Liu Yue, Vice President of Autohome: Explore new marketing models to integrate car companies into Generation Z

Reporting by Chen Yannan and Tong Haihua in Beijing

The tide of the times is rushing, and it is pushing car companies to embrace the "back wave" with a rapid and unstoppable trend. Unconsciously, the "Generation Z" replaced youthfulness as a target for the automotive industry.

"This year's '8·18' Global Automobile Festival will innovate again on the basis of inheritance and will launch new '6+1' projects such as 'Qi Fun Dream Festival'. By imagining the future car form, leading the linkage trend of two-dimensional culture and automobile brands, releasing the consumer enthusiasm of the Z generation, and allowing Chinese car companies and Houlang to play together. Liu Yue, vice president of Autohome, told the Reporter of China Business Daily.

Recently, the "number one engine" - 2021 Autohome "8·18" Global Auto Festival settled in Changsha and the "8·18" Global Auto Night Launching Ceremony of Autohome was held in Changsha, which also means that Autohome has further advanced to 4.0 strategy. As the pioneer of "8.18", on the basis of two consecutive successful activities, Autohome announced the launch of a new "8.18" Global Automobile Night (hereinafter referred to as "Car Night"), and settled the "8.18" Global Automobile Festival in Changsha to create a new city business card.

Long Quan, chairman and CEO of Autohome, said: "I hope that with the joint efforts of all parties, the '8.18' Global Automobile Festival will be built into a beautiful business card of Changsha's automobile industry culture city, and will become a power engine to promote the expansion and strength of Hunan's automotive industry chain." ”

As the automotive industry enters the new four modernizations, Autohome frequently innovates in marketing and constantly explores and promotes strategic transformation. In recent years, Autohome's performance has been outstanding, and it has maintained steady and positive growth every year.

According to the prospectus previously released, Autohome's net profit in the past three years was 2.871 billion yuan, 3.2 billion yuan and 3.405 billion yuan, respectively. On March 15, Autohome officially landed on Hong Kong stocks, becoming the first Chinese stock to return to Hong Kong for listing in 2021.

On 21 May, Hang Seng Index Company announced the results of the Q1 2021 Hang Seng Index Series review, and autohome (2518.HK) was included in the Hang Seng Technology Index and Hang Seng Composite Index, effective 7 June 2021.

It is reported that the Hang Seng Index is an important indicator to measure the Market situation in Hong Kong, compiled by Hang Seng Index Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Hang Seng Bank of Hong Kong, which has higher requirements for the stock market value and turnover of the selected enterprises.

Therefore, the inclusion of enterprises in the Hang Seng Index and Sub-Index shows that the fundamentals of enterprises are highly recognized by market rule-makers.

1+1>2 Open up new ideas for marketing

"Although China has long been a big country in automobiles, from the perspective of automobile culture, we still have a long way to go. Autohome hopes to be the promoter of China's automobile culture and the trend leader of changing consumption patterns through the holding of the '8.18' Global Automobile Festival, and promote China's automobile culture to the world and influence the world. Liu Yue said.

Stimulated by the epidemic this year, the pace of digital transformation of the automotive industry has accelerated, which has also brought opportunities to the automotive Internet service platform. On the one hand, Autohome continues to improve products and content to attract the attention of young user groups and sinking markets; on the other hand, it has opened up online SaaS data platforms and offline automotive industry marketing. Next, in addition to strengthening the traditional business, Autohome will continue to upgrade its digital strategy to create an automotive ecosystem.

In this regard, Autohome decided to open a new generation of IP, opening up another idea for the marketing of the automotive industry. "Now when it comes to 'making festivals', many people think of the 'Double 11' activity and the '6.18' promotion, we hope to occupy the minds of users through the concept of the number one engine, so that when everyone mentions '8.18', the first thing that comes to mind is the auto home and Hunan Satellite TV, and truly create a festival that belongs to the automotive industry." Liu Yue said.

So why is the theme of this launch ceremony "Engine Number One"? Liu Yue said that "number one" - Autohome as the number one player of the automotive Internet platform, Hunan Satellite TV as the "bellwether" of national satellite television, the two sides jointly created the world's first automobile evening, opened the industry precedent, and set a number of records, successfully broke the barriers of the automotive industry for many years, and led the development of the industry with an innovative ecology. "Engine" represents the "auto + entertainment" innovative marketing model created by Autohome and Hunan Satellite TV, which has become the engine that boosts consumer confidence in the auto market at present, and has become the driving force for the rise of Chinese brands under the wave of the new four modernizations and the driving force for China's automobile culture to go to the world and influence the world.

So why did you choose Changsha as the foothold of the "8.18" auto home? In this regard, Liu Yue said that in recent years, the scale of Changsha's automobile industry has been expanding, and the contribution to economic growth has been continuously enhanced. As of 2019, there are about 650,000 cars produced in Changsha, with an output value of more than 100 billion yuan, including seven well-known vehicle companies such as SAIC Volkswagen, BYD and GAC Mitsubishi, which have opened factories in Changsha. In 2020, Hunan proposed to vigorously implement the "three highs and four new" strategy, and the automobile industry chain is an important engine for Changsha to implement the "three high and four new" strategy and build an advanced manufacturing industry.

It is understood that the cooperation between Autohome and Changsha Has a long history, since 2019, autohome "8·18" global auto festival has worked with Changsha city for three years of spring and autumn. During the "8.18" Global Auto Festival last year, the cumulative number of independent users of the Autohome Online Auto Show exceeded 198 million, setting off a wave of digitalization and onlineization of the automotive industry, driving the entire industry to accelerate into a new stage of transformation.

"Very 6+1" "Tianluodi Network" helps Generation Z

At this event, Liu Yue said that the "8.18" Global Automobile Festival is an important part of the "Tianluodi Network" strategy.

It is understood that Autohome plans to build two major service systems in the next five years, "Tianluo" and "Ground Network". Among them, "Tianluo" aims to give full play to the advantages of C-end traffic on vertical media online, realize the scenario-based application of car viewing, car buying and car use with the help of AR/VR virtualization technology, create a high-frequency global air auto show, and realize the new experience of users who stay at home; "Ground Network" focuses on using cloud computing, AI to empower B-end customers such as 4S stores, car dealers and service providers, to carry out digital upgrades, jointly build and operate a unified SaaS platform, and form a unified cloud platform network with efficient operation and cross-enterprise collaboration. With the help of AR and VR virtualization technology, it is truly possible for users to see, buy and use cars without leaving home. Undoubtedly, the "'8.18' Global Auto Festival" will help Autohome strengthen its brand IP image, consolidate its existing advantages, and take a further step towards the strategy of Tianluodi Network.

Liu Yue also introduced the multiple highlights of the 2021 "8·18" Global Auto Festival. "The sub-project composition of this year's '8.18' is 'very 6+1'. This '1' is the Global SuperCar Show. Due to the limitations of venue, scale and cost of offline auto shows, online auto shows have always been the most core part of our global auto festivals. ”

According to its introduction, this year's "8·18" Global Automobile Festival will upgrade the online auto show through technical means to meet the immersive exhibition experience of more users. At the same time, with the "8·18" Global Super Auto Show as the core, the Global Auto Night, China Automobile New Consumption Forum, National Happy Shopping - Hundred Cities Auto Show, Qi Fun Dream Festival, Star Movement Live, Holy Land Tour and other 6 sub-projects as the auxiliary, forming a "very 6+1" festival hotspot matrix, and with a weekly half-price car and other 3 billion yuan of value-added benefits, together for consumers and car enthusiasts to bring the "'8·18' Global Auto Festival" new experience. In addition, Autohome also invited editors, drivers, KOLs, celebrities, etc. to form an authoritative group to create a "Challenge Subject Five" experience camp, and at the same time linked up with the "three places" in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou to help the star car super conference, through cross-border circle breaking, cross-industry cooperation and other ways, to enhance the "8·18" users to see, buy and use entertainment consumption experience.

Chen Shihua, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, told reporters that the automobile industry has focused more on "consumption" in the past two years, according to the news released by the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2020, China's private car ownership increased by 17.58 million, with a total of more than 240 million, and China's new industries, new formats, and new models grew against the trend. Combined with the data of the seventh census, after conversion, it can be found that the current number of cars per thousand people in China is only 160. According to the development process of foreign automobile industry, China has entered the late stage of automobile popularization. At the same time, the ecology of our entire industry has also changed, and now the national level encourages automobile consumption, and consumers have more demands.

Due to the fierce changes in the market, since 2021, many emerging enterprises have entered the war across borders to participate in the war, all of which have injected more fresh energy into China's automotive industry, the boundaries of the industry and the boundaries of enterprises are being broken, integration and innovation, and the joint construction of ecology is the current and future development trend, based on this industry change, it will inevitably bring about new changes in consumption. According to Autohome, the "8.18" forum will also focus on "boundless symbiosis" to explore the possibilities of future automobile ecology. Explore the new consumption of automobiles in the post-epidemic era and fuel the upcoming "Golden Nine Silver Ten" car market sales season.