All hands on deck? Automakers’ livestreaming opens up an era of “team battles”

Competition among car companies has become fierce. Let’s see how they are trying to attract talent.

Competition in the automotive industry is becoming increasingly fierce, and the flames of war have spread to live broadcast rooms. Automakers are leading the charge, and a group of executives are rushing in, and live broadcasting has become the new main battlefield.

A new change has already arrived, everyone is ready to take action, and no one wants to lose the initiative.

So, how can we stand out in the fierce live broadcast competition? Choosing the right competition venue is crucial, and choosing the right solution is also very important.

1. New changes: live streaming becomes the main battlefield

On June 30, Wei Jianjun, Chairman of Great Wall Motors, launched the second NOA (Pilot Assisted Driving Technology) live broadcast in Chongqing. This live broadcast was carried out simultaneously on multiple platforms including Wei Jianjun's video account, Great Wall Motors' video account and Douyin. In the previous warm-up, Wei Jianjun said that it was to test the achievements Great Wall Motors has made in intelligent driving over the past two months.

This live broadcast attracted widespread attention and discussion. On social platforms, some users discussed the strength of Great Wall's NOA system, while others were attracted by Wei Jianjun's comments on competition among automakers. Related topics such as "Great Wall's Wei Jianjun said he is not afraid of competition but unfair competition" became a hot search.

In the wave of car company bosses rushing to become Internet celebrities, Wei Jianjun is one of the veteran automotive people who seized the opportunity to enter the game and take the lead in charging into battle. He is regarded by netizens as having "youthful" courage.

Let’s first review Wei Jianjun’s “Internet celebrity growth history”——

On March 26, Wei Jianjun opened a personal Weibo account and began to share his daily work. On April 15, Wei Jianjun participated in a live broadcast event of Great Wall Motors for the first time and personally tested Great Wall Motors' full-scene NOA. On April 18, Wei Jianjun joined Douyin and interacted with Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi Motors. On June 27, Wei Jianjun joined the video account and has released 3 videos so far.

Wei Jianjun stepped to the front and became a shining name card of Great Wall Motors. His "Internet celebrity growth history" is also a microcosm of the big bosses of car companies embracing marketing changes.

Nowadays, under the leadership of Lei Jun, Wei Jianjun and other bosses, more and more executives of auto companies are keeping up with the changes and rushing into the market. Recently, Li Xiaoshuang, vice president of Xiaomi Auto, also announced his entry into the video account and released a collection of video content of "Xiaoshuang's Chat Room", facing users with a lively and friendly image.

From following the trend to deepening their efforts, the leaders of auto companies have entered the market with a more active attitude and are fully involved in the battle. Auto companies are paying more and more attention to live streaming. The main reasons are:

The first is the competition of marketing strength. As competition in the automotive industry becomes increasingly fierce, marketing has become a must-have skill for automotive brands. Founders and executives do live broadcasts to focus on marketing. Li Ruifeng, CGO of Great Wall Motors, posted a long article on Weibo saying, "If marketing fails, it is the greatest disrespect for technology research and development." Great Wall has been fully Internet-based and has begun a top-down marketing transformation.

The second is the shift in marketing positions. In this era, a car company that cannot do live broadcasting is not a good car company. As the live broadcast room becomes the main battlefield for car companies' marketing, no one wants to lose the initiative.

The third is the change in the marketing ideas of car companies. For car companies, they need not only brand marketing effects, but also leads and conversions. The live broadcast room naturally has the advantages of real display, in-depth interaction, and a shorter conversion path, which is conducive to the integration of product and sales for car companies.

New changes have come, and live streaming has become a standard feature of car companies. However, how should car companies do live streaming well, which platform to choose for live streaming, and what kind of live streaming method to choose are the problems that need to be solved in the next step.

2. New solution: Grab the mind, develop private domain, and build a matrix

Buying a car is a decision-making process, not an impulse purchase. Consumers’ decision-making process is long and often requires a process of cognition, recognition, and purchase.

Therefore, the first step for car companies to live broadcast is to choose a good location so that they can gain the upper hand, reach the target group, and capture the minds of users.

Nowadays, more and more senior executives of car companies come to Video Accounts to reach more target users. It is understood that 60% of Video Account car users are brand target users with high spending power; as many as 85% of Video Account users have plans to buy cars, showing a strong demand for car purchases, of which about 45% of users have the need to purchase more cars.

Figure: "Automotive Industry x Video Account Mutual Selection Platform 2024 Creator Marketing White Paper"

The second step is to do a good job of private domain sedimentation to maximize the lead conversion effect.

Without conversion and accumulation, no matter how much traffic there is, it will eventually flow away like water. Therefore, how car companies can use public domain traffic through live broadcasts, accumulate traffic, obtain leads through private domain operations, and ultimately improve store/transaction efficiency will become a new opportunity for car companies to grow. From this perspective, it can be said that whoever controls the private domain controls the world.

The video account embedded in WeChat is seamlessly connected to the private domains of the auto companies, such as their own brand public accounts, mini programs, and corporate WeChat. Many auto companies collect leads through public live broadcasts, attach corporate WeChat, and continuously incubate leads to distribute to stores through the private domain operations of centralized corporate WeChat.

The third step is to build the brand’s own live broadcast matrix.

We can see that nowadays, not only the big names in the car industry have entered the live broadcast room to do live broadcasts, but also many dealers and sales elites have entered the live broadcast room and become the spokespersons of the car companies. After all, most car brands have a huge dealer network and offline stores, and these dealers have also flocked to the live broadcast room after smelling the change in the wind. The relevant person in charge of Tencent Advertising revealed that in 2023, the number of dealers entering the video account increased by 735% year-on-year, and some companies have obtained more than 200,000 leads through live broadcasts on the video account in the first quarter.

The era of all employees of car companies starting broadcasting has arrived.

Recently, at the China Used Car Conference, Tencent Advertising shared several strategies for the automotive industry to do live broadcasts on Video Accounts, and clearly stated that the future direction of Video Accounts is matrix-style communication.

The so-called matrix, each part has a unique position and meaning. Just like a precisely arranged dance team, each character performs specific actions in a specific position, so that the live broadcast of the car company can release the maximum potential energy.

So, how should car companies build a live broadcast matrix in video accounts? According to different types, live broadcasts in the automotive industry are now divided into four types: brand official broadcasts, factory store live broadcasts, KOL live broadcasts, and KOS (S-Sales, meaning "sales") live broadcasts.

As the official voice of a brand, the official broadcast of a brand is mainly used for brand publicity, such as important press conferences and major events, to build the official brand image and boost the brand's social media popularity. It can also achieve the purpose of continuous publicity and customer retention through official daily broadcasts.

Factory store live broadcast is the live broadcast of dealer stores. Their biggest feature is that they are distributed all over the country, so after acquiring customers online, they can quickly guide them to offline stores for conversion. As dealer stores are numerous and large in scale, the most important thing is to improve operational capabilities.

KOL live broadcast is the live broadcast of the platform's experts. Automakers can link up with experts to start short and direct linkage to create "external aid" for brand influence. It is reported that in the 2023 video account mutual selection of automobile advertisements, the scale of creators increased by 8 times, and the explosive content increased by 6.8 times. Both data are significantly ahead of the overall growth rate of the platform.

KOS live broadcast includes business owners, executives and employees, etc., who can give full play to their personal advantages, build personal IP, and expand the influence of social circles by leveraging the advantages of private domains. Moreover, car companies can manage KOS in a unified manner through the management backend of MCN institutions.

3. New Opportunities: The Era of “Matrix Live Broadcasting” is Coming

It can be seen that the matrix of "brand official account + dealer factory broadcast + expert account + car company executives/employee live broadcast" has formed a unique strategy for car companies in the video account ecosystem.

Although they are of different types, these live broadcast rooms do not exist independently, but will exert multiple levels of dissemination effects in the ecosystem of the video account with the help of content, social fission, and private domain sedimentation.

For example, Yin Tongyue, Chairman of Chery, live-broadcasted the intelligent driving road test of the launch of the Interstellar Yuan ET. He personally participated in the live broadcast for the first time and co-hosted it with Luo Zhenyu, a "friend in WeChat Moments", Wu Pei, a well-known car critic on Video Account, and other cross-industry celebrities. The combination of "top-level car flow × car master × cross-industry celebrity" maximized the event's highlights and topic effects. Afterwards, nearly 100 expert accounts on Video Account interpreted and disseminated the live broadcast event for the second time, which once again drove the content out of the circle, achieved multi-circle mental penetration, and also triggered many dealers to repost and interact, stimulating the social fission effect.

There is also linkage between automobile manufacturers and dealers. For example, FAW-Volkswagen has teamed up with dealers to form a matrix, and obtained about 70,000 monthly leads through the "short and direct double opening" method.

It can be said that the establishment of a live broadcast matrix for car companies will be the most important capability competition in the future.

In order to assist automakers in building a live broadcast matrix, further empower the growth of the automotive video account live broadcast ecosystem, and help automakers seize the initiative in the new competitive landscape, in April this year, Tencent Advertising launched the "Galaxy Action" plan at the 2024 Tencent Auto Annual Summit to assist auto brand official accounts and dealer matrix accounts in live broadcasts, jointly build a brand video account content universe, and carry out the discovery of benchmark stores for video account live broadcasts in thousands of cities and tens of thousands of stores and a gold medal anchor training and certification program.

In order to further implement the "Galaxy Operation" support plan, Tencent Marketing Classroom launched a training course on "Special Topic on Video Account Live Broadcasting Capabilities in the Automotive Industry", aiming to help new media practitioners such as anchors and operations in the automotive industry master video account live broadcasting skills, lower the threshold for live broadcasting, and improve the efficiency of live broadcast operations. It can truly teach dealers and practitioners how to build live broadcast rooms and operate them well.

Whoever can build a live broadcast matrix faster may be the first to break through the fierce marketing war among car companies. This is a new opportunity that video accounts bring to car companies, and it is also the starting point for a new chapter in car company marketing.

Author: Field sister

Source: WeChat public account "New Broadcasting Field" (ID: New_bc)

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