Chickens or eggs first, that's a question.
In the production and creation of IP, people's ideas are almost always first works, and then THERE is IP. Our years of film and television IP consumption habits are like this. But with the development of social networks, this has also become a "chicken or egg" problem, because IP can also be generated without relying on works.
Bubble Mart in China and Invisible Universe, an entertainment technology startup abroad, are representatives of this industry. However, the two approaches are still different, Invisible Universe intends to do work after the IP is on fire, and Bubble Mart believes that its tide play is the biggest work.
Today we'll take a look at the IP-building company that made reddit co-founders accused of "abusing babies" and worked with supermodel Karlie Kloss, Tiktok redman D'Amelio, and tennis player Serena Williams.
▲ IP created by Invisible Universe
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > Reddit co-founder accused of "abusing babies", IP shaping is too successful? </h1>
If you had a doll in front of you, how would you pick it up?
A grab your foot and lift it up
B grabbed his face and lifted it up
Hand C stuck in the arm socket and hugged it
People may not treat dolls with the same caution as babies. When most adults pick up a doll, they should not specifically confirm that the force point of holding the doll can make it comfortable, but this is likely to be scolded.
▲ Alexis Ohanian clutches the doll's face
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian was scolded. Because he grabbed the doll's face during a live broadcast and picked her up. If it is an ordinary doll doll, it is estimated that it will not be good. But this doll is an Internet celebrity doll with millions of followers on social networks, so Alexis grabbed his face and picked up the doll.
"Two hands, tucked under the armpits, like a civilized man." Fans of the doll protested Alexis' brutality on social networks, even using the #QQPS (Qai Qai Protective Services) tag. One fan also suggested that we call the child protection agency together. Of course, it is very likely that such institutions will not accept the doll protection business.
▲ Netizens are very concerned about Qai Qai's living conditions
This doll is Qai Qai.
Unlike most white-skinned dolls, Qai Qai is a black-skinned doll owned by tennis player Serena Williams and Alexis' daughter Olympia. As a mixed-race child, Olympia's mother, Serena Williams, has publicly stated that her daughter's first doll will be a black doll, because she never got a doll with the same skin color as herself when she was a child.
On August 22, 2018, it was the first day that Qai Qai was introduced to the public. She was wearing a white and pink jumpsuit and lying on the floor, which was her earliest appearance in the online world.
▲ Qai Qai
After that, her photos were constantly updated on this account, lying on the floor sleeping, going out for a swim with the owner, lying on a cruise ship for vacation, watching tennis matches around the world... Considering that she already has 330,000 followers on Ins and her daily life is so quiet, we boldly predict that her life may be better than yours.
After these ordinary doll photos basically get 1W likes, Qai Qai evolved. She is no longer a three-dimensional doll that needs human assistance to stand, but also a two-dimensional animated image that can sing and dance, and this animated image began to appear more frequently than the three-dimensional doll, and even had a certain commercial value, and began to receive advertisements and interact with Internet celebrities.
▲ An animated image of Qai Qai
Being loved is why Qai Qai is becoming more and more popular with advertisers. Through Serena Williams' influence and the doll's unique skin color, more and more people recognize this cute doll through their content sharing, and then like her.
After falling in love with the little doll, she will more and more urge her owner to update. Even under Serena Williams' sharing of the tennis match, there will be fans asking "Where is Qai Qai". Not only do I want to see more of the doll's dynamics, but I also want to know if she's being treated well.
▲ Serena Williams' daughter holds Qai Qai
In this case, not only Alexis, but even his wife Serena Williams has been subjected to a certain amount of public pressure, believing that they are not careful enough to take care of the doll, suspected of "abusing the baby".
But this worry is likely to be superfluous, as the couple designed a bright upward passage for the doll. Today's real dolls appear less and less, and what appears on social networks is the well-designed animated image, she sings and dances to be pleasant, has her own derivative dolls, has her own animation works, and may have comics and movies in the future.
▲ The fusion of characters and families in Qai Qai animation
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="29" > do IP first and then do works, and the celebrity effect molds IP</h1>
Qai Qai is the most successful work of entertainment technology startup Invisible Universe to date.
It's a new company that former Snap executive John Brennan left to start, and it may be difficult to find a contrasting reference because it's doing a new business — directly creating special IP from scratch, and then using IP to create books, comics, movies and other works. This is the complete opposite of the previous IP building process, but this unusual attempt has already achieved some success.
John's first birth of the idea was at Snap, when Snap's AI and emoji sticker teams worked together, which sparked his further thinking about IP.
▲ Founder of Invisible Universe. Image courtesy of Fast company
Mobile phones are now the most popular screens in our lives. Whether it's good or bad, we can't deny that, and social media is also the most popular app on mobile phones.
In this case, 99% of the home animation IP still comes only from the film, television, and publishing industries, which makes no sense to me. Why can't the next Toy Story come from Instagram or TikTok? We want to create character IP in an online world where people are spending more and more time.
As the idea took root in John's mind, he discovered more and more of the benefits of out of nothing IP. Because the cost of film and television production is too high, companies like Disney will use high costs to create a new IP on the screen, but this is an industry with an extremely unstable input-output ratio, and these film and television content may be unpopular.
▲ Disney's IP empire cost is not low
In this case, if you can confirm the attractiveness of IP and then build a related content industry around IP, this seems to be a big innovation. Unlike the previous influence that required 4-5 years to build an IP, now Invisible Universe's approach allows a new IP to quickly trial and error in about 30 days, testing whether it is attractive in the market.
Today the company has managed to create several IPs on social media, including Qai Qai, Squeaky & Roy with Tiktok celebrity D'Amelio; Kayda & Kai, the virtual robot assistant of supermodel Karlie Kloss; Crazynho, a happy monkey of Brazilian star Dani Alves; and a unique animated character of Jennifer Aniston in the future.
▲ From dolls to animations, it's easier than you think
The "parents" of these animated characters are very famous, they are all celebrities who have a million fans in social networks, and their influence makes it easier to start an IP first. John also said that people with 5,000W or even 100 million followers on social networks are more suitable for building home IP with them, "from the perspective of value and brand, this can develop an IP that can go further."
Some people commented that this is very similar to the star-making model of traffic stars. Regardless of this IP, first use external conditions (creator, appearance) to make people like, have enough fans and then accumulate works, and the cost of trial and error is low.
▲ Brazilian star Dani Alves and his happy monkey Crazynho
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="44" > from three-dimensional to two-dimensional, IP changes differently</h1>
Starting with elementary school, numbers are the natural order from 2 to 3, and countdowns from 3 to 2. Today's derivation from three-dimensional IP to two-dimensional IP is also an inversion of IP.
Just as the Korean film and television circle's "shoot while broadcasting" system can absorb audience evaluation to influence the direction of content, this kind of case of making changes after the content and audience contact will better meet the needs of the audience.
For example, when Tiktok Celebrity D'Amelio Family IP Squeaky & Roy participated in TikTok's Flexibility Challenge, a large percentage of the comments below the 11 million views wanted to visit its room. The animation team quickly produced a video of the room, and on YouTube the video of the two IP characters visiting the room received nearly a million views in a short period of time.
▲ Squeaky & Roy
For celebrities working with Invisible Universe, the cost of participating in a project that is ahead of the curve is low. They only need to take a few photos at home to pass on to partners, and occasionally share some content on social networks to help the IP gain a large number of initial fans. At the same time, the income of a successful IP is also very attractive, doll derivatives, comics, movies, licensing fees alone can allow celebrities to obtain real commercial profits.
Compared with the original spending of hundreds of millions of dollars to see a mature IP in the next few years, this model reduces costs and shortens time. The only question mark that needs to be put on is whether you will continue to like an IP that you like in the fast age of social media and becomes a character in a film and television work.
▲ IP changes. Image credit: Tencent ISUX
For this question, another company in China that has shaped IP from scratch cannot answer, nor does it want to answer. That's Bubble Mart, they feel that they are doing the business of IP, the difference is that their artistic IP will not enter the comic movie, but remain in the tide play, so that each user can interpret it by themselves, find their own projection in the tide play.
In Bubble Mart's view, "the charm of artist toy IP is not in the culture or story, but in the image designed by the artist, and its image can impress the user is a very key part of the conversion purchase." The image is the most important in this link, and the remaining audience can make up for it, and in the process, the IP has even become the unique IP of the audience.
▲ Bubble Mart has created the well-known IP Molly
From ancient times to the present, the IP derived from animation games is the most powerful "gold sucking beast", and the Asian money-grabbing group represented by Pikachu is one of the leaders. But in the era of social networking, memes on WeChat and Line can also become well-known IPs, such as yellow face, long grass face dumplings, Brown bear, Ke ni rabbit... With the popularity of these IPs, they also have the opportunity to become character brands with unique stories.
From meme images to trendy play, to today's IP that rises directly from social networks, the word IP may come more and more from our online world in the future.