Liu Xiang joins Xiaohongshu. Are platforms and brands choosing nostalgia marketing before the Olympics?

On the eve of the Olympics, Liu Xiang joined Xiaohongshu. When the summer heat wave meets the Olympic passion, how will the nostalgia of fans be ignited? On the eve of the Olympics, is Liu Xiang's entry into Xiaohongshu a form of Olympic marketing? Let's read this article with these questions in mind.

For many track and field fans, July 11 is a day worth remembering.

On this day 18 years ago, Liu Xiang broke the men's 110-meter hurdles world record with a time of 12.88 seconds, continuing the myth of the "Asian Flying Man".

This year, at 8 o'clock that evening, Liu Xiang posted a video on the social platform Xiaohongshu to officially announce his entry into the platform, and said that he would share his life on the platform in the future.

When the heat of summer interweaves with the passion of the Olympics, how will the nostalgia of fans be ignited? Xiaohongshu, known for its content sharing and community interaction, will leverage the Olympic marketing momentum by having champions join the platform before the Olympics? With these questions, follow TOP to explore!

1. UGC witnesses collective nostalgia, and media helps spread topics

On July 10, some netizens guessed that the user was Liu Xiang based on the account information and profile picture before Liu Xiang verified his identity.

After Liu Xiang posted his first video note, the comments section continued to flood with messages, which reminded many people of those exciting moments. Some even unconsciously used the classic commentary of the commentator during the competition.↓

Some netizens could not help but recall the past 16 years, and received a caring reply from Liu Xiang↓

Many people also attached items they treasured back then:

Scroll up and down to view Of course, the most impressive one is the comment from user @Bowen Sun about the "one-eighth pants". Because the incident was too novel, many netizens were shocked and questioned. However, after receiving a personal reply from Liu Xiang himself, the incident triggered further discussion and spread on multiple social media platforms.

First, user @Bowen Sun posted a special video on Xiaohongshu, telling in detail his story with these one-eighth pants.

Later, on platforms such as Weibo and Douyin, many self-media and official media conducted secondary creation and reporting with "Liu Xiang's response to one-eighth pants" as the entry point.

Weibo Topic Ranking

Tik Tok Hot Topics

As the WeChat public account's report on Liu Xiang's response spread across multiple dimensions and platforms, more and more people learned about the story behind the "one-eighth pants". Liu Xiang's name once again evoked the memories of netizens, and the news of his entry into Xiaohongshu was also known by more fans and netizens. As of 10 a.m. on July 22, Liu Xiang's number of fans on Xiaohongshu had increased to 117,000, and he had posted 3 notes in total, which received 105,000 likes and collections.

2. Officials initiate interaction, and personal IP enhances the Olympic atmosphere

After Liu Xiang released a note officially announcing his entry into Xiaohongshu, Xiaohongshu officials immediately launched an exclusive activity area called "Liu Xiang is here".

By clicking on the event homepage, users can see the notes and data posted by Liu Xiang on Xiaohongshu, the official invitation for users to participate in tasks to win personally signed gifts, and the notes with high likes on the platform participating in the #刘翔来了# event.

In these notes, some people reminisce about their lost youth, some joke that Liu Xiang is a senior Taobit, some share their own encounter stories, and some analyze and think about Liu Xiang’s entry into the platform...

The comment section of each note attracts a large number of sincere messages and interactions from platform users.

Swipe up and down to see behind this, TOP Jun not only feels the positive and strong community atmosphere of Xiaohongshu as a fashionable content community platform, but also sees the platform's strategy of using the Olympic node to carry out interactive marketing and enhance user stickiness with nostalgia. According to data previously counted by 36Kr, Xiaohongshu's DAU for the whole year of 2022 was 84 million, the DAU for the whole year of 2023 was 106 million, and the average DAU from January to February 2024 was about 114 million. In order to achieve the target DAU of 130 million, Xiaohongshu will continue to grow its users in 2024. In May of this year, Xiaohongshu released the marketing plan for Xiaohongshu X Paris Olympics during the Olympic season, showing that the platform plans to create three series of sub-IPs: Everyone's Games, Paris Life Festival and Watching the Olympics Together.

Among them, "Everyone's Games" is an ongoing marketing activity, with "online national sports" and "offline dual-city events" as the axis, showing the close connection between sports and life from the content and activities. To the surprise of many fans, on the evening of July 8, three members of the national table tennis team, Liu Shiwen, Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin, all joined Xiaohongshu, saying that they would share their lives inside and outside the stadium on Xiaohongshu in the future, and promote the platform's "Everyone's Games" IP in subsequent updates.

Whether it is the national table tennis team that has gone to Paris to win glory for the country, or Liu Xiang who has made history on the field, Xiaohongshu has established a deep emotional connection with users through cooperation with many Olympic champions and co-created content in this passionate July. Unlike Douyin and Kuaishou, which have become the rights holders of the Paris Olympics, Xiaohongshu, based on the platform's content and interactive advantages, creates interesting and distinctive Olympic IPs, helps fans interact closely with Olympic champions, and other gameplays to create positive emotional value for users. It also uses the background of "Fashion Olympics" and "Luxury Brand Sponsorship" to help the platform create a combination of fashion, sports and lifestyle.

3. Brands take turns to make official announcements, is nostalgic marketing a steady win?

Although he is a retired champion, Liu Xiang seems to be particularly "busy" in this Olympic year. TOP Jun found that in addition to Xiaohongshu inviting Liu Xiang to join the platform on July 11, Yili and Bawang Cha Ji also announced their cooperation with Liu Xiang before that. On May 14, Yili released a 12S official announcement video on the major social media platforms it has settled in, with just four words "Long time no see", announcing its reunion with Liu Xiang. It is reported that Yili first signed Liu Xiang as its spokesperson in 2006. Five months later, Liu Xiang refreshed the men's 110-meter hurdles world record with 12.88 seconds. Later, on June 23, Yili invited Xu Haifeng, Liu Guoliang, Liu Xiang and Li Na to shoot a brand promotional video to pay tribute to China's sports pioneers, while emphasizing that Yili is the first domestic dairy company to serve the two Olympics.

By bringing together four athletes who have left a deep mark in the Chinese sports world, Yili has strongly expanded its brand voice and demonstrated its tribute to the Olympic spirit. Shortly afterwards, on June 28, Bawang Tea Princess officially announced that it would join hands with seven health champion ambassadors, Liu Xiang, Wang Shun, Zheng Qinwen, Chen Qingchen, Jia Yifan, Liu Qingyi, and Wang Ruimiao, to drink tea healthily with tea lovers around the world, and further promote the brand's introduction of the ABCD standard.

Then, starting from July, Bawang Tea Lady released brand TVCs one after another, showing the strength and courage of Olympic athletes, and also expressed Bawang Tea Lady's determination to "meet Parisian friends with oriental tea" through the stories behind the seven champion "health ambassadors". In the cooperation with Liu Xiang, Bawang Tea Lady is not limited to hurdles on the field, but rises to companionship and emotional leap in life, inviting tea lovers to share their stories about "being together" and "crossing together".

In contrast, before the Olympics, when many brands chose to tie themselves to popular athletes, brands that chose nostalgic marketing could bring users newer sensory experiences and emotional values ​​through a relatively novel promotional perspective . TOP Jun believes that in terms of emotional needs, each generation has its own Olympic memories . Whether it is secretly nervous in front of the TV with family and friends, or watching favorite athletes win glory for the country, every Olympic Games has memorable moments and warm moments for individuals. As time goes by, fans can feel the changes of the times and personal growth in the brand's nostalgic marketing, which triggers thinking about the past and the future. For brands, nostalgic marketing can effectively help brands establish connections with consumers and enhance consumers' brand loyalty through shared memories and experiences.

Author: TOP

Source: WeChat public account "TopMarketing"