Source | Teacher Liu's Scenario Marketing ID | liuchunxiong1964 Author | Gong Fanggang

In the baijiu and beer industries, long monopolized by traditional giants, Jiangxiaobai, Guolifang, and金星中式精酿 (Gold Star Chinese Craft Beer)—three seemingly unrelated brands—each carved out a distinct path to break through by precisely controlling their communication media. It makes one marvel: first, at the immense influence of media; second, at the rapid pace of media change. Media is the amplifier of marketing.

Jiangxiaobai The rise of Jiangxiaobai is a classic example of "emotional copywriting + social fission" in the social media era. In 2012, while traditional baijiu brands were still airing ads touting "century-old heritage, high-end luxury" on television, Jiangxiaobai targeted the overlooked younger demographic, using Weibo and WeChat as its core platforms to launch an "emotional offensive."

At that time, social media had just shed its singular role as an "information publishing platform," evolving from centralized to decentralized self-media, becoming a social space where young people expressed themselves and sought resonance. Jiangxiaobai precisely captured this media characteristic, turning its bottle into an "emotional carrier." Its Weibo-style quotes, such as "I am Jiangxiaobai, life is simple," struck a chord with urban professionals, building a bridge of communication with young people.

In its communication strategy, Jiangxiaobai deeply understood the logic of "fission communication" on social media: it avoided one-way advertising indoctrination, instead making its copywriting a "social currency" for users.

When young people saw the bottle copy during gatherings, they would proactively take photos and post them on WeChat Moments with captions like "This is exactly me," or share their own stories on Weibo under the hashtag #JiangxiaobaiQuotes#. This spontaneous user-generated content was more persuasive than brand advertising.

By 2016, the #JiangxiaobaiQuotes# topic had garnered over 300 million reads, with individual posts being shared over 100,000 times, turning countless users into "free promoters" of the brand. Additionally, Jiangxiaobai leveraged the "interactive nature" of social media by launching the "Expression Bottle" customization campaign, allowing users to print their own copy on bottles. This sense of participation further fueled the enthusiasm for sharing.

In the social media era, Jiangxiaobai achieved maximum reach at minimal cost. Its revenue of nearly 3 billion yuan in 2019 proved the perfect synergy between emotional copywriting and social media—when media becomes a channel for emotional transmission, brands can leverage users' emotions to achieve viral diffusion.

Guolifang If Jiangxiaobai was a "single-point breaker" in the social media era, Guolifang is a "scenario builder" in the era of diversified communication. With the rise of platforms like Xiaohongshu, Douyin, and Bilibili, communication media entered a "fragmented, diversified" phase, where user attention is scattered across platforms, and single-format copywriting can no longer easily move consumers.

Guolifang, a fruit-flavored wine brand under Jiangxiaobai, keenly realized that "scenarios" are the core link between product and user. It therefore built a full-funnel communication matrix through "multi-platform scenario binding + UGC creative activation."

In its choice of communication media, Guolifang achieved "precise matching": on Xiaohongshu, it focused on "DIY mixing," where users shared creative recipes like "Guolifang + Water-soluble C100 = summer heat reliever" and "Guolifang + Want Want milk = girly special," using visual content to attract young women;

On Douyin, it tied itself to "romance reality show scenarios," sponsoring shows like "Dating Brothers" and "Love in the Wild," placing the product in romantic settings such as cast dinners and late-night chats, paired with copy like "The rhythm of heartbeat, the little wild wine understands," deeply binding the product to the emotion of "sweet love";

On Bilibili, it launched the "Street Drinking" challenge, encouraging content creators to share their tipsy moments on the streets, resonating with Gen Z's attitude of "rejecting involution, enjoying the present." This multi-platform, multi-scenario strategy allowed Guolifang to find precise audiences across different media.

More crucially, Guolifang activated the power of UGC through "scenario co-creation." The brand didn't limit itself to "teaching users how to drink" but encouraged users to "create their own drinking methods." This open attitude shifted communication from "brand-led" to "user-led."

As of 2024, the #GuolifangMixing# topic on Xiaohongshu has over 50,000 notes, and related videos on Douyin have surpassed 1 billion views. Creative recipes spontaneously shared by users, such as "intern's heart-saver" and "love icebreaker special," have become "social passwords" among young people.

In the era of diversified communication, Guolifang proves that the value of media is not just to transmit information, but to build scenarios for user-product interaction. When users become participants and disseminators of scenarios, brands can achieve "omnichannel penetration" in a fragmented media environment.

Gold Star Craft Beer Unlike the previous two, the comeback of Gold Star Beer is a story of an old enterprise staging a "counterattack" in the short-video era by "leveraging UGC + live-streaming e-commerce." As a traditional beer brand with a 40-year history, Gold Star Beer had long been constrained by offline channel blockades and gradually forgotten by younger consumers during the TV advertising era.

The advent of the short-video era provided this old brand with an opportunity to "overtake on the curve"—the "short, fast, and direct" content characteristics of platforms like Douyin and Kuaishou, along with their "authentic, down-to-earth" communication atmosphere, perfectly aligned with Gold Star's positioning as "Chinese craft beer."

In 2024, Gold Star Beer launched its tea-flavored craft beer series, completely shedding the stereotype of the "big green bottle": the flavors of Longjing and jasmine tea cater to women's preference for "low bitterness and fresh aroma," and the Chinese-style canned design is suitable for short-video dissemination. Instead of traditional advertising, the brand used Douyin as its core platform, opening the market through a "official debut + UGC ignition" model.

In August, the tea-flavored craft beer debuted on Douyin's official live-streaming room, attracting initial users with its stunning packaging and innovative body. Subsequently, a large number of users spontaneously shared their drinking scenarios: some sipping alone at home with sad songs, others toasting at girls' gatherings. Individual videos received up to 200,000 likes. These UGC contents, though lacking ornate language, were highly infectious due to their "authentic emotions."

Within just one month, the #GoldStarTeaCraftBeer# topic on Douyin surpassed 500 million views, and women accounted for 59% of buyers, completely shattering the perception that beer is "men-only."

To sustain the momentum, Gold Star Beer further leveraged the "live-streaming e-commerce" capability of short-video platforms, collaborating with top influencers like Luo Yonghao. A single official live-streaming session achieved sales exceeding 2 million yuan, ultimately securing the No. 1 ranking in beer sales.

This led to an industry miracle: Gold Star Chinese craft beer achieved production and sales of 100 million bottles (1-liter size), totaling 100,000 tons, with cumulative tea procurement of 450,000 jin (225,000 kg), output value of 1 billion yuan, and tax payments of 120 million yuan—all from scratch!

This counterattack proves that in the short-video era, the core of communication is "authentic content + traffic amplification." Even old brands can be reborn in the new media era if they can capture users' genuine emotions, leverage UGC for content fission, and then complete the "communication-to-conversion" loop through live streaming.

Media, Media, and Media Again From Jiangxiaobai to Guolifang, and then to Gold Star Beer, the communication paths of these three brands reflect the profound transformation of China's communication media from "centralized" to "decentralized":

  • In the social media era, brands captured user attention through "emotional copywriting";
  • In the diversified communication era, they achieved omnichannel penetration through "scenario construction";
  • In the short-video era, they triggered fission communication through "authentic UGC."

But no matter how media evolves, one thing remains constant—the core of communication is always "people," their emotional needs (emotions) and desire for expression.

From the copywriting breakthrough in the social media era, to the scenario reconstruction in the diversified media era, and then to the UGC explosion in the short-video era, their communication trajectories are not only a microcosm of brand counterattacks but also outline a clear path of China's communication media evolution!

Every media revolution is an opportunity to rewrite the industry landscape, and brands that can seize the media dividend will ultimately stand out in the tide of the times.