A group of male celebrities became popular by selling goods on video accounts. Is the secret to their traffic "playing the role of Jin Dong"?

On the emerging stage of video account e-commerce, a group of male celebrities have won the hearts of the audience in a unique way. Not only have they attracted a large number of fans with their unique style of bringing goods, but they have also created impressive sales results on video accounts. This article will explore in depth how these male celebrities successfully create their own image of bringing goods on video accounts, and how they use the private traffic and social attributes of video accounts to create a unique e-commerce model.

While the outside world was still taking a wait-and-see attitude towards the potential of video account e-commerce, in 2024, a group of male celebrities succeeded on video accounts.

In actor Ren Zhong's live broadcast room, sales of a suitcase alone reached nearly 3 million; actor Zhu Yongteng sold women's clothing, and sales exceeded one million in one live broadcast; "Childhood Male God" Chi Shuai's live broadcast of selling goods in early August created nearly 4.5 million views...

Compared with the Douyin live broadcast room, the video account e-commerce looks very insignificant in terms of both scene views and GMV.

However, since the video account traffic consumption is much lower than that of Douyin, the profit margin after a live broadcast is much better than that of Douyin. In fact, due to the private domain attribute of the video account, some anchors have begun to operate their own corporate WeChat and user communities, and import users into the private domain to complete repeat purchase transactions.

Unlike Li Jiaqi's "all girls", the male anchors in the video account live broadcast room call their fans in a highly consistent way - "sisters". In fact, middle-aged and elderly women over 40 years old, mothers, county ladies...these users constitute the core customer base of video account live e-commerce.

One view is that Jin Dong is the most favorite male celebrity portrait among video account users.

After watching many live broadcasts, Doujiao Spicy found that male celebrities who are doing well on video accounts all have some "shadow of Jin Dong" to some extent.

Zhu Yongteng, who never leaves his suit and chicken soup, speaks the mysteries of life and wisdom of life;

Chi Shuai, dressed in a haze blue cheongsam, is elegant and friendly, like a spring breeze, performing a "temptation of bringing goods";

Ren Zhong, while selling goods, was eating beef and hot pot. His relaxed feeling, which was consistent with his previous roles, swept away the audience's class atmosphere...

In addition, Shen Tao, the host of "Ace vs. Ace", Xie Guangkun from "Country Love Story", Guo Zhenghong, the "Gingerbread Monkey", He Jiajin, the "Royal Cat Zhan Zhao", and others have all joined the video account to sell goods.

In June this year, Christy Chung became the first influencer on Video Account to have over 10 million views. Despite this success, the new artists on Video Account are mainly male, and female celebrities are more focused on the Xiaohongshu platform. Tencent's financial report for Q2 2024 showed that the total user time of Video Account increased significantly, advertising revenue increased by more than 80% year-on-year, and Video Account e-commerce continued to grow.

In this completely different traffic field, "Jin Dongs" gradually found their own position.

01 Two personalities that have been tried and tested on video accounts: the gentle boss and the economical man

In 2023, the official video account once commended several anchors, and the only artist among them was Zhu Yongteng.

In the live broadcast room of the video account, Zhu Yongteng's personality can be summarized as a "gentle boss". Sometimes he is domineering and angrily scolds his partners; sometimes he "deeply empathizes with the sisters who have worked hard all their lives"; occasionally he "tortures fans" and broadcasts live while sick, asking the sisters to allow him to earn a little more from this order.

In a recent beauty live broadcast, he invited his 76-year-old mother.

"This essence oil is very good for us older women. It has the effect of delaying aging." In the live broadcast room, Zhu Yongteng's mother carefully shared her experience of using a facial essence oil, from skin feeling to effects, and then to application techniques. The assistant next to her did not forget to show the brand billboard and pricing mechanism.

After his mother demonstrated it herself, Zhu Yongteng announced domineeringly: "I only have one guarantee, after using it you will not want to use any other product."

Similar domineering words often appear in his mouth. Whether it is Qiuyue pear, bird's nest porridge, scarves, shirts, dresses, or even tissues, he always confidently assures the audience: "Once you buy it from Brother Teng, you will not want to buy it anywhere else."

Zhu Yongteng is full of affection for his fans, and once read out the love letters written to him by the "sisters" in the live broadcast room. He invited fans to become VIPs and send him private messages, "I will read out everything I see."

Fans in the live broadcast room really liked this and flooded the comment section with confessions: "I will always support you", "Our family is confident in supporting the products sold by Brother Teng", and "My mom asked me to place two more orders."

In addition to creating a contrasting personality of "both domineering and gentle" in the live broadcast room, Zhu Yongteng also continues to shoot short videos, "short video + live broadcast", to shape himself in a three-dimensional way into the "person who understands you best".

In a popular video, Zhu Yongteng appeared in a gentleman's suit and spoke affectionately about the female qualities he admired: not relying on rich men, not selling out their souls, being very aggressive, but also very elegant, and most importantly, being independent in personality and spirit. She may not be destined to be a princess, but she has the heart of a queen. Nearly 30,000 comments under the video expressed the audience's resonance, and many fans put themselves in his shoes and deeply identified with Zhu Yongteng.

In addition to the character of "gentle and domineering president", the character of "economical and practical man" is also very popular among fans of the video account.

Ren Zhong's "home-style" sales model provides a kind of "mental massage" for the audience with a sense of relaxation: when selling shrimp paste, he would say: "99 yuan is 2.4 jin of shrimp paste, which can be used for hot pot, making wontons, dumplings, and shrimp paste cakes to be sandwiched in bread"; when selling backpacks, he emphasizes that it provides convenience for children to go to school. When introducing storage boxes, Shen Tao said: "Children's toys can be placed on the top and papers can be placed on the bottom."

The pragmatic, reliable and family-friendly style builds trust and brand loyalty among middle-aged female consumers.

The group of mothers is the key consumer group for middle-aged male stars.

When promoting air cushions, actor Qian Yongchen used empathetic rhetoric: "A mother told me that she hadn't bought a good air cushion for several years and had used them all for family use. I was very sad to hear that." Shen Tao also emphasized the importance of working for the welfare of mothers when promoting Chando skincare products.

When you click on the video homepages of these male stars, what comes into view is that they are all dressed in suits, accompanied by philosophical dialogues about life, showing a wisdom that transcends the world.

Chi Chishuai used #emotion #growth #cognition as keywords to lead the topic; Ren Zhong said to the camera affectionately: "Don't make it hard on yourself, just live like yourself"; Guo Zhenghong taught people to "control people's hearts with sincerity and control the overall situation with wisdom"...

Handsome and charming, warm and reliable, with extraordinary wisdom. These are the codes for the middle-aged male stars on the video account to bring goods.

02 Three major operational features: multiple special sessions, strong reservations, and three most popular categories

The male celebrities who have made a name for themselves on video accounts have not only gained fans, but their influence has long been noticed by brands with a keen sense of smell.

Many brands have begun to cooperate with them in special live broadcasts. Generally speaking, such special live broadcasts usually last more than 6 hours.

Mature brands like Huaxi Biology and Chando have collaborated with Chi Shuai and Shen Tao respectively to host special live broadcasts to promote their products. Emerging brands such as Huaxikou also love this type of special event. For example, Zhu Yongteng's special live broadcast for Huaxikou generated 104,000 views and 20,000 hits, and the anti-aging essence oils and facial creams it promoted were sold out.

Reservation is the most important operating method for video account live broadcast, and it is also the guarantee of basic traffic for a live broadcast.

According to the rules of the video account, fans who have successfully made an appointment will receive a "service notification" push before the broadcast starts. This "strong reminder" will bring a large amount of traffic to the live broadcast room.

Before the live broadcast, Chi Shuai, Guo Zhenghong, Zhu Yongteng and others will start one or even multiple live broadcasts to chat with fans at a slow pace, share daily life, or perform talent shows such as singing and dancing, and remind users to make reservations for the live broadcast. Male stars who do well will also post reservation QR codes on official accounts, corporate WeChat, mini programs, Moments and other places to guide users to lock in the live broadcast room.

On weekdays, male celebrities such as Ren Zhong and Guo Zhenghong will also start broadcasting during the peak hours from 16:00 to 24:00. Some have already achieved daily broadcasts, and even live broadcasts until the early morning.

According to the 2024 industry report, clothing, food, and household cleaning products are the three categories with the highest proportion of orders from video accounts live streaming. Among them, clothing contributed 36% of the orders, becoming the most popular category; food contributed 21%, and household cleaning products contributed 9%. The live streaming data of middle-aged male celebrities also conforms to the overall trend of the platform.

Xinshi data shows that in Zhu Yongteng's recent live broadcast, the clothing brand Mu Jiangnan performed well. The brand focuses on using silk scarves as a carrier to convey the charm and refinement of Jiangnan, and its core customer base is mainly concentrated between 35 and 60 years old.

Among them, a scarf priced at 358 yuan became the sales champion, with estimated sales exceeding 1,000 pieces. This price is usually enough to buy a down jacket in the Douyin live broadcast room.

At the same time, sales of Mu Jiangnan's other products, including tops, shirts, and dresses, also followed closely behind, with prices ranging from hundreds to thousands of yuan, demonstrating the middle-aged male star's strong influence in boosting clothing sales.

Food and household cleaning products are also frequent visitors to their live broadcast rooms.

In the past 30 days in Ren Zhong’s live broadcast room, the food and beverage category had a 58.96% shelf rate and a sales volume of nearly 4 million yuan, accounting for half of the total sales.

Ren Zhong live broadcast data data source: Xinshi

Fans can always see him grilling skewers, prawns, and beef rolls in a wok, and then devouring them with a satisfied look on his face. In a recent live broadcast, the top three best-selling products were suitcases, beef rolls, and steaks.

Ren Zhong also said when he promoted the Yiyalu large baking pan on August 21 that he sold it for 108 yuan on Douyin, while it was only 63 yuan on Video Account. Even when the prices are similar, Video Account platforms often provide additional benefits, such as buy one get one free or buy one get two free, as well as additional gifts, which increase the attractiveness of consumers' purchases.

In addition, beauty and skin care products also occupy an important share in the live broadcast rooms of middle-aged male stars. Chi Shuai, Shen Tao, Ren Zhong, Zhu Yongteng, Guo Zhenghong and others have all been involved in this field. Their cooperative brands include both highly recognized brands such as Chando and Fuerjia, as well as emerging brands such as Huaxikou and Means, with some of the prices as low as 9.9 yuan.

A typical representative of this is Chi Shuai.

Data shows that in the past 30 days, the listing rate of beauty and skin care products in Chi Shuai's live broadcast room has reached 38%, contributing nearly half of the total sales of a single live broadcast with more than 2.5 million yuan. The sales of food and beverages also exceeded 2 million yuan, among which the estimated sales of [Chi Shuai Exclusive] Hongji Ginseng exceeded 10,000.

03 Video Live Broadcast: There Will Not Be a “Second Jia Nailiang”

Video accounts and video account live broadcasts are destined to take a different path from Douyin.

In an industry sharing session, Liu Siyi, founder of Qun Xiang, made this analysis: "Video account traffic is small, while Douyin traffic is large; Video account traffic is passively reached, while Douyin traffic is actively refreshed; Video account traffic has a large proportion of social relationship fission, while Douyin relies entirely on algorithms; Video account live broadcast cannot be scaled up, while Douyin is eager to eat up all your budget; Video account live broadcast audience is retired middle-aged and elderly women with free time and money, while Douyin is the restless information flow of all mankind."

Most of the aforementioned middle-aged male artists have accounts on Video Number and Douyin, and their Douyin fans are usually several times that of their Video Number fans.

However, in the extremely inward-looking environment of Douyin, people like Ren Zhong and Zhu Yongteng have already shifted their strategic focus to video accounts, increasing their influence on the platform through frequent live broadcasts or even daily broadcasts. Actor Lai Xi has not yet conducted live broadcasts on Douyin, but premiered on video accounts.

In contrast, Shen Tao, Xu Guangyu and others implemented a cross-platform simultaneous live broadcast strategy, keeping the content of the two platforms consistent to achieve maximum audience coverage.

The traffic of the Douyin platform is mainly concentrated on top anchors, while the decentralized traffic distribution mechanism of Video Account provides more room for growth for non-top artists and new live broadcasters.

For example, when Xu Guangyu was promoting tea, the number of views on the video account was much higher than that on Douyin.

In the tea live streaming market, Douyin's traffic is mainly concentrated on top anchors such as "Menghai Qingyu Pavilion Teahouse", "Lao Li's Private Tea Collection", "Young Master's Tea", etc., resulting in Xu Guangyu's live streaming room on Douyin having just over 100 viewers. However, on Video Account, his audience has successfully exceeded 10,000. Video Account has effectively avoided the "winner takes all" situation, and newcomers and small anchors also have the opportunity to obtain considerable traffic and sales on the platform.

At present, the advantage of video accounts lies in the efficient use of private domain traffic. Anchors can reach users through private domain channels such as corporate WeChat, official accounts, and mini-programs, thereby accumulating popularity for live broadcasts.

Artists such as Guo Zhenghong and Zhu Yongteng have established WeChat fan groups and used private domain community tools such as corporate WeChat and public accounts to effectively enhance interaction and stickiness with consumers. They share product information and live broadcast content in real time on Moments and public accounts to ensure that fans can get the latest live broadcast updates. Zhu Yongteng further created the "Zhu Yongteng Beauty Station" WeChat applet, introduced a membership mechanism and a points mall, and linked it with live broadcast sales, effectively stimulating consumers' desire to buy.

Contrary to Douyin's "hard work works miracles", live streaming sales on Video Account requires patience and the strategy of slow-roasting a whole lamb.

In the view of some analysts, video account e-commerce "cannot grow big, but will not starve to death", WeChat adheres to its consistent "decentralized" distribution logic, and the overall traffic distribution is "biased towards private domain."

Just as the specific traffic data of a public account will no longer be displayed when it has more than 100,000 followers, WeChat always hopes to suppress the breaking of the circle of super content and give resources to more mid- and lower-level accounts.

In the future, there may be more "Video Account Jin Dong" entering the market and creating their own live broadcast business. They can be the "second Chi Shuai, Ren Zhong, and Zhu Yongteng", but due to the extremely different platform rules and traffic mechanisms, there will not be a "second Xiao Yang Ge" or a "second Jia Nailiang" here.

Author | lucky
This article is written by the author [剁椒TMT] of Operation Party, WeChat public account: [剁椒Spicy], original/authorized to be published on Operation Party, and any reproduction without permission is prohibited.

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