How is automotive media doing in 2021? I asked this question a year ago at the beginning of "Sunrise Is Coming, But Not Your Dawn| Automotive Media Trend Predictions for 2021."
Independent individuals are cold and warm self-aware, can manage the way to peek at the leopard, in the past few years I have been looking at the financial reports of listed companies, in 2021, the limited financial report feedback is as follows:
EasyCar was delisted from the U.S. stock market at the end of 2020 and became a member of Tencent's territory. According to the "Financial Circle" report, E-Car will release a new version of the advertisement TVC, it is worth noting: E-Car launched its new advertising words "buy a new car E-car, certified consultant WeChat chat, rest assured that the price comparison does not suffer losses" - behind this is not difficult to see that E-Car through "one-click direct connection", and WeChat ecology in the integration of services to explore.
The online car market that completed listing in Hong Kong stocks in early 2021 is still in a state of breaking; Autohome, the most valuable of auto vertical platforms, still has a share price of US$100 per share in January 2021, compared with US$30.53 as of the close of trading on January 26, 2022; in March 2021, Autohome landed on the Hong Kong stock market, closing at HK$180/share on its first day, with a total market capitalization of HK$90.872 billion, and as of the close of trading on January 26, 2022, it was HK$60.45/share. The total market capitalization is HK$30.792 billion, and in the past 2021, the market value has shrunk by about the same as the US stock market.
The decline in the stock prices of the two listed companies has the same reason, that is, the growth of advertising revenue that occupies an important support part is not as expected, and the advertising revenue of Autohome even continues to decline sharply.
▲The picture is from the Red Star Capital Bureau
In 2021, the head platform of auto media is still Autohome, Easy Car and Understand Car Emperor. On the evening of January 20, there was news that ByteDance's annual revenue in 2021 was about $58 billion, an increase of 70% year-on-year, but compared with 2020 (revenue of $34.3 billion, an increase of 111% year-on-year), the growth rate of ByteDance revenue in 2021 has slowed down, and in Byte's revenue structure, the three businesses that account for the highest proportion are advertising, live broadcasting and e-commerce - I believe that in the structure of the revenue of ByteDance, advertising will only be more.
Behind the three head platforms, The battle between Tencent, Ping An and ByteDance in 2022 still looks like it revolves around from users to traffic.
In 2022, the most obvious trend is that the tide has receded and value is returning.
What impressed me most about Chedi and Autohome was that they both did a big thing at the end of 2021: pulled dozens of electric cars to the coldest place in China for winter testing. The car emperor is called "new energy winter test", and the auto home is called "winter laboratory - extreme cold survival challenge".
This kind of project can be summed up in two points: 1, to the point of user needs, there must be some people to see; 2, especially consume manpower, material and financial resources.
At the coldest time in 2021, both major platforms have chosen to spend money on content, which can be regarded as an excellent footnote and inspiration for the auto media in 2022.
I used nearly 1,000 words to introduce the survival status of the automotive vertical platform, because from them we can see the main line of the entire automotive media industry, at present, advertising revenue is still an important support for the survival of automotive media, the advertising of major platforms or decline, or slow down, then, where does the money go?
The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers disclosed on January 26, 2022 that China's auto retail sales will continue to grow in 2021. According to the data, in 2021, China's auto retail sales exceeded 4 trillion yuan, reaching 4.4 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.6% year-on-year, accounting for 9.9% of the country's total retail sales of social consumer goods, and it is still a well-deserved pillar industry of the national economy.
Under the consensus that the marketing expenditure of the automotive industry is finally proportional to the output, the media advertising investment of the entire automotive industry in 2021 must be positive compared with 2020. So I'm going to ask a question I asked at this time last year:
Dear automotive media colleagues, will your revenue grow positively in 2021? If the answer is "no," then you're most likely sliding towards the edge. Fundamentally healthy automotive media, in 2020 and 2021, the curve of continuous revenue growth should be obvious.
From the opening financial report, we can see that in 2021, auto marketing expenses are losing from the head platform more or less quickly or slowly. In 2020, I wrote about the decentralization of automotive platforms, and to this day, the head platform is still a gathering place for traffic and expenses, but the direction of marketing expenses has obviously gradually "decentralized".
At least from my observations, the various head media I follow (film and television trumpet, fashion big V, financial head media, etc.) have received a lot of car ads in 2021.
Another observation is that car advertising is flowing back to (what we usually think) traditional media. Last year, I wrote that after a round of shutting down and turning, the paper media that can survive have completed the transformation to "integrated media". I believe that in 2021, I can't see the financial reports, these head media from the print media after many rounds of iteration should have good revenue figures.
True creators, creative value should be represented in 2021 revenue.
So in 2022, what kind of predictions will we make for automotive media?
1. The moat of content professionalism will be further deepened, and small media with insufficient strength will be further eliminated.
In 2022, we predict that the major platforms that have peaked in advertising revenue and user growth will truly start a "content war".
Understanding the car emperor and the car home to spend money to do content can be seen as a kind of enlightenment, and in 2022 it will be a norm. This is true for big platforms, and it should be true for "small" media. If we look at it from the perspective of the platforms, those press releases and shoddy content are actually consuming the vitality and reputation of the platform.
However, everyone who does content should be very clear that good content is piled up by people and money. In 2020 and 2021, those who do not see the trend may stop moving forward; those who see the trend have already completed the accumulation, and 2022 will be the most brutal year of automotive content competition in three years. Media that lack real content-producing prowess will be further marginalized until they are eliminated.
2. The automotive media ranking will be further deepened and refined. The trend of head media branding is presented.
I said last year that rankings are important. The underlying logic is that the automotive industry does not need to have 20,000 or 30,000 auto media, so what is the simplest and crudeest criterion for judging? Platform rankings.
The platform needs an author. At this time, the platforms that have peaked in advertising revenue and user growth need to be grouped by high-quality authors, and at the same time, the platform has long been exploring "being a broker for creators" in advertising, and ranking is not only a contribution of "endorsing authors", to some extent, it will evolve into a cooperative map. On this basis, the media ranking will be further deepened and refined.
In this context, from the level of media authors, the branding of head media and the commercialization of personal media will also be the trend of the times. The high-cost operation of head media and the innovative operation of personal media all point to high-quality content.
3. Personal media blossoms.
Since it comes to personal media, it doesn't hurt to say a few words. In fact, since the rise of self-media, many professional individuals have gradually moved towards media. Among them, the opinion leaders from the big media have long completed the transformation from individuals to institutional self-media, and now the content is returned to professionalism, whether it is senior enthusiasts, engineers or professional students, as long as they have the ability to produce content, in fact, they have ushered in a better era than 8 years ago (when the rise of self-media).
Truly high-quality creators have always been scarce, the tide recedes, and the value returns. The new year wishes every talented content creator the recognition they deserve.
4. The head practitioners of the entire media industry will be given a share of the car.
According to the forecast of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, China's auto retail sales will continue to grow in 2022, China's auto market will usher in a better period of development, and market consumer demand will continue to improve quality.
That is to say, in 2022, the money flowing to the media in the automotive industry will continue to increase, so in the face of this big cake with full of gold content, the head practitioners of the entire media industry (especially the technology, fashion, and financial professional media) will have the opportunity to get the release from the automotive industry. The trend toward decentralization will not diminish.
5. For the public relations of automobile brands, 2022 will usher in new challenges.
Based on the above analysis of auto media, I think that after the elimination process in 2020 and 2021, the biggest challenge in 2022 is not the auto media itself, but the public relations of the auto brand. China's auto market has maintained growth, but it has long since left the "era of average growth", and behind each positive growth percentage point, brands with sluggish or even plummeting sales are accelerating their decline.
Since there is no lying to win, then marketing has become a real craft in this era.
The marketing department can still focus on hot spots and head money, so how the public relations department views the media value and uses the media value, the level of craftsmanship, 2022 will be at the brand marketing level.
I have said many times that in today's market, especially in the price range of more than 200,000 yuan for "quality improvement and upgrading" demand, models at the same price level actually do not have the so-called crushing at the level of real product strength, and the decision on sales is high or low depends on whether the brand has appeal to consumers.
The scarcity of quality content will, in fact, give auto PR a bigger advantage than ever.
First-class public relations understand the core of media value, they will further make good use of resources, the real value of resources (first release content and exclusive content), tilted to the media with professional content production strength, to carry out content co-creation, to the media "feed traffic";
Second-rate PR is good at spending money, knows how to identify the media, and accurately delivers money to valuable media in exchange for valuable content.
The last-rate public relations look down on the media, but they are afraid of the media "exploding negative", and like to sprinkle pepper noodles with "average large-area delivery", which seems to be balanced, but in fact, it cannot be exchanged for truly valuable content.
The above content is not my original (the view comes from the WeChat public account: a mouthful of old cannon), no matter what industry it is placed in, the reform of public relations thinking has already begun. There is no shortage of PR in this industry, but skilled PR is clearly very scarce. For automotive PR people, new challenges and opportunities will be further unfolded in 2022.
More than 3,000 words, roughly recording our thinking about the present. There are two other things that have touched me a lot lately.
One is that after Via disappeared for a month, the industry found that no anchor could undertake Via's traffic, and even issued an exclamation that "the entire industry is retreating". Chinese says that "prosperity must decline", and after prosperity, turn around and go down, which is the law of physics. Returning to the head platform of the automotive industry, this process has also been witnessed over the years. For creators like us, I am more convinced that traffic is only the bottom line, and real creators will look at the ceiling rather than pursue the bottom line.
One is that I watched the awards of the top 100 UP masters of the B station, and I saw that above the profession, there is also a love for what they do. This love is not written on the lips, but in the eyes.
If traffic is the bottom line of automotive media, then what is the ceiling of automotive media? I didn't think of a definitive answer, all I could think of was one sentence,
Love can last for years.
I think that after the tide is low, every content creator should be a staunch long-termist, and many people have said "be friends with time". But if there is no love, being friends with time will become cruel.
Professionalism requires a lot of time and a lot of effort. Only on the basis of true love, these time and efforts will degenerate into true "professional value".
In 2022, I wish that every dedicated creator can get rid of the virtual to the real, in love, but also on the basis of continuous accumulation, usher in their own value era.
▲On behalf of the Driver's Pai, I would like to wish you all the best in the new year. May we continue to shine on each other in 2022.
This article is sourced from:
1. China Economic Network: "The news said that ByteDance will earn an average of 1.007 billion yuan per day in 2021, but the growth rate will slow down year-on-year"
2. Interface News: "Revenue growth slows to 70% in 2021, ByteDance waits for the second growth curve"
3. Red Star Capital Bureau: "Autohome 2021: Internal and External Troubles"
4. Financial circle: "The new version of TVC of E-Car is about to land on three David TV, Shen Teng's three consecutive years of speech"
5. China News Service: "China's auto retail sales maintain growth in 2021 and are expected to continue to grow in 2022"
6. An old cannon: "Poor, has become a PR mantra"
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