Li Jiaoshu once said at the 2020 New Marketing Opening Class that the biggest single variable affecting the business model of consumer goods is 'media.' This simple statement contains profound insights. From traditional to new media, from text-and-image to live-streaming eras, every media shift creates waves in the market. The waves are driven by the dramatic changes in information patterns—from TV and newspapers to mobile internet—and the unchanged life scenarios—the mediatization of scenario spaces. If asked what the biggest change brought by the mobile internet era and scenario-based media is compared to traditional times and media, it is actually connection: social platforms enable information links between people, scenario platforms enable information links between people and brands, and the fusion of the two. Consumers often move from awareness to cognition, then to identification and purchase. Life-scenario media, represented by Focus Media, achieves high-frequency forced exposure at the elevator entrances of apartment buildings, office buildings, and shopping malls that consumers pass daily, solving the problem of rapid brand ignition and forming broad and stable awareness and cognition. Meanwhile, social media represented by WeChat, Weibo, and Douyin (the 'Two Micros and One Douyin') on mobile internet solves brand identification through celebrity and KOL endorsements, and solves purchase through precise traffic distribution. The combination is becoming the standard for full-chain brand building from awareness and cognition to identification and purchase.
-01- Low-cost communication and multiple touchpoints are the opportunities for brand communication on social media In the traditional era, relationships between people and between people and objects were scattered and fragmented; in the mobile internet era, these relationships are networked and connected; we are all in a web called the internet. Based on the links between people and between people and objects, social media brings brands opportunities for low-cost communication and multiple touchpoints.
1. Low-cost communication The link between people corresponds to low-cost communication. The essence of low-cost communication is that people are connected, turning information from one-to-many to many-to-many, as Mr. Hua Shan said, 'broadcast and spread.' In the traditional era, brands had to spend money on advertising on CCTV, outdoor media, and newspapers because people were relatively isolated, and information was hard to pass from one person to another, so it could only spread from one point to many. But today, each of us has the right and channel to speak, and behind each person are others who can re-spread information. That's why we see many viral cases like 'Escape from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou,' 'What is Peppa?' and 'Pinduoduo Bargaining,' all essentially supported by 'links between people.' To achieve low-cost communication, the key is to produce content that people are willing to spread. For communication to happen, someone must be willing to spread it. Therefore, on social media, the production of quality content will be a major dimension of competition. So, you see more and more brands producing and publishing content on social media, all hoping to leverage quality content to drive low-cost communication. This is evident from product packaging: many brands that have exploded in recent years, whether Xiaoguan Tea, Saturnday Coffee, Genki Forest, or Jiangxiaobai, have highly shareable products. Therefore, to seize the opportunities of mobile internet, rather than buying traffic, you should focus on producing quality content and using content to leverage the characteristics of social media for low-cost communication.
2. Multiple touchpoints The link between people and objects corresponds to multiple touchpoints, including multiple touchpoints for products and brand information. As mentioned above, people and products are in a web, more precisely on different platforms within the web. Users spend their time and attention on platforms like Douyin, WeChat, and Xiaohongshu. This provides opportunities for brands to achieve multiple touchpoints. By opening an account on a platform and continuously delivering content, brands can repeatedly reach a target group. Alternatively, they can purchase traffic to achieve touchpoints. In the traditional era, not only was touchpoint difficult, but repeated touchpoints were even harder. Centralized media like CCTV required continuous advertising throughout the year, which few brands could afford. But social media solves this problem well: not only is touchpoint easier, but the cost is lower compared to traditional media. Examples include Durex on Weibo, Perfect Diary on Xiaohongshu, and HFP on WeChat official accounts, all effectively using multiple touchpoints. In simple terms, brand communication is about using brand information to reach the audience and elicit reactions, including understanding, trust, interest, and purchase. To achieve multiple touchpoints, it's essentially about buying traffic and producing content, or a combination of both—first buying traffic, then using content to reach, which is what we call private domain operations.
Summary: Social media brings brands opportunities for low-cost communication and multiple touchpoints.
-02- Two Micros and One Douyin + Bilibili and Xiaohongshu are the main representatives of social media From 'Two Micros' to 'Two Micros and One Douyin' to today's 'Two Micros and One Douyin + Bilibili and Xiaohongshu,' social media is constantly enriching. Each platform's rise brings opportunities to some brands, such as Perfect Diary, which grew on Xiaohongshu. These platforms, besides their unique features, all bring brands the same two opportunities: low-cost communication and multiple touchpoints. For example, posting an activity on WeChat may trigger widespread sharing; running an account and posting daily can achieve multiple touchpoints. Other platforms are essentially the same. What effects do low-cost communication and multiple touchpoints bring to brands? They can reduce some communication costs; frequently reach users with brand information; and achieve some real-time conversion effects. That's all—just better conversion effects. Even if a brand achieves from 0 to 10, going from 10 to 100 can become a bottleneck. As mentioned earlier, to achieve low-cost communication and multiple touchpoints, the key is content. And content must meet two requirements: consumers are willing to spread and actively receive. So, much content on social media is interesting and useful, but fragmented and discontinuous. This leads to consumers being unable to form a holistic understanding of the brand or firmly remember a specific feature. Once content touchpoints stop, consumers' perception of the brand declines, reducing purchase frequency.
-03- Limitations of social media As a product of mobile internet, social media has performed brilliantly in recent years, especially in its spread and reach, which has indeed made some brands successful, but it still cannot hide its limitations.
1. Communication becomes harder Traffic dividend peaking and rising traffic costs are current pain points on internet platforms, meaning long-term traffic purchase is neither advisable nor cost-effective. So what to do? Use content to attract traffic. As a result, more and more brands open accounts and produce content on social media, making operators increasingly tired, but most accounts become 'chicken ribs'—better to abandon than to reach. With more content, consumers have seen more, raising their threshold. Content that once triggered widespread sharing may now be ignored. If '100 Things You Must Do in Life' were repeated, it would hardly trigger participation and sharing again. Secondly, more and more brands rely on social media to break out and spread, such as milk tea brand Heytea, ice cream brand Zhong Xue Gao, beverage brand Genki Forest, baijiu brand Jiangxiaobai, nut brand Three Squirrels, beauty brand Perfect Diary, coffee brand Saturnday Coffee... gradually covering every possible category. If you also want your products and activities to attract attention and trigger sharing, you must be different from them, which is becoming increasingly difficult. Furthermore, many brands are not suitable for content production, such as socket sellers, tile sellers, toilet sellers, etc. What content do you think they can produce that consumers would be willing to consume and share? No matter how they produce, it's hard to trigger discussion and sharing. So, leveraging content for low-cost communication will become increasingly difficult.
2. Weakened touchpoints Next is information touchpoint. For information touchpoint to be effective, the audience must be willing to accept it. If brands post ads daily, no one wants to see them. So what to do? Turning ads into content and information is a common approach, but the result is that the audience is willing to watch, but what attracts them and makes them remember is the content itself, not the product's highlights or advertising appeal. The viral 'No matter how big the world is, it's just a bowl of tomato scrambled eggs'—how many people remember that the advertiser was actually China Merchants Bank? Secondly, touchpoint is a long-term process. Three to five months is almost impossible to build a large fan base and influence on a platform. Moreover, due to the weakened advertising appeal, even if successful, without continuous content touchpoints, it cannot sustain monetization. More critically, audiences have the initiative and choice on internet platforms; they can close unwanted content at will, which is a hard blow for brands spreading on social media.
3. Audience fragmentation Although consumers are on the internet, they are scattered across different platforms at different times, and each platform they use takes away some time and attention. This creates significant resistance to brand communication. A communication activity reaches a very limited audience, sometimes creating illusions, such as appearing popular on one platform but actually being just a star in the sky. Clearly, a piece of information may go viral in one circle, but people in another circle don't know about it. Even Li Jiaqi, who has top traffic, cannot reach many groups. Even with 10 million followers on Douyin, it's still a drop in the bucket for many mass-market brands. Even sponsoring a high-rated variety show or drama, the audience size is still far from the target audience size. Lao Gan Ma doesn't never advertise; aside from the ad Tencent made for it, it actually released a quirky ad called 'Screw Open the Mother' last year, but it chose social media for distribution, which couldn't achieve large-scale coverage, so many people didn't know about it.
Summary: The main problems brands face in social media communication are: communication becomes harder, touchpoints weaken, and audience fragmentation.
-04- Advantages of scenario media Social media's low-cost communication and multiple touchpoints are indeed worth trying and exploring for every brand, especially small and emerging brands, as they present a great opportunity. But if you want to scale up, ignite quickly, and lead the industry, relying solely on social media is almost impossible for most brands. We can see this from a few advertising slogans. '0 calories, 0 fat, 0 sugar'—Genki Forest. 'Find a job, talk directly to the boss'—BOSS Zhipin. 'No middlemen to earn the difference'—Guazi Used Cars. You must be impressed by these slogans. They share some characteristics: besides similar styles, they all chose Focus Media's elevator media, which is in consumers' core life scenarios—the elevators they pass daily in apartment and office buildings—to ignite. Did they not use social media for communication? They did, but social media's limitations cannot solve the problems brands face in development. As the core of scenario media, elevator media reaches 300 million urban mainstream consumers on their daily routes, achieving high-frequency forced exposure in enclosed elevator spaces, an advantage other media cannot match.
1. Broad coverage Being known is always the first step to being chosen. Elevator media, as urban infrastructure, has the characteristic of broad audience coverage, which is why many brands choose it as a primary advertising channel. Unlike social media, where circle stratification is severe and audiences are extremely fragmented, elevator media relies on two core scenarios—office buildings and residential communities—and almost every mainstream person working or living in the city must come into contact with it. Of course, this is limited to leading companies. As the leading elevator media company, Focus Media, according to relevant data, currently has 2.6 million terminals in 230 cities, reaching 300 million people and 700 million person-times daily. An elevator media that can cover 300 million people can almost cover the target audience of most brands. Brands like BOSS Zhipin, Guazi, Yuanfudao, Feihe Milk Powder, Bosideng, Genki Forest, and Milkground all need to ignite more mainstream audiences to seek breakthroughs in user numbers and sales, and Focus Media is clearly the best choice for them.
2. Seizing mindshare Business competition is about who seizes user mindshare first. Being in a leading position is advantageous, especially in business competition. Consumers' limited mindshare capacity and their tendency to seek safety bring substantial benefits to brands that seize mindshare first. When it comes to 0-calorie, 0-fat, 0-sugar beverage brands, who do you think of? Probably only Genki Forest. When it comes to children's cheese sticks, who do you think of? Probably only Milkground. The key reason: these brands took the lead in shaping clear cognition in consumers' minds through Focus Media's screen domination, occupying an irreplaceable position. Recently, I noticed that the natural paper brand Banbu also advertised on Focus Media's elevator TVs, showing that Banbu wants to seize the cognition of 'natural paper = Banbu' in consumers' minds. Whoever seizes an important position in consumers' minds first can achieve mindshare pre-sale. What is mindshare pre-sale? It means the brand is already pre-booked by consumers; they choose you subconsciously, breaking through competition with other brands on the 'shelf.' When consumers want to buy a used car, they think of Guazi Used Cars; for online courses, Yuanfudao; for down jackets, Bosideng; for medical aesthetics platforms, Sofwy Medical. Although social media spreads quickly, audiences are fragmented and information is scattered, making it less effective in this regard. So, elevator media has become the only medium for real-world brand ignition to seize user mindshare first, repeatedly injecting the same message into users' minds in a short period. How could users easily forget it?
3. Proactive high frequency Proactive high frequency is the guarantee of advertising effectiveness. As brand owners, you must admit that, given a choice, almost no consumer is willing to watch ads voluntarily. So on social media, the most troublesome issue is that brand owners publish many ads and articles, but consumers often turn a blind eye. In contrast, with elevator media, consumers stand in the elevator, with poor signal and awkwardness with strangers. Where do they put their eyes? They might as well look at the elevator ads. Secondly, the elevator space is small, and the distance between people and ads is very close, especially elevator TVs with visuals and sound, making information delivery effects that other media cannot match. Furthermore, consumers don't just ride the elevator once. At four times a day, that's 30 high-intensity touchpoints a week. As strategic marketing experts Hua and Hua brothers said: The essence of communication is repetition; the essence of the audience is forgetting. For elevator media, as long as there are people in the elevator, ads will be effective. Countless ads you can't forget were born in this situation.
Summary: Elevator media mainly brings brands opportunities for broad audience coverage, seizing consumer mindshare first, and proactive high-frequency touchpoints.
-05- Final thoughts Media has evolved from the text-and-image era through the video era to the current live-streaming era, and overall, it is currently a slow development trend. It must be said that social media's multiple touchpoints, connectivity, and interactivity are opportunities given to brands by the times. Combined with consumers' media habits, social media has become a necessary battlefield for brand communication. But as more and more brands produce and publish content, breaking out will become increasingly difficult. Secondly, due to the scattered communication and fragmented audiences, social media communication is just a superficial scratch for many brands. Social fission, private domain operations, and live-streaming e-commerce cannot fundamentally solve brand problems. This is why more and more brands, even after laying out social media, still choose offline elevator media Focus Media for concentrated ignition to seize consumer mindshare first. Because on social media, the more important thing is long-term operations, steady and continuous, accumulating brand reputation; while using the life scenario that 300 million urban mainstream consumers pass daily—elevator media Focus Media—can quickly ignite, seize mindshare, raise brand momentum, and enhance brand awareness. Undeniably, social media (Two Micros and One Douyin + Bilibili and Xiaohongshu) + elevator media Focus Media will become the new rules for igniting brands.
Source: Brand New Internal Reference (ID: pinpaixnc) Author: Ting Feng Lai, Wan Huhou Tips will be paid 400-2000 yuan once adopted.