Have you ever seen a one-eyed, studded, beaver that grows in piranha flowers? The red fox with big ears in his memory suddenly "transformed" into a fashion trend maker this summer.
From July 17th to August 29th, the Dream Castle 2021 Ahu Fairy Tale New Life Art Exhibition takes 14 days as a cycle, after three rounds of artist flash relay, taking turns to present the collision and integration of trend culture and Ahu IP culture under different art forms, and interpreting the spiritual link between Ahu and Generation Z audiences from the current perspective.
As a well-known national IP, Ahu has never stopped exploring the pace of new consumption methods and IP self-iteration. Adhere to long-chain IP operations, continuously expand the industrial value of IP, and gain young people's support by creating consumption scenarios such as offline art exhibitions, live-action theme parks, retail tea shops, and themed social spaces; Online is committed to upgrading new content, large movies, long-form dramas, IP aesthetics research institutes continue to upgrade, forming a fan group continuation, growing with the audience.
A 15-year-old Tanuki is "invading" Generation Z.
Castle of Dreams 2021: A Midsummer Night's Dream of Generation Z
As the first cross-border trend art exhibition in the 15 years since the birth of Ahu, the Castle of Dreams 2021 Ahu Fairy Tale New Life Art Exhibition was officially opened on July 16 at the Ideal Gas Space of Ideal Gas in the 798 Art District, with an exhibition cycle lasting 42 days and will successively present more than 100 works of Art of Ahu.
Although it is the first time to hold a cross-border trend art exhibition, Ahu IP has become familiar with it with the curatorial experience accumulated over the years. In 2014, Ah Tanuki's 8th birthday gift was "into the city", choosing Taikoo Li, the most commercial atmosphere in Beijing and Chengdu, and feeling the "fairy tale under the sky" in the "secret garden". In 2016, AHu and Gong Wangfu jointly held the theme exhibition of "Gathering gong wangfu with Ahu Yuan" to show the intersection and collision of traditional culture and modern fairy tales.
Different from 7 years ago, with the theme of "Fairy Tale Rebirth", this time invited contemporary urban artist Pang Fan, trend art head team WISEMAN / KUPAJI, and new era girl Picasso artist Song Santu to integrate their own artistic style into the core of Ahu, create a series of original paintings, sculptures and cultural creations with trend as the main element and relay display, and guide the Z generation audience to receive diversified trend culture.
Artist Pang Fan studio member
In the view of contemporary urban artist Pang Fan, Ahu is "very forward-looking" and "a new field of trend art". As the first stick of the pop-up exhibition, the exhibition hall of the Castle of Dreams is full of Bab-Motion movements of Aku, combining the image of A-Beaver with a large number of hippie and tie-dye elements.
Artistic tie-dye in Pang Fan's works
The expressions of wiseman and the KUPAJI team are more cool, with strong symbolic attributes. WISEMAN boldly innovated, giving A Beaver a "transformation" into an image with a series of studs, or only one eye; The KUPAJI team first "into" utopia and then "out" of utopia.
WORKS BY WISEMAN
Some of KUPAJI's works
From left, KUPAJI designer Ryota Ghost, new-age girl Picasso artist Song Santu Santusong, contemporary urban artist Pang Fansack
The last baton of the fairy tale new art exhibition was handed over to the new era girl Picasso artist Song Santu. On the day of the launch, which coincided with Tanabata, the brilliant colors of the three earth-style science and technology appeared in front of the audience with the form of a fox in the next 50 years and 100 years.
Song Santu's works "A Fox under the Fantasy Universe" and "Galactic Super Explosion"
Whether it is from the main creative team, the exhibition situation, or the inspiration structure, this beaver fairy tale new art exhibition focuses on "cross-border", and the four groups of artists skillfully use trend elements to make fairy tales show different colors.
Under their meticulous creation, Ahu was excavated to be more in line with the personality characteristics of Generation Z - love of freedom, advocating self-expression, actively exploring the inner world, loving new things, and having an inner love and strength. At the same time, it also narrows the distance between the beaver and the Z generation crowd, so that the beaver can gain attraction in the Z generation, bringing everyone a different warmth and touch.
Fan iteration and continuation, how Ahu did it
Casually click on the social software, the "presence" of Ahu on the network is not generally strong. Take the user feedback of this art exhibition, the little red book can be seen everywhere punch card notes.
"I never thought that after the combination of Ahu and contemporary art and trends, it can give people such a big surprise and super visual impact", "The work retains a nature, but also leaves us with a sense of fairy tale imagination and atmosphere", "Attracted by the Beaver riding a wooden horse at the door, a meaningful exhibition that cannot be missed"...
On the group portrait and consumption trend of Generation Z, Xinhuanet × Xiaohongshu released the "New Knowledge of the Lifestyle of Generation Z" mentioned that in the past six months, the search volume of "watching exhibitions" on Xiaohongshu has increased by more than 40% month-on-month, and the average number of releases has exceeded 20%, and "watching exhibitions" is also becoming one of the new trends after 95.
In addition to the Beijing Art Exhibition, Ahu's diversified offline real-life industry is also sought after by young people in other first- and second-tier cities. A beaver field farms in Chengdu and Ningbo have small houses based on the Ahu animation picture book; Wuhan's first Ahu theme park, built a giant Ahu slide, overlooking quite shocking, are worth a tandem fan outing punch card.
The 2020 Generation Z Insight Report released by QuestMobile data shows that as the mainstream of the two-dimensional culture, Generation Z is willing to pay for the fun of the experience, of which the average number of blind boxes released increased by 293.4%.
For example, A tanuki cherry blossom signed series blind box, a tanuki romantic sky blind box, a violent animal series, fairy tale series, etc., blind box design makes the purchase process an interesting experience, A tanuki doll IP image won more female Generation Z users love.
It can be seen that A Beaver, which was born in 2006, can achieve fan iteration and continuation, which can really be called a real "national IP".
On the one hand, it serves as a link to maintain an audience of two or three generations. With the growth of the post-80s and post-90s, many of the first fans of Ahu have now set up families, and their children (post-00s) are the new generation of fans of Ahu.
On the other hand, a kind of user iteration has been reached, whether it is 80, 90 or today's Generation Z, perhaps there are differences in consumer behavior and aesthetic habits, but the spiritual connection with Ahu has not changed, and we still feel love, warmth and touch by participating in the different product experiences of Ahu.
The "new birth" and "re-departure" of national IP
In the post-epidemic era, Generation Z has shown vigorous consumption power, and if they want to capture new outlets and occupy a place, they need to deeply understand and grasp the consumption habits and characteristics of young people, and accurately reach the target audience through product iteration and new operating models.
The industries extended around the Ahu IP are also becoming more and more diversified, and the construction of a complete link between new content, new aesthetics and new scenes can be seen as the "new life" of the national IP.
In terms of "new content", it focuses on the continuous upgrading and development of picture books, movies and memes.
At the 15th anniversary birthday party of Ahu in March this year, City of Dreams revealed that Ahu's first big movie is expected to be released during the 2022 New Year period; A tanuki long-form drama is being planned and produced, and each season will have 260 minutes, and Ahu and his friends will embark on a fun adventure in this world to fight monsters.
In terms of "New Aesthetics", the IP Aesthetics Research Institute of the City of Dreams was established to explore the implementation of the ultimate aesthetic design concept and standard of IP in product design. As an indispensable library in IP aesthetic design, the production of the aesthetics research institute's gallery will also increase.
In terms of "new scenes", Ahu IP has entered the fields of trend derivatives, construction of offline live-action theme parks, residential parks, art fairy tale retail tea shops, theme social spaces and other fields, becoming the first IP in China to win the Asia Licensing Industry Awards Asia's Best New Licensing Brand.
It can be seen that constantly broadening its own business imagination has also made Ahu IP burst out of more powerful vitality. "IP + content + new consumption new scenarios" is monetized through the form of products, forming a continuation of the fan group, IP influence and IP maturity growing simultaneously, and commercial transformation is more direct and efficient.
As a national IP that has been developed for fifteen years, the next step of Ahu is to hope to benchmark HelloKitty, transform into a classic national IP, and complete the "re-departure".
Looking at the development of global animation IP, HelloKitty was first born on a wallet launched by Sanrio in 1974, mainly for the female market. Sanrio's operation and maintenance model for HelloKitty is to first establish an image, then make it more plump through additional content such as human designs, and enter public life by authorizing goods.
HelloKitty's highest source of income is derivative sales, using the concept of all-round marketing, covering all aspects of life, and the user base is expanding accordingly. In the 2019 Global IP Value Rankings, Hello Kitty ranked second with an IP valuation of $80 billion, behind the game IP Pokémon from Nintendo.
As a product-based IP, HelloKitty thus forms a positive cycle of "exposure - influence enhancement - more exposure - greater influence", which is a way for Ahu IP to be localized and shaped.
Applied to Ahu, first of all, we must let the content-based IP and product-based IP "walk on two legs", use the content and channel advantages of the Ahu IP, pay attention to the development of IP offline, and maintain high exposure. For example, in cooperation with airlines, railways, and subway departments, we have launched themed aircraft trains, and continuously expanded the offline market through extensive cooperation and diversified derivatives.
In addition, accelerate the IP incubation time, gradually focus on increasing the attention of the Generation Z population from all-age coverage, and further develop the enthusiasm and purchasing power of Generation Z consumers; Increase the injection of new blood into the IP pool, such as the hatched deer almonds, the exclusive agent of the bitter bear, this year's newly added Tianchao snacks two or three things, etc., through animation, games and other different carriers, improve the popularity of IP, and through the continuous launch of new content to keep ip fresh.
The two major advantages of content and business go hand in hand, and brand thinking and aesthetic design assist in moving forward, which together constitute the IP4.0 model. That is, through the end-to-end, online + offline whole industry chain capabilities, to provide customers with the ultimate IP platform services. This model is undoubtedly a valuable breakthrough in exploring and redefining the value of the entire licensing industry.
According to official disclosures, the Castle of Dreams 2021 Ahu Fairy Tale New Life Art Exhibition will be unveiled at the end of September at the end of 2021 Beijing International Design Week. Beijing International Design Week is a large-scale annual cultural event and an international creative design event held in Beijing, providing a normalized display, exchange and transaction service platform for domestic and foreign design institutions and talents.
As the second stop of the Beijing tour exhibition, the Castle of Dreams 2021 Ahu Fairy Tale New Life Art Exhibition is located in the Dongcheng branch of the Design Week "Design Journey", which focuses on the theme of "Brand Power" of the Design Week and shows the IP culture and communication power of Ahu at home and abroad. In addition, the Castle of Dreams 2021 Ahu Fairy Tale New Life Art Exhibition plans to hold a tour exhibition in Hangzhou at the end of October this year to further expand the brand influence.
In the next 15 years of Ahu, we will wait and see whether we can move from national IP to classic IP.
Source: Guangming Network