Video marketing in the automotive industry: live streaming standard, content hotspot and efficient highway

Explore how car companies can win the hearts and minds of consumers in the new energy vehicle era through video live broadcasts and content marketing. Recommended for automotive industry marketers, brand strategists, and readers interested in new media marketing.

1. Live streaming is standard for big car companies

I watched the launch of Xiaomi SU7 live on Lei Jun's video account. Xiaomi cars have their own traffic. That night, many platforms were broadcasting live. I chose to watch it on the video account so that I could reply to messages on WeChat at the same time. The small window can be suspended to listen to the content, which is very suitable for the scene of new product launch.

On April 14, the head of Chery, 62-year-old Yin Tongyue, challenged long-distance high-speed high-level intelligent driving and personally started a video live broadcast for the first time. Wu Pei, a car media person, and Luo Zhenyu, the founder of the Get App, were also invited to participate. Yin Tongyue admitted in the live broadcast that this live broadcast was to learn from the pioneers in the industry such as Huawei's Yu Chengdong and Xiaomi's Lei Jun, "forcing me, an old man in my sixties, to come out."

For Yin Tongyue, this was more than just an ordinary live broadcast. The Xingtu Xingjiyuan ET he was driving was a new blockbuster car of Chery's high-end sub-brand Xingtu. In Chery's product matrix, Xingtu is entrusted with the important task of making the brand high-end and achieving a qualitative leap. As a representative of independent brands, Chery has always maintained its technological advantages in the field of traditional fuel vehicles, but in the new energy era, the development of its new energy models is indeed "early to catch up with the late".

Yin Tongyue once said that Chery will enter the top of the new energy vehicle market in 2024. But in this live broadcast, he also reflected that his words were a bit immature. However, Yin Tongyue still reiterated that Chery's new energy process will be accelerated, and 15 pure electric and extended-range electric vehicles and 24 plug-in hybrid models will be launched in the next 20 months. His goal is to return to the top three in new energy sales in the middle of this year and become the second in the industry by the end of the year, and to see Wang Chuanfu's back.

Perhaps it is the change brought by Lei Jun that the bigwigs of car companies have become more frank and down-to-earth in the live broadcast room. Earlier, Wei Jianjun of Great Wall Motor and Li Shufu of Geely also had their live broadcast debut. This is a microcosm of the heads of car companies collectively taking the live broadcast stage, and it is also a sign that the independent brands have won the right to speak and stood at the center of the stage in the 40-year race.

Over the past 40 years, from Volkswagen to Toyota, from Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen to Dongfeng Nissan, from BBA entering China to Tesla building a wholly-owned factory, almost all major global auto brands have taken root in China. In the past, China's auto market was a race between foreign, joint venture and independent brands, with joint venture brands occupying the mainstream discourse power.

With the rise of new energy vehicles, China's automobile industry has shown a different style on this track. Forty years ago, cars were a dream that ordinary people dared not even think about. The relationship between cars and people, and the imagination of cars are mostly defined by foreign brands. Highway blockbusters, celebrity endorsements, and gorgeous clips were once standard features of automobile promotion.

But now, the big bosses of car companies have personally participated in the live broadcast of video accounts, which has become a standard feature. Live broadcast and short videos have become the top priority of car companies. The release and interpretation of products are represented and led by the soul figures of car companies, which makes it easy for consumers to have a sense of affinity and trust.

I noticed that Yin Tongyue's live broadcasts frequently produced golden sentences, which became one of the core contents of authoritative media reports. In addition to focusing on products and sales targets, Yin Tongyue also talked about hot topics in the industry such as intelligent driving, high-end brands, price wars, overseas strategies, cross-border car manufacturing, and solid-state batteries. This shows that the content of live marketing by car company leaders is no longer limited to simple product introductions, but has risen to the level of sharing corporate strategies, industry insights and values ​​with users.

Therefore, the live clips were also converted into short videos and shared in the WeChat social relationship chain. When the Xingtu Xingjiyuan ET was launched, it used the 1990s talent-breaking marketing strategy proposed by Tencent Advertising - with the help of a top talent "Wu Pei", 9 industry big accounts, more than 90 talent accounts, and more than 100 sales accounts, the event of "Chery Chairman personally participated in the first live broadcast with friends in the circle of friends" was maximized. The total number of readings on the entire network exceeded 280 million, and the Xingtu ET intelligent driving effect was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

Car companies are actively embracing change and shortening the distance with consumers. In my opinion, the core of this change, in addition to competing for overwhelming traffic, has three levels of connotation:

1. The strong rise of China's auto industry and independent brands has also "swept up" joint venture brands.
2. The dissemination of brand concepts and product charm has changed from relying on the imagination of manufacturing in the past to relying on the actual workshop, technical details and specific driving experience.
3. The relationship between cars and people has changed from the one-way relationship between car companies and consumers, and the relationship between companies and the public, to a more intimate relationship closer to "people-to-people" - just like when you think of Xiaomi SU7, you will definitely think of Lei Jun.

2. Hotspot of Automotive Content

Of course, live broadcasts by car company bosses only appear at important points. However, the creation, operation and maintenance of content have become a daily routine for car companies. Correspondingly, major manufacturers are looking for new content hotspots and marketing methods.

Data from the "Automotive Industry X Video Account Mutual Selection Platform 2024 Creator Marketing White Paper" (hereinafter referred to as the White Paper) shows that the number of creators in the automotive category of Video Accounts will increase by 8 times in 2023, and the number of popular content will increase by 6.8 times. The diverse creator group has brought about a flourishing of content forms and styles.

The explosion of creators and content is closely related to the social attributes of the video account ecosystem and the user feedback mechanism. On the one hand, creators can rely on the WeChat social relationship chain to cultivate circle influence; on the other hand, users' demand for high-quality content is also constantly nurturing new creative forces.

In such a virtuous cycle, various car company bosses, car KOLs, and amateur car fans have joined in, creating a situation of a hundred schools of thought in the vertical field. Echoing the diversified content supply is the gathering of high-quality consumer groups. Data shows that the video account car content has attracted a large number of high-spending users: 51% are from first-tier cities, 68% are highly educated people above undergraduate level, and most importantly, 85% have plans to buy a car.

For them, the single promotional content of car companies can no longer meet their needs, and they prefer cross-border, three-dimensional, and multi-perspective high-quality automotive content. Of course, the value of content hotspots always needs to rely on flow to be truly released. The passive reach of users, that is, passive traffic, can be achieved through private domain communities. This is the unique advantage of Video Accounts in the WeChat system.

Active traffic, that is, allowing more users to actively access content, is also a key link in the flow of content. The WeChat search function just connects with various online and offline consumer search needs, becoming an important channel for video account content to reach users. It is understood that the WeChat "Search" function has achieved full access to video account content. This means that a large amount of automotive content will attract more active users through search, and the content's reach radius will be greatly broadened.

3. Efficient highway to target consumers

The growth of video creators is nonlinear, relying on user demand and the improvement of the platform's commercialization capabilities. Behind this prosperity is a powerful network effect. Brands are no longer satisfied with simple content exposure, but maximize content reach efficiency and conversion effects through full-process monitoring and optimization of the delivery process.

The development of video accounts has roughly gone through three stages: infrastructure construction, WeChat ecosystem integration, and commercialization. As the infrastructure for video account content and commercialization becomes more mature, the content delivery is also showing a more refined and data-based operation trend.

Specifically:

• During the number selection stage, Yixuanda (Tencent Advertising Ruyi + mutual selection expert strategy solution) presents the characteristics of full-process reuse, new measurement, and new number selection.
• During the heating stage, WeChat Video Account launched a secondary promotion function for mutual selection content, which can be heated up in the form of video account stream, Moments information stream, mini-program incentive videos, etc., and good content can be heated up and followed up, thereby promoting brand effect synergy.

In fact, the marketing needs of car companies at different points can all find a place to gallop on the video account, the "efficient highway" leading to target consumers. The case of Zhiji LS6 is a typical example.

1. During the number selection phase

Zhiji LS6 comprehensively breaks down the key influencing nodes of the entire life cycle of product marketing, dividing it into the preheating period, detonation period, and continuation period, and matches vertical creators and cross-border creators with customized cooperation content to build momentum for the new car launch.

2. Subsequent heating stage

Zhiji LS6 first conducted a small-scale preheating at the initial cold start of its launch, using user gender, age, viewing time, and playback volume as order test dimensions, and adjusted strategies in a timely manner. After 48 hours, it conducted a second continuous preheating, increased the budget, and tracked the CPM and CPE indicators daily to further expand exposure.

3. Launch phase

Zhiji LS6 selects high-quality content from creators with significant personal characteristics for distribution, and also uses creative user secondary creation materials. On the aggregation page, it configures function bars such as search brand area, forwarding in Moments, and private domain group sending, so as to achieve the accumulation of brand assets and deep connection with user minds.

Data shows that the case of Zhiji LS6's launch and cooperation with Video Account eventually received more than 500 million exposures and more than 4.6 million interactions, which can be called a classic case of a new car launching and breaking the circle.

In addition to new car launches, video accounts also have great potential in long-term brand management and product sales. Take FAW Audi as an example. The brand recruits typical car owners through online and offline linkage, and then builds them into brand KOCs (key opinion consumers). Through real-time sharing and community fission dissemination through video accounts, the value of private domain traffic is maximized to achieve in-depth construction of emotional identification.

In addition, the brand also uses Tencent Advertising Ruyi Platform and Video Account Interactive Selection Platform to achieve intelligent matching of target groups and creators, and combines multi-level resource combinations such as top celebrity IPs and brand car owners to cover the marketing demands of the entire life cycle of the product.

For brands like Mobil Super that have product sales needs, Video Account also provides an efficient solution. The brand jointly launched a creator-customized challenge with Yiche, launching a cross-regional real-life challenge around the product selling points, using differentiated content to quickly narrow the distance with the audience. In the subsequent challenge period, around the theme of "Full Effect Ever-changing" of Social Vodeo, led by regional creators, the brand launched an 8,000KM ultra-intensive challenge, and finally achieved more than 200,000 interactions.

It can be seen that video accounts are accelerating the construction of an "efficient highway" connecting automobile brands and users. Relying on an increasingly rich matrix of creators, brands can achieve accurate and efficient reach of target groups, capture users' diversified needs with differentiated content, and combine refined operations of content delivery to leverage the efficiency of the entire marketing cycle.

For the majority of car companies, accurately grasping the trend of consumers' content needs and deeply operating the standard position of video accounts will undoubtedly become a new engine to drive growth. In 2024, car marketing has entered a stage where values ​​win. Effective traffic is needed, not ineffective volume. Only by deeply understanding the relationship between cars and people, that is, the relationship between people, can consumers be touched.

Author: Wu Duidui; Source public account: Wu Duidui (ID: 260746)