On August 13, after Zhang Zhehan's photo at the Yasukuni Shrine was exposed, a number of cooperative brands quickly terminated his contract with him, including Perfect World's mobile game "Dream New Zhuxian".
The game launched its public beta at the end of June this year and hired more than a dozen spokespersons, including celebrity idols and popular streamers. The cooperation with Zhang Zhehan is a "deep linkage" - players have just entered "Dream New Zhuxian" after completing the registration. At this point, the game will pop up the "Story Experience Selection" screen. On the left is "The Classic Story of Zhuxian". The picture uses the cosplay image of the spokesperson Li Qin, and the right side is "Zhang Zhehan Fan Story".
Plot options in "Dream New Zhu Xian" (source: Weibo)
For players who don't pay much attention to the entertainment industry, this scene can only be called "outrageous". The game invites celebrity endorsers to promote its products. As an important marketing tool, it has been around in the mainland for more than 20 years, but most of the time it is just a "signal amplifier" used to broaden the game's popularity. Nowadays, the online game market is seriously involuted, and the scope of responsibilities of spokespersons continues to expand, and even begins to be deeply involved in game content.
Coincidentally, the mobile card game "Little Raccoon 100 Generals" was launched in early August, with the spokesperson Qin Xiaoxian as the marketing focus. According to AppGrowing, the number of creatives associated with it reached 774. In order to match the characteristics of the spokesperson, "Little Raccoon" and "The Legend of Raccoon 100 Generals" designed a mini-game closely related to the main line. Gameplay. Questions include "What does 'singing' mean in the four basic skills of cross talk?" and so on. Some people often complain: "You have to be able to talk about cross talk when you play Water Margin." ”。
Why are games so keen on celebrity endorsements? Can a variety of spokespeople from all walks of life really bring significant benefits to a game?
Celebrity endorsement = garbage?
For loyal users of childhood sweethearts born in the 80s and 90s, "The Legend of Little Raccoon", which has moved the trading of Water Margin hero cards to the current time and space, is full of emotion. The game topped the App Store's free games charts on the day of the uncensored beta. At the top of the list, TapTap quickly surpassed 200,000 downloads.
However, the rate of decline in popularity is just as rapid. Ten days later, it fell out of 50th place. What doesn't match the initial focus is the reputation of the game. 10,000 players gave it a failing score of 5.7 on TapTap. Its core content is also controversial. Some players pointed out that the gameplay, interface UI, and skill design of "Little Raccoon General" are too similar to Lilith's "Sword and Crusade". One review article said that "a pure imitation exploded". 15 minutes red" as a summary.
The reason why the manufacturer hired Qin Xiaoxian as a spokesperson is obvious - they are not confident in the quality of their own content. In the comment area of TapTap, many players did express their confusion. They believe that most of the fans of young cross talk actors should be post-2000s, which obviously does not conform to the user portrait of the "Little Raccoon" IP. Because of this, the new generation of players is not aligning the game with childhood memories, and the focus may not even be on the Water Margin card. Quality is more acceptable and easier to harvest traffic.
"Anyone seeking celebrity endorsements is garbage games. This extreme view has been circulating for a long time. Throughout the history of the development of game endorsements in China, there are countless cases of spokespersons making games successful. It is also common for endorsements to be fruitless or even turn into "debuffs".
The earliest endorsement can be traced back to 1996, when Hong Kong Wanxin Toys Co., Ltd. signed an agency with Nintendo for the game console GameBoy, sold the licensed version to Hong Kong, Macau and the mainland, and invited Kwok Fucheng to shoot the product's "GameBoy Happy World" commercial, which became the first video game-related advertisement to appear on TV screens in Chinese mainland. In the era of online games where consoles are banned, Stephen Chow's endorsement of "Westward Journey Online" and Zhou Xun's 2001 "The Legend of Jin Yong's Heroes Online" are the earliest online game endorsement cases.
After a new marketing model entered the industry and became successful, manufacturers rushed to imitate it, and the quality of endorsements was uneven. In 2004, Liu Yifei was already regarded as the "costume fairy" of "Dragon", so it was natural for her to endorse the fantasy online game "Perfect World".
In the same year, Jay Chou endorsed "Three Kingdoms" and created the advertising song "Furious Spring and Autumn" specifically for the game. This song is more famous than the game. Jay Chou also created the advertising song "Orc" for "Warcraft 3". The game actually boosted the popularity of the songs. In Taiwan's online game industry, singers such as Stefanie Sun, Zhang Huimei, and Lin Junjie have all endorsed games. While these games were famous, they were quickly overwhelmed by time, as the developers largely didn't take into account the overlap between viewers and celebrity fans.
Small and medium-sized manufacturers cannot afford the high endorsement fee, but they are forced by the trend to rely on spokespersons to increase their exposure, so they find another way. For example, "Warrior OL" has Sister Furong, Luo Yufeng, and Sora Aoi performing on the same stage, and "Killing Online" has a "child" Internet celebrity Yaoyao, and the "big breasts" in the advertisement are wearing revealing clothes and shouting "This is a big deal." ”
The essence of this kind of endorsement is to rely on the topicality of the character to attract attention. The same is true for "Greasy Senior Sister" and "Starting from Kun" without a clear spokesperson. When people are brainwashed by ads, it's hard to even remember what a game is. has deviated from the nature of endorsements.
Although the scale is controlled by the relevant departments, this form of endorsement has not disappeared after more than ten years. It has become popular in both web games and mobile games, and the quality of these games is difficult to judge directly. For example, Lin Chiling endorsed "Goddess Alliance" and Liu Yan endorsed "Legendary World". ", Fan Wei endorses "The World", Jackie Chan endorses "One Sword", Di Lieba endorses "Glory Archangel", Wu Qilong endorses "The Legend of Shabak", ...... Wait a minute.
The most widely known is "Blue Moon Fan". Zhang Jiahui, Chen Xiaochun, Gu Tianle and other stars picked up the dragon slaying knife one after another, shouting in broken Mandarin: "If you are a brother, come and cut me." Excessive use of screens in all corners of the internet can also have a negative impact on a celebrity's personal reputation. In an interview, Zhang Jiahui laughed at himself helplessly: "It's so annoying, now all of China is laughing at me." ”
"Zazahui" became a national title
For game manufacturers, even the well-known "Play" series, the actual effect of attracting stars is not as good as imagined. Liu Yang, head of the brand business of Tangami Games in 2020, revealed at the massive creative festival that 32 of the 40 spokespersons invited failed to meet expectations. "The operation of the spokesperson is a thankless task. The success rate of brand marketing is not high. ”
The "methodology" and "confusion" of game spokespersons
The game is well funded. Even after inviting dozens of celebrities, Liu Yang also publicly said: "The annual spokesperson fee accounts for less than 1% of the annual budget." One of the developers of "Blue Moon", who claimed to post photos of the annual meeting on Zhihu, claimed that the game's monthly revenue was still between 15 billion and 230 million two years after its launch. "Some rich people come in and recharge 50,000 yuan, recharge 300,000 yuan half an hour later, and then continue to recharge to 3 million yuan. Please, celebrities are not very expensive, and it will cost millions to wear some clothes and say a word. "A few lines a day. ”
But for most manufacturers, the cost of celebrity endorsement is high, and the potential risk is not low. Once there is an emergency such as a spokesperson scandal being exposed and violating a political forbidden zone, the publicity investment in the early stage will be lost. In addition to Zhang Zhehan and "Dream of New Immortals", "Sword and Expedition" signed Luo Zhixiang as a spokesperson in January 2020. In less than 3 months, the "multiplayer sports" incident spread all over the Internet, and a large number of fan games released related purchase materials could only be offline.
Luo Zhixiang endorses "Sword and Expedition"
Not only that, but the conflict between fans and gamers can also be exacerbated by careless choices. "Shining Nuan Nuan" once invited Wu Xuanyi and the game character "Nuan Nuan" to sing a song together, which caused a large number of players to be dissatisfied. After the "escalation of the war", folding paper companies had to announce the suspension of cooperation.
In the face of various risks, the reason why games are still keen to find spokespersons is because it is difficult to give up sunk costs. Gaming is an entertainment product with a very long production cycle. If you want to make money, you need to increase the number of paying users or increase the repurchase rate of your existing audience.
You've invested in the money and completed the development cycle. If you see that the quality is not up to par and the pursuit of repurchase rate is hopeless, then continuing to spend money on celebrity endorsements and reaching a wider audience is the most immediate way to make a wave of "quick money". The above-mentioned "Little Raccoon Hundred Generals" is endorsed by Qin Xiaoxian, which is an extreme example.
In the same way, if the quality of operation is not good after a period of time and players are lost, continuing to spend money and cooperate to attract traffic is also a solution to extend the life of the game.
After 20 years of hard work, new games in different tracks are now generally looking for spokespersons, and a set of "methodologies" have been reached.
According to the "White Paper on Global Buying Volume in the First Half of 2021", the image of eliminating mobile games favoring comedians and being funny and close to the people is consistent with the casual and online earning attributes of games. Liu Yiwei, Liu Yan, Chang Yuan, Qiao Shan, etc. are all the most popular stars; Three Kingdoms mobile game players prefer Gao Xiaosong because he is often portrayed as a historical and cultural figure; The audience for legendary mobile games is mainly middle-aged men who grew up in the 70s and 80s of the 20th century. Most of them are influenced by Hong Kong film and television, such as Louis Koo, Donnie Yen, Chen Xiaochun and other hardcore players. Hong Kong has the largest number of celebrity endorsements...
Gao Xiaosong has endorsed a large number of Three Kingdoms games
How to choose a spokesperson? In principle, there is only one word: "fit". You can't go wrong looking for your game's attributes and audience. When choosing spokespersons for "Original Legend", the selection of artists is limited to 10-15 through keywords such as "head" and "topic", and then Guli Nazha and Zhang Tianai are finally determined through user attributes. This approach to big data is essentially a shallow collaboration, relying on the popularity of celebrities to attract people quickly.
Chen Junxiong, the producer of the mobile game "Fantasy Journey to the West", once said, "There is only one criterion for finding endorsements: the player is the best endorsement, and the most suitable player is selected to be the endorsement." The game's chosen spokespersons are Liu Shishi and Lin Gengxin of "Fantasy Journey to the West". I am a player of Fantasy Journey to the West.
The effect of celebrities as "real players" of the game is obviously better than mere endorsements. Clashes between fans and gamers are avoided, at least to a certain extent. The daily words and deeds of the stars will also spontaneously promote the game, which is equivalent to a kind of implicit long-term cooperation.
A similar success story includes Jay Chou's endorsement of "League of Legends". The first live broadcast of the game in 2015 set a record of nearly 20 million viewers at 11 p.m. Until last year, there were still players who asked for data on Tieba and got the answer "I don't remember". Anyway, it was impossible to squeeze into the live broadcast room at that time. ”
"Star Summoner" Jay Chou
The importance of "star players" is even higher than the ability of stars to drain traffic. It can promote the ideal state of "unity of quality and effect", so that the game and the spokesperson can achieve mutual success. When the PS5 national version was announced, CCTV host Zhang Tengyue and talk show actor Wang Zijian were invited. The former is best known for Approaching Science. He often posts his competition results on Weibo and asks how to clear the customs. Before he became an ambassador, he was already a little famous among the core gamers. The latter contributed to the print media in middle school and became familiar with the development of the domestic game industry over the decades while working as a columnist for Airliner Radio. They are all detached from the logic of attracting celebrities and serve more for brand maintenance.
Some of the top games obviously don't need to increase their audience, but they still pay a premium to hire spokespeople to solidify their market position. "Glory of Kings" invited five "top stars" such as Yi Yang Qianxi, Song Qian, Li Xian, and Yang Mi as brand spokespersons in 2020, and also formed a team. When Nintendo's Fitness Ring Adventure was released, there were almost no competitors, but three commercials starring Yui Aragaki were still released.
Yui Aragaki promotes "Fitness Ring Adventure"
If the game is already so popular and already has its own brand, then there is really no need to think about finding the right spokesperson.
Do games really need spokespeople?
In recent years, competition in the procurement market has intensified. A single celebrity material has made users tired of it, and endorsements have also declined with the decline of the market. Well-known anchors, vertical KOLs, and short video influencers have become the cooperation choices of manufacturers.
"Three Kingdoms: Strategic Edition", which has always been in the top ten on the purchase list, not only has Gao Xiaosong as the spokesperson, but also invited the leading anchor Wuhu Da Sima to shoot video materials. "The Awakening of All Nations" uses e-sports anchors such as Zhang Daxian and a small group as spokespersons. Since 2019, small and medium-sized manufacturers have discovered the communication ability of short video sitcoms, and Kuaishou stars such as Lin Yan and Tiaozige have become the main advertising targets.
According to AppGrowing statistics, the number one game purchase in July this year was "Xiucai Guess the Idiom", with 104,780 ads. The most exposed is "Since my husband guessed the idiom when he played the show, he stopped asking me for pocket money". 》。 This kind of software that relies on the incentive mechanism of red envelope withdrawal is difficult to even include in the evaluation of the quality of the game.
On the other hand, the requirements for celebrity spokespersons in games are getting higher and higher, and the gameplay of "deep linkage" appears from time to time. "Dream of New Zhu Xian" launched an exclusive task "Touching My Heart" for Zhang Zhehan fans, which requires certain conditions to trigger. You can also earn "Companion Points" for completing missions. When the points reach 16.8 million, you can unlock the new character "Ori Child". This process is very similar to the Weibo ranking in the fan circle.
Create content for spokespeople with the cart before the horse. How many fans can be retained and converted is even more mysterious. After all, online games are long-term products, and profits do not depend on a single payment. Most endorsement products can bring profits to manufacturers as long as they are recognized and purchased by consumers by virtue of their star effect. However, the business logic of the game is different.
In other words, once the motive of covering up the lack of quality is put aside, celebrity endorsement games are actually a pseudo-demand.
According to the statistics of "Domestic 2D Mobile Game Observation", the mobile revenue of "Genshin Impact" without a spokesperson reached 1.3 billion at home and abroad in July, and it is expected that the console and PC side will exceed 2 billion. Its quality is debatable, but at least it proves that there is no direct relationship between celebrity endorsements and game revenue. In the global mobile game rankings released by SensorTower in July, none of the games relied on celebrity spokespersons to drive revenue.
图片来源:SensorTower
Conversely, if the quality of the game is close to art, the game character can also endorse the brand in real life in reverse. In 2016, the heroine of Final Fantasy 13 Lei Lei became the face of Louis Vuitton's spring/summer collection "Series 4", when many LV stores in Shanghai placed Lei Lei's large-scale "makeup promotional photos", which LV artistic director Nicolas Ghe called "a perfect fit".
According to the White Paper on Global Buying Volume in the First Half of 2021, the diversification of game marketing methods is becoming more and more obvious, and content marketing and game brands are receiving more and more attention. Among the mobile games popularly promoted by major manufacturers, animation and cuteness are the key elements. The two-dimensional trend continues to affect the market, and the two-dimensional game has relatively the least reliance on celebrity spokespersons.
"Genshin Impact"
As early as more than ten years ago, Shi Yuzhu, chairman of Giant Network, caused an uproar in the industry because of his remarks of "don't look for a spokesperson". He said in the book "Shi Yuzhu's Autobiography: My Marketing Experience": "I have always had a point of view, looking for celebrities. Endorsements actually don't do any good other than waste money...... If you use a celebrity, the consumer wins" I don't know who paid after watching it, because his attention was not on the product. ”
Shi Yuzhu's confidence came from the success of "Zhengtu" at that time. A year after the open beta, his confidence in the quality of the game was so high that he declared at the China Game Industry Annual Conference: "If you don't think Journey is the best game, we'll delete your account later." "Compensate players with real money. ”
The days when computer games were able to set off a national craze may seem like a distant memory, but some rules are not outdated. If the game is good enough, why can't it speak for itself?