From August 19 to 21, the 7th China FMCG Conference, the 5th China FMCG Retail Innovation Conference, and the 5th China FMCG Distributor Conference, themed 'New Demand, New Supply,' opened grandly in Shanghai! Professor Liu Chunxiong, a professor at Zhengzhou University and deputy director of the Scene Marketing Research Institute, delivered a wonderful keynote speech titled 'Scenes Carry Their Own Viral Genes.' The following is an excerpt of Professor Liu's on-site speech, organized by New Distribution for our readers.
In the internet era, is there still a chance for saturation advertising? I arrived two days early for this conference. On the first day, I met a boss who mentioned a phenomenon: a certain company recently engaged in saturation advertising, but why did it have no effect? I brought this topic up with another boss, who asked me a counter-question: Is there still such a thing as saturation advertising now? This question made me reflect. Many people have argued that in the internet age, no new brands will ever be born. Since the internet era began, saturation attacks have had no more opportunities. We know that in the early stages of a brand's explosive growth, it must go through a phase of saturation attacks; old brands don't need this—they only need to be awakened. In the internet era, is there still a chance to build a brand through saturation attacks? If not, do latecomers still have a chance? In our research on scene marketing, we discovered that scene marketing provides such an opportunity. Traditional marketing systems are all based on user marketing, and scene marketing replaces it. Let's compare. User marketing is user-oriented; now we replace it with scene orientation. User marketing talks about needs; now we replace it with jobs-to-be-done. User marketing's communication relies mainly on PGC (Slogan); in scene marketing, it's UGC. In the past, the operational unit was the channel; now it's replaced by scenes. Today, we'll discuss the third aspect of the framework—how to launch a saturation attack in the internet era through UGC. The main battlefield of communication has shifted**** We must know that communication always has a battlefield. Every era has its main battlefield. In traditional marketing, the main battlefield in China was CCTV. If you advertised on all provincial stations, it was better to invest in one CCTV. Investing in CCTV also required a saturation attack to reach a certain communication threshold. So this logic is called 'shouting loudly with a loudspeaker,' meaning sufficient investment plus a Slogan refined under brand theory. Slogans are now called PGC (professional-generated content) on the internet. But the internet era is completely different. All successful communication is not replicable, and piled-up traffic is meaningless. I once participated in a marketing awards event. A company said its total online traffic reached 1 billion. I said I had never heard of it, because piled-up traffic is meaningless without resonance. What is the main battlefield of internet communication? Looking at this chart, it's clear: the first tier is ByteDance, Alibaba, Pinduoduo, and Tencent. Alibaba and Pinduoduo are commercial traffic, Tencent is private domain, and Douyin is public domain traffic. In the fragmented internet, ByteDance is the main battlefield for internet communication. The platform's traffic allocation logic is roughly 50% vs 50%: 50% of traffic must go to UGC, forming a traffic pool. The remaining 50% is given to the many manufacturers' PGC, and the platform monetizes the traffic. Many companies say they create UGC, but that's a misunderstanding. Teacher Fang Gang has a definition called 'amateur UGC.' The more unprofessional it looks, the more the platform treats it as amateur UGC and gives it 50% of the traffic. As soon as there are traces of manufacturer PGC, no traffic is given without payment. In this, the 50% PGC is divided among all manufacturers. To keep manufacturers investing continuously, the algorithm will never let you go viral. If you go viral, it's a bug in the algorithm, and they'll fix it. In the past, no matter how we invested, we couldn't achieve brand explosion. This isn't determined by your ability; it's determined by the internet's algorithm. So we must turn to another perspective—how to trigger explosion through amateur UGC content. User operations are scene operations, because only those in a scene are called users; people on the street are not users, they are passersby. Then scene operations are UGC operations, and UGC operations are brand operations. That's our conclusion. Why do we draw this conclusion? Because only UGC's fission can reach the traffic threshold required for a saturation attack; otherwise, it won't explode. PGC cannot achieve this; its algorithm determines it won't let you, even with continuous investment. But in the past, investing in CCTV could work. How to trigger explosion through UGC? We've summarized three key elements: first, scene; second, BGM (background music); third, a meme. Scene is a necessary condition, and meme is a sufficient condition. What is a necessary condition? In internet-created content, there are roughly three types of backgrounds:
First, people: only stakeholders care about people; others don't. So if your background features people, it's destined to have limited attention.
Second, products: again, only stakeholders care, unless you pay.
Third, scenes: non-stakeholders also care about scenes. Of course, not all scenes are viral. You must choose scenes with viral potential. So, in content creation, what you use as the base background is very important. Communicating with the same scene**** Can the content to be communicated be unified under a scene? We've sorted out that there are currently four mainstream communication modes that can achieve consistency and resonance under the tone of a scene. First, scene interaction. This applies to offline scenes. Last night, I chatted with a few friends and we had a great time—that's interaction. Interaction is naturally a scene. In recent years, China's largest marketing consulting firm is Hua & Hua, which does super symbols. What does super symbol mean? When online communication cannot be triggered, treat all terminals as communication scenes. That's why Hua & Hua has become China's largest consulting firm. Hua & Hua has two characteristics: first, the symbol is large enough; second, they turn the Slogan into a logo, aiming for offline interaction scenes. Second, private domain communication. Live streaming is a private domain scene based on interpersonal chains. In live streaming, you either watch the person (influencer or big shot) or the scene. The earliest live streams were in studios; now some people stream from warehouses. Streaming in consumption scenes is more effective and resonates, but it's all based on the private domain model of interpersonal chains. Third, public domain communication. It has two modes: PGC paid traffic and amateur UGC fission. PGC is the broadcast form, and UGC is the transmission form. Some ask if companies can hire professionals to create UGC. As long as they are stakeholders, they can never create UGC, because you always have interests in mind. As long as there are interests, all content will be distorted. If you want to convey interests, you won't get them, because consumers have no interest relationship with you. The only thing that can move them is amateur UGC with scenes. So, we believe that any content with people and products is PGC, just a question of how professional your PGC is. Only amateur UGC can trigger imitation and explosion. Only through amateur imitation and resonance with the scene can you instantly break through the communication threshold. Now, anything that can explode must have a meme, because people focus on the scene and imitate the meme. Where does that meme come from? It comes unintentionally. As long as there's enough quantity, memes will inevitably emerge. Fourth, same-city communication. The same-city mode can be solved with paid traffic, because explosion must reach a certain density. Can these four traffic modes be unified, no longer becoming piled-up traffic? We've summarized the logic: first, offline experience; then private domain communication; finally, public domain communication—amateur UGC, plus a portion of PGC. After boiling water to 99 degrees, add 1 more degree, and it explodes. Speaking with one voice**** Just now, we said that all four types of communication should be done, but they might become each speaking its own language and piling up traffic. So how can it be useful? In Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) theory, there's a very important sentence: Speak with one voice. If you speak with one voice, you don't fear communication fragmentation, and there won't be traffic piling. IMC has four core viewpoints: 1. All contact points are communication points; 2. Information flow is the core of marketing work; 3. Speak with one voice; 4. Interact to reach the communication threshold. In scene marketing, we found that the one voice is the scene, unifying all communication content with the scene. Because scenes carry their own viral genes, and all communication is based on the scene, it's equivalent to speaking with one voice. If a meme appears, it will continuously repeat and fission. Returning to the topic at the beginning: in the internet era, there's no saturation attack because of media dispersion. Media dispersion brings fragmentation, leaving no stage for saturation attacks, and the conditions for repeating a Slogan no longer exist. But communication must explode; otherwise, it's zero. Either explode or be zero. At this time, what is the one voice of internet communication? It's the scene, because scenes carry their own viral genes.