---
title: "Blossoms, The Rose, Joyful People, Talk Show...: The Essential Laws and Methods of Brand Building Seen Through the Year's Hit IPs"
description: "I have always believed that all brand building and marketing practices must ultimately return to consumer needs and decision-making patterns. Changes in the consumer behavior chain are the root of changes in brand marketing. The behavior chain in the traditional era is called AIDMA, the most classic behavior model proposed by American advertising scholar E.S. Lewis in 1898 and written into major communication textbooks. AIDMA includes Attention, Interest, Desire, Memory, and Action."
author: "空手"
publisher: "New Distribution"
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published: "2025-02-04"
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# Blossoms, The Rose, Joyful People, Talk Show...: The Essential Laws and Methods of Brand Building Seen Through the Year's Hit IPs

> I have always believed that all brand building and marketing practices must ultimately return to consumer needs and decision-making patterns. Changes in the consumer behavior chain are the root of changes in brand marketing. The behavior chain in the traditional era is called AIDMA, the most classic behavior model proposed by American advertising scholar E.S. Lewis in 1898 and written into major communication textbooks. AIDMA includes Attention, Interest, Desire, Memory, and Action.

**I have always believed that all brand building and marketing practices must ultimately return to consumer needs and decision-making patterns. Changes in the consumer behavior chain are the root of changes in brand marketing.** The behavior chain in the traditional era is called AIDMA, the most classic behavior model proposed by American advertising scholar E.S. Lewis in 1898 and written into major communication textbooks. AIDMA includes Attention, Interest, Desire, Memory, and Action. In the internet era, with search engines, e-commerce platforms, and self-media, the behavior chain evolved into AISAS and SIPS; in the mobile internet era, major platforms have their own behavior models, such as Tencent's 5R, ByteDance's 5A, Alibaba's AIPL, and Weibo's 4L. You can easily find detailed information about each model online, as this is the foundation of brand marketing, so I won't introduce them one by one. What I want to say is that understanding the specific changes in the behavior chain evolution across the three eras is the top priority for understanding marketing transformation. Specifically, this change is three reinforcements and one key absence. **The first reinforcement is extreme focus on capturing user attention.** Because information is exploding, consumer attention is increasingly scarce, making it harder to attract user attention. Therefore, we emphasize that brand information must stimulate consumer interest and resonance, creating social ignition. **The second is timely response to process behaviors in consumer purchase decisions.** Because consumers hold the dominant power and voice in purchasing, they actively search and inquire before buying, deciding whether to respond to and participate in corporate marketing activities. So today we focus on seeding, emphasize open participation mechanisms, and proactively interact with consumers. **The third is the growing emphasis on post-purchase metrics (repurchase, recommendation, sharing).** Because customer acquisition costs are rising, we must focus on managing the full customer lifecycle, and whether users share and spread brand information after exposure determines the effectiveness of brand communication and marketing outcomes. The key absence is that **the 'M' in the AIDMA model has never appeared in any subsequent model**. Today, advertisers focus on whether ads drive immediate conversion, but neglect the long-term memory value of the brand. The reason is simple: with digital media, e-commerce, and live streaming, consumers can watch ads and buy products in the same time and space, making 'buy now' important. Unlike the past, when the two were disconnected and consumers had to remember brand information to make future purchases. In a sense, I believe this is one reason why digital media and performance advertising are becoming less effective, and why return rates on e-commerce platforms remain high. According to statistics, during the 2024 'Double 11' period, some women's clothing stores had return rates as high as 90%. In reality, consumers don't have strong purchase desires or brand preferences; merchants use various operational tactics and promotional policies to stimulate immediate purchases. As a result, consumers buy to meet thresholds, regret purchases, or find the product doesn't meet expectations upon arrival, leading to returns. Return rates have become the last straw for merchants. Viewing today's brand marketing successes and failures through the lens of consumer behavior chain changes offers a different perspective and more essential thinking.

**Brand is a long-term project**
**The value of brand lies in long-term memory**
On January 15, 2025, CBNData and DT Business Observation jointly released the '2024 Life Trends Insight Report: Emotional Dividends in the Age of Fragmented Silver'. One term in the report is particularly thought-provoking: '**memory dividend**'. It is one of three major business trends summarized for 2024 and an important marketing reference for 2025. As we all know, the traffic dividend has peaked, and the myth of traffic driving sales has faded. Corporate traffic promotion costs are rising, operational costs are increasing, and with the need to use ultra-low prices to stimulate immediate conversion, price wars are inevitable, with predictable results. In consumer goods industries like apparel, home textiles, food, and beauty, ROI is approaching the red line; adding return rates and platform policies like 'refund only', losses are inevitable. At this point, companies should strengthen brand mind-share investment, shifting from competing for consumer attention to occupying consumer memory, using brand building to drive the growth flywheel and achieve performance improvement. The value of a brand lies in its ability to create long-term consumer awareness and memory, fostering purchase preferences and emotional identification. With brand support, consumers are more interested in ads, have higher conversion motivation, and traffic ads perform better. Moreover, converted customers can become loyal patrons, enabling continuous conversion and solving the one-time, high-cost problem of traffic. While the traffic dividend has peaked, brand compound interest can endure. But while everyone understands the importance of brand building, is it easy? CBNData's report says companies should '**jump out of the attention red ocean and occupy the memory blue ocean**', but is there truly a blue ocean for memory? In the past, building long-term brand memory was simple: create a catchy slogan and air it on CCTV or satellite TV commercials, and consumers would remember it and the brand. For example, mentioning Jingjiu reminds us of 'Jingjiu is good, but don't overdo it', and mentioning Naobaijin brings to mind 'This year, no gifts during the holidays'. But this approach has failed today. Although some brands still cling to the past, heavily investing in elevator media and hard ads, trying to brainwash consumers with vulgar advertising, think about which brand slogans have been remembered in recent years—you'll find none. Today, a key factor in long-term brand memory is 'memes'—brands participating in or creating social topics that generate attention and discussion, during which people form deep impressions and awareness. For instance, mentioning KFC brings to mind not its slogan but 'Crazy Thursday' and 'V me 50'.
(Image source: Internet meme)
Mentioning Huawei, we think of 'leading far ahead', but that's not an official slogan; it's a viral meme widely recreated and shared. Another example is two phenomenal marketing cases of 2024: Xiaomi Auto and Great Wall Cannon. 'Great Wall, Cannon'—a viral meme brought Great Wall Motor fame, with its market value soaring by 17 billion yuan. Memes and hot topics are important. But creating a brand's own meme is difficult and uncertain. What should brands do? Reviewing 2024's hot topics shows that most high-attention topics and popular memes came from hit dramas and variety shows. For instance, 'Blossoms' made Shanghai trendy, 'The Rose' contributed the year's most viral line, 'I completely and absolutely preside over myself', and 'The Legend of Shen Li' topped Tencent Video's bullet comments with 140 million interactions, ranking first in 2024. These hit IPs became annual pop culture phenomena, and they, along with content platforms like Tencent Video, are the birthplace of internet memes and hot topics. CBNData's report also mentions a business trend called '**meme windfall**'. Hit dramas and variety shows generate many internet memes, driving waves of unexpected consumption and brand exposure. So, how can brands leverage these memes to achieve product sales and long-term brand memory?

**Memes are a product windfall**
**But also a brand lever**
'Then why do you insist on going to Beijing? Who's in Beijing anyway?'—Do you remember this famous line from 'The Rose'? It instantly went viral, creating a nationwide meme culture. @CCTV Culture and Tourism combined this performance with a transition video, saying 'Beijing has 214 A-level scenic spots and over a hundred intangible cultural heritage items; I just insist on going to Beijing.' This creative idea attracted netizens' interest and became a viral transition video, prompting many local tourism accounts to join in, successfully driving traffic to the tourism industry. On Douyin, it spawned hot topics like #Who's in the tourism transition# and #Turning Lin Gengxin to all parts of the country#. This line became a meme thanks to the show's popularity, which created a nationwide viewing effect. The hit drama generated significant ripple effects, also boosting sales for its commercial partners. For example, the head sponsor Jindian Organic Milk saw its customized milk for the spokesperson sold out. Official data shows the first 5,000 units sold exclusively on Xiaohongshu were gone within 20 minutes. Many netizens commented on Jindian's official account: 'You chose Liu Yifei as spokesperson; how could I not order?' 'From now on, milk is completely and absolutely Jindian'... Similarly, Luckin's co-branded Yellow Rose Latte benefited from the drama's traffic, attracting countless orders. Liu Yifei's selfies with coffee further boosted brand heat. Luckin also engaged with the plot, sending actor Xu Haiqiao a Yellow Rose Latte, delighting fans. This is 'meme windfall'. For consumers, buying products related to memes extends their emotional attachment to the plot and characters. They are not just buying products but connecting with pop culture; the product serves as an accessible social currency. Psychology has the 'FOMO' effect (Fear of Missing Out); we worry about falling behind, missing trends, and losing the chance to stay in sync with others and share common topics. But for brands, more importantly, memes and hit dramas offer not just sales opportunities but a rare chance for brand upgrade, strengthening brand value and image, and deepening brand-user connections. The topic effect of drama and variety IPs can help brands break out, quickly boosting brand awareness. If the emotional and value aspects of characters can be grafted onto brand emotions and values, it can enhance brand value, gain goodwill, and convert drama traffic into long-term brand assets, forming lasting memory and relationships. I still remember the 2014 hit Korean drama 'My Love from the Star'. Xiaomi posted a notice in its internal cafeteria offering free beer and fried chicken to employees watching the show, while celebrating Xiaomi Phone 2 sales surpassing 15 million units. Just an A4 notice instantly went viral, earning widespread praise and goodwill for Xiaomi. A decade later, Korean dramas have come and gone, but this goodwill toward Xiaomi has persisted, becoming an integral part of the brand. I strongly emphasize that good brands must undergo '**brand socialization**'. The purpose of brand building is not only to make target consumers aware of the brand's goodness but, more importantly, to create popularity and public influence at the societal level, build social consensus, and ensure the brand is positively and actively discussed in public discourse. The reason is simple: the more familiar and attentive people are to a brand, the easier it is to form emotional connections. And in most industries, the most talked-about brands are the most purchased. A key vehicle for brands to become part of social pop culture is hit content IPs. In a sense, hit dramas and variety shows are microcosms of social culture, reflecting universal social emotions. Therefore, for companies, memes are not just a product windfall but a brand lever. Next, we'll illustrate with two annual hit dramas, 'The Rose' and 'Blossoms'. Data shows 'The Rose' had 30.66 million Weibo discussions, 479 hot searches, and 7 days of single-day views exceeding 100 million on KuYun[1]; 'Blossoms' had 31.12 million Weibo discussions and 362 hot searches[2], ranking first in video views across all Chinese platforms. Both are produced by Tencent Video, and along with 'The Legend of Shen Li' and 'Celebrating the Second Year', they made Weibo's 2024 hit drama list. Yunhe data shows that as of December 14, 2024, six dramas in 2024 exceeded 40 million average views per episode during their hot broadcast period, with cumulative effective views surpassing 2 billion, and all four above were on the list[3]. These dramas guarantee content quality and also guarantee topics and hot searches. 'The Rose' was popular because it reflected contemporary audiences' spiritual pursuits through a story about women seeking self-worth. The character Huang Yimei, a clear-headed heroine navigating career and romance while maintaining independence and spiritual freedom, resonated with many. Her line 'I completely and absolutely preside over myself' became the top favorite quote in DT Research's survey. Jindian deeply understood the show's emotional core and audience psychology, choosing a marketing route of co-creating with the plot and emotionally interacting with viewers, such as bullet comment interactions, inviting viewers to discuss and vote on 'The Rose's Choice', and real-time 'Rose Proverbs' based on high-resonance lines. These practices ignited audience emotions, evoked resonance, and provided more tangible emotional belonging, thus gaining presence both in and out of the show, achieving excellent marketing results. Through 'The Rose', Jindian not only sold customized packaging and merchandise, driving real sales, but also triggered tens of millions of user interactions, sparking widespread social discussion and pushing brand awareness to a peak. Through these interactions and discussions, the Jindian brand has become deeply rooted in people's hearts, winning user affection and recognition. Now let's look at 'Blossoms'. It also popularized foods like pork chop rice cakes and Baozong soaked rice, causing long queues at Shanghai time-honored restaurants Xiandelei and Yuelai Jiujia, and a 670% increase in searches for pork chop rice cakes on Meituan and Ele.me... One key to 'Blossoms' success is its evocation of national memories of old Shanghai, reflecting the vibrant spirit of an era. As a sponsor, domestic skincare brand Pechoin understood the show's core. It created both Mandarin and Shanghai dialect versions of its ads, providing immersive experiences and embedding the brand in memories of old Shanghai. As the show neared its finale, Pechoin announced actress Xin Zhilei as its brand ambassador, emphasizing in the announcement that they would join hands to 'strike the frame of Eastern beauty and interpret the key frame of beauty in every era'. Pechoin's approach not only promoted its Zhenyan anti-wrinkle cream but also transformed the show's Eastern connotations and era spirit into its own brand image and label, reinforcing its Eastern aesthetics and time-honored national brand identity. This approach is more effective than a hard ad shouting slogans about being a national brand or Eastern aesthetics; it allows consumers to feel the brand's core, identify with it, remember it, and be more deeply impressed. 'The Rose' and 'Blossoms' are both annual hits from Tencent Video, each becoming blockbusters due to rich character emotions and social sentiments, and achieving dual success for sponsors in product sales and brand value. For brands, **combining drama and variety IP marketing offers short-term dividends, driving product sales and rapid brand awareness growth; and long-term barriers, allowing brands to shape image, enhance value, strengthen relationships, and better accumulate user fans and brand assets.** In the short term, brands can leverage the topic atmosphere and meme effects of drama and variety IPs to strengthen hit product development, driving sales. As viewers follow dramas, they revisit classic scenes, lines, and moments on short-video platforms like Channels and Douyin, and discuss plots, characters, and actors on Weibo. This social interaction and spillover generate high-value, high-quality traffic that brands can capture using Tencent ecosystem tools. Tencent Video is not just Tencent Video; it can connect the Tencent ecosystem, offering marketing paths via Channels and Mini Programs based on brand needs, and can shorten conversion paths through Moments ads for live rooms, WeCom, and Channels store ad links, bringing immediate revenue and helping merchants capture traffic, solving short-term issues of difficult acquisition, high costs, and low conversion, and achieving business growth. In the long term, the key is to integrate brand information into the emotions and values of characters, turning drama emotions into part of brand narrative. Hit content IPs and their memes and topics can drive both immediate product growth and long-term brand effects, coupled with Tencent Video's content quality and Tencent ecosystem support, truly enhancing brands. We say the success of 'The Rose' and 'Blossoms' lies in capturing the era's emotions and spirit, triggering collective resonance. So, what other social emotions can brands capture? Why do people crave emotional consumption? Why do they invest time and energy in following dramas and projecting enthusiasm onto hit shows? This topic deserves further discussion, as capturing such emotions can lead to marketing success and establish brand recognition and memory.

**See users' psychological outlets in social emotions**
**Find brand marketing entry points**
Undoubtedly, 'emotional value' is the hottest term in marketing over the past two years. From various social hotspots and marketing cases, we can feel the power of social emotions. So, for brand marketing, how to capture user emotions and create emotional value, and how to use emotions for brand marketing? This may be the most concerning issue for businesses today. In the '2024 Life Trends Insight Report', CBNData used ten concrete words to describe consumers' psychological state over the past year, sketching the outline of public emotions: paying for emotions, everyone loves new Chinese style, actively 'going crazy', AI-like, low-cost experiences, going to small towns, exercise 'recovery', tracing local flavors, intimate 'with space', and her voice. **Social emotions are diverse, but behind emotions is a word that points to the essence—relationships.** Humans are social animals; sociality is our essential characteristic. All topics and emotions we care about ultimately respond to our social relationships. **Consumers are very concerned with managing and handling relationships with self and others.** Today's emphasis on her voice and intimate 'with space' refers to deep exploration and reflection on intimate relationships—how to find 'my' subjectivity in love and family. Liu Zhenyun, in his novel 'The Unit', famously said through the protagonist: 'The world is said to be big, and Chinese people are said to be many, but what each person urgently needs to handle and deal with are actually just a few people around them, and the ones they ponder over are just those few. No one is an exception...' For everyone, what we urgently need to handle daily are social relationships with family, lovers, colleagues, and friends. Today's workplace culture of 'slacking off' and 'going crazy' reflects people's strong emotions and pursuits for self-realization, expanding development space, or at least maintaining self and avoiding alienation in the workplace. Even the widely discussed AI evokes a strong sentiment: how humans find unique non-instrumental value amid ubiquitous AI, and what is the essence of human irreplaceability. As mentioned earlier, 'The Rose' expresses the conflict and resolution between self-independent value and love, marriage, and career. Under today's mainstream value narrative, almost all brands targeting female consumers—beauty, fashion, maternal and infant—and household consumer goods where women make decisions, like home cleaning, home appliances, etc., love to play the 'she-marketing' card. For these brands, dramas like 'The Rose' and variety shows like 'Heart Signal' are undoubtedly excellent communication arenas. **Consumers also focus on how we view relationships with more abstract macro groups and social environments, such as human-nature relationships, individual-collective, and individual-nation relationships.** Today, there are two major cultural trends and values: cultural confidence, where everyone loves new Chinese style; and consumers increasingly desire to return to nature, seek local experiences, go to idyllic small towns, and trace local flavors and customs. For example, 'Blossoms', adapted from Mao Dun Literature Prize winner Jin Yucheng's novel, tells the story of a generation of Shanghai people riding the wave of reform and opening up, bravely pursuing dreams. In this era, individual destinies intertwine with the spirit of the times, which is the deep reason why Pechoin-style marketing is recognized. In recent years, a significant business phenomenon is the rise of national brands, and we can see a clear trend: national dramas driving national brands. This is the third business trend identified in CBNData's 2024 report: **national brand bull market**. Against the backdrop of nationwide enthusiasm for new Chinese style, national drama IPs remain highly popular. Brands can leverage IP topics and social hotspots to boost product launches and use the cultural context and social emotions of national dramas to communicate brand value and philosophy. This brand narrative will open up more space for national brand development. **Of course, among all social relationships, consumers first focus on their relationship with themselves.** In interactions with others, within the social and cultural environment, how we conduct ourselves, find 'my' sense of existence and outlets for self-expression, and pursue self-worth and meaning—this is the most important thing for everyone. Among the ten life trends mentioned earlier, today's consumers pay for emotions, seek low-cost experiences, recover through exercise, and choose to actively 'go crazy', all essentially pursuits of self. Understanding this relationship helps us understand various social emotions, viral memes and hot searches, and why annual hit dramas and variety shows are so popular. As mentioned, many hot searches come from hit dramas and variety shows. Looking at the popular IPs consumers widely discuss and enjoy over the past year reveals the underlying social emotions. Yunhe data shows that in 2024, Tencent Video led the comedy and emotional tracks with 54% and 40% market share respectively[4], with IPs like 'Joyful People' and 'Talk Show and His Friends' dominating screens, and classic IPs like 'Heart Signal' showing strong vitality. If there's a medium that best reflects these intense personal emotions and self-relationships today, it's comedy variety shows, especially talk shows. Through dense, witty complaints, we see the awkwardness and absurdity of real life, finding emotional outlets in laughter. If brands can leverage this emotion, especially FMCG brands focused on personal experience, its value is extraordinary. For example, Haitian, the exclusive title sponsor of 'Talk Show and His Friends', as a national condiment brand, wants to establish a brand persona of 'happy cook'. But this happiness isn't achieved by shouting slogans; it must be felt through vivid content. Therefore, Haitian uses a series of punchlines to express the brand, conveying that Haitian soybean paste is 'delicious however you eat it', customizing brand films based on comedians' routines and personas, integrating product selling points into stage performances. Haitian oyster sauce also deeply collaborated with talk show comedian Maodou, who is also a chef and food blogger. Maodou's routines revolve around food, making each brand appearance appropriate. Additionally, Haitian created themed offline sessions, using food as an entry point for talk show performances about daily meals. This approach makes brand placement smoother and more interesting, solidifying its image as a talk show dining companion, and making people feel Haitian's closeness to daily life, with genuine, down-to-earth happiness. Thus, laughter naturally becomes brand memory points, making Haitian's brand persona and image three-dimensional and rich. Ultimately, understanding the mainstream emotions and values of society helps us understand why drama and variety IPs capture consumer attention and imagination, generating numerous memes and topics. Understanding the emotional core behind these IPs enables effective brand marketing, stimulating immediate purchase desire and long-term memory. Understanding the principles and mechanisms of brand marketing allows us to truly grasp brand value and the essential laws of brand building. With this, one breakthrough leads to all breakthroughs, and various challenges in brand marketing are easily resolved.

Data sources
[1] KuYun Data official Weibo, 2024-06-25; [2] Weibo TV official Weibo, 2024-01-12; [3][4] Yunhe Data 'Report | 2024 Annual Head Drama and Variety Online Broadcast Market Analysis', 2024-12-27.

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