Editor’s introduction: When brands do marketing, they obviously invest a lot of marketing content in multiple channels, but they find that user participation is low and self-generated marketing is often not what the brand wants to see, so what they want When users participate in marketing activities, how should participatory marketing be done? This article focuses on participation marketing and is recommended for those who are interested in this topic. In marketing, brands often fall into misunderstandings: for example: when we do communication, we invest a lot of creativity, advertising, and topics, but in the final review, we find that only a small number of users participate, and it seems that it is difficult to get out of the circle because we are enjoying ourselves. It's like a successful concert requires not only beautiful singing on the stage, but also a steady stream of applause from the audience. So, how to form an interactive closed loop in the middle link, I want to be careful but also careful, so that users can truly participate in the activity; what is participatory marketing (Engagement Marketing)? The core of participation is to promote consumer participation; it emphasizes the concept of "consumer-centered", is good at treating users as facilitators of marketing projects, and pays more attention to emotional experience; thereby strengthening the close connection with the brand and the influence of specific groups of people force. It mainly includes "physical form" and intangible "psychological form". Different from traditional event marketing and experiential marketing, events focus more on "marketing intention", that is, the event itself, while experience focuses more on "user feeling"; participatory marketing belongs to both the intersection part. Why do many brands often fail to participate in marketing? The key factors are: the activity is self-proclaimed, the user needs are not understood, and the content expression is not based on the consumer's perspective. That is to say, traditional marketing strategies only focus on the brand side, and inform users of information like forcing things. The process is accompanied by intrusion and deviates from the true appeal to a certain extent. Traditional participatory marketing is mostly based on "real scenes". With the emergence of short videos, immersive experience and fun interaction are the main means of marketing. To change this, brands need to establish awareness from four aspects. 1. The alternation of old and new marketing thinking. The best way to explain the difference between old and new marketing brand thinking is that what will happen if the same product is presented in different marketing methods? Of course, this interesting proposition has little chance of being verified, and there is no way to know the answer; but data records that Google established a project called "Re: Brief" in 2011 just to explore this issue. The company uses new technology to re-deconstruct and interpret the classic advertising of the 1970s with the same purpose, and jointly explores the differences between "same product, same concept, traditional marketing and Internet marketing". Four brands were found that year: Coca-Cola, Volvo, Alka-Seltzer, and Avis. Conceptually, Google wants to transform past classics from their original one-way TV ads that communicated with consumers to using social media and mobile phones to reinterpret them, but the important thing is "participation." The message "Hilltop" shot by Coca-Cola in 1971 was to let the world know that Coca-Cola not only sells well around the world, but also makes the relationship between you and me warmer. The creative director at that time, Bill Backer, wrote the classic advertising slogan "I want to treat the world to a bottle of Coke" on a napkin while waiting for a flight at the airport. From this sentence, he developed the world-famous "advertising song" ". In the commercial, people from all over the world hold Cokes and gather on an Italian hillside to sing, just to establish the concept of "inviting the world to drink Coke". Today in the 21st century, Google has found the creative director of that year, ***, to work with him to realize the dream of "inviting strangers around the world to drink Coke" through the Internet. How did this concept come true? When you watch this classic commercial on your computer or mobile phone, a Google ad will appear below the ad, asking you "Do you want to give someone a bottle of Coke?". Clicking on the banner will jump to the world map. You only need to select the location on the map and fill in the information you want to express to the other party. For example: you want to give a Coke to someone in Beijing and write "Share it with you"; after sending it, it will demonstrate the process of "sending your blessings to the vending machine at the designated location". When someone passes by the machine, it will say "Hey, someone gave you a bottle of Coke", and when you confirm the receipt, you can also get feedback of thanks.

It reinterprets the same concept and then compares it before and after, which is a very typical difference between old thinking brands and Internet thinking; some people may say, "Isn't this the current status quo?" In fact, there is a "cognitive gap" between brands and consumers. For consumers born after the 1990s and millenniums, adapting to the Internet environment is as natural as breathing and does not require special learning; driven by technology and the Internet, consumer behavior has undergone three major changes: I think brands have evolved from consumption Researchers consider that the first change is "cognitive challenge"; Global Advertising Week magazine statistics show that only 14% of consumers are willing to believe in traditional advertising, and 78% of users are willing to believe in recommendations from netizens they have never met. What does this mean? The era of brand kings selling melons and saying how great they are is over. Netizens prefer to make decisions on their own. From their point of view, your product is recommended only if it is good enough. Otherwise, the criticism will never be soft. Therefore, today's consumers like challenges, and brands must transform this challenge into a marketing source; this is not because they are full and have nothing to do but to find fault, but because modern information is too easy to obtain. The online space is flooded with opinions from all sides, and brands always deliberately cover up their communication, which makes consumers more willing to believe the opinions of netizens than others. Faced with this challenge, brands have two optional countermeasures: For example: If Someone tells you, "You only need a photo of her back to find her in a sea of ??people." Do you believe it? Do you think this can only be done with big data or a supercomputer database, right? There is news in Taiwan that it only takes 28 minutes for netizens to ask for help using the oldest human flesh search method on a PPT forum. This kind of incident will be great for people with a little bit of marketing sensitivity. You can pin it on a certain IP or a certain souvenir and initiate a search across the entire network, and then use KOLs to shape the atmosphere; you see, the lowest-cost way is used to ignite public awareness and attention to the event. Of course, I am not bringing up the case to discuss how powerful human flesh search is, nor do I want you to use it to dig into other people’s privacy. The reason is that "it" created a magical marketing event. This communication model is actually particularly needed in the Internet era. Based on my summary, I think it has four characteristics: absurd questions are raised, gods answer them, and everyone participates and applauds. , network diffusion and rapid coordination. I think this is what many companies often say, "We need to win the trust of consumers," but it has never been implemented. What should we do? Just give an example: We know that the effects of the ingredients in the advertisement are far richer and more impactful than those actually bought in the store. It feels really delicious. Just like the King’s New Clothes, everyone knows after watching it for a long time that “the actual product shall prevail on site.” ". However, in order to win the trust of consumers, McDonald's in Canada launched a "ask questions about our ingredients" campaign. For example: Some netizens asked "Why are the burgers in advertisements different from those in physical stores?" "There are several reasons why our food looks different from what we actually buy." The online staff will answer them one by one. Therefore, for brands, telling the truth and exposing themselves in the sun is simply exposing their shortcomings; but the intelligence of consumers cannot be underestimated. Sometimes a moderate admission of one's shortcomings can win trust more than in-depth packaging. In the Internet era, many brands like to get rid of negative points when faced with doubts; on the contrary, an attitude of "being frank if there is a mistake" can win the trust of consumers. 2. Trilogy of collaborative participation and cohesion If the first change is a challenge, then the second action is "collaboration"; to further build the power of "fan base", a typical case of assistance in this regard is "Wikipedia". People from all over the world work together to create an entry. When the Oscars have just announced the Best Actress, you can find the answer on the encyclopedia soon, but you don’t know who updated the data on the encyclopedia. The most intuitive case in terms of branding is the Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014: In order to help ALS patients, Facebook founder Zuckerberg named Microsoft's Bill Gates and NBA Cavaliers LeBron James on the social platform. Celebrities such as Jeremy Lin. They pour a bucket of ice water from head to toe, or they can choose to donate money or name three friends to participate in their project, which is also very popular in China.

According to incomplete reported data, the total number of topics on Weibo has exceeded 4.5 billion views and 4.14 million discussions. Even if it is just a show, judging from the actual fundraising results and attention process, this is a positive and active charity. Show; maybe the game is not important but its purpose is recognized by many social citizens. Why do netizens and fans contribute? The main reason is to identify with a certain point, which may be interesting or consistent with values, and then like the brand or a certain IP, thus initiating the idea of ??participating. Furthermore, these fans use the community, the Internet, and the "you contribute a little" model to gather the power of small people into a huge force that is difficult to ignore. This is one of the characteristics of synergy. That is to say, when the masses help, fans with the same ideas can complete large projects that are difficult for one person to accomplish by just tapping the keyboard. But I have also seen many brands soliciting photos, texts, or memory-killing assistance activities from netizens, but they cannot arouse the mass effect like the "Ice Bucket Challenge". Why? The key is that the activity does not create a link with consumers and does not find a buzz. They will think that this brand has something to do with me. There are two strategies here: How to establish a link between the brand and consumers and gather collective consciousness? I think using case studies is the best way. According to records, Starbucks, which has always been good at marketing, held an event called the "White Cup Contest" in 2014. The rule is that users can register successfully by uploading hand-drawn photos via Weibo, Twitter, or Instagram after graffiti on a white Mark paper cup with the tag #WhiteCupContest, and the winner will receive the final prize. The secret here is to publish information and progress on the official website, making full use of the characteristics of different social media. The platform serves as an occasion for compound interest in content, attracting and spreading fans, and displaying the creations of netizens and summarizing and displaying works worth recommending. In addition to letting netizens feel the creativity, it can also promote the reusability of Starbucks cups. The clever way to package the brand is simply killing three birds with one stone; then why should consumers participate? In Starbucks, coffee is usually served in paper cups when taking out (unless customers are willing to bring their own tumblers). Although it is convenient for customers, it creates a lot of waste. In 2013, the United States has a new option, introducing paper cups that can be reused multiple times. . But in addition to the big mermaid logo on the cup, there is a low-key word "reusable" written on the edge. However, this kind of paper cup costs one US dollar to buy. To encourage everyone to use it more, Starbucks will give you a discount of US$0.1 when you use this paper cup to buy drinks, which means you can get your money back after using it 10 times. The question is, if several customers use this cup to buy Starbucks coffee at the same time, how to distinguish which one belongs to whom? The solution is to encourage everyone to doodle and create their own paper cups, and at the same time add the temptation of bonuses for the best creativity, wouldn’t consumers also earn money? Therefore, this is the fundamental element of customer participation, which can be summarized in two points: In fact, among netizens Before the hand-painting competition was proposed, some amazing hand-painted creations had already gone viral on the Internet, and I believe the brand team had definitely seen these works. Therefore, rather than saying that the activity points come from netizens’ suggestions on Starbucks ideas, it is more appropriate to say that “it attributes creativity and glory to netizens.” Don't look at this little trick, this is one of the important reasons why netizens are willing to automatically give their creativity to brands for free; then thinking about it, isn't this what people often say "go among users"? According to the investigation, in order to accept user submissions, Starbucks set up a website to continuously collect and process the opinions of netizens; this persistence has accumulated millions of comments. If 1 comment is meaningful, then there are more than 100,000 good comments and what can be promoted in the future. Project, isn’t it scary? 3. Reshape the user field and dominance. There is a misunderstanding for current brands: they crazyly allow their fans to express their opinions everywhere on the Internet, causing some uncontrollable public relations crises; but they do not establish their own content platform and formulate games. Rules for them to play. When I communicate with many single-brand bosses about private domain traffic, I will suggest that they let their teams build content mini-program communities. The first feedback they often give me is "If it can't bring profits, what's the use?"; these are the key points in the medium to long term. Where users crave most.

Starbucks has collected hundreds of thousands of good-looking works and presented them together as a waterfall web page; it must be said that compared to Facebook or Twitter, the momentum of consumers' works lined up is not only pleasing to the eye, but also makes viewers more interested. The feeling of "beauty". The people you want to participate in this way will not only have a showcase or become famous for it, but more importantly, the brand will also get a lot of interesting content from netizens, which will be a real pleasure for both the guest and the host. In addition, it is not difficult to see that there have been interesting bipolar trends in marketing in recent years. It is not that everyone is opening accounts on various social media to hold activities, nor is it that mobile phone screen advertisements are flying all over the place, but that users' desire for TVC promotional videos has become different. . One is the marketing strategy of becoming more and more active, which has no brand value. It only sells plaster-style touting how good your own brand is, and shoots advertisements to push it hard. Even if you are working on a brand, it is hard to imagine what an advertising company that has been working for decades would do, because they cooperate and execute according to Party A's requirements. The other is to tell brand stories in a narrative way, such as mixing products with celebrity endorsements to make it more entertaining; although I don’t understand the reason for the existence of “peddling-style brainwashing advertisements”, I understand that “advertising is less advertising” is the future trend . This has a huge relationship with the hobbies of people in the Z era, and what it represents is the change in the relationship between how to be friends with consumers; there are two problems here: assuming that the brand does not care about the click-through rate of the promotional video, and does not shoot, edit and publish according to the characteristics of the Internet , there is obviously nothing wrong with using the Internet as a publicity media. But if you want it to become a starting point for attracting the attention of netizens, I think it depends on whether your video can arouse ***. Although the promotional videos broadcast on TV are similar to those played on short video platforms, the way they are disseminated is different; the former is "no matter what bad video, as long as you choose the right time, someone will watch it", and paying attention to whether you like it or not is another Something happened. Therefore, TV advertising pays attention to simplicity, and it is enough to clearly state what the product features and brand have to say, and entertainment is the second priority; but in the era of Internet short videos, what users pay attention to is "interest and interaction." If it doesn’t attract me, I won’t even take a look at it and leave it. This is the biggest difference between the two: I believe you can also see that users have absolute control over the Internet. Most of the time, netizens know that brand advertising will In what form and where does it appear? What’s interesting is that you may not click once even if you browse online for a day. It is precisely because the control lies in the hands of the user that the sense of entertainment becomes so important. This is also the reason why some online videos become "viral videos." What matters is whether it can be spread by users like a virus in the sharing community. If the promotional video has no viral appeal, no matter how severe your cough is or if you faint with a fever, your virus will still not spread. So are there some best ways to reshape the dominant and user fields? There are two methodologies here: In the past, when brands did public relations (PublicRelations), why did they have to please the media first? Because without the media, your message cannot be spread to the ears of users. For example: through television, radio, publications, etc., they play the role of "gatekeeper" to help consumers filter which information is worth recommending and which is waste. Nowadays, social self-media has broken the traditional way. Everyone can register an account. It is possible that an unintentional sentence will become the headlines tomorrow. Then the rhythm and sequence of brand information transmission have evolved. In the past, it was brands, mass media, and consumers in sequence; now it is brands, self-media, consumers, mass media, and more consumers. It’s hard for me to imagine how those products that are still branded using traditional marketing methods can be accepted by users. Therefore, various platforms operate in an IP-based manner as much as possible. Users must speak rough words that consumers can understand. One of the elements of innovation. Secondly, what the brand wants to convey to consumers (product features, advantages, functions) cannot attract the attention of users, and is least likely to spread. It’s not that the user doesn’t want to watch it, but that he has to wait until he is close to the purchase stage before he will spontaneously look for relevant content to compare cost-effective products. Then you don’t know when a specific consumer is in the stage of considering, evaluating, purchasing, and enjoying in the decision-making process; what platform and media channel they are used to using to contact you; so it is difficult to focus on the content layer.

It is better to prepare five dimensions of information to help consumers make decisions: Starbucks is very good at using social media. In terms of operations, they use Facebook as a place to make friends with netizens and create a relaxed and interactive atmosphere to exchange information. Twitter is used as an online customer service to quickly respond to netizens’ opinions, guide users to resolve their confusion and publish information, while Pinterest shapes brand culture, allowing netizens to understand at first glance what spirit the brand wants to convey to consumers. Many domestic brands are accustomed to posting a video, pictures and text all over the Internet, but the effect is not good. Information that consumers are not interested in is interference, and the right information appearing at the wrong time and space is also interference; if your content matches the tonality of the platform and is exactly what they need, users will not only click to view it but also learn more. many. 4. Create topics, create and share topics. What modern people lack most is topics. You should often see this kind of dialogue on Weibo: "I must say that a certain movie has completely refreshed my definition of bad movies." Friend A left a comment, "I want to watch it more and more, how bad is this movie?"; Friend B left a comment, "I really want to see it 1". Isn't it strange that even though it is said to be terrible, it triggers a group of people's desire to watch it? This is like when a new iPhone comes on the market, there are always people clamoring to buy it, but there are still people who will immediately post photos of the phone on their WeChat Moments. Why do some people want to watch more bad movies? To put it bluntly, it's not because you don't trust other people's taste, but because you want to keep up with their topics. The specific manifestation of this psychological reaction in real life is that "everyone has bought unnecessary or unimportant things more or less", but behind it is actually the leadership of the topic. For example: when you are browsing a short video, a video related to a tool for cleaning white shoes pops up. You see that the price is not expensive and you place an order. Maybe three days later, the express delivery cabinet reminds you that the goods have arrived, and you are suddenly stunned and thinking about what I bought a few days ago. So I divide the creation of topics into two aspects from the user's perspective: Suppose someone says to you, "You don't need to insert ads during the highest-rated period of the year, but you can make the attention keep thinking of you when they see your ads." Brand"; you will definitely think, how can there be such a good lunch in the world. The Volvo brand did this by holding the "best interception event" in history during the 2015 Football Cup. How did it work? It is now airing an ad on TV in the days leading up to the Super Bowl with the following caption: When you watch the Super Bowl on February 1st you will see a variety of car ads, but not Volvo; instead we will see you Take part in the greatest "interception" event ever. You can use the time between advertisements of other brands to write on Twitter who you most want to give this car to, and you will have a chance to get a brand new Volvo. While other cars want to let you know about their performance and configuration, we care more about "who is the most important person in your life." how? The activity is simple, using video marketing and social media relay to expand its influence. This approach makes the activity not only at the promotion level, but also spreads the brand's people-first concept; it is precisely because the core of "it's about me" is the key to communication. . Therefore, those likes, shares, and continued views on the Internet are actually of little significance. Only by creating a suitable social media feature can the brand continue to promote the topic. I believe some people know that IKEA sells modular home furnishings that you need to "make it yourself", but what young people may not know is that IKEA also has several restaurants that offer DIY cooking, which is very strange from a brand perspective. Bar! In the restaurant, instead of displaying props for you to see in an IKEA display space, you can actually use the equipment to hold a party; why do you do this? I think there are four aspects, namely focusing on consumer trial experience and increasing product sales rate; spreading word-of-mouth to create content and checking in and taking pictures to increase the favorability of IKEA; collecting user suggestions as a reference for improvement; and making full use of restaurant space to create marketing event. Once you understand the above two cases, you will understand that topics can be found everywhere, and using reverse thinking combined with the scenario can quickly get the brand out of the circle. To sum up: activities are the core of the entire event, and giving consumers the right to speak in brand building is the basic condition of participatory marketing. In addition, in order to leave a deep memory for users, I think it is a "wow" move to well preserve the works of each participation.

Isn’t this user-created brand? #Columnist#Wang Zhiyuan, public account: Wang Zhiyuan, author of the best-selling book "Compound Interest Thinking", everyone is a product manager columnist. Internet scholars, technology and Internet on the left, and individual cognitive growth on the right. This article was originally published on Everyone is a Product Manager. Reprinting without permission is prohibited. The title picture comes from Unsplash, based on the CC0 agreement