In 2020, the pandemic disrupted the marketing rhythm of many brands. However, thanks to China's decisive victory in fighting the epidemic, the Chinese market still showed great vitality, and many companies bucked the trend, seizing opportunities in the crisis to achieve growth. Looking back at 2020, despite the popularity of live-streaming e-commerce and the heated discussions on 'private domain traffic' and 'integration of brand and performance', there is no doubt that all brands are facing the dilemma of the disappearance of traffic dividends. The balance between performance advertising and brand advertising is placed before marketers, and different companies have made different choices. However, from the final results, whether it is leading brands or new consumer brands, those that occupy the advantage of consumer mindshare, adhere to brand long-termism, and are good at seizing opportunities have become the winners. -01- The 'Premiumization' Era for Leading Brands: The Strong Get Stronger In 2020, the 'number one' companies in various industries gained more customer choices and greater capital追捧: Moutai's market value exceeded 3 trillion RMB, Nongfu Spring's market value exceeded 700 billion HKD, and Focus Media's market value exceeded 170 billion RMB. From these data of industry leaders, it is clear that during crises, leading brands have gained more consumer choices. According to research by Zhimeng Consulting on post-pandemic consumption trends, after the pandemic, consumers' choices have become more rational and cautious. They will view their spending more rationally and pay more attention to diverse factors. For example, the demand for health, brand value propositions, etc. At this time, leading brands have become a more certain choice for consumers. This is not only because they have high visibility, but also because consumers trust the brand, and this trust is built up over many years. Therefore, we see that in 2020, many leading brands actively participated in anti-epidemic efforts and took many actions to fulfill social responsibilities; on the other hand, many leading companies not only did not 'hit the brakes' during the pandemic, but boldly 'stepped on the accelerator', thereby going against the trend, achieving survival of the fittest, clearing the market, and further strengthening their leading position. For example, looking back at 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the global economy, and domestic home improvement companies could not avoid declining profit margins and intensified industry reshuffling. In fact, many companies in the home furnishing industry were already on the edge of a cliff, and the pandemic was just a sudden kick from behind. Industry insiders have repeatedly warned that the home furnishing industry should wake up as soon as possible and seek a path to brand breakthrough. In the next 10 years, the industry will undergo a major reshuffle. In this context, Suofeiya actively responded to market changes, rebuilt its core brand competitiveness, and firmly adhered to its original intention, moving forward against the wind. Under the pandemic, the impact of brand reputation on consumer purchase decisions became increasingly prominent. Suofeiya deepened its brand positioning as 'cabinet customization expert', strengthened its core competitiveness, and further enhanced consumer trust. At the end of 2019, Suofeiya upgraded its brand strategy to 'Cabinet Customization Expert', and its slogan was upgraded to 'Professional Custom Cabinets, That's Suofeiya'. The three words 'focus', 'professional', and 'expert' condensed the core value of the brand. In early 2020, during the special period, Suofeiya announced the brand strategy upgrade through an online press conference, using professional positioning to strengthen the brand moat, marking a new era for brand building. Subsequently, Suofeiya launched a new brand advertisement on over 300,000 Focus Media building screens in 100 cities across the country, fully promoting the brand communication of 'Professional Custom Cabinets, That's Suofeiya', officially starting the battle for marketing discourse in the home furnishing industry in 2020. Suofeiya thus became the first custom home furnishing brand to invest in Focus advertising. Based on the frequency of consumer exposure to elevator ads, especially in first- and second-tier cities, Suofeiya launched a new brand TVC on over 300,000 Focus Media building screens in 100 cities. Focus elevator media is distributed in office buildings and apartment buildings in major cities, and the audience matches Suofeiya's target group. This wave of promotion by Suofeiya precisely activated the suppressed home furnishing demand of consumers after the epidemic was controlled. Not only was Suofeiya's new brand image widely promoted, but with the help of brand momentum, Suofeiya became people's first choice for professional custom cabinets. Similarly, in the face of the pandemic's impact, Miaokelanduo seized the opportunity of 'cheese'. Cheese concentrates the essence of milk: in Europe, it is called 'milk gold'. At the time of the pandemic, Miaokelanduo not only did not shrink its front but increased its investment in Focus Media and CCTV Children's Channel, achieving a 3-fold growth, with revenue exceeding 2 billion RMB. It also received investment of over 3 billion RMB from Mengniu, and its market value rose from 7 billion to 27 billion RMB, surpassing the market value of Bright Dairy. Also seizing the pandemic opportunity was Xiaoxiandun Fresh Stewed Bird's Nest. It resumed work and production in February, seized the characteristic that sialic acid can enhance human immunity, increased investment on Tmall and Focus Media, and the advertisement film starring Zhang Ziyi and Chen Shu launched a saturation attack on Focus elevator media, achieving a major leap from 800 million to 2 billion in sales, with 240 million during 618 and 460 million during Double 11, consecutively winning the Tmall health category championship. Lin Qingxuan went from a 90% drop in sales in February to recovery in May, breaking through during the pandemic to become a dark horse in the domestic skincare brand market. During the pandemic, Lin Qingxuan launched a self-rescue model of full-staff marketing through WeChat and mini-programs. Founder Sun Laichun frequently appeared in public and personally did live streaming, adding attention and exposure to the brand. At the same time, Lin Qingxuan also frequently appeared through Focus elevator ads, strengthening its 'repair' feature, directly targeting the need to repair 'mask face' and the product experience, gaining many fans. From online communication to offline ignition, Lin Qingxuan achieved a gorgeous counterattack. In 2020, on Tmall's Double 11 list, the results showed that the rankings were basically occupied by industry leading brands. Therefore, the pandemic instead led leading brands into the 'premiumization' era. Those who could lead the industry and continue to build their brands despite uncertainty ultimately became the kings. -02- The Rise of Niche Vertical Categories: New Consumption Ignites On the one hand, the pandemic made leading brands stronger, but in the 2020 market landscape, we also found another phenomenon: the rise of new consumer brands. In 2020, many people stayed at home for about half a year. When everyone had more time at home, it accelerated the rise of some new consumer categories. According to a survey by Zhimeng Consulting on new consumer brands in 2020, new consumer categories such as self-heating hot pot/rice, instant oatmeal, smart speakers, blind boxes, and 0 sugar 0 fat 0 calorie drinks gained consumer attention in 2020. According to the '2020 China Consumer Brand Report' by Ali Research, category innovation contributed 44.8% to the overall expansion of market size, a significant increase of 15.2 percentage points compared to 2018. The excellent performance of domestic brands in category and product innovation also drove double growth in sales and new customers for Chinese brands. The new consumer brands that rose in 2020 share a common feature: they seized opportunities in new categories within segmented vertical fields, using this as a market gap to gain consumer recognition. Yuanqi Forest quickly emerged in the beverage market with '0 sugar 0 fat 0 calories'; Satuday's freeze-dried coffee new category was warmly received by young people; new consumer brands such as Zihaiguo and Lamian Shuo also achieved rapid growth during this period. The domestic cosmetics brand Winona deeply insighted the market gap in sensitive skin skincare, based on 'solving common problem skin of Chinese people', and gained high popularity among Chinese consumers who often abuse cosmetics leading to skin sensitivity. At the same time, we found that new consumer brands that achieved growth in 2020 not only relied on past online operations but also chose offline channels. For example, Yuanqi Forest, in addition to traffic and content marketing on platforms like Xiaohongshu, Weibo, Kuaishou, and Douyin, as well as celebrity endorsements, Li Jiaqi's live-streaming assistance, and Zhang Yuqi's endorsement, starting from May 2020, elevator ads of Yuanqi Forest began to appear on Focus TVC, dominating screens. Many people began to remember the concept of '0 calories 0 fat 0 sugar', firmly occupying the mindshare of 'leader in sugar-free beverage experts'. In May 2020, the first month of saturation attack on Focus Media, sales reached 260 million, equal to the total of 2019. With continuous investment until September, Yuanqi Forest's monthly revenue reached 400 million. Winona partnered with Focus Media to launch storm-style high-frequency advertising in 16 major cities across the country, creating a brand storm in the core life trajectories of mainstream consumers—office buildings, apartment buildings, and cinemas. During the period from May 25 to June 21, 2020, Winona invested in Focus smart screens and elevator TVs. During the 618 campaign, data returned to Tmall Data Bank showed that Focus covered over 170 million Winona consumers, a month-on-month increase of more than 2 times, and added over 150 million new awareness and interest people, a month-on-month increase of more than 12 times. These new consumer brands took only 2-3 years to complete the sales growth journey that traditional brands took 5-10 years or even longer to achieve. The reason is that after online product testing and gaining niche recognition, they quickly seized the time window, used saturated exposure to build brand awareness, and opened the best entry point to break through consumer mindshare. Because only by forming deep awareness in consumer minds can they block the opportunity for later competitors. -03- The Era of Brand Synergy: Two WeChat, One Douyin, One Focus In recent years, traditional brands have embraced the internet for a large number of promotional ads, while new consumer brands have initially used internet traffic platforms as a breakthrough window. This has also brought a new question: which is better, brand advertising or performance advertising? What is the relationship between brand advertising and performance advertising? After 2020, we clearly see that the 'integration of brand and performance' that people often talked about in the past often masked the value of the brand, ignored the importance of brand mindshare, and focused more on traffic-driven transaction scenarios. More and more brands have found through practice that simply pursuing traffic and focusing only on transaction channels is not a long-term solution because traffic costs are increasing and unsustainable. The essence of business does not change; consumers choose based on brands, and brands are the truly lasting traffic. Promotion is one-time, but once a brand establishes awareness in your mind, it lasts for a long time. The next time you see the product in a channel, you will be more inclined to choose it. Although many brands have seen that traffic advertising and social media can quickly spread brand information in the internet space, for brands, the biggest challenge today is how to establish lasting cognitive assets and traffic among consumers. For example, many leading brands have sustained brand mindshare assets, enabling them to better gain consumer recognition when facing crises or competition. To make traffic more effective and reduce traffic costs, you must build a brand. Without building a brand, you cannot operate because traffic costs will continue to rise. Therefore, after 2020, from content seeding to brand scenario building, it has increasingly become a new marketing combination. That is, brands must not only pay attention to social media communication based on content marketing, but also pay attention to brand momentum communication in core life scenarios. This also shaped a new combined communication model in 2020—'Two WeChat, One Douyin, One Focus'. 'Two WeChat, One Douyin, One Focus' essentially combines online and offline, content and scenario efficiently. This efficient combination solves the problem that brands have achieved seeding but not brand ignition; it only solves one-to-one more precise communication, but does not truly cultivate group consumer mindshare. Therefore, scenario marketing that fully combines online promotion based on content marketing on Two WeChat, One Douyin, and offline communication based on Focus Media will become the core rule for brand ignition. -04- The Return of Brand Advertising: The Value Shaping of Social Identity and Social Field Energy Today, the most painful problem facing marketers is the excessive number of digital channels and touchpoints. When your budget is very limited, you will find that if you pay attention to every digital touchpoint, it will ultimately lead to fragmented marketing and make it difficult to achieve centralized results. For integrated marketing in the digital era, although media is increasingly fragmented, brands cannot be fragmented. Precision marketing is a means to reach consumers and directly target buyers, but in many cases, one-to-one precision marketing often fails to shape brand social identity and brand consumption atmosphere. Because consumers are social animals, their choices are influenced by people around them and their circles. Many consumption decisions are family decisions, and precision marketing cannot guarantee simultaneous coverage of decision-makers and buyers. The purpose of brand communication is not only to complete sales, but more importantly, to remove consumers' cognitive and psychological barriers to the brand. Therefore, advertising must not only move a single precise buyer, but more importantly, it must create a consumption trend and fashion in the consumption scenario. So, today's advertising is not just about using intelligent technology to achieve better precision, but also about reaching social consensus in society, thereby forming a brand energy field. The construction and ignition of the brand energy field can bring long-term brand recognition and fans. Today, many brands are thinking about how to go viral and how to ignite. But we will find that a brand will not be ignited until it reaches a certain level; it requires periodic accumulation and long-term construction. The mindshare value accumulated by a brand cannot be changed at will. Just like 'Nongfu Spring is a little sweet' and 'We don't produce water, we are just nature's porters', such awareness has become the brand's continuous free traffic and a conditioned reflex in consumer minds. With the disappearance of traffic dividends, 'seizing offline' has become the new slogan for brands. Therefore, in 2020, we found that Focus elevator media, as an important and special advertising form, attracted attention from internet companies, brands, media, and other parties. On Focus Media, which covers the work, life, entertainment, and consumption scenarios of mainstream consumers, brands such as Ele.me, Didi, Guazi Used Car, Feihe, Bosideng, Bestore, Qiaqia Little Yellow Bag, Miaokelanduo, and Yuanqi Forest have all relied on this position to establish social identity and social field energy beyond traffic. Brand advertising is returning, and Focus Media has also become an important advertising position for the return of brand advertising. No matter what uncertainties marketers experienced in 2020 or what information environment they faced, we will find that those simple brand laws are eternal: Whoever can maintain composure in an uncertain environment, persist in shaping the core value of the brand, and continuously win consumer resonance will gain the first-mover advantage in competition. Tips will be paid 400-2000 yuan once adopted.