Selling 10 million in one day, understanding this generation of young people starts with "eyeballs"

In the new consumption era, young people's consumption trends and preferences are reshaping the market. The article "Selling 10 million in one day, understanding this generation of young people starts with "eyeballs"" explores the rise of the colored contact lens market and how Haichang successfully attracted the attention of young consumers through cooperation with artist Song Santu.

Consumer goods have entered an era of inventory, but there are still categories that are rising in value, and colored contact lenses are one of them.

As "lipstick for eyes", colored contact lenses, like beauty makeup, have attracted much attention from young people. There are also many posters on Xiaohongshu who are looking for the same "eyeballs" as celebrities.

According to statistics from TouBao Research Institute, the compound annual growth rate of the domestic colored contact lens market has exceeded 30% since 2019, and it is still maintaining strong growth. In August this year, Tmall Super Brand Day also saw the first appearance of Haichang, a contact lens industry brand.

Compared with the overall beauty and skincare market, the user group of colored contact lenses is more concentrated in young women, with faster changes in population and demand. This provides more opportunities for emerging brands, but also poses huge challenges to existing players.

However, in this colored contact lens market dominated by young people, Haichang, which has been established for nearly 30 years, has always maintained the first place in the domestic market share. According to statistics, Haichang's official retail sales exceeded 1 billion in 2023, and the GMV on Double Eleven exceeded 100 million, ranking first in the industry.

During the Tmall Super Brand Day event in August, Haichang was the first contact lens brand to be listed and launched a colored contact lens series in collaboration with artist Song Santu. The brand flagship store’s sales exceeded 10 million on the first day, with an explosive growth rate of 768% on the same day.

Not only in terms of sales, but also in terms of social media discussions, the flash event themed "One Glance Energy Explodes FA" jointly created by Haichang Contact Lenses and ATOMO FAFA attracted many Red Book bloggers to check in and watch. As of August 29, the keyword search volume of Haichang brand and new products on Douyin and Xiaohongshu reached more than 350,000, and there were multiple popular notes with more than 300,000 likes.

This is not the first time that Haichang has stepped out of the circle. Its previous cooperation with IPs such as League of Legends, LINE FRIENDS, and Angry Birds has attracted a lot of attention in the industry. For example, in 2022, Haichang's cross-border cooperation with League of Legends deeply broke the circle, and in one fell swoop, it made a name for Haichang's brand transformation towards youth.

Joint ventures are not new, but it is not easy to achieve results. In an industry with a high degree of youth-orientedness, how can Haichang always maintain its appeal to the new generation of consumers? This article will take the joint marketing of Haichang and ATOMO FAFA on Tmall Super Brand Day as an example to analyze.

1. "IP" is a bridge to establish resonance between brand and consumer values

Any successful brand marketing stems from a deep insight into its own users.

According to statistics from TouBao Research Institute, the main customer base for colored contact lenses is young people, mainly women, of which Generation Z aged 18-24 accounts for 46.7%. For them, consumption is not only about functional satisfaction, but also emotional satisfaction.

Following these two points, let’s take a look at the collaboration between Haichang and ATOMO FAFA.

Let's look at some data first. On Xiaohongshu, the page views of #citywalk# reached 1.28 billion, and the traffic of #park20min# reached 140 million. The high attention paid to these topics all conveys the desire of this generation of young people for energy healing in their daily lives.

Choosing to co-brand ATOMO FAFA is a response to this demand.

The value of art lies not only in its form of expression, but also in the ideas and concepts conveyed through the work. Due to her bold use of colors and unconventional forms, Song Santu is regarded by the industry as the "Picasso" of the new era girl. Having been healed by art, she also hopes to heal others through artistic creation.

ATOMO FAFA is a digital IP created by Song Santu. ATOMO is like the life system of the universe, and FAFA is the seed sown in every corner, representing that every tiny individual can bring hope and sustainable development to the world. The new era female power and healing energy behind this can provide spiritual replenishment for the young people who are overloaded with energy.

Because the artistic spirit he conveys is highly consistent with modern young people, many brands have previously cooperated with Song Santu's art IP. W Hotel, K11, Montblanc and others have invited Song Santu to create art.

Cross-border cooperation not only allows Song Santu to be more exposed, but also allows the brand to communicate directly with the segmented population. The same is true for Haichang. ATOMO FAFA is like a medium to help the brand communicate, communicating with young consumers with an attitude of "understanding".

But dialogue is only the first step to allow consumers to see the brand. To truly realize business value and convert it into sales, it is also necessary to integrate IP into products so that consumers are willing to pay for it.

At this time, we need to further consider consumers’ actual needs for the product. According to Magic Mirror data, the most frequently mentioned usage scenarios for colored contact lenses are makeup, taking photos, going to work, and commuting. As for product features, wearing effect, comfort, appearance design, and color are the factors that consumers consider most.

In other words, looking good and becoming more beautiful are the biggest demands of people using colored contact lenses, while socializing and commuting are common scenarios in which they are worn.

In Tmall Trend Insights, there are more than 540,000 notes on large-diameter colored lenses, and a strong search mentality represents a strong demand. In most cases, the pupil dilation effect is determined by the diameter of the colored lenses, that is, consumers hope that colored lenses can help them enlarge their eyes.

In order to meet the needs of users for strong pupil dilation effect, 3 of the co-branded models have a diameter of 14.4 mm. At the same time, the exaggerated and strong emotional color of ATOMO FAFA itself can also fit it. Compared with social occasions, the overall makeup for commuting is more natural, so there are 2 other models with a regular diameter of 14.2 mm to meet the regular matching.

For products, the further value of co-branding lies in the expression of meaning, rather than the realization of functions. Therefore, the expectations of this generation of young people for themselves are also fully reflected in the products.

For example, for young people who think that "burning incense is worse than going to work or school", metaphysics has become a new hope for solving problems. The "gold-attracting physique" product is just what they want. The black basic model is added with a gold thread design, which is not obtrusive and allows users to enjoy beauty without being deliberate. The "gold-attracting" implication can also give emotional value.

If the collaboration is just used as a traffic entrance, consumers will just look at it and leave; only true co-creation can integrate the meaning given by IP into the brand connotation and convey it to consumers.

However, good insights and good products are the starting point of marketing. Promotion channels and media also affect the final presentation effect of marketing.

2. Leverage the platform to build a conversion chain online and offline

Although they have the same beauty-enhancing effect as lipstick, since they are medical devices, centralized marketing methods such as spokespersons are not applicable. The marketing of colored contact lenses relies more on social media communication, which requires brands to establish direct connections with consumers for conversion.

As a category that is developing rapidly in the era of mobile Internet, online sales are the main sales channel for Caitong. According to statistics from Zhiyan Consulting, e-commerce sales account for 49.8%. This means that whether it is seeding or terminal conversion, online sales are the main battlefield for Caitong brands.

Correspondingly, in this joint marketing event with ATOMO FAFA, Haichang divided it into two main lines, online and offline. Among them, online, Tmall Super Brand Day is the main event, and Douyin and Xiaohongshu are used as core content platforms to promote products and build a complete conversion chain.

The right platform can help brands reach customers efficiently and improve the investment-output ratio. As an e-commerce platform with brands as its main source of goods, Tmall itself has an advantage in user resources. Tmall Super Brand Day, as a platform with a deep user mind, not only creates a "Double 11 of the brand" for the brand, but also helps consumers quickly screen out higher-quality brand sequences and build a deep and innovative communication platform between brands and consumers.

Taking advantage of the ecological influence and consumer perception of Tmall Super Brand Day, brands can not only gain natural trust endorsement, but also multi-channel traffic support can help brands achieve better sales conversion. The unconventional and emotional expression of avant-garde art not only builds a bridge for Haichang to communicate with young people, but also provides more creative inspiration for Tmall Super Brand Day and various leading brands to jointly create brand event marketing.

In the month of Super Product Day, all Taobao and Tmall platforms were connected, with high-frequency reach for a month in the Tmall Super Product special page banner, Taobao splash screen, first-guess resource positions and other exposure positions to form the mind.

At the same time, Douyin and Xiaohongshu also started to accumulate water. Starting from August 16, a week before the Super Brand Day, nearly 200 beauty KOLs who are followed by young fans released videos to promote the joint products. The video content is mainly divided into two categories. One is to use the effect display as a hook to introduce the product in the comment area; the other is the unboxing of the gift box, showing the wearing effect of the three main products and directly announcing the release.

Nearly half of the notes became hits. For example, the number of interactions on the notes posted by Douyin influencers @孙恩盛, @SHirley. and others exceeded 300,000. As of August 29, the number of searches for single products in the #海昌宇宙花花 series on the Douyin platform exceeded 30,000, ranking first in category searches, and brand searches also increased by 121% year-on-year.

After the entire platform was fully populated, Tmall Super Brand Day began to undertake comprehensive conversions on August 16. The store received more than 500,000 visitors that day, four times the usual daily average, and the conversion sales on that day exceeded 10 million.

However, even if online can take on the main sales tasks, for brands, direct face-to-face contact with consumers offline still has irreplaceable value.

Different from the centralized traffic distribution logic dominated by platforms online, offline locations directly determine consumer portraits. As a new first-tier internet celebrity city, Changsha has a relatively relaxed overall pace of life. The relaxed living environment allows young people to retain strong consumption vitality and passion for exploration.

This time, Haichang’s pop-up location is Huangxing Square, a popular landmark in Changsha, close to Jiefang West. It is a core gathering point for young people in the city, with an average daily flow of more than 150,000 people, greatly increasing the reach density between the brand and the target customer group.

In the on-site exhibition, Haichang’s strategy is to reach out at multiple points and provide multi-dimensional experience, so that consumers can associate Haichang with a youthful image during the interaction.

From the visual aspect, from Huangxing Square, pedestrian street to IFS, there are Haichang's exhibitions along the way to guide people to the pop-up spots. The long-distance visual contact and long-term visual impact can invisibly establish subconscious cognition for consumers.

The overall design of the main booth is also closely integrated with the IP image of ATOMO FAFA, with 5 different colored "FAFA" as energy stations. The bright colors of dopamine and the exaggerated large-scale shapes make the exhibition itself a city check-in point, attracting bloggers to take photos and produce UGC content spontaneously, thus bringing publicity and exposure to the brand.

At the conversion level, by setting up a reward mechanism at each station, consumers are guided to complete multiple conversion links such as adding the company's WeChat account, checking in on Xiaohongshu, and placing orders on Tmall step by step during the process of taking photos and checking in. This not only allows consumers to understand the Haichang brand and products, but also forms interactions with consumers, progressively strengthening the brand's youthful mindset and accumulating brand users.

Compared with online, offline exposure may not be quantifiable, but the trust value brought by the actual feeling and the intuitive product experience brought by trying on will leave a brand impression on consumers.

3. Analyst Comments

If you want to be friends with time, brands must focus on rejuvenation. To accomplish this, first, products must keep up with the needs of young people, and second, brands must maintain communication with young people.

Products are the "1" of any brand. As a mature brand in the industry, Haichang's solid production strength has established a competitive barrier for it. It is understood that Haichang currently has two self-owned production bases in Danyang and Taiwan covering an area of ​​150,000 acres. The factories are built and configured according to GMP standards, and have introduced precision automated molded lens production lines and Italian care solution high-speed canning production lines.

By the end of 2023, Haichang's certificate reserves account for about 70% of the total number of certificates in the country, and it has 83 national patents such as HDR holographic pad printing technology, FAST-UV triggering technology, targeted packaging technology, Guangyao 5D technology, etc. In order to maintain its innovation, Haichang will invest huge amounts of funds for equipment upgrades and R&D funds every year. In 2006, it also cooperated with Nanjing Southeast University to establish the "Eastern University-Haichang R&D Center" to empower the innovation and vigorous growth of the contact lens industry with professional research and technological pioneering power of trendy products.

People will not stay young forever, but there will always be young people. The value of marketing lies in helping brands and consumers achieve effective communication. To achieve this goal, understanding is a prerequisite.

In recent years, many brands have been able to briefly appear in front of the public due to receiving overwhelming financial news, but as the heat brought by the events faded, the brands disappeared again. The reason is that they have been waiting for young people to see them, rather than taking the initiative to pay attention to, understand, and attract them.

The reason why Haichang has been at the top of its category for nearly 30 years is that, in addition to its solid basic skills, it has more importantly been able to remain highly alert to changes in user needs and provide value in a way that they recognize and need. This is also an important reason why Haichang has achieved TOP 1 market share in multiple popular product series.

As Zhang Ye, founder of Qingshan Capital, said, "For entrepreneurship and investment in the consumer industry, there is no garbage time in history. If you are strong, you will always have a place no matter when."