A sofa, two backs, and another screen nested within the screen. It's like the beginning of a documentary, and it's like the prologue of an interview.
But neither. This is a special live broadcast on Douyin.
There is no pompous selling of looking directly at the camera, and there is no link to the product that needs to be sold, and the protagonists of the live broadcast are not celebrities with exquisite makeup, but two amateur women who are slightly nervous without powder.
This "anti-bone" live broadcast that does not bring goods and does not seek sales conversion is also a risky attempt. "None of the amateurs in the whole film are the ones we originally knew. Gao Jiayin, general manager of SK-II Greater China brand, said frankly.
The number of online viewers exceeded 10,000, and the audience set a new record since the start of the broadcast, and the stay time exceeded the advertising sales live broadcast for a long time. "We were originally worried that no one wanted to watch this non-celebrity live broadcast, but the viewing rate and communication effect after the broadcast were not much different from the celebrity live broadcast," Gao Jiayin said, giving the brand a lot of confidence.
For SK-II, the surprise brought by the live broadcast of "Finding the Blind Date Corner Girl from 8 Years Ago" is far more than a breakthrough in data, but a "backtracking" journey, using the "big screen" to touch the "small screen", evoking consumers' long-term memory of the brand and increasing the favorability.
A "sense of power" that travels through time and space
From entering the blind date corner due to the pressure of her parents urging her to get married, to taking the initiative to enter marriage and becoming a happy mother-to-be, 36-year-old Wang Xiaoqi showed a relieved smile when she watched herself on the screen 8 years ago.
In 2016, 27-year-old Wang Xiaoqi had a big disagreement with his parents because of his views on marriage and love, but he was not good at communication. happened to take the opportunity of filming to reveal his heart to his parents. After that, she said that after being comfortable being herself, she really "changed the destiny", met true love, and was ready to enter the next stage of her life: becoming a mother.
"It was an opportunity for me to refocus on myself. Another female guest, 41-year-old Li Yuxuan, recalled that the year of filming happened to be a turning point for her to try to change her professional identity.
Three days after filming, she picked up her family's first "family" cat, and then tried to return to her hometown Wuhan to seek stability by her parents' side. But in the end, Li Yuxuan still chose to return to Shanghai, try what he wanted to do the most, and change careers to become an actor.
"SK-II is more than just a skincare product, it represents an attitude to life, which is to cherish yourself and give yourself the best. Li Yuxuan's summary in the live broadcast room also shows the changes in women's psychology in the past decade: am I acting for the expectations of others, or am I making efforts under the face of my inner desires?
In this "documentary" live broadcast, SK-II also specially invited a photographer to shoot a "baseless makeup blockbuster" for the female guests. Compared with the immature and slightly cramped self back then, now in front of the camera, the faces of the female guests reveal a natural stretch of brilliance.
"There is a real sense of feminine power in the guests. In the comment area of the live broadcast room, there was also a similar emotion to the host: "I was infected!"
In the past two years, the bursting of the new consumption bubble has made it clear to the market that the dream world built by excessive marketing and ingredient "upgrading" will eventually land. When the material and choices are abundant enough, the demand is subtracted, and the resonance and matching of the underlying values are pursued, which has become the "manifest learning" of women's consumption at present.
In recent years, the big sales of performance venues and the excavation of niche tourist destinations all show that the general trend of "emotional consumption" is gradually emerging. Women are tired of labels, preaching, and samples that are put on their behalf, and are more likely to be moved by the real stories of the stratosphere.
"When women's consciousness gradually awakens, they need the encouragement and affirmation of fellow travelers to form emotional synergy and resonance. Ko said that SK-II's brand vision for many years has been to inspire and give women the courage to change themselves from the inside out, "We want to become that force." ”
And it is this "real" power that travels through time that makes the effect of this "uncarrying" amateur live broadcast unexpectedly good.
From inspiring "leading", to emotional resonance
The general purpose of the brand's live broadcast room is very clear: to show the efficacy of the product and promote the conversion of sales. Generally, the invited celebrities and celebrity guests intend to give the viewer a "sense of leadership" - by buying this product, you can become the TA you want and admire.
However, SK-II's first live broadcast without makeup is more like a companionship "looking back at time and space" for consumers. Let the viewer follow the story telling of the amateur guests, awaken the retrospective of self-memory, and perceive the changes and inner needs of the self.
In the live broadcast room, "let the heroine watch her own film 8 years ago", creating a sense of déjà vu that takes the audience to watch the "documentary" on the spot, and more directly evokes the emotional resonance of the viewer.
Since the development of commercial society, consumers have long been "tempered" by complex and redundant consumption skills to become smarter. They don't want to be "taken away" by brand marketing, and they hate preaching and anxiety-inducing words. In the content field of "all employees bringing goods", any content that can be perceived to be ultimately "bringing goods" is easy to arouse disgust.
SK-II's live broadcast is not intended to arouse the viewer's desire to "become the other party", but to be infected and moved, arousing the viewer's inner impulse to re-examine their own hearts and what kind of self they want to become.
A gimmicky-free live broadcast for vegans, relying only on natural traffic, can achieve the effect of high-level viewing. It also shows that the current marketing needs to have a clear insight into the real underlying needs of consumers. Consumers no longer need glossy "samples" from a distance, they want "fellow travelers" who can accompany their growth.
"Chinese female consumers are more independent and hardworking, and they are now pursuing products, not that I am a big brand, they are very concerned about the product itself, the emotional value it brings to me, the guarantee of the efficacy of my product, and they also hope that the brand can understand my needs. This is more challenging for brands because your consumers are very smart. Gao Jiayin said that SK-II wants to support consumers through emotion, which is reflected in the product dimension and also meets its lowest level of efficacy needs.
From "planting grass" to planting trees
For the past decade, SK-II has been encouraging women to change their lives. From "She Finally Went to the Blind Date Corner" (2016), "Life Has No Limits" (2017) to "Life, I Choose My Own Life" (2023), "Why Don't They Zhuang" (2024).
The change in theme shows that SK-II's brand philosophy has been around for decades: to encourage women and empower them.
Under the theme of "changing fate", the underlying values remain the same: to return women's voice to women themselves. Encourage women not to be bound by the labels imposed by the outside world, get rid of the "should" expected by the outside world under social identity, and fully understand themselves, develop themselves, and become themselves.
"You are the most authentic version of yourself, the most comfortable version of yourself, and your spiritual energy will also be greatly satisfied. We are more about supporting her emotionally to meet their life and emotional needs. Gao Jiayin said.
Under the guidance of such unified values, it can be seen that every year, SK-II Studio's new films are not deliberately guiding "planting" and sales, but continuing to express the life attitude of "destiny is in their own hands", and connect the brand's mind with the issues that female consumers really care about at the moment.
Left: Wang Xiaoqi, 36 years old, Right: Li Yuxuan, 41 years old
"When you talk about efficacy and promotion, you can see some immediate conversions in the short term, but it's very short-term and dangerous. Unity doesn't happen every time. In Gao Jiayin's view, good marketing must manage long-term brand value, because brand is planting trees, not grass. "There may be a day when the grass of the brand will be bald and cannot be cut, so the brand still has to do some long-term and valuable upgrades. ”
But that doesn't mean conversion is inefficient. In fact, emotional marketing is a more effective way to filter. Guided by its values, SK-II can find real consumers, build long-term emotional connections, and continue to convert in the long-term brand building.
Different from short-term "planting grass", it stimulates impulsive consumption and walks away after trying it. SK-II's restrained but not ostentatious branding strategy continuously tracks the needs of core consumers and changes in decision-making logic. Therefore, it is also one of the more "young" brands among high-end brands.
Being young means not setting limits on oneself, always exploring and innovating. Not only is the average age of the core user portrait low, but SK-II is always iteratively updating the way it communicates with consumers and gives updates and surprises. Years ago, SK-II was the first flagship store to launch a live stream on Tmall. At present, SK-II has once again created a new river of "no goods" live streaming in the live broadcast industry, putting the value of content before short-term conversion.
This "always young" is also due to SK-II's open content ecosystem, which has been building for many years, and continues to track the needs of women. According to Ko, SK-II Studio, which opened in 2021, is "basically equivalent to opening a film company" and has extremely high aesthetic requirements for the quality of content.
SK-II Studio × 是枝裕和《中间泳道》
In addition to content creation, SK-II has also put a lot of hard work into team configuration and system construction, and pays more attention to whether fellow travelers have SK-II's brand genes. "The brand's past content and propositions have attracted such a group of people who are very interested in women's insights, who are passionate and who are very hard-working. These people will become the spark and seed of the brand. Gao Jiayin said that many members of the team were attracted by previous films such as "Blind Date Corner", and they themselves have a high sense of identity with the brand value.
According to Ko, SK-II will also regularly conduct insights on women, listen to them from social media, and do consumer insights on a large scale, always maintaining a "sense of presence" and not "disconnecting" with consumers. The right people, coupled with the continuous tracking efforts, make this system continue to work and continue to surprise consumers and the market.
"We want to do one thing to the best and serve you, not to do a lot of things, but to use three minutes of heat. The underlying logic of this brand marketing also stems from the excavation of the core of brand value. The core of SK-II is Pitera™, and under the premise of long-term ownership, different product lines have been launched to meet the market and give surprises.
In the current consumer market, the high-conversion traffic thinking is too rough and the marginal utility is decreasing, and consumers are also being trained to be smarter. Whether it is sincere, whether it is really close to the user, in showing the truth, the market will give the answer.
Just like this amateur live broadcast that is a bit "adventurous" and "anti-bone", the pursuit is not an immediate result in the short term, but to continue to "stand together" with users in terms of emotional value, so as to take deeper roots in the "tree" of the brand.
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