Lei Jun has nearly 7 million fans. In addition to using domineering internet celebrities, how else can car companies market themselves?

This article delves into how automakers use live streaming and short video platforms for marketing, analyzes how business leaders such as Lei Jun use their personal influence to drive brand growth, and guides readers to understand the marketing strategies of the automotive industry in the new media era. I hope it will help you gain insight into market trends.

Car company marketing has taken advantage of the live streaming and short video express train.

In recent times, from Lei Jun's diligent interaction to warm up for Xiaomi SU7, to Zhou Hongyi becoming the only "car model" at the Beijing Auto Show, CEOs of car companies have been competing to become Internet celebrities, making the entire automotive industry "miserable", and car company marketing has also entered a new stage.
The "bosses" of car companies want to use their personal traffic to drive their brands to "go viral", and a number of car brands have also made efforts in short video live broadcasting and achieved an impressive result of over 500 million brand exposures. Car companies are crazy, users are crazy, and short video live broadcast platforms have naturally seen the growth potential of the hot market, and have come up with support plans to add fuel to the hotness of the automotive industry.

In the final analysis, what value do car companies see in short video live streaming? Where is the trend of car marketing blowing?

1. The "bosses" in the car industry compete to become Internet celebrities

In the past two months, the automotive industry has been very hot. Xiaomi was undoubtedly the first to ignite this fire.

On March 28, Lei Jun live-streamed the launch of Xiaomi SU7 on Douyin. The peak number of online viewers reached over 4.3 million, and the number of viewers reached over 40 million.

Subsequently, Lei Jun released several videos in succession to promote the SU7 car released by Xiaomi, which attracted a large number of netizens to watch, and related topics also made it to the Douyin hot list.

After the live broadcast of the press conference ended, Lei Jun continued to interact with netizens. He not only talked about Xiaomi SU7, but also responded to netizens' curious questions. He used a relaxed, humorous and down-to-earth style, which instantly narrowed the distance between the brand and netizens.

Not only that, after Lei Jun frequently appeared in short videos and live broadcasts, netizens became curious and immediately "dug out" Lei Jun's legendary experience, calling him the "male protagonist of a cool novel." Some netizens even joked that "Lei Jun may not feel happy even when reading cool novels, because his life is the protagonist's script."

At the Beijing Auto Show, Lei Jun also stole the spotlight with his strength. He also revealed in his speech: "28 days after the official launch of Xiaomi SU7, the number of locked orders was 75,723 units, and 5,781 units have been delivered, setting a new record for the first month's delivery of the first model of a new brand in the industry." He also put up a recruitment advertisement by the way.

Data shows that since the start of live streaming on March 28, Lei Jun’s Douyin account has gained 6.78 million followers.

Lei Jun's successful breakthrough has allowed other automobile brands to see a new marketing track.

Zhou Hongyi, the "Red-robed Leader", has also been enjoying great success recently, adding fuel to the excitement in the automotive industry. First, half of the automotive industry watched Zhou Hongyi's Maybach start at 600 yuan, and the final transaction price was 9.9 million yuan; then Zhou Hongyi appeared at the Beijing Auto Show and climbed onto a Mengshi car, becoming the "only car model" on the first day of the Beijing Auto Show, triggering a series of events.

Looking back, Zhou Hongyi vowed at the beginning of the year that he wanted to become an Internet celebrity. Now he has 6.296 million fans and has already become an Internet celebrity in the automotive circle.

In addition to Zhou Hongyi, who called on all entrepreneurs to learn how to become Internet celebrities, Wei Jianjun, Chairman of Great Wall Motors, and Yin Tongyue, Chairman of Chery Holding Group, two "old bosses" over 60 years old, have also begun to step into the field of live broadcasting. The two "domineering presidents" have transformed themselves into new live broadcasters and "debuted", test-driving their own products in the live broadcast room to get closer to consumers.

Li Bin, founder of NIO, said: "I have to shoot short videos, otherwise others won't know who I am."

A number of car company CEOs are doing live broadcasts, shooting videos, and vying to become internet celebrities. In addition to the hot automobile market, it is also because the marketing methods of car companies have changed. Live broadcasts and short videos have become increasingly important brand voice channels and marketing methods.

2. Platforms increase investment in automotive marketing

Short video marketing in the automotive industry is becoming increasingly popular.

In addition to Douyin, facing the hot automobile marketing market, Kuaishou and Video Account have all come out to release positive factors and help brands better play short video live streaming.

On April 23, Kuaishou held the 2024 Automotive Industry Summit, where it released the "Pinyunxiao Automotive Intelligent Marketing Solution" and the "Kuaishou Automotive Ecosystem Report."

Data shows that short video live streaming platforms have become new infrastructure for automobile circulation. As of the first quarter of this year, more than 120 automobile brands and 26,000 dealer accounts have settled in Kuaishou, and the cumulative private domain scale has reached 140 million.

Wang Qiufeng, head of Kuaishou's automotive business, said that the essence of Internet marketing is that traffic is king. In the face of major changes in the automotive industry, the key to breaking through is to find a new brand voice field, a new user business field, and a dynamic field for new clues.

On April 24, Tencent Advertising Mutual Selection Platform Assistant released the "Automotive Industry × Video Account Mutual Selection Platform 2024 Creator Marketing White Paper" (hereinafter referred to as the "White Paper"), mentioning that transportation is the largest industry for video account mutual selection advertising, and automobiles are one of the key categories:

In 2023, the scale of advertisers on the video account mutual selection platform increased by 150% year-on-year, and the automobile transaction volume increased by 200% year-on-year; advertisers include brands such as BYD, Ideal, NIO, GAC Toyota, and Changan Automobile. The marketing goals include acquiring seed users through the launch of new cars, deepening brand loyalty through content marketing, and driving traffic for big promotions.

In terms of automotive content, the "White Paper" shows that the scale of creators in the automotive category of Video Account Mutual Selection has increased 8 times compared with last year, and the popular content in the automotive category of Video Account Mutual Selection has increased 6.8 times compared with last year. Currently, more than 70% of car companies are broadcasting live on Video Account.

On May 8, Tencent Advertising Mutual Selection Platform Assistant released the "Tencent Advertising Car Mutual Selection Support Plan Officially Launched", announcing the support content of this plan, which focuses on helping more video account creators increase their means of commercial monetization and also helping car brands find new growth points.

The entire support plan is divided into three parts: "Support for the first order of mutual automobile selection", "Support for potential hot-selling automobiles" and "Support for the automobile preferred plan". There will be an opportunity to obtain platform traffic boost of up to tens of thousands of yuan.

Obviously, after seeing the continued hot automobile market and the demise of a number of brands, the platform's demise will not only encourage more automakers to pay attention to the marketing value of short video live streaming and find new growth points, but will also allow more automotive content creators to usher in a new spring, thereby further promoting the hot automobile marketing market.

3. Automakers seize marketing opportunities

Obviously, car companies are interested in short video live streaming for the following reasons:

1. Large traffic and wide coverage; 2. Ability to produce content and build personal IP, which is conducive to dialogue between brands and users, thereby achieving brand promotion; 3. Relying on the unique ecological models of different platforms to achieve the purpose of exposure, private domain sedimentation or obtaining lead conversion.

Taking Video Account as an example, car brands continue to increase their investment in Video Account, partly due to the characteristics of the population. According to the data in the White Paper, 60% of Video Account car users are brand target users with high spending power. Among the Video Account user group, as many as 85% of users have car purchase plans, showing a strong demand for car purchases, of which about 45% of the user group have the need to increase or replace their cars.

On the other hand, video accounts have unique ecological advantages, which allow content to be better integrated with social media, thereby expanding the dissemination path and increasing exposure; they can also facilitate forwarding and accurately reach the target audience through the trust attribute of the social circle of acquaintances; in addition, the unique private domain attributes of video accounts can also help car companies accumulate social assets, convert users into brand fans, and facilitate long-term operations after traffic retention.

In terms of specific cases, the "White Paper" shows that Zhiji LS6's launch on WeChat Video Account achieved the effect of brand and effect integration: exposure exceeded 500 million, brand assets increased threefold, and lead costs decreased by 15%.

After careful analysis, it can be found that Zhiji LS6's delivery strategy on video accounts has gone through three stages: account selection, heating and delivery. In the account selection stage, the platform uses the systematic capabilities provided by the platform to select groups and creators, and determine content and scenario strategies for specific creators and groups; in the heating stage, the platform conducts preheating in a small range at the beginning, adjusts strategies based on gender, age, viewing time and playback volume, increases the delivery budget after 48 hours, and tracks CPM and other indicators daily; in the delivery stage, based on the previous results, high-quality content is re-created and delivered across the board, such as in Moments and private communities.

It is reported that on the basis of full-time monitoring of the data during the delivery process to ensure the effect, the company has cooperated with more than 50 creators to obtain 500 million exposures, while the brand assets have increased three times and the cost of leads has decreased by 15%. With this "combination punch", car companies can not only quickly seize the high ground of marketing traffic, but also maximize the conversion effect. No one can predict how car companies will carry out marketing in the future, and who will be the next brand to go out of the circle. However, it is obvious that as this wind blows harder and harder, those who enter the game first can reap the dividends faster.

Author: Changmei; Source public account: Xinbochang (ID: 1093973)