On May 20, KFC and Sanrio returned to Liuyi to brush the whole network again, successfully continuing the popularity of last year's "one duck is hard to find". In recent years, KFC has gone more and more smoothly on the road of two-dimensional co-branding, and has successively carried out joint activities with classic IP Pokémon, the popular mobile game "Onmyoji", "Genshin", and the anime "Time Agent". When the terms collided with KFC and the quadratic element appeared on the hot search again and again, the value of the quadratic element was enough to make more brands pay attention.
KFC and Sanrio co-branded toy Image source: Internet
CBNData sorted out the two-dimensional business of 618 this year according to the official war report, magic mirror market intelligence and other data, helping brands see what kind of application stage the two-dimensional element is in the Chinese consumer market? And what kind of cooperation makes consumers choose to pay?
What kind of world is quadratic?
The second dimension is a cultural symbol that originated in Japan and was called "quadratic" in the early days because animation, manga and games were presented in 2D. As the two-dimensional continues to break the wall, in the current context, the broad sense refers to animation (Animation), comic (Comic) and games (Game) and novel (Novel) collectively.
Globally, the secondary industry in North America and Japan is particularly well developed. The United States has a long history of two-dimensionality, and the first black-and-white animated films and color cartoons originated in the United States. The United States is also the first country to develop related industries based on the second dimension, and since 1938, the two-dimensional related businesses such as film and television, toy peripherals, and theme parks have risen rapidly due to the rapid development of Disney. In the late 20th century, with the development of computer technology, the American two-dimensional industry was the first to enter the "computer special effects era". Japan's two-dimensional industry is based on original comics as a breakthrough and has achieved wide influence in the world. Around 1980, excellent works such as "Gundam" and "Dragon Ball" emerged, and Japan's second dimension entered the golden period. With "Shinigami", "Naruto", "One Piece" and many more works shining around the world, Japan's two-dimensional industry is becoming more and more prosperous.
Japan's three major migrant manga (from left to right: Shinigami, Naruto, One Piece) Image source: Internet
Judging from the financial reports of leading companies such as Disney and Bandai, it is difficult for the quadratic element itself to make direct profits, and its monetization methods usually have the following:
IP licensing and content derivatives: IP licensing and content derivatives can create considerable profits for two-dimensional content companies. In Japan and North America, where copyright transactions are standardized, IP companies develop, produce or license film production companies, game manufacturers, and animation companies on the one hand, so as to realize multi-form linkage of film roaming, and on the other hand, they license to consumer products through IP for advertising product naming. License Global data shows that among the top 20 global licensors, quadratic related companies accounted for 43% of the total retail sales generated by licensing in 2021.
Peripheral products: Peripheral products based on the "fan economy", such as model figures, character standing cards, cosplay clothing, etc., are one of the main profit means of two-dimensional content companies. According to Bandai's financial report, its toy division has sales of 432.8 billion yen in fiscal 2022, a year-on-year increase of 19.49%, which is the highest sales department, in addition, peripheral products have once again helped IP to achieve cultural dissemination, and even formed an ecology called "Valley Circle" (specifically refers to the group that collects ACG peripheral products).
In addition, offline entertainment such as theme parks, gacha shops, large-scale stage dramas and online entertainment such as streaming media platforms caused by the change of two-dimensional IP and "fan economy" are also common profit models for foreign companies. In the second quarter of fiscal 2023, Disney American Parks & Experiences' revenue was approximately $5.572 billion, up 13.76% year-over-year, and revenue from International Parks & Experiences was approximately $1,184 million, up 106.27% year-over-year. Although the number of paid subscribers for the Disney+ business of the streaming media business declined, the number of subscribers remained at about 157.8 million.
Ultraman Stage Play
Image source: Web
In the mainland, in 2015, "Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage" was released, which was generally recognized as the rise of national comics, and at the same time, the mainland's two-dimensional industry also entered the fast lane to usher in an explosive period, and in the following years, "White Snake: Origin", "Nezha's Demon Child Descends" and many other popular animated films were launched, and the national box office of "Nezha: The Devil Child Descends" exceeded 5 billion.
At present, mainland ACG pendant players are showing a hundred flowers. There is fierce competition among two-dimensional animation players, represented by Aofei Entertainment with the IP of "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf", Xuanji Technology with the IP of "Qin Shi Mingyue", and Hanmu Chunhua Animation Technology Co., Ltd. with the IP of "Luo Xiao Black War". Gamers present a super strong situation, Mihayou with "Genshin" and other two-dimensional games to occupy the head market, "Ark of Tomorrow" Eagle Horn Games, "Xiaoice Ice Legend" Lilith Games and other game manufacturers are remarkable. In terms of two-dimensional comic book players, under the influence of the digital age, most of the IP works and major market shares on the market are basically occupied by Kuaikan, Tencent Comics, and Bilibili Comics.
Two-dimensional IP wallpaper (from left to right: Qin Shi Mingyue, Genshin)
Image source: Web
In terms of profit model, the mainland's quadratic business model is basically the same as that of foreign countries, and the use of IP licensing and the expansion of IP monetization capacity through quadratic peripheral industries and IP adaptation industries. Taking Luo Xiaohei's war as an example, this national comic was produced in 2011 and is known for its excellent production and slow broadcast, updating 28 episodes in 8 years, but achieving a high score of more than 9.6 on Douban. The big movie was released in 2019, with a production cost of 35 million yuan and a box office of 311 million, and its big movie peripherals were also snapped up by fans.
"Luo Xiao Black War" rating image source: Douban derivative business: women to game IP to conquer the tide play track,
Bandai rushed to the top of the list with its products and promotions
This year's two-dimensional derivatives stores still show rapid sales growth momentum. Recently, the first wave of 618 list was released, which attracted widespread attention in the consumer industry, and as last year, a total of 7 derivatives stores entered the TOP10 list.
Data source: Tmall official 618 list (left figure 2022 list, 2023 list)
Data description: The statistics of the 2022 list are from May 31 to June 20, and the statistics of the 2023 list are from May 31 to June 3; Data caliber is paid GMV
Last year's 618 list showed that the 7 two-dimensional derivatives stores that successfully made the list occupied the third to ninth positions on the list. Among them, 5 stores including Idol Dream Festival, Genshin, Mihoyo, Paperwork Shinji, and Light and Night Love are all official flagship stores of game manufacturers. The game IPs in these game manufacturers' stores all have a commonality, that is, they are female or have a high proportion of female players head IPs (according to the Baidu index, Baidu searches for "Genshin" for 38.64% of female players, and 26.52% for "Ark of Tomorrow").
Specifically, the store of the female music game "Idol Dream Festival" ranked third, showing a strong ability to "absorb gold"; The fourth Genshin flagship store and the sixth Mihoyo flagship store both belong to Mihayou, and both have been warmly welcomed by consumers because of the world's hit game "Genshin" and Mihayou's first otome game "Undecided Event Book". The Paperwork Heart Flagship Store and the Light and Night Love Flagship Store ranked seventh and eighth respectively, the former with the local phenomenal otome game "Love and Producer" IP, and the latter with the popular and immersive otome game "Light and Night Love" IP, both showed their influence that should not be underestimated.
Game IP wallpapers (from left to right: Idol Dream Festival, Undetermined Event Book, Love and Producer, Light and Night Love)
Image source: Web
In addition to game manufacturers, Japanese toy giant Bandai and the official flagship store of bilibili were on the list last year. Bandai relies on well-known IPs such as classic Gundam and Ultraman to rank fifth. The official flagship store of bilibili also became the ninth on the list because of a series of IP peripherals such as Hatsune Miku.
Compared with last year, the number of derivatives stores on the list this year has remained unchanged, and the overall ranking has shown an upward trend. There are still 5 official stores of game manufacturers on the list, and mihoyo, idol dream festival, and paper-stacked heart, these women's game IP derivative stores and Genshin derivative stores have entered the list again with their own advantages. In the mihoyo store, in addition to the originally hot-selling "Undetermined Event Book" IP peripheral, its "Honkai: Star Dome Railway" IP derivative in April 2023 has also become a hot seller; The first-time and tenth-ranked Ark of Tomorrow flagship store is the only male-oriented game IP peripheral store, and in 2021, the number of active users of its strategy game "Ark of Tomorrow" exceeded 1.5 million.
Game IP wallpaper (from left to right: Honkai: Star Dome Railway, Ark of Tomorrow)
Image source: Web
There are still two non-game maker stores on the list this year. As an agent of well-known toy companies such as Bandai, Hasbro, and Liangxiao, Plastic Tang Toys won the competition this year, ranking ninth, and its series of figurines such as One Piece and Chuangcai Girl have good sales; Bandai once again proved the commercial value of its IP, and successfully rushed to the top of the industry list in this 618.
Image source: Sutang Toys Tmall flagship store
Why will Bandai surpass peers such as Bubble Mart and Mihayou to become the industry's first GMV?
First of all, based on its rich product matrix, the Bandai flagship store ensures that more limited-edition products are on sale at the same time, while still listing rare and collectible limited new products. This year, the number of "PB limited" models (products sold only in the Bandai PB online store) in Bandai stores far exceeded the same period last year. According to CBNData incomplete statistics, after the pre-sale period, the Bandai flagship store has a total of 69 "PB limited" sales, compared with 21 last year. In addition, the two "CROSS CONTRAST COLORS" SERIES MG GUNDAM, which opened for pre-order on May 31 this year, have been popular with consumers and are already the highest-selling products, with 900+ and 700+ reviews respectively. Last year's popular pre-sale model "PB Ott Replica - Oubu Ring" was completely opened for purchase in this year's 618 and has good sales.
Image source: Bandai Tmall flagship store
Secondly, Bandai has increased the prizes of Tmall flagship stores in terms of promotion. In the spot lucky bag opened on May 31 at this year's Tmall flagship store, Bandai canceled the low-priced lucky bag of 398 yuan, on the other hand, in the high-priced lucky bag, with a prize pool far richer than other platform flagship stores and own stores, "MGEX Strike Own Gundam", "PGU Gundam" and other thousand-yuan popular models are among them. Therefore, after going on sale on May 31, the high-priced lucky bags of 1299 yuan, 1999 yuan, and 2999 yuan were all grabbed in seconds.
The left picture is a screenshot of the Jingdong flagship store, and the right picture is a screenshot of the Tmall flagship store Image source: Bandai official flagship store
In addition, it is worth mentioning that this 618 is the first time that Bandai's "Yiban" (an entertainment product around the IP theme is obtained by lottery, and a lottery postcard is drawn once, and the price of the postcard ranges from 58-78) to be officially launched on Tmall for the first time. "Ichiban" was launched in August last year as a raffle entertainment product popular in Japan by Bandai, and since its launch, its sales have basically been in the top 5,618 stores, and the raffle postcards have remained in the top sales position, becoming a relatively stable hot selling product.
Two-dimensional co-branding: two-dimensional IP co-branding becomes high frequency,
The beauty brand two-dimensional co-branded model performed well
In the past few years, cross-border co-branding with two-dimensional IP has become a normal operation of brand marketing. According to the data compiled by CBNData, the number of cases co-branded with quadratic IP this year has increased significantly, and more and more brands choose to carry out cross-dimensional co-branding with quadratic elements either in order to highlight the user's mind or enter a new circle. During this promotion, Nongfu Spring, Winona, Nai Xue's Tea, DQ and other brands have officially announced joint products with Disney, SpongeBob SquarePants, Detective Conan and other two-dimensional IPs.
Among the many co-branded products, which brands perform the best? We selected three industries, beauty and skin care, food and beverage, and digital 3C, to conduct an inventory and analyze the performance of two-dimensional co-branded products of brands in various industries on Tmall's hot list.
From the rise of two-dimensional imitation makeup on the whole platform in 2020 to the brand's self-created virtual characters, the two-dimensional has already "invaded" the beauty and skin care industry, according to CBNData incomplete statistics, a total of 27 brands in the beauty and skin care industry during this year's promotion period are selling two-dimensional co-branded products. Among them, nearly 30% of the brand's products entered the Tmall hot sales list, and 75% of the products on the list entered the TOP10. Among the brands on the list, the makeup brand Orange Duo has 4 products co-branded with Disney for a century with "beauty is justice", and Disney's "power" is far more than that, and Winonate Cream, which is also co-branded with Disney, has also become the 7th on the cream hot list. Fermented color has 2 products on the list after Tachibana, which is co-branded with the classic manga "Astringent Girl", successfully penetrating the value of "women's self-life attitude".
In the food industry, quadratic has always been the "favorite" of brands, and during the 618 period, 39 food and beverage brands sold co-branded products with quadratic IP, far exceeding the two industries of beauty and skin care and digital 3C, of which 1.5% of the brand's products successfully entered the hot list. The performance of co-branded products in the food and beverage industry is particularly prominent, with head brands such as Genki Forest, Cutieduo, Coca-Cola, and Yili each having a product occupying the first place in the corresponding category. It is worth mentioning that in the cheese hot list, a total of 3 products have entered the list with strong IP, which is the category list with the most joint products. For other categories of co-branded products, such as Miss Berry cider co-branded by Lian and producer and chewing gum co-branded by Xuanmai, although it did not enter the Tmall list of related categories, it was the highest-selling hot model in its stores.
Cooperation with two-dimensional IP has become a regular operation in the digital 3C industry, and more and more two-dimensional elements appear in electronic devices. This time, 618, 26 brands launched two-dimensional joint products, and 20% of brand products entered the list. From the category point of view, the two-dimensional performance in peripheral products is particularly prominent, Razer, Logitech, Kingston have a product into the list. In the children's watch category closely related to the second dimension, Little Genius and Huawei each entered the hot sales list.
As the post-00s and post-10s people grow up under the influence of two-dimensional culture, and the two-dimensional integration into the real life of three-dimensional from popular phrases and memes, in the future, two-dimensional business will still be a choice that brands cannot ignore. When more and more brands join this wave of craze, how long can the wind of the two-dimensional element blow, it is inevitable that we will look forward to it.