President of Seconds Systems Zhao Jie
Economic Observation Network reporter Li Xiaodan "In 2022, social marketing will continue to grow, the growth rate of the budget of cutting-edge advertisers will be more obvious, and KOL promotion and short videos will still be the first choice for advertisers in social marketing in 2022." Zhao Jie, president of Seconds Hand System, said that major platforms are upgrading the content planting section to improve the quality and efficiency of planting grass.
The "2022 China Social and Content Marketing Trends" and "2022KOL Marketing Trends White Paper" released by Seconds Hand Show that social marketing continues to rise after 2021, and the growth rate is expected to be 18% in 2022. Among them, KOL promotion and short video are the two major focuses of advertisers' social marketing in 2022, and product planting has become the primary purpose of KOL promotion.
The reality of cross-domain purchases by consumers makes the ROI (Return on Investment) evaluation of cross-domain KOLs a major problem for advertisers. Zhao Jie said that the efficiency of brand planting also needs scientific algorithms and evaluations, and the performance of water interaction, social media delivery returns, and content efficiency index are the three core indicators of seconds hand evaluation social ROI, and the effect of cross-platform KOL content can be scientifically evaluated through effect attribution.
"From interaction to resonance, content planting must be valued and valued." Zhao Jie said.
Planting grass depends on the conversion rate
Economic Observer Network: What will be the changes in KOL marketing in 2022?
Zhao Jie: Seconds hand KOL marketing is divided into three categories: brand communication, product planting and cargo conversion. Brand communication has indeed declined, but product planting and cargo conversion has been growing. Our survey shows that in 2022, there will be a clear echelon change in KOL marketing purposes: brand communication is 27%, 37% of the conversion of goods, and 54% of the product planting, compared with last year, the product planting grass increased by 14%, and the conversion of goods increased by 2%. Overall, KOL marketing is mainly aimed at growing grass on products, but the pursuit of product-effectiveness is still exuberant. Product planting is also a way of brand communication, an evolution of brand communication, and its hierarchical expression. Many brands need both brand planting and live streaming conversion.
At present, the conversion rate of goods is not easy to measure, and advertisers face the top three challenges of KOL promotion: data fraud, rampant water, unable to accurately assess KOL performance; unable to evaluate cross-platform KOL investment ROI; data scattered, unable to precipitate accumulation and reuse. The evaluation system of Social ROI launched by Seconds Hand can evaluate the effectiveness of KOL content through three evaluation dimensions: "product", "effect" and "cause", that is, interactive performance, social media delivery return, and content efficiency index.
Economic Observation Network: The effect of product planting and cargo conversion is not easy to measure, the marketing demand of these two parts is still increasing, what should be done in brand communication?
Zhao Jie: For brand owners, we must grasp two points, one is to pay more attention to word of mouth with the help of social media marketing, which will become more and more important, such as beauty, 3C electronic products, etc. Second, the content power is also very important, what to impress consumers is the increasing concern of advertisers, to do a good job in communication touchpoints and content. Now you can use tools to measure the communication of the brand, such as the distribution of platforms for cross-domain communication, and the role of the platform will be highlighted in this process.
Economic Observation Network: In 2022, what are the new changes in the needs of brands in social marketing? How can these changes be met for the platform?
Zhao Jie: Now we are talking about traffic blessing, high-quality content combined with traffic rollout, and put forward higher requirements for the evaluation of marketing effects, which is also a challenge. In social marketing, we can see that live broadcasting has almost become the standard for brands. In addition, in the past two years, brand spokespersons and live streaming anchors have frequently rolled over, and brands also need to find safe spokespersons and anchors that will not have a credibility crisis, so they will see brands choose to cooperate with brand digital stand-ins/virtual IP in the metaverse, or build their own digital brand spokespersons. In the live broadcast room, there has also been a live broadcast face change, the anchor avatar has been replaced by a cartoon character image, and the maturity of technology and brand demand will spawn more virtual spokespersons.
Economic Observation Network: What are the suggestions for achieving the integration of product and effect in social marketing?
Zhao Jie: In the past, brand advertising and performance advertising were carried out separately by the two departments of advertisers, and now they are increasingly done in the same system. In terms of results, even performance advertising should actually be long-term, and there is no complete estrangement and opposition between product and effect. Brands themselves have also found that they cannot simply pursue short-term results, which will have an impact on brand building.
Measuring the strength of planting grass is actually the unity of product and effect. The second hand is also exploring the indicator system of product-effect integration, Social ROI has always been an important indicator of measurement of communication, and the independent IP visitor (Unique Visitor) used by e-commerce is to measure the effect of planting grass, in fact, this is the most typical case of product-effect combination. Advertisers often have dedicated teams or consumer market research departments (CMKs) to analyze consumption and efficacy.
Content is king
Economic Observation Network: Will grass-growing content marketing still become a key drainage method used by major platforms in 2022? What are the challenges to planting the grass?
Zhao Jie: I judge that social marketing must be planted, and brand power also needs to be measured by planting grass. The grass planting model does face many challenges, one of which is the problem of the circle layer, each platform has its own way of planting grass, taking the Little Red Book as an example, the most suitable is the mid-waist KOL. Station B is suitable for locking in young consumers who are mainly interested in animation and games through creative content, and planting grass in the circle layer. For some platforms, planting grass has even become a direct measure of their marketing capabilities, such as Douyin, which emphasizes rapid planting of grass, hoping that the audience will buy directly after reading it, and the conversion link will be shorter and directly converted. So the challenges of each platform are different, and brands need differentiated grass content and form.
Economic Observer Network: Will short videos and live broadcasts continue to become the mainstream of goods?
Zhao Jie: Live streaming with goods will still be the mainstream, from the perspective of advertisers, live streaming with goods has become a sales channel that must be used, and brands must build their own positions, which is already standard. The supervision of indicators has been strengthened, which is an issue that brands must pay attention to when using live streaming channels. In February 2021, the Cyberspace Administration of China and seven other departments jointly issued the Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Standardized Management of Online Live Broadcasting, rectifying live broadcasting problems such as abnormal recharge and rewarding and being full of vulgar content. The frequent occurrence of live rollover incidents will also make advertisers more cautious when choosing KOLs.
Economic Observer Network: Will brands' investment in KOCs also increase?
Zhao Jie: According to the second hand's calculation, the overall number of KOLs in 2021 will increase by 15% compared with last year. The proportion of super head KOLs decreased slightly due to the "rollover" event; the proportion of head and shoulder KOLs increased slightly, up 0.4% and 0.1% respectively; The proportion of waist KOLs fell by 5.8%; in addition, tail KOLs, which we often call KOCs, increased the most significantly, increasing by 5.5%.
The fundamental reason for the growth of KOC is the high cost performance and combination. For advertisers, if the management is good enough, the budget is the same, with a head KOL or a group of KOCs, the effect is not much different. In fact, it is also difficult for brands to manage and negotiate with head KOLs, and often the platform has a greater voice.
Economic Observer Network: What is your suggestion for the incubation and operation of content IP?
Zhao Jie: At present, the platform has played the traffic to the extreme, and the traffic has shown linearity, that is, as long as the money is thrown, it will generate traffic, of course, there is also a situation where the money is not effective. Therefore, the incubation and operation of content IP also depends on content, such as the linkage of platform and sports IP, the linkage of Kuaishou cross-border and traditional sports event IP Of the America's Cup, and the entry of event themes and sports stars to encourage user interaction and secondary creation. In addition, there are also many IP co-brands in new consumer goods, all of which are content-driven marketing.