Image source @ Visual China
Wen | zhixing driving path
On March 15, "Deng Lun evaded taxes and was fined 106 million yuan" on Weibo's hot search, and the local tax department pursued Deng Lun's tax payment, increased late fees and imposed fines, totaling 106 million yuan. Deng Lun's commercial value collapsed completely, and many brands terminated their contracts and swept the screen of hot searches.
In fact, there are not a few incidents of the spokesperson collapsing in the car circle, 2021, which can be called the first year of the collapse of various stars, and there are many melons in the car circle spokesman. The Wu Yifan incident continued to ferment, Porsche quickly officially announced the termination of cooperation; the Internet celebrity couple who cooperated with Rolls-Royce were accused of pulling down the product style, and the black history of not wearing seat belts was accused by the whole network; Li Yundi, as the owner of the Great Wall WEY and GAC Toyota, quickly broke up the relationship between the two car companies after the overturning of the car.
When real idols frequently overturned, car companies began to turn their attention to virtual idols with low risk of collapse. According to ai media consulting data, the core industry market size has reached 3.46 billion yuan in 2020, when it was predicted that the Chinese market size will reach 6.22 billion yuan in 2021 and 20.55 billion yuan in 2023.
Above the outlet, various car companies are scrambling to open up the blue ocean market of virtual idols, can this group of "paper people" help the brand to successfully go out of the circle?
01, star "down", virtual idol "up"
In the car circle in 2021, the damaged brand image due to the endorsement of celebrities is difficult to remedy. Obviously, it is Party A, but it has become a back pot person, and more marketers laugh at themselves: "This year, the most familiar business of the brand side is to terminate the contract." The celebrities' own topics and traffic will bring attention to the endorsement products. However, unlike FMCG, due to the high cost of car purchase decisions, the star effect has less impact on consumers' car selection, which is more reflected in the attraction of crowd values. Consumers are often more rational when choosing automotive products, and price, brand, space, power, accessories, intelligence, etc., are the more important considerations when buying a car.
Under the commercial competition, the star effect cannot compete with the market trend. Even the Nazhi Gena 5 endorsed by popular idol Jay Chou and the Beetle endorsed by traffic star Lu Han will eventually escape the result of declining sales or even discontinuation. Public opinion in the entertainment industry has risen, and the "pot" will come from the sky at any time. In the current risk society, car companies choose live celebrity endorsement products, not necessarily to enjoy the dividends brought by traffic, but also to bear the risk and responsibility of celebrity people overturning. Car companies that have been tragically harmed by celebrity rollovers have also been painfully determined and began to look for a new way out of marketing. As the commercial value of virtual idols continues to rise, its commercial monetization ability will become stronger and stronger, will cooperation with virtual idols become a new trend in the automotive industry?
02, "paper people" burst into popularity, car companies flocked to
When real idols have "died in society" one after another, virtual idols loved by young people have gradually become the traffic password for brand marketing and broken into the track of the automotive industry. After Porsche's spokesperson lost his morality and withdrew from the circle, the brand decided to take a different path and invest in Wanxiang Technology, a technology company that specializes in creating virtual idols, to create a "spokesperson" that will not roll over. For many people who don't "surf", virtual idol may be an unfamiliar term. Unlike the well-known idol stars, virtual idols are produced through paintings, animations, CG, etc., and their behavior is manipulated by human algorithms. They have the appearance of anime characters or real humans, the appearance and human settings that will not collapse, and also meet the audience's imagination of the perfect idol.
In fact, the cooperation between virtual idols and car companies is not a new thing. As early as 2011, virtual singer Hatsune Mirai became the spokesperson for Toyota Corolla 2011. The popularity of the "meta-universe" has ushered in a new wave of development climax for virtual idols, the proportion of young users in the consumer market has gradually increased, and major brands have quickly joined the battlefield to win the favor of young users. In September 2021, MG MG's original virtual spokesperson, MG ONE electromechanical tide, organically combined the trendy technology modeling with the highlights of automotive intelligence, allowing the company to harvest a wave of heat.
On December 31, 2021, Changan Automobile's first digital employee "Gong" joined the company, she has a red neat short hair, wearing a very high-tech mech, once again attracted the attention of everyone.
On the stage of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, we will see the figure of virtual singer Luo Tianyi. The "paper people" of the two-dimensional world have gradually entered the public's vision and are recognized by more people. Ai Media Consulting data shows that in 2021, 48.9% of Chinese netizens spend basically the same amount for virtual idols as real idols, and 37.6% of netizens spend more money for virtual idols than real idols. Chinese consumers favor virtual endorsements, and brand marketing methods for virtual idols have become a new business trend. So, who is most willing to pay for a virtual idol?
According to the "2019 Generation Z Consumption Power White Paper" released by Tencent, China's Generation Z population reaches 149 million people and will account for 40% of the overall consumption power by 2020. It can be seen that strong consumption power and dare to earn and dare to spend are the characteristics of Generation Z. Influenced by the two-dimensional culture, the post-95s and post-00s Generation Z is the largest audience group of virtual idols, and car companies must first grasp their hearts if they want to get the top spot in the blue altitude of virtual idols. However, because of their long-term contact and love for the second dimension and virtual images, there are often higher standards for judging works.
According to the "2021 China Virtual Idol Consumption Market Research Report", 65.93% of consumers hope that virtual idols have their own careers, and another 71.27% of consumers hope that virtual idols have a skill. The virtual idols that young people love must also engage in business! When a virtual idol has both a sense of reality and interactivity, from appearance, personality, personality to behavior, can meet the expectations of Generation Z, its endorsement products can attract the attention of more young people.
The head IP of virtual idols has flourished, leading a very strong consumption force, but it does not mean that with virtual idol spokespersons, products can soar in sales. Under careful study, due to the high cost of production technology, image homogenization, lack of development stamina and other problems, it is difficult to break the circle of IP at the waist and below. A hundred flowers bloom, but there are not many real fires. In recent years, the only virtual idols known to the public are the singer Luo Tianyi, who is active in major galas, the girl group A-SOUL jointly planned by Byte and Lehua, the AYAYI blogger of Xiaohongshu with goods, and the newly hired Xiaoyang of Hunan Satellite TV.
If you want to create a successful virtual idol, from creativity, production, publicity to market circulation, you need a mature production and operation model, and the output is a steady stream of positive topics. In the face of high investment in pre-research and development and post-marketing, whether car companies should follow the trend to create virtual idols still needs to draw a big question mark. On May 1, 2021, virtual singers Luo Tianyi, Yan He and other 5 virtual idols helped the "Tmall Youth Lab" Taobao live broadcast room, with a total of 9 products, and the number of online viewers reached 2.7 million in one hour. On June 25, Ye Xiu, the protagonist of "Full-time Master", also appeared in the Mattesbonwe Tmall live broadcast room.
In the future, car companies can also choose to cooperate with virtual idols such as Luo Tianyi, Ye Xiu, and AYAYI that have matured and have a fan base according to their product styles to seek more marketing methods. After all, not every newborn virtual idol can become the next Luo Tianyi.
03, virtual idols have unlimited opportunities, and embarrassment and challenges coexist
Imagine what you want to experience most when you get into a new car. Zhang Renjie, a well-known expert in the Internet of Vehicles, once mentioned, "In the past, we used technology to promote products, and in the future, we used experience to promote products." The driving experience that users aspire to achieve can drive the future development of the car. Now, we can call on AI voice assistants, such as Weilai's "little CAN" and Xiaopeng's "little P", to complete the basic commands such as opening the car window, playing music, and voice navigation.
In the future, when the virtual idol moves into the material space, what changes can it bring to your travel? The electrification and intelligence of automobiles have brought about a large number of demand for electronic components, driving the rapid development of the electronics industry. Similarly, human-computer interaction is empowering cars, and the rise of virtual idols is also driving AI, VR, MR and other technologies to move forward at full speed.
In January 2022, Auchan Z6 debuted with a virtual spokesperson. Through face recognition and voice reproduction technology, car owners can enter the image and voice of the people around them, becoming a "handy" intimate escort. Using virtual idols as a medium, more human-vehicle interaction functions will be generated in the future. Based on powerful data and algorithmic technology, virtual idols have a super memory that they can never forget, can play your favorite music and news information at the right time, plan the perfect self-driving tour route, assist in handling basic work business, and may also identify emotions through expressions and sounds, and become companions, listeners or psychological counselors.
With the development of technology, machines are gradually becoming biological. David, the cyborg in the movie Alien: Covenant, finally awakens and begins an AI betrayal of humanity. We often see such surreal plots in science fiction films, but in daily life, due to the diversity and ambiguity of human emotions and languages, it is not simple to achieve free communication between humans and machines. When "human-computer interaction" becomes "everyone's interaction", virtual idols are endowed with wisdom and personality, which is the meaning of AI artificial intelligence technology.
What kind of spark the virtual idol will collide with the car is worth looking forward to. The biggest difference between them and live idols is that they break free from the limitations of time and space, can accompany them all day and night, will not have the illegal behavior of real stars, and never have to worry about changes in appearance or body. Under the fan economy, many companies will choose virtual idol endorsements with high plasticity and design their own "perfect" image that meets the tone of the product to achieve the purpose of attracting fans.
The "new force of car building" is also new in marketing, and the virtual owner Cora, which was launched in October 2021, is the product of user co-creation, and what the virtual idol does and what it is called can be decided by the user himself. At the same time, based on the depth algorithm, virtual idols are also evolving and growing when participating in events and talking to real people. Such an idol culture is in line with the contemporary young people who love freedom and pursue individuality.
Not only cars, but also the FMCG industry is also using virtual idols to "live the whole life". In recent years, KFC has transformed into a fashionable and handsome virtual idol in order to cater to the young market and a kind grandfather spokesperson. The well-known domestic brand Hua Xizi also stands on the cusp, hoping to show the world Chinese makeup and oriental beauty through this confident and elegant fashion lady, and promote its own brand concept. The gimmicks are plentiful, but the data is terrible. The official Weibo interaction data of the avatar is much lower than that of the real celebrity, and in the account of "Huaxizi - Oriental Beauty", the amount of Weibo interaction is even less.
In addition to the unsatisfactory data, because the virtual spokesperson has no body feeling, some users cannot be convinced of the feedback of goods such as "moisturizing and drying" and "comfortable and soft". For example, the virtual idol Ling _LING and the AYAYI Little Red Book comment area received negative reviews about the products and advertisements.
Many virtual idols operate on a short front that can only attract the attention of the public for a short time, and such embarrassing situations are also common in automobile companies. The virtual idol competition stage "2060" planned by Changan Automobile has a mediocre reputation, and even many viewers said that they were "embarrassed". Among them, the virtual idol "Gong", although it has captured the eyes of many passers-by, the attention after that is not high.
There is still a certain distance between virtual idols and mass culture, and how to use virtual idols to tell brand stories and how to formulate IP-based operation strategies have become new challenges for brands in the future.
04. Wisdom and action
According to the survey data of Zhimeng Consulting in the "2020 China Consumer Trend Report", nearly 70% of users understand virtual idols and pay attention to the development and latest trends of virtual idols. At this stage, it is the golden age of virtual idol development, and a new commercial ecology has quietly taken shape. The emergence of this group of "paper people" has provided new ideas for the current car brand marketing, and has also brought more interesting ways to play and communicate with young users who pay attention to interactive experiences. It is foreseeable that in the future, there will be more excellent avatars that stand out.
In the face of new trends, it is even more important to return to its own manufacturing research and development. When the user experience and quality of car driving are improved, the endorsement of virtual idols can be called the icing on the cake. Under the premise of passing the quality of the car, are you willing to pay for the virtual idol?