Who is the robin? A singer from the Pinocone "family", a superstar who is famous all over the world, her singing voice spans galaxies, she is in children's musical enlightenment, young people's daily humming tunes, brand endorsements, music festivals and other occasions, and she is also on the head attention list of entertainment journalists.
She is a virtual character in "Honkai: Star Dome Railway", a graceful girl with a sky ring on her head, under the ridicule of players, she is anti-guest-oriented, and has become a star invited by the game to increase social attention, she seems to have walked out of the game, and in reality she also has a popularity that matches the title.
When you first come into contact with these remarks, you will inevitably think that the players are too deep in the play, but after careful consideration, you have to feel that miHoYo has deep skills.
is also for the promotion of game characters, but this time it used a set of unconventional practices to open the eyes of peers again.
On May 8th, the 2.2 version of the game was officially launched, and the official long-foreshadowed character Robin entered the card pool, and the high popularity of the character helped the game achieve another impulsive explosion on the best-selling list, and it was on the top 2 of the national iOS best-selling list on the same day, and the popularity continued to rise.
Data source: Qimai
Before and after the version update, topics related to the role frequently appeared on the hot search list of mainstream social platforms, and the personal slow live broadcast ranked second on the hot search list of station B, and when the character was launched, it squeezed into the Top4 of the Douyin hot list, and the physical album sold tens of thousands of copies in one hour on Tmall, and the album was played on the whole network on the first day of more than 10 million.
The first feeling of the unsettled wave after wave of publicity and distribution is that miHoYo is willing to spend money on character packaging and publicity, creating a huge pomp and circumstance for robin; Click to watch one by one, the second feeling must be, now doing the second game character publicity is really volume, it is not a secondary use of the existing materials in the game.
However, if you have paid attention to miHoYo's past character publicity, it is not difficult to find that the same saturation publicity and the same production refinement, but it has a different way of thinking this time.
How is it different?
Pioneer image: the world-famous galaxy singer
Where does the whole thing start? Starting from the official announcement of the character PV on May 5, or from the official version preview live broadcast on April 26, or from the earlier collaboration between Robin and makeup brand COLORS?
"Pinocone's well-known makeup brand COLORS joins hands with Galaxy singer Robin"
Perhaps, since the launch of version 2.0 Pinoconi (February 6), the announcement of the character has been foreshadowed.
In the main story, the family invites several forces, including the protagonist group, to Pinocone to participate in the "Harmonic Ceremony", and Robin is also invited to return to his hometown and perform at the ceremony. In version 2.0-2.1, there are not many scenes of robin, and most of the player's perception of the character comes from the side description, which can be summed up in one sentence: it is difficult to find in the plot, and it is everywhere in the game.
For example, at the beginning of the plot, March 7 played a little fan girl, popularizing the origin of the robin to the player, and the streets and alleys of Pinocone were posted with robin art posters everywhere, and through fragmented narratives and delicate environmental portrayals, the image of the well-known Galaxy singer has been deeply implanted in the minds of players.
The plot is implanted in the track "Saving a Heart from Sadness", which further establishes its image as a singer, and its natural singing voice and full emotions make Chinese and foreign players fall instantly. It can be said that it has accumulated enough popularity for the official appearance of the robin.
At the Star Railway LIVE held not long ago, the official also made a realistic reproduction of the classic scene, and the excellent interpretation of the music by the robin singer Chevy made the show one of the highlights of the concert, and the audience shook the light sticks uniformly with the melody, turning the venue into a romantic sea of stars.
On May 3, the official took advantage of the victory and released the Robin Thousand Stars Tour PV "If You Had a Pair of Wings", which is a short film that is more oriented to the introduction of the character's identity: The robin inherits the will of his mother, brings hope to people with his singing, and even though the road is bumpy, he is still strong on the path he has chosen.
At this moment, the player's impression of the character has become more concrete, she is no longer a simple label like a "well-known galaxy singer", they recognize the deep connotation of the name "robin", in addition to the sweet voice of the person, she also has a strong and kind personality.
At this point, the player's perception of the character has been fully foreshadowed, and the confusing main plot and a large number of side depictions make players even more curious about the real situation of the character. However, using the plot to warm up the characters who have not yet been launched is not new in the second game, and the official off-end publicity at this stage is also routine.
With music as the anchor, the official has found a new breakthrough for the promotion of the role.
Reinvent the Momentum: A super popular character who breaks through the dimension
On May 7th, the official announced the character's personal PV, and many players found something unusual, not so much that it is a character PV, but rather that it is a music MV tailored for the song.
According to the convention, the game will make a short film for each upcoming character, with new music and animation, the short film mostly revolves around the character's personality charm, weaving appropriate scenes or stories, such as the perverse and crazy fireworks of fireworks, the gambler's posture of gold dust, through the tense animation performance and excellent voice actor interpretation, players can quickly appreciate the distinctive and unusual personal temperament of each character.
In the role PV of the robin, the coherent singing voice replaces the common voice actor interpretation in previous videos, it uses songs instead of lines to express the emotions of the characters, the scenes and the actions of the characters will be designed according to the lines, the animation rhythm and camera scheduling will also fit the melody design, in order to achieve the effect of music and picture in harmony, and the game logo at the end of the film also brings the robin's autograph.
The official shaping of the identity of the robin singer not only stays in the game, but also extends to the outside of the game, and is refined into every link.
In the preview live broadcast on April 26, there are actually clues. The official created a music album "Air Chrysalis" specifically for the character, and invited a number of celebrities to stand for it, including in-game characters such as Shiluwa and Sunday, as well as real-life singers such as Jake Miller and May'n.
May’n曾担任《超时空要塞F》中银河歌者雪莉露的歌曲CV
The official first-person perspective is used to simulate the daily life of virtual characters through live broadcast without editing and rendering, and the topics that the characters chat about and the events they trigger are all closely related to the identity setting and character information of the robin.
With so much foreshadowing and warm-up, the popularity of music albums is already predictable.
On May 9th, Robin's solo album "Air Chrysalis" was officially released, and in less than an hour, the physical record sold more than 10,000 on Tmall Store, and after it was put on mainstream music platforms such as QQ Music and Kugou, the popularity soared, and the three songs that have been released are all on the list, including the top three on the QQ Music New Song List, Soaring List, and Music Index List. Among them, the single "Hope with Feathers and Wings" is the top 1 on the airborne hot song list, with more than 20w+ reviews in three days.
The official also created a personal account for the character, and as of now, she has nearly 40w fans on the QQ music platform.
Robin is no longer just a galactic singer living in the game, she has stepped into reality and established a new connection with the players as a singer.
At this point, miHoYo's publicity and distribution ideas for robin are already clear, it follows the context of music, closely follows the setting of the role's Galaxy singer, and combines the publicity thinking of some real artists to make character packaging.
This unconventional approach has faced a number of challenges from the outset –
The government needs to mobilize more resources, and the most important thing that cannot be ignored is the creation of music, and the melody and tone of the song must match the identity of a well-known galaxy singer.
In version 2.2, which has just been launched, players can walk through the streets of Pinocone and hear the robin's singing through the shop window, and the screen in the square has also been replaced with a mockingbird album advertisement, and the production team has also specially choreographed a small easter egg for it to satirize the phenomenon of scalpers in reality.
In the climax of the main story, the robin's singing voice has become a key plot enabler and emotional accelerant, which also makes the newly released track "Hope with Feathers and Wings" lead the popularity of the album all the way.
It changes the official publicity and distribution mode in the past, it needs to implant more nodes, with the update rhythm of offline activities and online versions, it needs to think about new forms of expression, even if it is a conventional PV creation, it must have a differentiated style.
It needs to create a sense of the character's presence in real life, reinforcing the character's quasi-social connection without deviating the character's impression in the player's mind.
As a character who did not have many roles in the first two versions, Robin's popularity skyrocketed before and after the version update, and the gorgeous data of character-related topics and music on various platforms has explained everything, and she even broke through the game circle and dimensional barriers, and fought back and forth with real singers.
It seems that miHoYo's character creation has jumped out of the game level and intervened in daily life, and players can also feel the robin's musical talent, personality charm, and spiritual inspiration in reality.
Role-based: The foothold of Mijia's content-based games
The official series of packaging for Robin is reminiscent of virtual idols, and it is not alone in the gaming field.
In addition to the common idol music games, some top game companies have also packaged virtual game characters as real singers, completing one beautiful cross-border marketing after another.
For the game, the singer plays the role of connection, he/she connects the music culture of the game with the game itself, and the game also uses the singer's musical performance and role-playing in reality, so that the game can be connected to a wider range of popular culture, and the pan-entertainment audience understands the game with the help of music and virtual artists.
Relying on virtual idols, game companies have built a new content ecology and a new way of community organization.
The robin's case is similar, however, based on the tonal nature of Honkai: Star Railway, it is significantly different.
Mockingbird is not an existing game character who changed careers to become a singer from another world, she is a native virtual singer who plays a key role in shaping the game's world and storytelling.
She does not rely on a bunch of labels and settings to speak for herself, but is a full character that can be perceived by players and evoke emotional resonance from players, and how to convey the charm of the character is still the focus of miHoYo when creating content-based games.
It's just that this time they have changed their thinking, or rather, they have used a way of thinking that is more suitable for the character singers, in the original high-saturation and high-precision publicity mode, firstly, the conventional publicity materials are tailor-made, such as the artist's interview-style graphic introduction, the PV creation of the music MV texture, and secondly, through the real artist for his platform, live live broadcast, create a personal account, etc., so that the character has more realistic perception dimensions.
In order to promote new characters, it can specially formulate a number of animated short films, produce live 2D, invite real artists, and implement the character's personality traits and personality charm into every scene inside and outside the game, and realize the simultaneous dissemination of multiple platforms.
Even the Q version of the villain in the live broadcast has rich action details to reflect the role Source: Miyou Club
In the promotion of the music album, it is even more consistent with the inside and outside of the end, walking through the game world, the sound of the robin surrounds the ears, opening the music platform, the robin's music is on the list, roaming the Internet, the robin's figure still exists, and players can realize "Oh, Miss Mockingbird's album is online" no matter where they are.
And what is even more surprising may be miHoYo's profound music genes, the star railway LIVE that ended successfully a few days ago may be an example, but through Robin, GameRes sees another strength of it, that is, the high integration of music and game content and publicity plans, combing through the three songs that have been put on the shelves in the album one by one, you can find that they play different roles at different stages and on different occasions, they are higher and higher, helping characters and even games to achieve cross-platform and cross-circle communication.
Music, as one of the most resonant and memorial media for the audience, is also a way for the audience to contact, enjoy and even disseminate, every time the robin's song sounds, the connection between the player and the game will become more and more profound.
With music as the anchor, miHoYo not only launched a cross-dimensional galaxy singer this time, but also created one wonderful memory after another for players that can be evoked by music at any time. (Text/Xunyang)