive the most investment. Different platforms need to find different marketing strategies.

The differences and gameplay of major short video platforms

Different short video platforms are very different. Before marketing, we need to have an overall understanding of the major short video platforms. However, it is worth noting that the major short video platforms have been growing and expanding rapidly in the past two years, and the platform positioning has also been constantly changing.

Douyin and Kuaishou are now more national in nature. Douyin is more entertaining, while the content of Kuaishou and Douyin Volcano Edition (formerly Volcano Short Video) is more life-oriented. Bilibili is more popular among young groups such as the two-dimensional and Z generations, and its content area is also more vertical; Pear Video is more of a news and information media, suitable for social theme marketing.

1. Tik Tok platform marketing

Tik Tok’s current commercialization is very complete, and brands also have a variety of marketing tools to conduct short video marketing on the platform. In the process of practical implementation, Douyin can carry out marketing through five major methods: hard advertising, corporate accounts, influencers, hot IPs, and national co-creation.

The simplest Douyin marketing method is naturally hard advertising. Due to the role of algorithm recommendation, this type of delivery will be relatively accurate, but if you need to prepare a communication campaign, you need to use multiple platform activities and user co-creation and joint promotion.

For example, in the promotion of the co-branded credit card of China Everbright Bank and Douyin, the concept of "creator of a better life" was customized for IP packaging, which not only covered theaters across the country offline, but also covered the Douyin platform through splash screen ads, information flow ads, expert content creation, #这什么宝藏卡# challenge and other methods. It eventually reached a VV volume of more than 2.5 billion and an interaction volume of over 64 million in 7 days.

2. Kuaishou platform marketing

In 2020, Kuaishou sponsored the Spring Festival Gala, and its daily active users reached 300 million. Kuaishou has always been known for its Buddhist operation, but Su Hua and other management have begun to activate Kuaishou's internal combat effectiveness. It is expected that Kuaishou will have a large number of platform actions in 2020, which is worthy of attention from brands.

In 2020, Kuaishou will invest heavily in platform time, vertical fields, and IP programs. The creation of such platform variety shows and platform IP content will provide brands with more marketing cooperation opportunities. Although Kuaishou was considered "rustic" in the past, many international brands now conduct marketing on Kuaishou.

McDonald’s conducts marketing on Kuaishou through the #Give Me a Cup of YE# challenge. The highlight is that the challenge list will be updated every day, and through social gameplay, people who participate in the challenge can @ a friend to pass it on. Xiaoye Cup eventually obtained nearly 3 million user participation, nearly 500,000 UGC works, 36 million video views, and more than 100 million exposures.

3. Tik Tok Volcano Edition Marketing

The TikTok Volcano version was originally called "Volcano Short Video", which is ByteDance's short video product to compete with Kuaishou. It targets a lower-class audience, has more down-to-earth content, and is more suitable for popular brands.

Compared with TikTok, the marketing tools of TikTok Volcano Edition are not particularly rich, and are generally divided into three types: exposure, refined traffic, and customized content.

A typical marketing method can refer to Geely Vision's Spring Festival Challenge marketing, which focuses on releasing videos created by experts to guide ordinary users to follow up, and then directs traffic to the topic activity page to further promote user retention and conversion. Of course, the brand needs to be promoted both on and off the site simultaneously, and a combination of efforts is needed to achieve the greatest communication effect.

4. Watermelon Video Marketing

Xigua Video mainly focuses on the long video field. Recently, some observers in the industry also believe that Xigua Video and Bilibili are most likely to become the Chinese version of YouTube. Xigua Video has purchased a large number of copyrights for classic TV series and is constantly introducing creators. Food writer Wang Gang is an example of breaking the circle, and the "Lost in Russia" incident at the beginning of this year also brought Xigua Video greater exposure.

The brand marketing of Xigua Video is somewhat similar to that of traditional long video websites, and is mostly achieved through advertising tools such as patches, sponsorships, and implantations. Xigua Video has invested a lot in self-produced variety shows and dramas. According to Toutiao Index data, movies, TV shows, variety shows, and comedy are the most popular content categories on the platform, but the platform's target audience generally tends to be in the lower-tier markets.

Xigua Video has an annual Golden Second Award event, and China Ping An’s cooperation with the Golden Second Award is more about brand exposure. The creators helped the brand customize documentaries and realized value output through the collection of competition works. Later, through award ceremonies and brand linkage communications, the popularity of China Ping An’s brand information reached a six-month peak during the communication period.

5.Bilibili video marketing

At the beginning of this year, Bilibili achieved breakthrough in communication through a two-dimensional Spring Festival Gala. Bilibili's users are mainly those born after 1995, who are younger and more diverse. Coupled with a series of marketing actions by brands such as DingTalk on Bilibili, Bilibili has become a marketing and communication platform that has attracted much attention in the first half of this year.

The content of Bilibili is greatly influenced by the platform's recommendations, but Bilibili also has a large number of users who actively search for traffic, giving brand marketing more room. Generally speaking, Bilibili has three major types of cooperation: exposure, big projects, and core creators.

Although Bilibili is in the process of breaking out of its circle, the two-dimensional related content can still guarantee brand exposure and traffic. In the promotion of Fanta's twisting bottle and Bilibili, not only was it promoted through the homepage activity page, but it also cooperated with UP hosts in the dance area to convey the concept of "twisting bottle". Although it was just a small promotion, there were more than 4,500 native video barrages and more than 2,000 native video comments.

6. Pipixia short video marketing

Pipixia was born out of "Neihan Jokes". The overall community style is more humorous and the community is very interactive. It has a culture of posting comments, grabbing posts, etc. It is very popular among young groups and the sinking market.

The marketing methods of the Pipixia platform are basically divided into two categories: traffic product cooperation and content cooperation. Traffic products include splash screens, information flows, and other delivery methods, while content cooperation involves more IP collaboration and some customized innovative marketing.

Due to the characteristics of the community and user groups, Pipixia cooperates with game products more frequently. Let’s take the cooperation between Moyu and Pipixia as an example. The brand and the platform created a “Genuine Leather Conference”, which attracted traffic for APP downloads through the participation of big Vs, prize sponsorship, advertising banners and other resource positions, and ultimately achieved hundreds of millions of exposures.

7. Pear Video Platform Marketing

Pear Video is positioned as a news and information short video platform. It not only has a professional media team, but also has a global network of photographers. From the content point of view, it is closer to sudden hot social events and is suitable for marketing cooperation with lifestyle brands.

In terms of marketing plans, the biggest difference and highlight between Pear Video and conventional short video platforms is that it can conduct documentary interviews and jointly create hot topics through the method of photographers, making it more playable and interesting.

In the cooperative marketing between Safeguard and Pear Video, customized interview topics were used to randomly interview people on the street, such as "How did you spend your summer vacation?" The street-shot videos were eventually edited into highlights and further disseminated on social media, driving the popularity of the topic #童年无惧#. In the end, the total exposure on the entire network was 16.12 million (3.58 million on Pear Video app and 12.54 million on Weibo video), and the total number of views of street photography videos reached 5.91 million and the number of clicks reached 5.7 million.

It is worth noting that the landscape of the short video industry is still changing. When short videos became a battleground, WeChat’s video account also emerged. Users’ short video consumption habits will be greatly affected by the policies of WeChat and other platforms in the future. Brands must not only be familiar with past marketing methods, but also pay close attention to the short video marketing rules of new platforms such as WeChat’s video account.

Author: Time Fun

Source: Shiqu