Source | The Art of Marketing
At the end of the year, it is cold, but at the same time warm. At this time, there are always some brands that will touch people's hearts with warmth and dispel the cold that envelops people. However, it is undeniable that in this period of concentrated outbreak of brand warm-hearted marketing, superficial insights and homogeneous communication can no longer stir up more and more mature consumer perception nerves.
Recently, Meituan has launched two brand short films "Excuse me, are you afraid of frozen legs?" and "2023 I have finished running with all my might", but they have continuously triggered screen swiping. We can't help but wonder how Meituan Errands can constantly tell new ideas and create resonance.
01Return to the origin of user needs, and open up new channels for differentiated content to reach people's hearts
In fact, whether it is the public's increasing resistance to warm heart marketing, or the trouble of homogenization of the brand itself, in the final analysis, it is because many brands are too focused on thinking about how to "sensationalize" when doing warm heart marketing, which does not take into account the needs of users, and ignores the use scenarios of users for their own products.
The short film "Excuse me, are you afraid of frozen legs?" + "No Frozen Legs" creative windshield created by Meituan Errands at the winter solstice node focuses on the needs of users who are afraid of the cold and cannot go out in winter, and while amusing the audience through brainwashing questions and divine replies in the video, the core message of the brand is conveyed.
During the winter solstice, the cold wave swept many places, and "cold in the south and cold in the north" became a hot topic. Starting from the hot spots of cooling down across the country, Meituan errands broadcast the "Meituan Errand Running Guide without Freezing Legs" to users in the form of TV news with a sense of the times.
The short film starts with a simple "Excuse me, are you afraid of frozen legs?", but the answers of the interviewees make the style of the short film gradually outrageous: the homonym of the street brother's tongue is not knotted, Uncle Dong Yong's Tianjin dialect "does not freeze the legs and moves the heart", and the guy's skeptical eyes when facing his girlfriend's "You dare to split your legs/move me to try...... All kinds of serious and funny answers made people smash the electronic wooden fish, and they still didn't hold back their laughter.
Some interviewees were silent, but the hot water bottle on the aunt's lap and the uncle's avoidance ...... More directly, tell you the answer to "afraid of frozen legs"!
After a series of "moving legs", "frozen legs", and "heartbeats", ...... The last interviewee, Meituan errand boy, picked up the goods in one hand and held the wind in the other hand to catch the eye, and answered "Meituan errands, not afraid of frozen legs", pushing the content of the short film to a new inflection point.
In the BGM that comes with the appearance, the function introduction of the animation scene, and the super display of infrared temperature, I only listened to a boy who was full of temperament and officially popularized the science "Meituan errand and North and South Pharmacy launched a non-freezing leg windshield quilt, put it on, you can resist the cold wind, ensure the warmth of the legs, and promote blood circulation." It doesn't matter if you wear Northeast flower cotton trouser legs, or hot wheels legs, comic legs, and mecha legs...... There are only unexpected legs, no legs that make you freeze. ”
The familiar formula of the 80s/90s TV shopping advertisement, while giving the audience a great visual impact, also cleverly shows the interests of "Meituan errands to help you get the "decoction medicine", so that you can run less in the winter", and integrates Meituan's errands to help deliver electronic products and daily necessities. Unexpectedly, it actually made another advertisement in the advertisement for the windshield, which is simply layers of nesting dolls to set our attention to death!
On the whole, Meituan errands are based on the cold winter users who are afraid of the cold and do not want to go out, and its business of helping to pick up and deliver is just in line with the needs of users not going out, and the short film creatively associates "frozen legs" with "moving legs", and the "intuitive" feeling of passers-by on the cold winter leads to Meituan's errand business, and the assist artifact is landed on the "non-frozen leg windshield quilt" launched by Meituan errands and invites North and South pharmacies to launch together, which can be described as reasonable and heartwarming.
In addition, the filming technique of restoring the sense of age that is the main feature of this short film is also an important plus point in terms of content. From the introduction of street interviews like people's livelihood news in the early days, to the end of TV shopping advertisements in the 80s and 90s, Meituan's errands responded to people's nostalgia at the end of the year, and on the other hand, they seamlessly integrated Meituan's errands and daily necessities into the hearty oral broadcasts and scenes.
Judging from the rave reviews on social media, this magical style obviously hits the content interests of many young people, allowing users to smile and distinguish Meituan's errands from other heart-warming marketing that has appeared during this time, and feel the intimate care of the brand.
It is worth mentioning that Meituan errands also joined hands with Tongrentang Zhima Health and Lei Yunshang, a century-old pharmacy, to hold offline activities in Beijing and Suzhou to send warmth on the winter solstice. This not only forms a high degree of linkage and complementarity with online communication, but also further focuses on users' perception, which shows that Meituan has never forgotten to extend its creativity based on the connection between user needs and products and services.
02 Dig deep into the connection between brands and users, and create a closer connection with the small and the big
After talking about the creative short film of the winter solstice node, let's take a look at another short film "2023 I Have Finished Running" created by Meituan Errands at the Shuangdan node:
There is a line at the end of the movie "Party A and Party B": "We were all drunk and cried that day, and said a lot of heart-to-heart words to each other." 1997 has passed and I miss it. Later, many times when I saw the "annual listening report" and "annual bill" released by brands and other similar annual summaries, I would think of this passage. And the annual summary video of "2023 I've Finished Running with All My Might" shot by Meituan errands made me feel even more.
How do you remember the past year? Maybe every brand and every person has a different perspective. I believe everyone has seen the most prominent content strategy of this TVC: using real documentary footage to focus on the year when Meituan's errand boy runs, and showing the bits and pieces of Meituan's errand running in the four seasons and the night and moon day.
From the point of view of marketing tactics, this short film shows some watery characteristics in the complicated "year-end summary", which is inevitably inseparable from its distinctive creative strategy and brand management thinking.
In the short film, it can be seen that Meituan Errand is trying to use the errand boy as the origin point of view, and use the errand itinerary to see and relate to the whole society, which provides a sufficient, authentic and powerful content source for the brand narrative, and adds universal spiritual power to it.
From the end of last year, I was busy delivering medicine to sending wine to the old man in the new year, sending flowers on Valentine's Day, and sending documents and invoices at the beginning of spring...... The Meituan errand boy who shuttles through the streets and alleys every day, his exclusive memories are closely related to the things he has delivered. Behind these slightly boring tasks, there is a correlation between the real life of users who place orders with tears and laughter, and it also reflects the substantive connection between Meituan's errands and users' daily lives.
On the other hand, we can see that Meituan Errands is trying to operate the concept of "running", using "running" to emphasize mission, running and connection. We are all too busy and too capable of running, because we all have things to do, we have a future to run, and what we need to do to run errands is to cross the corners of this land, to run to connect everyone and everything, to run with users, to arrive together. There is no doubt that this kind of thinking has returned the expression of the entire brand to its service essence, which has also triggered a wider collective touch.
Art comes from life, but it is higher than life. Similarly, Meituan's brand insight comes from the connection between users and the brand in life, but it does not stop at the superficial connection, but also shifts the perspective to the life and meaning behind the user's order, bringing encouragement and tribute to all users who have worked hard to run the whole year. Although there are no bloody slogans and no shocking pictures, as the old saying goes, "The fireworks in the world are the most soothing to the hearts of mortals".
Write at the end:
In the book "Consumer Society", it was pointed out that in the current consumer relationship, consumers have long placed orders not only for a product and a function, but for the value and meaning attached to it. When the mountains of pragmatism and physical are occupied, it is indeed an indispensable step for brands to give intangible and powerful emotional value to products through dimensions such as personality expression, human power and emotional release.
But we must first understand that the foundation of all this must be based on the user's demand for the brand's products or services, after all, the core of heart-warming marketing is not sensational, but the user's mind occupation. Just as Meituan errands can always find the connection points between brands and users at various nodes, and constantly strengthen them. In fact, in 2023, in addition to launching brand campaigns at various business peak nodes, Meituan will also continue to output brand value based on the origin of user needs in hot events and potential scenarios, and continue to reach users' minds. In Mr. War's view, it is this kind of persistent exploration that makes it so comfortable in dealing with the outbreak of year-end heart-warming marketing.