2024, create boss IP

In 2024, boss IP has become a new trend in corporate marketing. From Lei Jun's successful demonstration to the imitation of various industries, bosses have used social media to build personal brands, hoping to enhance corporate influence and market competitiveness. This article will review the development of boss IP in the past year, analyze its successes and challenges, and explore future development directions.

2024 is the year when bosses will be crazy about IP.

Because of the successful example of Lei Jun, the "male protagonist of cool novels", bosses of all sizes in various industries have opened accounts and created IPs, hoping to become the "second Lei Jun". For a while, "whether to create a boss IP" and "how to create a boss IP" became hot topics in the industry.

Now that a year has passed, how effective is the Boss IP? Have the many questions about the Boss IP been answered? With the help of Xinbang data, the Xinbang editorial department has made an incomplete statistics of several representative Boss IPs in the past year. With these people, let's talk about the Boss IP again.

1. Lei Jun’s proofing, the boss IP set off a craze

In 2024, the most successful boss IP is undoubtedly Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi.

In April 2024, Lei Jun's life story began to circulate online, along with several pictures of him as a domineering CEO and the passionate "Lei Jun March", Lei Jun became the "real version of Xiao Nai" in the hearts of netizens. Since then, from the billionaire CEO opening the car door for the car owner to responding to the call of netizens to launch a partition washing machine, Lei Jun's social stories have been continuously enriched, and the number of fans has continued to grow.

According to Xinbang data, in 2024, Lei Jun's personal social media accounts on Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and Bilibili will increase by 24.03 million, 3.26 million, and 2.75 million followers respectively, with a total increase of more than 30 million followers on the entire network. Taking Douyin as an example, in 2024, the cumulative number of views of the Douyin topic #雷军# increased by more than 20 billion times.

With the help of Lei Jun's traffic, Xiaomi Motors, a newcomer in the automotive industry, set a record in the industry: it took only 230 days for Xiaomi SU7 to reach 100,000 units from its launch. In comparison, Ideal took 708 days, Xpeng took 1,034 days, and NIO took 1,046 days.

With Lei Jun's example, Xiaomi executives such as Lu Weibing and Wang Teng followed suit and formed the "Xiaomi Executive Team" on Douyin. Currently, the cumulative number of fans of Xiaomi executives on Douyin has reached 42.28 million.

The success of Xiaomi Motors has also caused a great shock in the automotive industry. In 2024, when the industry's internal competition is becoming more and more obvious, from Li Bin, the founder of NIO, to Wei Jianjun, the chairman of Great Wall Motors, more and more car company bosses hope to replicate Lei Jun's success and shoot videos and do live broadcasts.

In 2024, the boss IP has almost become a standard feature in the automotive industry. For example, on December 14, Richard Yu, executive director of Huawei and chairman of the Terminal BG & Intelligent Automotive Solutions BU, also joined Douyin, gaining 1.85 million followers in one day.

A "world-famous painting in the automotive industry" was born at the Xiaomi Auto launch conference

Outside of the automotive industry, many representative boss IPs have also appeared in the fields of retail, AI, clothing, food, etc.

The person who has received much attention is Yu Donglai, the founder of Pang Donglai. Because of his unique business philosophy - providing consumers with quality and quantity products and treating employees as people rather than means of production, Yu Donglai has created an atypical business myth and has been recognized by many netizens.

According to the new Douyin data, in 2024, Yu Donglai's Douyin account "Pang Donglai Yu Donglai" gained 2.1 million followers, and Pang Donglai's official Douyin account "Pang Donglai Specialty Store" gained 9.57 million followers. The WeChat index shows that for a lot of time in 2024, the index trends of Yu Donglai and Pang Donglai exceeded Lei Jun and Xiaomi.

The most diligent is 360 founder Zhou Hongyi. After Lei Jun became popular, Zhou Hongyi quickly transformed himself into the "President of Lei Jun Research Institute", holding high the banner of his boss's IP. He not only discussed the theoretical basis of his boss's IP through live speeches, but also earned a lot of traffic through hot events such as auctioning Maybach and climbing on the roof of the Beijing Auto Show.

According to the new Douyin data, Zhou Hongyi's Douyin account "Uncle Zhou Hongyi in Red" has gained 6.29 million followers in 2024. It is worth noting that in 2024, Zhou Hongyi has released a total of 1,159 videos, an average of 3.1 videos per day, making him a super model worker in the boss circle.

The ones with the keenest sense of smell are Chen Nian, the founder of Vancl, and Huang Yihan, the founder of Hippocampus.

Thanks to Lei Jun's recommendation, Vancl unexpectedly became popular again. As a good friend of Lei Jun, Chen Nian responded quickly, using Lei Jun's traffic while doing live broadcasts, hoping to save Vancl, which was already struggling on the verge of death. New Douyin data shows that in 2024, Chen Nian's Douyin account "Vancl Chennian" has accumulated 870,000 followers. In the past 30 days, "Vancl Chennian" is estimated to bring in 25 million to 50 million yuan in sales.

Image source: New Dou

In order to deal with the public relations crisis of "Hippocampus Photo Studio photos are banned in postgraduate entrance examination registration", Huang Yihan, the founder of Hippocampus, quickly opened personal social accounts such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu in November 2024. While solving the corporate public relations crisis, he also started the operation of his personal IP.

Driven by a large number of well-known business owners, small and medium-sized business owners with larger data also launched boss IPs and gave birth to boss IP training businesses. Almost at the same time as boss IPs became popular, a large number of "IP mentors" appeared on platforms such as Douyin and Video Number to provide business owners with filming, consulting, and running accompaniment services. Old self-media companies such as Yitiao also launched related courses.

Looking back, compared with the controversy at the beginning of 2024, with the emergence of Lei Jun, a super benchmark, and a large number of successful cases such as Yu Donglai and Zhou Hongyi, coupled with the rise of supporting services such as IP training, Boss IP has become increasingly popular.

2. Qu Jing failed, Zhang Yong resigned, and it is not easy for the boss to manage IP

Bosses are so busy, why do they spend time and energy on IP?

The most direct reason is to save advertising costs. The advent of the era of short videos and live broadcasts has exposed consumers to an unprecedented information shock. For companies, how to reach consumers through the vast and chaotic ocean of information has become a very important task. Compared with traditional advertising TVCs, the more humane boss IP may be a better and lower-cost way.

As Zhou Hongyi said during the live broadcast: "Nowadays, people's minds are formatted by short videos. Users have changed, and the way companies communicate also needs to change. Entrepreneurs should go where users are."

2024 is more like a year of large-scale practice of Boss IP. If we extend the timeline, Boss IP is not a new concept. For example, as early as 2020, a large number of CEOs, represented by Liang Jianzhang, the founder of Ctrip, entered the live broadcast room and used live broadcast to promote their own companies. Luo Yonghao, the first generation of "TikTok sales leader", is one of the typical representatives who maximized the value of Boss IP.

But as the Boss IP became more and more popular, some problems were also exposed.

First of all, not everyone is suitable to be the boss IP.

In May 2024, in order to set an example for Baidu executives, Baidu's vice president and number one public relations officer Qu Jing personally opened a personal Douyin account and quickly became a hot topic on multiple platforms with her extraordinary remarks. However, she was soon embroiled in controversy because her remarks were too extraordinary, and she was suspected of being a disciple of Chan Ge and that the account was bought.

It can be said that Qu Jing's IP attempt not only failed to help Baidu solve the problem and improve its corporate image, but instead became the problem itself. In the words of netizens: "Baidu's number one public relations person personally created a public relations crisis for Baidu." After the controversy, not only was Qu Jing's Douyin account cleared, but Qu Jing herself also resigned from Baidu.

By observing the current boss IPs, we can also find that, except for a few people like Lei Jun, it is difficult for a considerable number of boss IP accounts to have more than one million fans, especially those boss IP accounts whose companies themselves are not well-known.

In fact, boss IPs that can achieve results often have "specialties" in certain areas.

The content of "Pang Donglai Yu Donglai" is mostly short text sharing, which is a bit "boring". However, due to a series of rules and regulations such as Pang Donglai's "Employee Grievance Award" and a consumer-friendly business model, Yu Donglai has become one of the most beloved bosses of workers. To some extent, Yu Donglai's personal IP is not the result of active creation, but the natural overflow of his business results and ideas.

In addition to Huawei's empowerment, Yu Chengdong's distinctive personality also played an important role in becoming a top boss IP. Differentiation is the key to personal IP. In addition to nicknames such as "Yu Dazui" and "Yu Dapao", Yu Chengdong also created the annual hot meme "far ahead". Some netizens commented that the hot meme "far ahead" has saved Huawei at least hundreds of millions of advertising fees.

In addition, Sohu founder Zhang Chaoyang made full use of his identity as a doctor of physics and continuously updated "Zhang Chaoyang's Physics Class", with over 800 million views on the Douyin topic; BGI Group CEO Yin Ye and Focus Media Chairman Jiang Nanchun attracted a lot of users' attention by shooting videos, giving speeches, and having conversations because of their extraordinary expressive abilities; NIO founder Li Bin has become one of the most prominent boss IPs in the automotive industry with his social personality of taking photos with everyone he meets.

Secondly, the boss’ IP is not omnipotent.

If we were to select the most active car industry bosses who learn from Lei Jun, then Zhang Yong, the former CEO of Nezha Auto, would definitely be on the list. After being criticized many times by netizens, Zhang Yong began to run wild on the road of being the "most obedient car company CEO", updating his personal Douyin account almost every day, and successively planned marketing activities such as renaming the brand and opening the car door for car owners.

But in the end, Zhang Yong's attempt at personal IP did not change the plight of Nezha Auto. At present, Zhang Yong's personal Douyin account has stopped updating, and Zhang Yong has also resigned as CEO of Nezha Auto.

Recently, Xia Yiping, CEO of Jiyue, which is in danger of bankruptcy, also reflected in a long apology that his obsession with marketing took up too much of his energy. "As a CEO, I should have focused on financing and strategic planning, but I personally managed the marketing system, which distracted my experience and caused other important things to be neglected."

Boss IP is essentially still a part of corporate marketing. It can bring traffic to the company and enhance the company's public image. However, in the fierce market competition, the company's comprehensive capabilities such as products, prices, and services are the basis for whether the company can stand out.

In fact, the boss’s IP is not only not omnipotent, it may also bring risks.

Thanks to the success of his personal IP, Yu Minhong completed the transformation of Oriental Selection in just three years. The "2024 Hurun China Top 100 New Traffic Power List" released by Hurun Research Institute shows that Oriental Selection ranks among the top 10 new traffic power.

But in the past year, while IP has magnified Yu Minhong's influence, it has also caused him to "talk trouble with his mouth", with comments such as "Dongfang Selection is a mess" and "stay away from disputes and live the life you want" causing the company's stock price to fall, and also making him deeply troubled by the fan circle. Yu Minhong once said: "In the past year, I have been abused, accused and even insulted more times on the Internet than in 100 lifetimes combined."

Although the Boss IP is attractive, there is still a long way to go before it can be used to help the enterprise.

3. Where will the boss IP go?

At present, what is the correct solution for Boss IP?

In a recent public speech, Li Guoqing, founder of Dangdang.com, believes that authenticity, personal interests, speaking for the industry, celebrity hot spots, and warmth are the key elements for bosses to create IP. Zhou Hongyi mentioned that the core of the boss's IP is "not to be pretentious, not to be pretentious, to remain interesting and authentic, and to be able to bring real value to the audience." Xu Husheng, founder of Yitiao, believes that to create a personal IP, you need to answer three questions: "1. Who am I? (Personality, positioning) 2. What to shoot? 3. How to break the circle? (Topic)"

Unlike Internet celebrities who need to monetize directly through traffic, because there is no urgency to monetize, and because of the "burden" of the company, boss IPs are often more averse to sensational traffic games, and emphasize emotional exchanges with users and brand communication. For example, all of Lei Jun's content revolves around Xiaomi, with the goal of becoming a corporate IP rather than a personal Internet celebrity. All of Menglily founder Ni Zhanggen's videos also revolve around the brand concept of "Chinese people should sleep on soft beds."

Wu Sheng, founder of Scene Lab, once proposed the concept of "emotional assets" in a public interview, believing that the current public opinion is characterized by no right or wrong, only emotions. Only by accumulating "good things" and "emotional assets" over a long period of time can enterprises help them cope with the Internet countercurrent when public opinion crises occur. The real value of the boss IP may lie in helping enterprises accumulate "emotional assets."

Of course, the boss’ IP is not the only solution. After all, the boss has limited energy and faces many objective limitations. At this time, some supplementary and alternative solutions become particularly necessary.

First, the enterprise matrix. The "2024 Enterprise New Media Brand Matrix Research Report" released by Xinbang Matrix mentioned that when building a matrix account, an enterprise can adopt a 1+X+K+N matrix layout, that is, one main brand account + X self-operated accounts + N dealers or store accounts + K president's personal KOL or employee KOC accounts.

This diversified IP operation strategy can not only effectively reduce the risk and difficulty of the enterprise IP matrix, but also effectively promote the sustainable growth of the enterprise. At present, companies including Didi, Yiche, CITIC Securities, and Ningbo Bank have realized the importance of the enterprise IP matrix and have begun to use the multi-platform new media content asset management system "Matrix" under Xinbang to manage their social accounts and strengthen the accumulation of corporate content assets.

Second, the second-generation corporate accounts. Social media places great emphasis on youthful thinking, but an objective reality is that most bosses are not young and it is difficult for them to resonate with young people.

To this end, companies such as Holiland, Jieliya, and Xtep have sent out younger second- and third-generation entrepreneurs who are more knowledgeable about young people, and eventually hatched IP accounts such as "Boss Luo Cheng", "Towel Master", and "Ding Jiamin Annie". For example, "Towel Master" borrowed the thinking of short dramas and turned the story of Jieliya into the interesting "Towel Empire", which attracted over one million fans on Douyin.

At present, under the demonstration of "Towel Master" and others, many second-generation corporate accounts have appeared on platforms such as Douyin and Video Number.

Third, the corporate official account is personified. Compared with having the boss appear in person to shoot videos and do live broadcasts, Jie Rou’s approach is to create a “Jie Rou Boss” in the form of pictures and texts on Xiaohongshu, focusing on the persona of listening to advice, and testing the corporate IP at a low cost.

Lv Bai, Chief Content Officer of Zhongshun Jie Rou, told the editorial department of Xinbang: "If a company wants to create an IP, the most important thing is to find a way to easily create and produce content. If the boss is naturally suitable and likes to make short videos, that's the best. But if not, shooting videos for the boss every day is too much work, the boss is annoyed, and it's also difficult for the people who shoot. So I generally recommend that companies create graphic IP accounts, which have the lowest production costs."

Brand self-broadcasting has also been controversial and has taken many detours, but with the emergence of benchmark cases such as Hongxing Erke, as well as the enrichment of relevant experience and the improvement of relevant supporting facilities, brand self-broadcasting has become a standard for corporate operations. In comparison, the current boss IP is like the early brand self-broadcasting. Although there are benchmarks, it has not yet explored a mature IP path.

In the future, whether we can explore a replicable growth path for Boss IP will determine whether Boss IP can become a corporate standard and whether it can provide more support for the company in market competition.

Author | Yun Feiyang Editor | Truffle