Ignition Dimension (ID: chaintruth) original
Produced by Burning Finance
Author 丨 Marshye
Edited by 丨 Cao Yang
In the past, the evaluations that were praised by users on the "altar" seemed to have gradually lost the trust of young people.
At the beginning of March, the car review blogger "Little Nonsense Car", which has millions of fans, was complained about by Extreme Krypton Automobile for publishing evaluation videos about the "retention rate, endurance and 9 shortcomings of Extreme Krypton" of the second-hand car. Extreme Krypton Automobile said that the video of the above blogger was malicious negative reporting, misleading the public and demanding a public apology.
Just a month before the "Little Nonsense Car" evaluation video rolled over, Glory took the "Xiaojiang Evaluation" of Weibo's 100,000 followers to court. Honor said that the blogger reprinted and released the Honor V40 and x7 tablet and other evaluation content was confirmed to have no actual evaluation at all, and the "Xiaojiang Evaluation" will also usher in a fine of nearly 90,000 yuan.
Earlier in 2021, the "Dad Review", a blogger with tens of millions of fans who was evaluated out of the circle, fell into a crisis of trust due to the fact that there were many false data and descriptions in the evaluation.
Like the "Dad Review", which is popular because of the evaluation, but also in crisis, there are tens of millions of fans of the Douyin Internet celebrity "Ah Chun is a counterfeit evaluator". In 2020, "A Chun" was successively exposed by other bloggers to falsely evaluate, and a certain brand of creams sold daily by it was also ordered by the Market Supervision Bureau.
Behind the repeated overturning of evaluations, on the one hand, with the increasing selectivity of consumption, consumers' demand for evaluation is becoming more and more exuberant, and many young people have long been accustomed to referring to the evaluation of bloggers before purchasing goods.
On the other hand, evaluation has long become the "traffic password" for influencer bloggers. Many MCN institutions, including group volume technology, star pet show, daily grass planting and so on, have brought their own talents to the entrance. In addition, the internet celebrities also began to create evaluation accounts, making the evaluation a "new business". On social platforms, more and more videos with "professional ingredient evaluation" and "no wide evaluation" have received high views, covering fields ranging from food, beauty and skin care, clothes to digital appliances.
Some head review bloggers not only cooperate with brands to collect commissions, but also set up personal brands. For example, the "Dad Evaluation" founded by the Internet celebrity Wei Dad, according to its 2020 annual report, the "Dad Evaluation" carries goods on Taobao, Douyin and other platforms, covering multiple fields such as mother and baby, beauty and so on, and in 2020, the total number of video plays on the whole network is 240 million person-times, and the e-commerce revenue exceeds 100 million yuan.
Senior brand public relations Fang Jing told Burning Finance that in the view of the brand side, there is no essential difference between the evaluation blogger and the grass blogger. However, when it comes to commercial promotion, brands will be more inclined to work with more professional assessment bloggers.
At the same time, Fang Jing bluntly said that driven by interests, the quality of the current evaluation bloggers is uneven, some bloggers in order to create gimmicks "brainless spray", and some bloggers in order to make money "ignorant conscience" with goods.
Xiaohongshu review blogger, netizens with the ID of "Syzygy404" said, "Everyone may have misunderstandings about the review bloggers, in fact, no one is generating electricity for love." Bloggers' profit realization would have been beyond reproach, but in the name of professional evaluation and non-advertising, it is the essence of flipping cars to circle fast money and deceive fans. ”
At the end of the review is a rollover
The car review blogger "Little Nonsense Car" with millions of fans was pushed to the forefront because of the review overturning incident.
In early March, "Little Nonsense Car" released a review video titled "The First Used Extreme Krypton 001". In the video, Xiao Hu chose "the maximum speed of the car" and "the extreme scene of fully loaded travel" to test the endurance of the extreme krypton car. Subsequently, this evaluation method was confirmed not to be for daily use scenarios, and it was impossible to run out of the theoretical endurance data.
At the same time, the "little nonsense car" was also exposed to maliciously edit the owner of extreme krypton to create a gimmick, implying to fans that the endurance of the extreme krypton 001 product was false.
After the fermentation of the incident, Extreme Krypton Automobile complained about the false evaluation of "Little Nonsense Car", hurting the brand reputation and demanding that "Little Nonsense Car" publicly apologize. Subsequently, although the "little nonsense car" released an apology video, it was pointed out by netizens, "This is an apology, obviously it is a dissatisfaction and dissatisfaction with Extreme Krypton." Extreme Krypton Motor said it would not accept an apology and would reserve the right to pursue responsibility.
Photo/ Extreme Kr Auto Weibo
As a blogger in the automotive field, "Little Nonsense Car" has always been a veteran second-hand car dealer, and the video content released in the early stage is mainly based on buying and selling second-hand cars. But as the number of fans continues to increase, the content has expanded to new car reviews. According to public information, the number of fans of "Little Nonsense Car" on the Douyin platform is 2.125 million, of which the collection of evaluation videos about the battery life of new energy vehicles has reached 240 million.
The "little nonsense car" smashed its own foot for the gimmick, but the phenomenon of similar blogger evaluation overturning is not uncommon.
In 2021, industry insiders and evaluation agencies led by "Little Red Flower Evaluation" publicly exposed the data and information of the evaluation blogger "Dad Review", which has tens of millions of fans, and pointed out that there was a phenomenon of misleading consumers in its testing videos.
"Little Red Flower Evaluation" said that after re-sending a number of products evaluated by "Dad Evaluation" and comparing them with national standards, it found many false data and descriptions.
In addition, many people in the industry have also retested a certain baby wipe in the "Dad Evaluation", and found that it confused the relevant national standards of ordinary baby wipes and sanitary wipes with sterilization functions, and conveyed to fans the illusion that the general sterilization standards of baby wipes in the current market are not up to standard.
The "Love Sampling" test found that the above-mentioned wipes contained prohibited cyanide and silver ions and other illegal ingredients, and then Dad Evaluator immediately removed the relevant products and supported customers to refund unconditionally.
Subsequently, after the "Dad Evaluation" sued the "Little Red Flower Evaluation" in court and claimed 4 million yuan but was rejected by the court, it also ushered in the "overturning" of the court's real hammer.
The repeated overturning of the "Dad Review" has also made fans question it. Users with the ID "Nicholas Eggs" said bluntly at the bottom of their dad's review video, "Is this kind of assessment charged?" Another Gao Zan commented and asked, "Dad has not been banned yet, ah, all overturned." ”
"Syzygy404" said that dad's evaluation of the overturned car is not unexpected, he is an institutional account, the essence is commercial profit, no advertising without commercial cooperation, is not able to survive.
"Syzygy404" added that the model of dad evaluation is to give evaluation authorization and endorse the brand with its own professionalism, so it can make the brand better accepted by consumers." However, because the quality of the advertisements received is uneven, he also emphasizes that he does not charge money, which is the root cause of the overturning. ”
In fact, in addition to these well-known bloggers, the phenomenon of review rollovers has become common.
"It's a dry-skinned cushion, and it's perfectly fine to look at the ingredient list." When I saw the beauty evaluator's evaluation video about a big-name air cushion on Station B, Xie Aya, after 95, did not doubt the authenticity of the video and the effect of the use of the air cushion. "I've been following this blogger for a long time, and I think he's very professional and I trust his ingredient reviews."
However, when Xie Aya, who has a big dry skin, passionately placed an order under the guidance of the blogger, she found that she was pitted. The brand air cushion worth 620 yuan is extremely unsatisfactory to the makeup effect, and there is no coverage and makeup holding effect promoted by bloggers in the video. In the end, the air cushion was used only twice before being shelved by Xie Aya.
Burning Finance searched for the keyword of "evaluation pit" in the Little Red Book, showing nearly 10,000 related notes. Many users posted that they placed orders to buy because of their trust in a certain review blogger, but later found that they were exaggerated and "pitted".
Photo / Little Red Book review shared by pit netizens (left)
Weibo evaluation was shared by pit netizens (right)
Source/Burn Finance Screenshot
Netizens with a Weibo ID of "blueberry" complained, "Following the evaluation of the micro-fat blogger on the Little Red Book, the two pairs of pants bought have turned over, and it is better to buy it myself, and the success rate is still high." Another netizen with an ID of "good spicy pepper" said, "After watching the cat food evaluation for several days, the more I look at it, the more anxious I am, which brand has said that it overturned, even if I see a few good ones, I think it is an advertisement."
Review bloggers lose trust
Whether it is "little nonsense car" or "dad evaluation", the successive overturning of the evaluation blogger not only exposes its lack of professionalism, but also makes the fair and rigorous position of the third party that originally stood in the evaluation shaky.
Fang Jing told Burning Finance that reviews have always existed on the Internet, and review bloggers are not new species. For example, the early big beauty review blogger "Little Pretty Small" began to operate a Weibo account as early as 2010, and thus set off a wave of beauty "ingredient party".
Fang Jing stressed that the reason why the current wind of evaluation is getting bigger and bigger is mainly because the channels and forms have changed, that is, with the rise of platforms such as Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and Station B, the form of planting grass and evaluation has also transitioned from the graphic era to the video era, and the traffic has also been gathered in an orderly manner.
"Syzygy404" has been doing three years of evaluation and sharing, and in 2021, the focus will shift from Weibo to Xiaohongshu. He said, "At the beginning, Weibo gathered a lot of beauty review bloggers, such as 'miamaja', 'paste running', etc., which are everyone's skin care enlightenment." Last year's explosive 'morning C late A' was actually bad on Weibo. ”
Syzygy404 said bluntly, "The traffic distribution of the Xiaohongshu platform is more fair, giving ordinary people the opportunity to show, as long as the content is good enough and professional, it can attract more exposure, and the Xiaohongshu business cooperation opportunities are also more."
As Syzygy404 says, business collaboration is a fundamental need for most review bloggers." Syzygy404" said that in the professional evaluation blogger circle, the good traffic in the Little Red Book, a single product advertisement can be reported up to 8,000 yuan, and then the fans reach 100,000, 500,000 or even million fans of the blogger, the single product quotation is different. "I now have 4,000 fans on the Little Red Book platform, and the price of a single product is about 600 yuan."
Li Jing, who is also engaged in public relations related work, told Burning Finance that the evaluation bloggers with millions of fans and tens of millions of fans have a single product quotation ranging from more than 100,000 yuan to hundreds of thousands of yuan at a time.
"Quotes are closely related to the verticality, professional ability, video data and fan stickiness of bloggers, and beauty and skin care are generally the highest unit price." Li Jing revealed that in the subdivision of beauty bloggers, professional ingredient evaluation bloggers earn more than good thing sharing bloggers.
Li Jing said frankly, "300 fans of evaluation bloggers can receive promotion" and "100,000 fans can achieve wealth freedom".
In addition to objective benefits, the increasing demand for the opinions of evaluation bloggers by young people has directly stimulated the production of "evaluation" content that includes various consumer fields on major platforms. Burning Finance searched for "evaluation" in the Little Red Book, and the relevant notes reached 2.36 million. Reviews include food, clothing, desserts, skincare, small toys, home appliances and more.
In addition, Fang Jing said that various platforms have launched activities related to "evaluation". With the support of the platform, not only does it give many ordinary people the opportunity to enter, but also allows more "evaluation" content to enter the public's field of vision.
As Fang Jing said, according to the incomplete statistics of Burning Finance, platforms such as Station B, Little Red Book, and Zhihu have respectively launched official activities related to "evaluation" such as the National Evaluation Officer, the Zhihu Crowd Test, and the Little Red Book Experience Station. Among them, the father who participated in the activities of the national evaluation officer of station B, a video about the hair dryer has reached 1.88 million.
Photo/ Station B National Evaluation Officer Activity (Left)
Little Red Book Experience Station Activity (Right)
Xie Aya told Burning Finance, "I will be optimistic about multiple evaluation videos when I buy makeup and skin care products, because many review bloggers are formulars, who will popularize science ingredients, which will make me feel that I have learned professional knowledge." Lin Ran, who also loves to watch assessment videos, said, "I have difficulty in choosing, and I have become accustomed to the habit of reading assessment notes on social platforms when buying things." ”
Behind the rollover, the game between bloggers and brands
The popularity of evaluation not only makes the major platforms "everywhere are evaluation bloggers" overnight, but also triggers the industry's internal volume and chaos under the carnival of "everything can be evaluated".
The ability to absorb gold that cannot be underestimated in the evaluation also makes MCN institutions and Internet celebrities eager to try on the one hand, on the other hand, it may also directly promote the evaluation to lose credibility, so that it overturns.
Station B food evaluation blogger Lin Fang told Burning Finance, "A brand is on fire, there will be dozens or even hundreds of bloggers to evaluate, if you want to have the amount of playback, you must show professionalism in the evaluation, or express emotions." ”
Lin Fang said that the most intuitive embodiment of the evaluation volume is the selection of products. The bigger the product, the higher the popularity, and the more impressive the playback. "Last year, Chinese baking Luxi River was very popular, and then Station B was full of evaluation videos related to it, saying that Luxi River was useless. This kind of evaluation that hits the heat product but points out the problem is the most explosive. ”
Photo / Luxi River evaluation video of Station B
Burning Finance went to a store in Luxihe, Beijing, in the afternoon of a weekend. After queuing up for ten minutes to enter the store, Burning Finance noticed that the clerk was looking nervously at a customer who recorded a video on his mobile phone, and then the clerk told Burning Finance, "Recently, from time to time, someone will come to record a video, and if the stay is too long, we will remind customers to leave." ”
And when Burning Finance tentatively asked the clerk whether the evaluation video had any impact on the store, the clerk replied, "Some customers will say which blogger has evaluated the pastry as soon as they enter the door, but there are also customers who unilaterally say that a blogger has tested this is not delicious, and other customers are reluctant to buy it when they hear it." ”
In fact, the core of the evaluation of the heat and overturning is the game between the blogger and the brand. On the one hand, bloggers sometimes deliberately step on the brand for the sake of gimmicks; on the other hand, there will also be some bloggers who make false reviews in order to "just eat".
Li Jing told Burning Finance that although there is a phenomenon that bloggers deliberately black brands in order to pay attention to blogging, most bloggers' evaluations are still relatively objective. "Except, of course, where there is a partnership with the brand." Li Jing said bluntly that many bloggers' claims only express personal feelings, and consumers cannot completely rely on evaluation.
Lin Fang told Burning Finance that because he pointed out the counterfeiting of ingredients of a brand product in his video, he not only "tied up" with the brand, but also complained and removed the video.
"Syzygy404" also has the same experience as Lin Fang. "Just because I deeply picked up the video of a micro-business brand, I was complained by the brand side that the right to reputation was violated, and the video was also taken down." Syzygy404 said that some brands do not allow bloggers to point out their own problems objectively and fairly.
But in fact, being objective and fair is not an easy task for evaluating bloggers. Many review bloggers with smaller fan ratings will be attracted by the high promotion fees of the brand side to rush to cash out, thus abandoning professional ethics and replacing them with true and false evaluation stickers and evaluation videos.
Syzygy404 added that some brands will only mail samples to small bloggers, and even let bloggers try out formal clothes and send them back. However, evaluation bloggers often need to make horizontal comparisons of products with the same efficacy, so they not only have to buy products at their own expense, but also risk "bad face" to use a product for a long time in order to conduct professional evaluations, and the video production cycle is generally longer.
"In order to rush to monetize, many bloggers now will not really use the product at all, some will pour the product into an empty bottle and pretend to use it, and some will directly write content according to the materials and requirements provided by the brand side, 'close their eyes and blow', 'look at the pictures and write the text'."
However, as review bloggers have rolled over, consumers have generally shown disappointment with platforms and review bloggers. Fang Qing said, "After stepping on the pit several times in a row, a reverse psychology has developed. The more a brand is pushed, the more resistant I am, and it is only reliable to try it offline and then buy it. ”
Fu Jian, a lawyer at Henan Yulong Law Firm, said that the brand side used the traffic effect attached to the evaluation blogger as a public figure to make false and misleading commercial publicity about the sales status and user evaluation of the goods, which has violated the Anti-Unfair Competition Law.
At the same time, according to the Advertising Law, if false advertisements are published and the rights and interests of consumers are harmed, the advertiser shall bear civil liability in accordance with law. Where advertising agents, publishers, or spokespersons, knowingly or should have known that the advertisement was false, still designed, produced, represented, published, or made recommendations or proofs, they shall bear joint and several liability with the advertiser. Therefore, consumers can claim civil compensation from platforms and bloggers.
"Now the threshold for evaluating bloggers is getting lower and lower, many MCN institutions wholesale numbers, fabricated a lot of fake bloggers, in front of the name with formulaist, ingredient research and other words, but in fact, it is to suck powder circle money." These fake bloggers are tool people, only responsible for the film, and the manuscripts are written by the staff. Syzygy404 added to Burning Finance.
"There is nothing wrong with evaluating bloggers, but maintaining professionalism and continuing to output more dry goods is the key." And brands that seriously make products, even if they do not give money, bloggers will take the initiative to push. Chaotic 'just food' and false evaluations during promotion will not only make fans step on the pit, but also eventually have a negative impact on the entire evaluation industry. Syzygy404 said.
Resources:
"Little nonsense car with the script routine audience, million small V and then brush the bottom line of the industry? Source: Sohu.com.
"Dad Review: Self-Exposure Charge Test! Court: Little Red Flower Has a Basis for Cracking Down on Counterfeiting", Source: Little Red Flower Evaluation.
*The caption image is from Visual China.
*Xie Aya, Lin Ran, Fang Qing, Li Jing, Fang Jing, and Lin Fang are pseudonyms.
*Disclaimer: In no event shall the information herein or the opinions expressed herein constitute investment advice to any person.