AI+IP, Zhou Dasheng reveals the brand marketing code of the new generation

This article deeply analyzes how AI technology revolutionizes the field of brand marketing. Through the brand case of Zhou Dasheng, it shows how brands can establish deep connections with consumers in the AI ​​era. Read this article to explore the innovative application of AI in brand marketing and the core role of brand IP in new era marketing. I hope it will help you understand AI and brand building.

The AI ​​wave has swept the world. Over the past year or so, people have been imagining and discussing how AI will change and subvert aspects of our lives.

The first function that AI realizes is the generation of text, pictures, and videos, so brand marketing communication will undoubtedly be the first field to be transformed by AI.

In the traditional era, brands could complete their dissemination and communication with limited materials such as a slogan, a TVC, and a set of main graphics. Today, brands rely on massive amounts of content, and many companies publish content every day, including articles, posters, videos, live broadcasts, events, and other forms.

Today is an era of information explosion. With the emergence of AI-generated content, information will surely explode further and grow exponentially.

But the problem is that the greater the information explosion, the more scarce consumers' attention becomes. The more content a company produces, the harder it is to connect with consumers and help them form a clear understanding of the brand.

In the past, consumers could remember a brand by a slogan or a logo, but now they can’t remember anything about a brand and their impression of it is very vague.

So how should today's corporate marketing change? Especially when consumers realize that brand content is generated by AI, will they still be interested in reading content and establishing connections with brands? How should brands be built in the AI ​​era?

On the just-passed 520, Zhou Dasheng’s approach made me see the code of brand marketing in the AI ​​era.

1. User Communication in the AI ​​Era

For corporate marketing, we focus on AI producing brand content. However, from the perspective of consumers, AI provides people with more than just readily available knowledge and information, generating answers to questions we want with one click... Especially when AI can replace human labor and thinking, and help us make choices and decisions, then AI will definitely profoundly change human values, behavioral concepts, and lifestyles.

For example, love.

Today, we can see with our own eyes that people are unwilling to fall in love and dare not love. The marriage rate and birth rate of the whole society are constantly declining, while the divorce rate remains high. People are no longer easily moved by pure love stories, and no longer believe in those promises and sweet words. When love, the fundamental driving force of human reproduction, is lost, our entire society also loses a lot.

In fact, the reason why people are unwilling to love and dare not love is very simple, that is, love is full of uncertainty. In order to avoid losses and risk aversion, it is better to give up. If loving someone is likely to have no results, and the romance and tenderness will disappear in the blink of an eye, then why do we still love?

After all, what everyone wants is a certain life, a certain future, and a certain relationship, rather than starting a future with an unknown outcome.

As a jewelry company with Internet thinking, Zhou Dasheng began to think about -

Can AI help people fall in love?

Can we feed a person's information and demands to AI, let it match us with suitable dating partners based on big data, and calculate whether two lovers are suitable for each other, and get any results?

If AI can tell you who is more suitable to be with and who is more worthy of your love, and you will get married, have children, have a solid marriage, and a happy family, and you don’t need to waste your time on other people, then will you believe in love and choose love?

To this end, on May 20, Zhou Dasheng used a wonderful design and a wonderful story to give us a vision of love in the AI ​​era.

In the near future, we will have an APP called "Cupid", which will have its own AI system that can efficiently match each user with the "most cost-effective" love partner based on big data and algorithms. It can also directly link love and economic interests, integrating love, investment and human exploration into one.

It is conceivable that if this function can be realized, then I believe that "Cupid" will become the third largest emotion + investment social software after WeChat and Tik Tok.

At the same time, Zhou Dasheng also designed two couples for us in the film: one pair loves each other, but the material conditions do not match, so the score in the "God of Love" system is only 29 points; the other pair is a perfect match in the algorithm, and the score is still as high as 95, but they can't find the feeling of love between them. Despite this, they still became the template of love in the eyes of everyone.

This setting prompts us to think about what kind of love is more "worthwhile". When love can be accurately calculated and given a 99.9% certainty guarantee, the traditional concept of love is ruthlessly subverted.

Everyone can experience this story up close and appreciate love in the AI ​​era and the various explorations of human nature that unfold from it through Zhou Dasheng’s annual brand IP movie "Love God: Invaluable Assets".

I believe that after watching this film, you will better understand the theme that Zhou Da Pian wants to convey - "Go love, whether it's worth it or not."

(Offline premiere event)

(Offline devices and peripherals)

It has to be said that the rapid development of big data and AI has indeed made some quantified calculations and predictions more possible. But is it what we pursue to make all the results visible and the process quantified? When love is given certainty by AI, how should we choose?

In fact, the reason why we are moved by love and obsessed with the feeling of love is precisely because it is full of unknowns. We don’t know when we will be hit by love, with whom we will spark, into whose lives we will enter, and who will break into my heart.

Zhou Dasheng grasped the topic of " certainty and possibility of love " in the film "Love God·Invaluable", which can be said to be the essence of love. This exploration of future emotions prompts us to rethink the meaning of love and examine whether love is worthwhile or not. This is exactly Zhou Dasheng's brand spirit of "born for love".

Love is the unchanging theme of the Chow Tai Seng brand.

But in this era, people's views on "love" are changing rapidly, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell a good love story. Brand marketing content is not only easily regarded as old-fashioned and outdated by consumers, but also easily triggers controversy and public opinion crises. This year's Women's Day and Mother's Day, many brands' marketing failed, which is a clear proof of this.

Therefore, Zhou Dasheng is also constantly exploring the spirit of the times of love and enriching the expression of love.

For example, in March this year, Zhou Dasheng launched the theme event " She will buy flowers by herself ", conveying the product concept of independence, elegance and strength to women, hoping that every woman can bloom like a flower.

Women who buy flowers by themselves can love themselves. Only when we know how to love ourselves can we love others better. Only when we know how to love ourselves can we love others better. Through this communication, Zhou Dasheng interprets love with more connotations and profound meanings, and establishes a deeper spiritual connection with female users.

For example, on Mother's Day some time ago, Zhou Dasheng created the topic marketing of "Mom is like a flower and I am like my mother", which added a new dimension to the topic of maternal love and rebuilt new mother-daughter and mother-son relationships.

These interpretations of "love" and the brand actions centered on "love" reflect Zhou Dasheng's brand connotation and value level, and also make people further feel the brand concept of "born for love".

In the marketing field, AI is used more as a technology to drive creativity and content production for brands. However, Zhou Dasheng has deeply thought about the impact of AI on human values ​​and outlook on life, the algorithm of love, and the changes in human emotions in the AI ​​era, in order to inspire consumers' understanding of marriage and love in the AI ​​era.

As an industrial brand that uses Internet thinking to talk about love, Zhou Dasheng has used new forms, new technologies, and new carriers to interpret the brand concept of "born for love" with a futuristic sense and refreshed its brand image. But at the same time, Zhou Dasheng always insists on returning to people and putting people first.

When human emotions are surging, many people are full of worries and doubts about the development of AI. In fact, this is the appropriate attitude towards AI. AI is not just a technology, we should integrate it into the brand and into the lives of consumers.

Of course, in today's AI-dominated world, how to improve the efficiency and quality of content production is a difficult issue facing marketers.

In the 520 campaign, Zhou Dasheng also launched the World Generative AI Video Challenge in collaboration with WaytoAGI, the largest knowledge base on the Internet. This challenge attracted the participation of many top AIGC creators, with about 300-500 participating videos collected in each round. The release of five rounds of content showed great dissemination potential.

This AI competition was initiated by W.AI, a label under W, the operator of this campaign, and organized by Ye Pusa, a top KOL in the art circle of W.AI. The core gameplay is to use artificial intelligence for visual generation based on a specific composition form every week. The help of AI makes the emergence of visual creativity endless.

As seen in the video, we can see all kinds of heart-shaped patterns generated by AI, including crystal hearts, glass hearts, and golden hearts. Among them are war and peace, ancient myths, innocent fairy tales, future science fiction, lovers, children, robots, and many classic shots in film history. The visual impact makes us feel the complexity and multi-faceted nature of love and think of different love stories. But after putting aside these visual illusions, we will be able to better understand the essence of love and the purity of love.

These AI-generated contents complement Zhou Dasheng’s brand concept and better reflect the theme of this communication. It provides an excellent reference case for today’s brand content production.

2. IP, the center of marketing in the new era

Not only in love, in fact for everything in this world, people are chasing certainty.

American writer Robert Greene once said: " The pursuit of certainty is people's greatest psychological disease ." We hope that the world will become a huge Excel spreadsheet, where everything can be modeled and quantified, and the direction and results of things can be accurately predicted, and then we can decide whether to invest time and energy to take action.

The same is true for brand building.

Today, business owners are paying more and more attention to traffic effects. Before launching, they need to see the exact exposure, click-through rate, conversion rate, ROI, etc. On the contrary, many companies are unwilling to invest resources in brand building, because brand building is a long-term project, and investment in branding often cannot see immediate conversion, and cannot see how much effect the brand has played in sales.

As a result, many companies spend a large amount of budget on buying traffic and effect delivery. However, the more they pursue effect, the harder it is to establish a brand, and the less attractive the brand is to consumers.

Brands grow in the hearts of consumers. To consumers, brands are not just a pure exposure and conversion number, but represent their voice and personal attitude. The value of a brand lies in how it can arouse consumers' recognition and resonance, and enlighten people's lives and social relationships.

Therefore, in this era of fast-foodization, Zhou Dasheng, through the topic of love in the AI ​​era, asks people a soul-searching question: "Is love a possibility or a certainty?"

In this era where traffic is paramount, Zhou Dasheng has gone the other way and released a brand IP movie to create a brand IP "Love God·Invaluable" that is comparable to TVB.

Recently I have come to realize the value and importance of brand IP.

In the past, the main line of corporate communication was TVC and main print ads throughout the year. A slogan and a brand logo were used to allow consumers to form long-term cognition and memory of the brand and establish continuous communication.

But today, although the amount of content and information disseminated by companies has greatly increased, and the budget for effective delivery and KOL promotion is huge, because this information is fragmented and one-time, consumers only have short-term impressions of the brands, but no long-term memories; they only have short-term exposure, but no long-term connections.
Brands simply cannot establish solid and sustainable communication and connections with consumers. So how do companies solve this problem?

The core carrier is IP. IP has temporal continuity, and enterprises can continue to spread and operate around IP. It can receive traffic and fans, making traffic no longer one-time. IP also has spatial extensibility, and can continuously interpret content, topics, events, including products and peripherals around it, which not only expands communication and enriches the brand, but also can receive brand recognition and assets.

Today, brand building must create IP. IP has replaced traditional slogans and logos, becoming the center of brand building, the carrier of brand asset accumulation, and the gripper for consumers to recognize the brand.

This is how Zhou Dasheng builds its brand today.

In terms of product promotion, in 2022, Zhou Dasheng collaborated with the Chinese cultural IP "National Treasure" to create the "Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" series of products.

The design inspiration of this series comes from Wang Ximeng's A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains in the Northern Song Dynasty, and the stunning green landscape and artistic conception of the landscape in the painting are integrated into the products. This series of products has now become a unique mark of the Zhou Dasheng brand and one of the product series that best represents the Zhou Dasheng brand.

The new generation of consumers nowadays no longer only focus on the appearance of jewelry, but pay more attention to the expression of emotions and cultural connotations, and incorporate more aesthetic elements into the products. The "Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" series is such a product, and it is actually a product IP of Zhou Dasheng brand.

In addition to the product IP, on Tmall Super Brand Day in April 2023, Zhou Dasheng also built a "Dasheng Teahouse" in Chengdu, setting up a workshop based on the four elegant things of the Song Dynasty: hanging paintings, flower arranging, burning incense, and brewing tea, meticulously interpreting Song Dynasty aesthetics. At the same time, it also carried out fun interactions such as script killing and Hanfu dressing experience, allowing users to deeply experience Zhou Dasheng's core national trend product series and national trend culture.

The event attracted millions of people and immediately fed back to the online store, pushing the explosiveness of Zhou Dasheng’s official flagship store on Tmall to 657%.

In fact, for Zhou Dasheng, Dasheng Teahouse is a scene IP in another sense. Its existence not only injects new blood into the brand and creates a more three-dimensional brand image, but also becomes a place for consumers to deeply experience the products.

For example, the "God of Love·Invincible Gold" created on the 520 node this year is also a brand IP. Zhou Dasheng's current approach is to build a deeper brand through the construction of IPs one by one and complete the psychological construction of consumers.

As the times become more and more impetuous, whether there is traffic has become the highest standard for evaluating marketing actions. However, Zhou Dasheng regards IP as a long-term brand building investment, and works hard to polish products and content, gradually establishing the image of a national jewelry brand in the minds of consumers.

In fact, investment in IP is not contradictory to acquiring traffic. On the contrary, IP can make one-time traffic settle down and become a long-term asset of the brand, allowing consumers to associate it with the brand when they mention the IP, and naturally think of the brand's iconic IP when they mention the brand.

In this era of AI, IP has become a symbol of consumer cognition and memory, and the main marketing battlefield for establishing communication with consumers and attracting fans and traffic.

Zhou Dasheng leads the industry with IP in brand marketing and inspires ideas with AI in user communication. This brand awareness not only leads the entire industry, but also continues to lead the lives of consumers.

Author: Empty-handed

WeChat public account: Empty Hands (ID: firesteal13)