Author: Wu Xiaoyu
Yue Shan is a standard otaku. On weekends, the most common thing he does is to bring his sketchpad and paint in the café across the street from his home, and the word "sports" has nothing to do with him.
However, just last month, Yueshan's WeChat exercise steps exceeded the 30,000 mark for the first time. This surprised his friends. A few days later, Yue Shan and his group of friends showed off the Ark of Tomorrow Eureka medal sent by Keep, and people realized what the source of the "anomaly" was.
The other thing that "moves" is the milk cap. When I first saw the linkage of "Tomorrow's Ark" with Keep, Milk Gai, like many fans, asked for linkage with "unhealthy" products such as milk tea in the comment area of the official blog.
Later, Milk Cap still tried the Eureka Dance Fat Burning Course. Milk Gai said Keep's linkage course unexpectedly made her immersive. After all, when Eureka told her "come on" and "be careful not to fall", the milk cover herself was really about to lose her legs.
Details of the linkage between Keep and "Tomorrow's Ark" (Source: Tomorrow's Ark's official Weibo)
In 2019, Nintendo Switch's somatosensory fitness game "Fitness Ring Adventure" was born. Immediately after the arrival of the mask period, game + fitness has become a hot spot in the game industry. At that time, people were speculating whether domestic game manufacturers could come up with a similar fitness game to seize the relevant market.
Judging from the results, the domestic market quickly ate the "game + fitness" dividend, but it was the fitness software Keep. In the past three years, with a large number of cooperation resources of game manufacturers, Keep has developed a set of overall cooperation models including medals + sports courses + theme gameplay.
Just like the "medal economics" that surprised the circle before, Keep's 2023 financial report shows that the average revenue of paying users of virtual sports events (i.e., medal-related businesses) in online revenue increased by more than 30% year-on-year, and the revenue of online membership and paid content increased by 11.4% to 995 million yuan, while the related costs (or including the licensing fee of the IP party) only increased by 26.8 million, which is undoubtedly a good deal.
Why does Keep want to link with game IP? What are the main ways of IP linkage? How are IP linkage related courses and medals made?Does Keep break the circle through game IP linkage? With these questions, Entertainment Capital talked to relevant people of Keep and game IP parties, hoping to get answers to their questions.
From the "King of Fighters '97" course "run" to the limited medal
Keep's game IP linkage began with The King of Fighters '97.
Relevant sources told Entertainment Capital that Keep has been committed to lowering the threshold for sports and promoting national fitness. Gamification of course content can enhance the fun of sports and amplify the feeling of joy in sports. This form can also give positive feedback to the user's body, helping more novice users to enjoy the exercise and keep exercising.
In October 2021, Keep cooperated with SNK to launch the world's first "The King of Fighters '97" co-branded course, which is also the first time that Keep has been linked with a game IP.
The King of Fighters '97 co-branded course is packed with a lot of classic animations and battle footage from the game. The course is taught by a real instructor, allowing users to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of "The King of Fighters '97". Users take on the role of Kyo Kusanagi, the protagonist of The King of Fighters '97, and experience the joy of boxing in an episodic experience. According to Keep's official data, more than 360,000 users have practiced the "King of Fighters '97" co-branded course.
Keep and "The King of Fighters '97" linkage (Source: Keep's official Weibo)
Running classes are one of the relatively simple and boring of Keep's fitness classes. In order to make the course more interesting, in 2022, Keep launched a special story running course. They combine running with the story, creating an immersive running experience through music, voice acting, and storytelling. IPs such as "Peace Elite" and "Glory of Kings" have launched limited plot running courses.
In addition to various co-branded courses, Keep has also tried joint live broadcasts of virtual idols and real coaches. On Chinese New Year's Eve 2022, Keep cooperated with "Sword Network 3" to conduct a live class with virtual idols and real coaches on the same stage. In this training class, Qi Jin and Ji Beiqing, two popular characters in "Sword Network 3", led users to practice fat burning exercises with real coaches.
Now, when Keep cooperates with game IPs, it mostly adopts the form of medal events. Users pay to register for the online virtual competition, and they can get physical medals after completing the competition. In just one year, game IPs such as "Genshin Impact", "Honkai: Star Dome Railway", "Ark of Tomorrow" and "Love and Deep Space" have all linked with Keep in medal competitions.
In general, Keep closely integrates game IP with various courses and medal events, hoping to add interest to fitness content and mobilize users' enthusiasm for sports.
Refine courses and medals to highlight the characteristics and gameplay of the game IP
In the past period of time, Entertainment Capital has communicated with many fans of "Ark of Tomorrow" and "Honkai: Star Dome Railway", asking them how they feel about Keep's online running medal events and IP linkage courses.
Fans feel that classes and events make the game's characters fit the fitness vibe perfectly, and they are willing to work out in addition to the surrounding perks. What makes Entertainment Capital curious is, how do these elaborate courses and events advance the production?
A relevant person from Keep said that the game IP linkage course is generally completed by the cooperation between Keep and the game IP party. The IP side provides the copyright materials, and Keep is responsible for the course layout and design.
For example, in the recent "Ark of Tomorrow" fat burning course, in addition to the IP character image materials, Keep also needs to use 3D motion capture and modeling technology in the production process. These technical supports mainly come from the Eagle Point Network of the IP side. Keep is a professional output in the course content arrangement, and the two parties jointly create the output of the final course video.
At the same time, Keep will also conduct in-depth interpretation and analysis of the IP plot and characters to find the type of course that suits the role.
The two characters used in the Ark of Tomorrow fat burning course are Eureka and Shigegaku. Eureka's role is set as a female anchor, and Shigegaku's role is set as a martial arts instructor.
Fat burning exercises have always been Keep's most popular type of exercise, and the national style sports represented by martial arts are one of the mainstream sports trends this year. The Keep course design team specially planned this fat burning class based on the characteristics of the characters and the sports style that users like at the moment.
AI Mapping by Entertainment Capital
In fact, game IP linkage courses can often get good business conversion results on the Keep site. According to the data provided by Keep, the data of the fat-burning course of "Ark of Tomorrow" exceeded expectations in the first month, with about 300,000 non-member users browsing and nearly 100,000 trainees, and the conversion rate of member orders is greater than the average of similar courses on the site.
In the medal competition, Keep also needs to think about how to design and produce co-branded medals to attract game fans. When communicating with Keep-related people, Entertainment Capital found that gameplay innovation is one of the most distinctive attributes of Keep medals.
During this year's Chinese New Year, Keep launched a limited edition co-branded medal for Naraka: Bladepoint. The design of the medal incorporates the theme of "Descendants of the Dragon", and the Q version of Chilian Ignorance is surrounded by a golden dragon on the periphery, and the body of Chilian Ignorance can be rotated. The "Love of Light and Night" co-branded medal, launched last year, is inspired by vintage pocket watches. Fans flip through the medals and see the well-designed character images.
"Naraka: Bladepoint" co-branded medal design (Source: Screenshot from "Naraka: Bladepoint" official Weibo)
"These gameplay methods come from Keep's in-depth research on IP and user insights. We will analyze the user value based on the positioning of the medal and the IP itself, dig out the points that users are interested in, and then disassemble the possible presentation forms for each point. Sometimes, we see a lot of second creations from users on social media platforms. Fans are often able to give brainstorming gameplay and creativity. It's a big source of inspiration for our designs," said a Keep official.
The relevant person also believes that when Keep designs the gameplay for the medals, it needs to comprehensively consider the process of medal making and the possibility of gameplay. Some medal materials are suitable for rotation and not for sliding, and some medal materials are suitable for opening and closing, not for swinging.
Based on the integration of the needs of IP, users, and brands, as well as the feasibility of each link of the medal production process, Keep can finalize the specific gameplay of the linkage medals.
Strive to break the circle and win the hearts of young people with joint medals
Most manufacturers are linked with game IPs, and the core goal is to break the circle, and Keep is no exception. Relevant sources revealed to Entertainment Capital that game IP linkage is the starting point for Keep to develop users in the two-dimensional circle, and it is also the key direction of Keep's co-branding in the past two years.
It is understood that Keep's core users are mainly white-collar workers in first- and second-tier cities under the age of 30 and in new first-tier cities. The user circle of each game IP is relatively focused on college students. This group is in the transition period of entering the workplace and is an important potential user group of Keep.
After the linkage cooperation, the game IP has brought a younger user group to Keep, and at the same time enriched the labels of users on the site, expanding from white-collar women to two-dimensional, cute girls, secondary two teenagers, etc.
It is worth mentioning that digging deeper along Keep's gradually formed IP linkage methodology, Entertainment Capital found that the mentality of young people is quietly changing. They gradually accepted the linkage model provided by Keep, and even enjoyed it.
"Which is more attractive, Keep training sessions or medals?"
Entertainment Capital posed this question to all the fans of the exchange, and their answer was unanimous - medals.
Just like the milk cap mentioned above, many game audiences initially did not accept the linkage form of fitness acquisition peripherals. FMCG products such as beverages and fast food are their preferred linkage objects. KFC, Pizza Hut, Luckin, Heytea and Tea Baidao are all brand manufacturers that game IP habitually cooperates with.
However, compared to the business model of buying FMCG products and getting free goods, the form of getting medals and merchandise after fitness requires a certain amount of effort from fans. Not only that, but these medals also have a certain scarcity attribute and cannot be obtained again after the event period ends. Naraka: Bladepoint is even limited to 300 copies. This kind of activity setting can stimulate young people's sense of participation and achievement.
After receiving the medal, young people are willing to show their "hard work" to those around them, showing their unique personality. At the same time, sharing the joy of winning medals with those around you is not only a demonstration of daily life, but also a demonstration of healthy life. Medals become a stable "social currency". Over time, gamers have accepted the model of winning medals for fitness, and the game IP and Keep itself have also achieved a breakthrough.
Keep has officially confirmed the purchasing power of game IP fans. According to Keep's 2023 interim report, the Genshin Impact "Charity Online Run" event held in June 2023 set a record of more than one million users participating in a single medal competition.
"Genshin Impact" "Public Welfare Online Run" (Source: Keep's official Weibo)
In addition, the average revenue per paying user of Keep's virtual sports events in 2023 increased by 30% compared to the same period in 2022, and the revenue contribution per monthly active user increased by 17.6% year-on-year. The growth of these numbers may be due to the various game IP linkages carried out by Keep.
What is certain is that the linkage with popular game IPs will become the direction of Keep's long-term exploration. On the one hand, Keep hopes that players can experience more sports content and products, and truly combine the pleasure of games with the joy of sports; on the other hand, by providing users with a richer experience, game manufacturers can achieve copyright income and external exposure, and also improve the stereotype of "game fat house" in the hearts of the people.
Note: Yue Shan and Milk Cap in the article are pseudonyms