Text | Wu Shuyi
In 2020, we had a judgment that online performances will be normalized. At that time, music platforms and short video platforms were testing the waters, and they also attracted the attention of many users.
In 2022, there is a variable - video numbers. What many people did not expect is that the scene that really makes the online concert brush the screen and becomes a big event will be the video number.
Before that, many people thought that the opportunity for the rebirth of the industry was more likely to come from the music platform, or from short video platforms such as Kuaishou, Douyin, and Station B, but after several circle of friends such as Mayday, westlife, Zhang Guorong, and Cui Jian, more people may be like me, and begin to realize that online performances not only have music, but also need social communication and emotional resonance.
On April 15, the video number broadcast another live online concert of Cui Jian. Unlike the previous ones, this online concert has a big change, that is, this is the commercial debut of the live broadcast of the video number concert.
Since it is the debut, it is necessary to talk about it in detail.
Let me first say one of my points, if 2020 is the first year of online performance, then 2022 is the first year of the brand cutting into the scene of online performance to do event marketing.
There are two reasons for this.
First of all, the public is already familiar with online performances, and in the past few years of normalization of the epidemic, online performances have long evolved from a temporary and transitional accidental work to a strong and normalized demand for online entertainment consumption.
Secondly, after three years of experience, online concerts have gradually shown the vitality of being online for a long time. For example, this time Cui Jian's concert is not so much the commercial debut of the live broadcast of the video number concert, but rather the opening of the floodgates for the traffic of the brand.
In my observation, the online performance market is far from saturated, and it is still in a stage of steady climbing, and its "value transmission" has just begun. Starting with the video number, online performances are no longer a transitional form of entertainment, but rather a turn from this role, building a "virtual stage" involving blockbuster content, brand marketing, and the music industry.
As for how likely it is to be in the future, we need to see not only the natural growth driven by content, but also the online consumption picture it has built with high frequency and strong interaction.
01 How does an online concert brush the screen?
To be honest, just from the point of view of doing online concerts, each family has done a good job.
The veteran music group not only has a technical flow but also a resource flow, the music APP sentiment is supreme, the Z generation community has a stem and is interesting, and the short video platform has a huge basic traffic to support, and the field has always been very hot.
But if you stretch your gaze, they may not refresh users' perception of online performances – this perception does not only refer to technical cognition, but to the atmosphere of the concert.
After the video number entered the online performance, things began to change.
The story can start in 2021.
On December 17, 2021, at 9 p.m., the West Side Boys' online concert was staged on the video number.
Subsequently, the online concert called "Beloved Yue Shan Hai" created a new record for live video broadcast, in which the live broadcast lasted for nearly 6 hours, the cumulative number of viewers in the live broadcast room exceeded 27 million, and the number of likes was as high as 164 million, followed by the secondary spread of the circle of friends and social media, as well as nearly 180 million super high search popularity.
Then, it's 2022.
Since March, affected by the epidemic, residents of Many cities such as Shanghai and Jilin have started to live at home, and young people who should have been embraced in spring can't go out and can only brush their mobile phones.
Thus, Yun Bundi made a comeback. On March 31, the video number "TudiMusic Live" conducted a 10-hour live broadcast, and more than 5 million people "dumped" vegetables and fruits in the live broadcast room, and in one fell swoop, the unknown bundy video number became the top stream of the circle of friends.
By the end of Bundy, the total number of views of this live broadcast reached 11.26 million, the number of likes was 5.27 million, and the circle of friends shared reached 1.5 million. Note that this is just a bungee live broadcast that has not warmed up in advance and has not been joined by big names, but the sense of presence it brings, or the atmosphere of the scene, has obviously broken the barrier of alibi.
If it is said that the cloud bungee in Shanghai at night verified the accelerated impact of the video number, then the live concert of Zhang Guorong's "Hot Love" repaired by Tencent Multimedia Lab on April 1 represents an online performance dominated by the video number, and it is already within reach of the real scene-based communication.
In the view of a Rong fan, "In the past, every April 1, there were many voices remembering Zhang Guorong, but the voice of some film and television self-media always had a sense of today's work completion in addition to the truth." The circle of friends can also see some people send nostalgic photos, but through the photo selection, you can probably understand whether this person is following the trend or a real fan.
But this year is different. The form of live concerts gives people the psychological illusion that he is still alive.
That night, the circle of friends was almost brushed by "Enthusiasm", my neighbor circle of friends who advertised was also brushed by "Enthusiasm", the cousin who did real estate sent a video link saying that the circle of friends was discussing, and the classmates who were teachers also said that Zhang Guorong was singing monica after work..."
This is the epitome of the highlight moment of the video number "Online Performance" in the past period of time.
Then, it's now – on April 15, 2022, Cui Jian's concert was staged on video.
A few hours before the start of the concert, there have been several waves of previews in the circle of friends, and loyal fans have posted live links while sharing the poster material of "Rock and Roll is finally present, hope will never die", which is the first climax of the explosion of the screen.
At eight o'clock in the evening, the performance is about to start, and the rock collision between the live broadcast room has also begun - Cui Jian sang for less than half an hour, and the number of online viewers in the video number live broadcast room exceeded 20 million, and after an hour, the number of viewers exceeded 30 million, as of 11:20 pm, it exceeded 42 million, the number of likes in the live broadcast room exceeded 100 million, and the circle of friends was collectively brushed screens and staged rock night together.
In the past three years, although the online performance industry is considered to be mature enough, and every company has a case of screen brushing, if you look closely, you will find that almost all the concerts that really brush the screen and evoke collective memory occur in video numbers.
From Mayday and Westlife to Zhang Guorong and Cui Jian, online performances initially only weakened time and space, but slowly, under the dual role of social networks and online consumer culture, online performances are achieving quantitative and qualitative changes.
In the face of increasingly diversified user needs, online performances represented by video numbers are also ushering in richer forms, more diversified themes and more distinctive musicians, who will also integrate with each other under the blessing of new technologies, and then collide with new sparks.
02 Another hot search, another connection
As mentioned earlier, since the popularity of Yunbudi in 2020, the online performance industry has been slowly pulling for nearly three years, and in the past three years, there seem to be many major events in the field of online performance, but most of them are limited to the screen brushing in the station.
Looking back, the reason why they did not insist on becoming the main venue of online concerts is actually related to the fundamentals of the platform.
For example, the pursuit of online performances on short video platforms is actually to increase a way of traffic monetization, when the input and output are not proportional, or there is a more cost-effective content form, the heavy model of online performances is naturally thrown aside.
Another example is the music platform, which has a natural audience advantage, but has a strong circle and a relatively high threshold. Although they want to do a good job in online performances, they also have that strength, but they are limited to the circle attributes of the music community, and the heat is mostly limited to the platform.
The video number is different. The video number is backed by WeChat, has a huge traffic base, and at the same time has the attributes of a social position, which also lays the groundwork for the video number to achieve network effects and scale effects.
In the early days of its birth, the video number was widely concerned, but it was also questioned, the short video field has occupied an absolute content advantage, and the video number is late, what opportunities and advantages can be seized?
In fact, the incision is in the scene cognition constructed by the video number. As we all know, there are many mature scenes in WeChat, such as public accounts and circles of friends, but after nearly two years of testing the water, video accounts have also joined in.
From the initial exploration and iteration of the user growth cycle, to the commercial debut with live concerts, the video number has achieved content and business circle breaking in the combination of social relationship chain and public domain traffic reconstruction.
To some extent, the strong connection behind the video number and the sharing path that touches social relationships have also helped online performances achieve a big leap forward.
In most platforms, such as music communities and short video APPS, users watch and share online performances based on the identity of unfamiliar netizens, but when watching online performances on video numbers and sharing them, most of the connections are real friends, and friends connect friends.
In other words, the video concert allows the online concert to realize time and space that is not limited to the physical level, forming what sociologist Fei Xiaotong calls "ripples". The spread of the video number is like, with "self" as the center, according to blood, kinship and geography, according to the same kind, circle layer, etc., pushing outward layers, as if it is a stone thrown into the water, splashing layer by layer of water ripples, ripples out of the circle, pushing farther and farther.
This spread has a big event effect. Previously, when we talked about hot search, what we could think of was basically Weibo, public number, douyin, etc., and the ripple style of the video number concert was a hot search with more Characteristics of Chinese social networks. This kind of hot search will not completely replace the former, but it will form a new scene cognition among users.
From the perspective of commercialization, this kind of scene recognition is also brewing new opportunities, such as for the video number itself, and for many brands.
In essence, the pure traffic marketing method popular on most video platforms has a temporary effect, but it is not suitable for long-term construction of brand mentality, most of which is a short-term traffic explosion, not to mention, it is difficult to retain.
The video number is an exception, and this exception has similar logic to the original circle of friends advertising.
In terms of the title of this extreme fox car, the video number first builds a traffic pool through traffic import, and then in this traffic pool, there is not only explosive content, but also users with strong willingness to interact, and when the two are bumped, they can naturally pass on the brand volume and concept, and even the brand can achieve phenomenon-level brushing screen through this ecology.
At present, with the continuous deepening of the video number, the brand can achieve a lot of connections, in addition to embedding in the user's social square in the form of immersion, you can also rely on the natural advantages of WeChat private domain precipitation to maximize the retention of high-potential customers who have a good impression of the brand.
03 Event marketing to play a combination of punches
Nowadays, whether it is content consumption or material consumption, it has come to an inflection point. In terms of content, good content on the supply side is still scarce, and innovation also needs to be improved. For brands, continuing the traditional marketing model may not be benign and lasting.
Moreover, how the traffic comes from, how to balance quality control and efficiency, and how to establish brand advantages through marketing, these are not a point and a line relationship, but an overall link.
For this reason, the breakthrough brought by the video number is obvious.
First, in terms of traffic, WeChat has more than 1 billion monthly active users, which is the reserve traffic pool of video numbers.
Moreover, the conversion of traffic pool to video number is very clear, and at the same time, the user intersection of video number and other short video platforms is not large, which shows that video number has indeed reshaped a new growth pole.
Second, in terms of communication, based on social communication and the ripple effect we said above, the video number is naturally suitable for topic event dissemination and fermentation.
The classic saying of event marketing is double micro and one shake, which has already mentioned WeChat, but the video number is actually more like a component of WeChat, which has the potential to become an exclusive entrance to event marketing. Bold prediction, the event marketing pattern after this should be a double micro shake a video number.
In fact, this ability of video numbers has been applied by many brands. Even if the vertical is like knowledge live broadcasting, under the huge basic traffic of WeChat, it can still achieve circle-breaking communication. There is also a cold knowledge contest launched by ANTA in conjunction with bloggers in many fields during the Winter Olympics, which has also triggered users to take the initiative to distribute to varying degrees.
It can be seen that the content carrying capacity of video numbers is still expanding. For brands, the marketing gameplay that the video number can try, the marketing node that can be opened, and the imagination space is worth looking forward to.
Third, on the back link conversion, we can see that in the WeChat ecosystem, from food department stores to 3C digital, to beauty and skin care and other brands, none of them exist independently, and the video number is no exception, it is an important part of this ecology and a link in many connections.
At present, the video number has been connected with the public account, enterprise WeChat and other private domain user pools, but also directly connected to the mini program, small store, which means that the video number can not only precipitate private domain user assets, but also through the closed loop of the commercial link, and with its continuous evolution, the deeper value of the video number will also appear.
All in all, the system changes brought about by the cross-scene integration of video numbers are far more than simply changing the public's perception of online performances, and it is not to be missed for the entire performance industry and even the consumer industry.
Taking Jihu Automobile as an example, its online concert under the title Cui Jian has not only achieved a short-term outbreak, but also achieved more systematic brand communication.
Among them, the warm-up period, the brand can guide the stream through resources such as circle of friends advertising, warm-up video, take a look, search and search, etc. On the day of the live broadcast, there are red dot recommendations, etc. In the fermentation period after the concert, there are not only many two creations, but also customized content authorized to the brand account to be released. At the same time, in this process, the brand can also timely convert the traffic from the video number concert into an asset that can be operated for a long time, for example, the brand can insert brand advertisements at the bottom of the song list of the concert live broadcast, and the user can jump to the brand retention page to fill in the information and precipitate high-value user clues.
There are many similar examples, and the implication for today's brands is that user management is the ultimate goal of all event marketing. Around new traffic, new channels, new scenes and new people, the video number is undoubtedly an entrance for user operations.
This is different from the previous brand marketing, most of the energy is poured into the event itself, and finally the event becomes an event, without fully mobilizing resources for dissemination and precipitation.
Within the video number, marketing is a set of combination punches. In the short term, it is a new entrance to participate in and create event marketing, and it is another kind of hot search. In the medium and long term, it is a way for the whole link to accumulate user assets.
Today, at the moment of the epidemic, every link of the brand is facing a severe test. However, although the traffic dividend of the general environment has faded, there are still new breaking points being born. The node of value chain reshaping has emerged, and an important watershed in brand development will also arrive as scheduled.