The explosion of urban IP: the cultural potential and emotional power behind traffic

From Zibo barbecue to Tianshui spicy hot pot, and then to Kaifeng Wangpo matchmaking, phenomenal city IPs have emerged one after another, triggering a wave of check-in crazes. City marketing is no longer a metaphysics. What kind of traffic kinetic energy and cultural potential are hidden behind it? How do these city business cards cleverly use emotional power and leverage to attract tourists from all over the country? This article will take you to deeply analyze the secrets of city marketing.

After the popularity of Zibo's "barbecuing" and Erbin's "snow-watching", phenomenal city IPs have emerged one after another.

Recently, Tianshui Malatang in Gansu Province has set off a new trend of "foodie special forces" checking in; Wangpo's matchmaking in Kaifeng, Henan Province has also attracted billions of traffic exposure. The trend of Internet celebrity cities has spread to Tianshui and Kaifeng, and more city business cards have been polished by the energetic rush of tourists from all over the country.

Marketing is not metaphysics, and there is no accidental success. When the concept of city marketing became popular, local cultural tourism also began to cultivate internal strength, launch big moves, and score big points, taking advantage of the situation to compete for the "huge wealth" brought by traffic.

This also makes us think deeply about what kind of magic the traffic momentum and cultural potential of urban marketing have and how they can be leveraged.

1. The “common denominator of value” of small incisions

From a decision-making perspective, there may be only one purpose for going to a city, but this "purpose" that can arouse the urge to act is very critical.

If you want to go to a place, you always need a "key reason", and this reason must be fresh enough, unique enough, and attractive enough: for example, going to Zibo is to eat barbecue, going to Harbin is to see the snow scenery, going to Tianshui is to eat the special spicy hot pot, and going to Kaifeng is to experience the excitement of Wang Po's live blind date.

Continue to break down the decision-making path. As Fogg's behavioral model explains, the occurrence of behavior requires the simultaneous operation of three major elements: motivation, ability, and prompts.

The motivation and ability to travel cannot be changed, so "prompts" have become the focus of marketing efforts for Internet celebrity cities. The common point of the marketing of cities that stand out is that they have taken "prompts" to an extreme.

For example, in Tianshui, Gansu, the Tianshui Malatang became very popular, and tourists from all over the world flocked to this ancient city in the northwest. The unique Malatang, with its rich ingredients, delicious soup base and unique spicy taste, has created a key "cue" that has become a driving behavior.

Another example is Wang Po's matchmaking in Kaifeng, Henan, which was very popular, with countless netizens participating in the blind date interaction on the short video platform. The superb ability to control the situation, the language style with constant "explosive jokes", the sense of presence and freshness that Jiayuan.com cannot match, have become the key to attracting the attention and participation of young people from all over the world.

Zhao Mei, who plays Wang Po, is affectionately called "godmother" by thousands of netizens. She even created an ultra-high speed of gaining 5 million followers on Douyin in half a month. The Wansui Mountain Martial Arts City Scenic Area where Wang Po is located and the city of Kaifeng have received billions of traffic exposure and also attracted tourists from all over the country. During the Qingming Festival holiday, hotel bookings in Kaifeng, Henan increased nearly 10 times year-on-year.

Looking further, the city characteristics that play a "prompt" role all have the uniqueness of "small incisions". It has nothing to do with grand narratives, but the value of each detailed scene and segmentation, finding the "common value denominator" that makes the public rush to explore in person.

Small incisions have also become an important communication detonator in city marketing. Unique value orientation has formed the first-mover condition for cities to stand out.

The cause of the explosion is inevitable amidst chance, but truly detonating the power of “hints” is a subject that deserves more discussion in the future.

At the same time, the small incisions that trigger the trend are also quite contagious and popular. People are used to following trends and imitating in decision-making. When something becomes a trend, once the trend has a good start due to the outbreak of small incisions, the traffic snowball will surely roll bigger and bigger, forming a wider trend with stronger contagion.

Small cuts are only the key reasons that trigger people to make decisions, and more importantly, the chain reaction it brings. For a city tour, tasting food is only one link, and eating, drinking and having fun are the real combination.

For example, in Tianshui this time, in addition to the attraction of Malatang, other landscape advantages as the "Little Jiangnan in Longshan" are also emerging in breaking the circle: checking in at the Maijishan Grottoes, exploring the Fuxi Temple, and admiring the thousand-year-old ancient cypress... Malatang has become a traffic fulcrum, exerting a leverage effect to leverage the unique charm of this small northwestern city.

If the view that traffic cities are pessimistic is that they are pessimistic about the "timing" of traffic, then we believe that the buffering power brought by the "geographical advantage" is also particularly important.
The profound urban heritage and rich historical and cultural resources can often become the key support for extending the "flow" of energy.

2. Unquantifiable human touch and fireworks

Of course, if the methodology of a city’s explosive popularity can be disassembled and the effect of going viral can be quantified, then the emotional anchor point that plays a key role cannot be accurately “measured” and can be called the “harmony among people” of urban marketing.

Yes, emotions are the key to catalyzing the emergence of phenomenal cities. When people choose to go to a city, it is not only to see different scenery and eat different food. In addition to the sensory enjoyment, the resonance and thrill from the soul are also more unforgettable.

Human touch and the flavor of everyday life are the invisible forces that make a city vivid and tangible, and they are also the key forces.

Tianshui Malatang, which uses delicious food to pry curiosity, is similar to Zibo barbecue. As a delicious food, it is just a symbol. The key point is that through the symbol of food, the warmth and kindness of the city can be truly experienced between people in the form of stories.

With the launch of the "city-wide fan-pampering mode", the hospitable Tianshui has also left a deep impression on people.

Some anecdotes about food "surroundings" have become popular on social media. "The queues start at dawn and start at 5 hours." With such popularity, a spicy hot pot uncle put on a "pain mask" because he was too busy, which became a hot topic on social platforms. After receiving a promotional reminder to "smile", the uncle's "forced smile" once again broke the circle.

The popularity of Wang Po in Kaifeng is a more vivid manifestation of the anchor point of "human touch". Why can the seemingly unremarkable and traditional blind date theme gain such a huge amount of traffic? From the perspective of the essence of emotion, it is the fireworks of honesty between people.

Unlike geographical food, the popularity of Kaifeng Wangpo is more due to the power of "human relationships". Behind the fact that "everyone says being single is good and everyone is going to Kaifeng", Kaifeng Wangpo's matchmaking track is actually "popular because of the times". Wangpo's matchmaking has insight into people's most simple needs for love, and with a more novel program format, high participation and interactivity that connects traditional and contemporary hot topics, it has ushered in a big explosion.

That’s right, down-to-earth and intuitive expression is the most important. The emotional value that cannot be accurately measured and replicated has become the key “catalyst” for a city to go from being popular to being popular.

It is precisely because of this down-to-earth human touch that people gather together, resulting in natural traffic of hot searches and check-ins. The popularity of the city is also constantly pushed up through the spontaneous dissemination of the city on social media platforms.

In the context of the Internet, the space for out-of-the-box content is getting wider and wider, and short videos and live broadcasts have truly realized the "shared moment across the world". The appeal of emotional value and fireworks can also infect more people across time and space, and even across the distance from online to now, attracting a surging crowd to a city.

Catching such "enormous wealth" requires the efforts of everyone in the city. Behind the phenomenology of the city breaking out of its circle, what cannot be replicated is actually the simplest kindness and sincerity of human nature.

3. Does every city have an opportunity?

With the popularity of urban marketing, more and more cities have become popular, and people have begun to analyze the process of each explosion in popularity. "There is an expert behind the scenes" has become a popular saying.

But in my opinion, the so-called "expert" who can point out the way forward is the city itself, which is striving to improve itself, because only the city can best understand its own advantages that can be discovered and magnified.

Going further, the window period for a city to be seen may not be long, but every city must have its own uniqueness and shining points, humanities and geography, customs and practices, and delicious food... At a time when experience and ritual sense have become prerequisites for decision-making, how to maximize strengths and avoid weaknesses and give full play to uniqueness is a lesson that requires long-term accumulation.

Especially every time you make an effort to gain points after being seen, it is not just "going with the flow", but more of "rowing against the current".

In the context of the cultural tourism boom in recent years, cultural tourism departments in various places have been ready to seize the "spark" of traffic at any time. They all want to seize the wave of social media traffic, and urban cultural tourism has also stepped forward to actively display and promote local characteristics to the outside world. They strive to explore the uniqueness of their own city IP, constantly innovate the form of cultural tourism promotion, and explore more unique city narratives.

The battle between cities begins before they are seen.

More importantly, the potential space for cities to break out of their own circles is "unlimited". When young people travel, they have a new understanding of the beautiful mountains and rivers. They no longer stick to the old ways and only go to traditional popular tourist cities. Instead, they begin to like novelty and are keen to explore new and unknown check-in spots. They are also more willing to try new places to gain new experiences in the trend of planting grass.

If the explosion of traffic is accidental, then taking the initiative and actively trying to sow the seeds of explosion will inevitably deepen the city's visibility.

At the same time, sustainability has also become the key to whether a city can continue to be strong. Because the beginning of the traffic explosion is always "sudden", it is a profound test for the city's basic services.

Based on this, the systemic pressure after going viral is also a topic worth discussing. For example, Wang Po of Kaifeng took a month off due to health reasons. Indeed, under the impact of overwhelming traffic, individual IPs that stand out have to face challenges in sustainability.

We should also be rational about the problems that arise after a city goes out of the circle. After all, any impact brought about by sudden changes must be buffered by a certain amount of adjustment space.

Besides challenges, opportunities are more worthy of recognition. In the context of the Internet where every city can be better seen, even the most inconspicuous cities have the possibility of being recognized, remembered and admired by more people.

From Zibo to Harbin, and then to Tianshui and Kaifeng, how many cities are waiting to become popular and are eager to try?

What they need may be an opportunity, a little time, and a story.

Author:yummy

Source: WeChat public account "Shock Copywriter (ID: SHOCKCW)"