Seven weapons for creating creative marketing

In an era when traffic is becoming increasingly scarce, various Internet products are using various tactics to compete for users’ attention. There have been many wonderful cases that made people marvel, but more of them were stupid tricks that were thought up by slapping one's head on the head.

There are many kinds of creative marketing, are there any rules to follow? If we generate ideas according to the so-called "method", will the ideas become the same and lose their appeal?

Let me tell you a story first.

In 1999, an Israeli research team analyzed 200 well-received creative advertisements. These advertisements were all award-winning works in major competitions and had very good market effects. After analyzing the results, the researchers found that 89 of these excellent works can be classified into 6 basic types, or that most successful advertisements use 6 sets of templates. At the same time, the researchers also analyzed 200 failure cases and found that only 2 could be classified into the 6 sets of templates.

In other words: Successful ideas are similar, but failed ideas have their own bad ways.

Therefore, following some tested rules can help us plan better creative marketing. The so-called routines are timeless and creative ideas emerge in endlessly. Let me introduce to you the seven most commonly used weapons in various creative marketing.

Man is a social animal, and cooperation is the basis for the operation of human society. However, competition as opposed to cooperation is also normal in human development. The most extreme form of competition is war. Here’s a little bit of knowledge: According to some statistics, in the thousands of years of recorded human history, there were only a short 292 years of peace without war at all! Although there are fewer wars now, competition is still everywhere. Companies have to compete for market share, athletes have to compete for rankings, and entertainment talent shows have to compete. Nowadays, variety shows can even turn memorizing poetry and recognizing Chinese characters into unique competitions.

Specifically, there are several ways to stimulate competition.

1. Competing for interests

This is the most commonly used and the most direct and effective way to stimulate competition. Most competitions in real life are also struggles for material interests. This method is used in all kinds of ticket grabs, treasure hunts, and voting with prizes as the driving force. For example, the "Class Leader Take Me Out for Fun" event held by Morning and Evening Calendar attracted more than 80,000 targeted users in one city in Beijing in less than a week. The fundamental reason was that it provided three grand prizes for free outings for the whole class. .

2. Pursuit of victory/ranking

Some competitions do not necessarily have substantial prizes. Just the concept of "winning" can bring spiritual pleasure to users. , making users crazy about it. Because victory is always scarce, most people have rarely had the opportunity to "win" or be at the top of any list, whether in study, career, or life. Marketing that takes advantage of this is essentially "creating victory" so that more people have the opportunity to "win". This is why the WeChat Sports Festival became very popular for a while, with some people even using "step brushes", strapping mobile phones to dogs, and other weird tricks in order to rank.

3. Cause showing off/comparison

Showing off and comparing are also a kind of implicit competition. Although there is no specific ranking list, people have a scale in their hearts. For example, the Alipay annual bill became popular among friends some time ago. The reason why people are willing to post their annual bills is actually to show off their consumption level and financial strength. Alipay contributed to this process and deliberately used various repeated calculation methods to make the amount appear much higher than it actually was. This makes users more motivated to share, thus creating a screen-swiping effect.

Scarcity is one of the fundamental concepts of modern economics. Scarcity causes panic, scarcity causes greed, and scarcity is also a common tool in marketing.

But now that materials are becoming less and less scarce in life, how can we make better use of scarcity?

1. Limited Hunger Marketing

Even if there is sufficient supply, marketing must be done intentionally to create "hungry" through limited quantities. Xiaomi is a model in this regard. When new products are launched, they always have to make reservations, queue up, and grab F codes, which makes users have a stronger desire to own them. In addition, Alipay’s Spring Festival collection of five blessings is also a typical limited-edition hunger marketing. The same was true for the Water Margin card and the Three Kingdoms card of Little Raccoon Noodles back then. A few of them were extremely rare, which stimulated users' desire for perfection, thus driving overall sales.

2. Create a sense of time urgency

Similar to "limited quantity" scarcity, "time" urgency is also a kind of scarcity. The same motivation, coupled with a sense of time urgency, will produce greater power. Various limited-time flash sales and limited-time special offers are all uses of this method. Let’s take another less obvious example: Baidu Netdisk’s bug marketing.

On the evening of June 21, 2013, a widely circulated message appeared in major forums, Weibo, and QQ groups: "The payment system of Baidu Cloud Network Disk is suspected of having a major bug. All paid The price of the package has become 1/1000 of the original price. You can buy a one-year membership for 1 cent, and the highest-level package of 100GB only costs 5 cents. Go grab the benefits! ” Netizens were furious for a while, no matter what they had before. If you don’t have a Baidu cloud disk account, you’re all rushing to buy it now.

In addition to the eye-catching effect brought by bugs in big companies like Baidu, there are also two scarcities hidden here: First, it is rare for a big company like Baidu to have bugs, and it will be difficult to encounter them next time. On. Second, since it is a bug, it will definitely be fixed soon, so you must start early! This rarity in probability and the urgency of time allow users to place an order quickly without hesitation. So this is a marketing example of successful use of scarcity.

3. Create uniqueness

Extreme scarcity means uniqueness. Unique ancient books, rare antiques, and top-quality jewelry are all extremely valuable because of their extreme scarcity. So in marketing planning, can we also artificially "create uniqueness"? It’s really okay! rosenoly is a successful case in this regard. The strange rule of "only one person in a lifetime" formulated by roseonly artificially creates a double uniqueness. First, there is only one company that dares to sell roses like this, and the brand itself is unique; second, once you purchase a roseonly product, you can only give it to one person in your life, and the use of the product is unique. This uniqueness makes users desire and cherish it more strongly, and also brings high added value to the brand, making roseonly a very popular luxury brand.

A fundamental difference between new media and traditional media is the importance of interaction. In the new media era, all marketing should emphasize interaction with users and make users feel involved.

Specifically, the commonly used interaction methods are as follows:

1. Game interaction

Everyone loves to play games, and games make marketing more effective. Fun brings the brand and users closer together. Surround Nervous Cat, 1024, and Just Hold on for 20 Seconds if You Are a Man. These typical H5 mini-games have attracted a large number of players in a short period of time and have also brought a lot of free traffic to developers. In addition to these traditional games in a narrow sense, there are also some entertaining interactions that can also be regarded as games. For example, Weiquan Daily C recently released a spelling bottle. It originally wanted people to spell out words such as "resistance", "happy new year", "send a red envelope" and "please give me a warm hug". But I didn’t expect (actually, I definitely did) that it would trigger users with wild minds to play Scrabble in the supermarket. Weird effects such as "You will gain weight in the New Year", "Auntie, don't resist" and "I want to have sex" appeared. However, this attracted everyone's attention and enthusiasm for participation, which played a big role in the winter sales of Weiquan Daily C.

2. Lottery test

Although everyone knows that the lottery test is fake, people still flock to it if this kind of thing comes out.

Because the lottery reflects people's strong desire to know the future, and the test reflects people's strong desire to know themselves. So this type of interaction will always be in demand and will never go out of style. At the beginning of 2015, the "New Year's Sign" immediately exploded in the circle of friends as soon as it came out, and various imitators emerged one after another. Although WeChat now has very strict restrictions on this type of marketing, there are still some deformed marketing activities that appear from time to time. For example, the Plato constellation personality label some time ago gained millions of followers in just one or two days, and the app ranking jumped to more than 20.

3. Content interaction

Content interaction is also a common form of interaction. NetEase’s comments vividly tell us that people are willing to create and users are also talented. What we have to do is to provide users with a creative platform and stimulate their creative will. For example, the "God Turn" essay contest with Meizu received over one million visits in just two weeks, and the total number of submissions exceeded 10 million words. Officials said: "Based on the number of words alone, this may be the largest UGC in the Chinese world."

Social currency is a popular term in the past two years. The definition of social currency in the book "Crazy News" is:

If you can provide users with good social currency , users can take the initiative to spread it for us. Specifically, social currency has the following uses.

1. Provide conversation materials

Conversation materials are the most common form of social currency. Human nature loves chatting and gossiping, but after all, there are only a few people who can create exciting conversations. Therefore, as soon as novel and interesting topics of conversation are generated, they are forwarded like crazy by everyone, which also gave birth to the magical existence of "Joker". If you cleverly integrate your brand into powerful conversation pieces, you can get massive exposure in a short period of time. Durex is a master in this area. When it rained heavily in Beijing, a Weibo post about a young man using Durex as a shoe cover was so retweeted that it provided a good source of conversation. When Didi and Uber merged, the reason why Durex’s DuDu poster was so widely forwarded was because it provided good talking points. In the early days of Zhihu, collections of "Zhihu God Replies" were often released. Users loved to repost them, and it was also a way to provide conversation topics.

2. Spreading value

Spreading valuable information and benefits is also a common behavior. Because altruism helps users build a good image in the minds of others, which will ultimately benefit themselves. If this benefit is provided for free by others, it will be more attractive. "I treat you and you pay for it." Users can be good people for free by just forwarding it. Why not? A lot of marketing takes advantage of this. For example, Didi’s red envelopes have opened up a new form of marketing. When the red envelopes are shared, both parties benefit, and Didi gains new users and brand exposure. This is a typical win-win situation. Later, Didi even came up with brand-named red envelopes, without even having to pay out the red envelope money. It was a truly wonderful technique.

3. Express friendliness/bring closer relationships

"I'm stupid and don't know how to express myself." We often hear this saying in interpersonal communication. Most people want to build a good relationship with others, but due to a lack of expression skills, the effect is average and even causes misunderstandings, which is counterproductive. If a product can help users express friendliness better and get closer to their friends, it will bring valuable value to users. For example, the product "Friend Impression" uses a series of small activities, such as "Describe me in three words" and "Do you understand me?" to help users build relationships with their friends, thus achieving good communication effects.

4. Attract attention

No matter how ordinary people are, they want to be the protagonist and attract everyone's attention. This is especially obvious among children. Why are some children so naughty and always do all kinds of weird behaviors? In fact, they want to attract everyone's attention. In the adult world, everyone is more reserved and reserved, but if there is a fresh, interesting and decent way to attract attention, everyone will also have a strong desire to express themselves.

For example, on Valentine's Day in 2016, countless "marriage certificates" suddenly appeared in the circle of friends. It was actually a marketing campaign planned by AiShare. Its cleverness was that it captured what most people could post on Valentine's Day. And unwilling to be lonely. This event gained the organizer millions of fans in one day, and the traffic volume far exceeded this number.

Ordinary life requires novelty to spice things up, and creating unconventional things is also a common marketing technique.

1. Suspense

At the end of April 2016, Durex announced that it would hold a live broadcast trial event for 100 people, which would be broadcast simultaneously on multiple platforms, attracting five million people to watch. Why everyone is so interested is because of the privacy of Durex and the openness of the live broadcast. This seemingly "most unlikely live broadcast" created strong suspense and successfully aroused everyone's curiosity. Although the campaign ended up being a bit anticlimactic, at least Durex managed to attract the attention of millions of people. All the readers are people with boring lives. After reading it, you have nothing to lose, but you can only laugh and curse a few times, so in general, the marketing purpose has been achieved. In addition, there is a special type of advertisement called "suspense advertisement", which also uses this method.

2. Surprise

Suspense is to arouse people’s curiosity about future possibilities, while surprise is to directly turn unconventional things into reality for users to see. Uber is a master at "calling the CEO with one click" and "calling a helicopter with one click". All kinds of seemingly impossible things have been achieved by Uber, which also aroused users' exclaim "Uber really knows how to play", establishing a The brand image of Uber’s fashionable personality.

Another brand that “knows how to play” is Pizza Hut. During the 2011 Obama-Romney Selection, Pizza Hut announced a contest: Whoever could make a phone call during a presidential debate and ask the presidential candidate if he preferred sausage or pepperoni for pizza would win a lifetime prize. A chance to eat at Pizza Hut for free. As soon as this highly entertaining event was announced, it immediately attracted widespread attention. Although the event was not held due to political pressure, Pizza Hut successfully achieved its marketing objectives.

3. Surprise

Surprise, in a more fashionable way, is also called "exceeding expectations". The specific approach is to give users something more beautiful than they imagined, making the temptation irresistible. There is a widely circulated example about Haidilao: a customer asked the waiter of Haidilao if he could take away the uneaten watermelon, but the waiter said no. But when the customer was checking out, the waiter gave him a whole watermelon and said, "Sorry, cut watermelons cannot be packaged. I will give you a whole watermelon." Regardless of the authenticity of this matter, this unexpected story is indeed very popular on the Internet and has also created a good brand image for Haidilao.

To give another example of "exceeding expectations", that is the "The Most Fragrant Recruitment" event organized by Hive, a platform that provides overseas study tours and volunteers for young people. At the end of 2015, Hive held the "Best Job Recruitment in Shit", which provided 9 "Chief Tourism Officer" positions. Not only did they receive free food and accommodation, but they also received a weekly salary of 10,000 yuan. It was a pie-in-the-sky good thing, so users flocked to it. In just two weeks, more than 5 million users signed up or participated in voting, and the event spread reached tens of millions.

In the "post-truth" era, emotion is more important than the truth. Whoever can win the user's emotion can truly win the user. Playing the emotional card well is more effective than simple material rewards. For example, on the night of the National Football League's qualifying match for the World Cup, Qiaoqiudi successfully aroused users' emotional outcry through a series of highly emotional push notifications, and itself was also well publicized. Another example is the "Four Hours Escape from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou" launched by Xinshixiang. Absolutely some users did not actually participate in the event, but why did they forward it to their WeChat Moments? It also aroused the depressed mood of white-collar workers in metropolitan areas and helped them express their inner emotions. .

Everyone wants to create a good image of themselves and help users create a good image, and users will reward you.

For example, when we were working on the 21-day early-rising plan, we designed a set of exquisite early-rising achievement cards, which were different every day. It contained the number of days the user persisted in waking up early, the proportion of people defeated, etc. When users share this card to their circle of friends, they are shown a positive, healthy and sunny image, and the more they continue to share it, the stronger this image is established. Therefore, many users are very willing to share. This set of cards allows us to rely on self-propagation to bring more than 1 million users to participate in the event, with more than 10 million check-ins, without basically investing in prizes.

The Ice Bucket Challenge, which was popular all over the world, also helped participants create a good image of caring for others and being charitable, so it attracted celebrities from all walks of life, as well as a large number of ordinary people to participate.