Why does MCN do live broadcasts without selling products?

In the recent live broadcast, there is a breath of fresh air. He does not promote products, visit stores or do reviews. Instead, he takes his wife and mother-in-law to lead everyone in exercising together.

Liu Genghong - a man who stole everyone's traffic and sweat. With his professional sports content and real interaction with his family, his fans on the entire network increased by over 10 million in 30 days. For a time, many "Liu Genghong girls" appeared on the Internet. Some lost weight with him, some were watching his interaction with his wife. A male star became a fitness coach for the whole nation and started a dance aerobics craze.

*The picture comes from Weibo

Since February this year, Liu Genghong has started to focus on fitness live streaming on the short video platform. According to the data from Heat Wave, as of April 17, Liu Genghong's single-game viewership reached 13.91w, and the number of new fans in a single game exceeded 950,000.

*Data from Heatwave

There are countless fitness bloggers nowadays. From a former star singer to today's live streaming expert, why is Liu Genghong able to stand out in such a competitive vertical category after signing with MCN ? What is the secret behind this?

01MCN picked up another treasure?

Many people attribute Liu Genghong's popularity to his signing with Wuyou Media. After all, he has set an example with hosts such as "Big Wolf Dog Zheng Jianpeng & Yan Zhen Couple" and "Wen Jingling", and has achieved remarkable results.

Take "Wen Jingling" as an example. She did not conduct commercial monetization at first, but Wuyou Media still carried out commercial incubation and account upgrade for her based on her fan structure and data. She can get more than ten advertisements per month. With the operation and support of the company system, she has achieved a certain degree of business development and income.

But according to the data from several stages after Liu Genghong signed the contract, this is not the main reason.

Liu Genghong signed the contract with Wuyou in December last year. Like other celebrity live streamers, he began to try live streaming to sell goods after signing the contract, but the response has been mediocre. It was not until February this year that Liu Genghong began to transform into fitness live streaming, and the number of people in the live broadcast room saw a new increase, but there is still a big gap from the current data.

*Data from Heatwave

In fact, the topicality and drama on social platforms, as well as the support of big-name stars, are the direct reasons why Liu Genghong's live broadcast became popular. As the saying goes, "Heroes are made by the times." Liu Genghong probably didn't expect that the real reason he became popular was because of the platform's "beautiful misunderstanding."

Liu Genghong's fitness live broadcast has been full of twists and turns. He was forced to go offline three times in a row due to system misjudgment. Especially the most recent time, when netizens asked him about the health of his good friend Jay Chou, his casual remark "I wish Jay Chou good health" was misjudged by the system as involving medical content, which was laughable. With the popularity of Jay Chou, this incident also caused widespread discussion on social platforms, allowing Liu Genghong's live broadcast to be seen by more people.

*The picture is a screenshot of Liu Genghong's live broadcast

In order to avoid the platform's misjudgment, Liu Genghong simply put on a down jacket and did aerobics. Such nonsensical and dramatic behavior attracted netizens to flock to the live broadcast room. As of now, the reading volume of the Weibo topic #刘庚宏回复戴垂绒褂做健身 has exceeded 200 million, and he has officially ushered in the peak of his live broadcast traffic.

*The picture is a screenshot of Liu Genghong's live broadcast

Time is continuous and cyclical. Apart from short-term explosive growth, Liu Genghong is at the starting point of a new round of development cycle in the fitness vertical category.

Fitness is a topic that has been talked about for a long time, but it has recently ushered in a new wave of enthusiasm, with the focus on "cloud fitness" at home. On the one hand, the epidemic is not over yet, and everyone’s fitness motivation and scenes have undergone new changes. Some people who do not like sports regard fitness as a way to pass the time at home, and the fitness scene has also become more of staying at home.

On the other hand, people's fitness time is becoming more and more fragmented. Some office workers who want to get involved in fitness but suffer from insufficient time are gradually joining the ranks of people who exercise at home. Fitness apps, smart fitness mirrors... a series of products providing online "cloud fitness" services are constantly developing, and the related market size is growing rapidly.

According to relevant data, the scale of the global online fitness industry reached US$10.71 billion in 2021, an increase of 77.33%. Relevant institutions predict that the scale of the global online fitness industry will exceed US$59 billion in 2027, with an annual growth rate of 30%-33.1%.

The market has determined the direction of the content industry to a certain extent. For a time, anchors in content areas such as yoga, fitness, and weight loss have all seen an increase in traffic. Whether it is veteran sports experts such as "Pamela Reif" and "Saturday Wild Zoey", or up-and-coming stars such as "Teacher Dai is Super Dry" and "Xiao Li Doesn't Eat", fitness content has ushered in a new round of craze.

From the earliest Pamela to the current Liu Genghong, from the popularity of gyms to the development of fitness apps, the demand for fitness is growing, but the behavior of fitness itself is becoming smaller and smaller. Finding the right users and entry angles is the fundamental reason why Liu Genghong's live broadcast has become popular.

*The picture comes from Weibo

02Not bringing goods or not bringing goods temporarily?

From the perspective of Wuyou Media, a series of top anchors such as the big wolf dog couple Zheng Jianpeng and Yan Zhen, Mala Dezi, etc. are all arranged and developed around commercialization. After all, commercial monetization is the core of the long-term development of anchors and MCN organizations.

Founder Lei Binyi once said that Wuyou Media takes e-commerce as its main direction and realizes commercial monetization through targeted incubation and professional training of anchor talents. But Liu Genghong seems to have consciously given up on commercialization. Is this Wuyou Media’s plan or just a temporary attempt and exploration?

Whether it is the influencer himself or the MCN company, the ultimate goal is commercial monetization. When Liu Genghong just signed the contract, he tried to sell goods through live streaming, but the results were not ideal. The cumulative sales of 9 live broadcasts were only around 6 million.

*The picture is a screenshot of Liu Genghong's live broadcast

This may have caused a change in his way of thinking, and he began to explore his value in the field of sports and fitness, and tried to create content related to aerobics and exercise, and this vertical category happened to be what Wuyou Media lacked.

As early as last year, Wuyou Media began to explore the development of content in the sports field. Whether it was working with Olympic champion Gao Min to engage in public welfare, or joining forces with its talents to host its own sports games, although the entry point was small, it also proved that it paid attention to the development value of sports verticals.

At this point, Liu Genghong is more like the "first shot" fired by Wuyou Media to seize the fitness field.

Content value serves commercial value. Liu Genghong’s live broadcast is a high-scoring “answer sheet” at the content level, so it will depend on what kind of commercial vitality he releases next. Today's fitness field is full of smoke and is almost saturated. If you want to stand out, you must return to content with consumer value. After all, commercialization is an effective guarantee for the long-term development of experts.

Liu Genghong is currently in the stage of expanding and accumulating traffic, and is more focused on cultivating the "follow-up effect" of users. He will eventually return to the route of commercial monetization, and the methods may revolve around courses and endorsements. After all, he himself has put forward the slogan of "only doing exercises, not selling goods."

Not bringing in goods does not mean no business. Liu Genghong's content has given him a good start on his future path to monetization. The next focus will be on how to ensure a balance between content and monetization methods, avoid being a flash in the pan, and ensure his long-term development in the sports and fitness vertical category.

03 Conclusion

The popularity of Liu Genghong's live broadcast room is driven by time and content. From a market perspective, the booming "cloud fitness" has brought about a huge and developable business space, providing an overall direction for content production. The current nationwide craze for online sports has become a booster for Liu Genghong's development, allowing his traffic to soar.

After accumulating traffic and fans, under the incubation of MCN organizations, the anchors still have to return to the essence of commercial monetization, use the income to feed back the content, and realize the operational closed loop from content to users, from users to business, and from business to content.

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Author: TopKlout

Source: TopKlout