How to upgrade from an internet celebrity to a real IP?

As the Internet becomes more and more developed, there are now many Internet celebrities, but they are just short-lived and have not really established their own personal IP. Let’s see what this article says.

The situation of internet celebrities is grim now. On the one hand, there is serious internal competition and it is difficult for new big internet celebrities to emerge. On the other hand, the old internet celebrities have also entered a bottleneck period and are either failing or finding it difficult to break through.

The three years of the epidemic were actually the golden period for the development of internet celebrities, especially those who charge for knowledge and those who sell goods through live streaming. However, the good days are gone - the Li Yizhou incident directly led to a major rectification of the knowledge-charging internet celebrities. The knowledge payment track is no longer having good days, and live streaming internet celebrities have also frequently encountered accidents, forcing top internet celebrities to find new ways out.

Unless an Internet celebrity evolves into a real IP, it can truly prevent collapse and become an evergreen tree. But becoming an IP is not easy, it requires going through trials and tribulations, and the basic content is very solid, so that the social reputation and basic market can be stable.

This article wants to carefully analyze:

1. How does an internet celebrity evolve into an IP?

First, let’s analyze the internal elements of internet celebrity success.

The first word is "love".

Arousing empathy is the first factor for almost all influencers to become popular, because emotions are the strongest driving force of social media traffic. For example, the casual videos that account for 90% of the traffic on Douyin and Kuaishou are almost all emotional. Even personal influencers with professional knowledge and top live streaming influencers are popular because of their strong emotional value.

The weakness of human nature is that the more emotions are aroused, the easier it is to spend money to satisfy them. But emotions always come and go quickly, and are extremely easy to reverse. Even if an internet celebrity has done all kinds of work, it is easy for an unexpected thing to cause a chain reaction and trigger a backlash of social emotions. Therefore, "emotions" alone are not enough, and the following three words are also needed.

The second word is "fun".

It is interesting and unique content or personality. There is so much content on the Internet, and only those that are both interesting and unique can stand out. Such content will certainly be very popular, but it is not easy to do. It requires both very solid and profound skills and an interesting soul.

Brother Yang is the most typical representative who became popular by selling goods in an interesting situation. Dong Yuhui, Luo Yonghao, Simba and other big sellers are all very interesting sellers. Li Jiaqi belongs to the "emotion" school, so he caused such a big storm. Unlike the "fun" school, even if it becomes boring, it will not cause social opinion.

The third word is "use".

That is, the content is useful to the audience and has an altruistic spirit. All Internet celebrities who can remain popular for a long time must provide content that is useful to the audience for a long time.

I personally think that it is difficult for Internet celebrities like Foshan Dianhan and Yu Wenliang to continue to be popular because they provide immediate emotional value and lack usefulness, and it is difficult to sustain the enthusiasm of the audience for a long time. For those who provide interesting legal content like Luo Xiang, the life cycle is much longer, unless they run out of it. Although the migrant worker Xiao Zhang mainly provides emotional value, he also made "small popular science of life" in terms of content, which makes the audience feel practical. Therefore, "use" is the first element of sustainable value.

The fourth word is "quality".

That is, character, taste and quality. "Quality" is closer to the nature of a brand, and is the characteristic of Internet celebrity branding. An Internet celebrity, even if he is close to the ground and takes the grassroots popular route, will sooner or later enter the "quality" energy in order to maintain long-term stability.

These four words add up to -

2. "Fun-Pleasure-Products"

"Sex toys" is the most concise summary of any influencer or content marketing. My previous article "Content Marketing, Sex Toys" has a more in-depth and complete explanation of this, which you can read again. These four words also deeply express the dilemma of influencers.

The value of "emotion" will reach its limit. When an Internet celebrity relies on emotions to gain popularity, he or she needs to constantly increase the excitement of emotions, but this path will sooner or later become unsustainable.

If you create too much "interesting and unique" content, it will sooner or later become commonplace, the pleasure will continue to decrease, and it will become less fresh and unique.

The first two points are the foundation for all Internet celebrities to become famous, but it is difficult to maintain excitement for a long time. Once they enter the fatigue period, it is difficult to maintain a high position. This is also the fundamental reason why most Internet celebrities decline. Only the last two points, "usefulness" and "character", can last for a long time, but this is not easy to do.

Therefore, after the peak period of growth of internet celebrities, the cruel elimination period is coming!

A large-scale reshuffle of Internet celebrities is inevitable. Most Internet celebrities will not survive the life cycle and will decline. Only a very small number of Internet celebrities who know how to innovate themselves can continue to develop, successfully upgrade, and become real IPs. Internet celebrities must take action, otherwise they will be eliminated. Next, I will look at what should be done from the perspective of IP and brand?

3. How far is it from being an internet celebrity to becoming a real IP? What are the steps to take?

1. Cool down the influencer craze

Change and improvement start with cooling down your popularity. Instead of constantly fueling your popularity as in the past, reduce the frequency, slow down, and cool down. This can not only prevent rollovers and emotional reversals, but also free up space to do more big things. For example, Xiao Yangge only did one live broadcast in February, which is a typical cooling down. Instead, he focused on "Xiao Yang's Selection", supporting his apprentices to rise to the top, and developing diversified businesses such as film and television, music festivals, and cultural tourism.

This applies to all individuals who have already reached a high level of influence as internet celebrities. Taking a step back will open up a wider world for you to be more at ease and own a bigger world.

2. Incubate industrial brands

Simba has "Xinxuan" and multiple product brands, Xiao Yangge has "Xiaoyang Zhenxuan" and the skin care brand Jiaorunquan, which is likely to belong to them, etc., and Wei Ya, who has retreated behind the scenes, once participated in an e-commerce expo with 8 major brands under her, and "Fengweipai" co-founded with Nicholas Tse is one of them. The advantages of doing this are obvious: building a brand has a longer life cycle than live streaming.

However, the logic of brand growth is different from that of live streaming influencers. From now on, influencers prefer to incubate brands like they incubate internet celebrities, so many brands are launched at the same time. Their sales ability is far greater than their product strength, and they are not focused enough, which actually poses huge risks.

3. True IP

True IPization means transforming one’s personal internet celebrity energy into an IP symbol, which is no longer limited to real people but can be widely used.

This step is overlooked by many big influencers, but it is actually very important.

Because internet celebrities essentially rise from their content and personality, they are part of a broad cultural industry that is combined with other industries. Therefore, even if people like Simba and Xiao Yangge have extended their influence in many aspects, their energy still comes from their own charm. It is a difficult problem to both absorb it and differentiate it.

The IP symbolization of individual Internet celebrities can solve this problem, allowing top Internet celebrities to realize the IP energy output of individual cultural value while cooling down their own popularity to prevent risks. This not only reduces risks, but also realizes the true IPization of individuals, and injects this energy into various brands and industries that they have cultivated and supported.

In this way, it is not just individual popularity, but is transformed into social monetization of IP symbols.

How to do it? Design IP symbol.

This IP symbol can be an image, a pet, or simply a visual symbol.

Just like New York City’s IP symbol “I ♥ NY”.

Some people say that this is a brand, but in fact it is a real IP symbol, which is stronger and more extensive than the brand power.

In fact, in foreign countries, almost all celebrities, stars, and bands have their own IP symbols, which are constantly applied and extended, such as the symbol of the Beatles band in the picture below——

Regardless of whether real people of The Beatles appear or not, the appearance of this symbol represents the Beatles and can be used in a very wide range of scenarios, far beyond real-life scenes.

Some people may think that this is just VI. It does look like VI, but in fact, IP symbols are much more widely used and flexible than VI in terms of design, application and extension.

And nowadays, this IP symbol often appears in the form of pets or animals, and its influence can even be far greater than itself.

For example, the picture below is the IP image “Butter Bear” of the Thai dessert brand Butterbear.

Even before this Thai brand came to China, it had already become popular in China, spread widely, and started to develop IP derivatives on a large scale.

This is the charm of IP symbols - cross-domain, socially monetized, and spontaneously growing.

Big internet celebrities should start designing their own IP symbols now and conduct extensive cultural operations management, rather than just live streaming real people every day...

4. IP cultural operation

The cultural operation based on IP is different from the operation of real people. It is less restricted by real people, more extensive and flexible, and has greater space for cultural development. The following figure is the IP cultural operation diagram designed by our IP Fried Rice based on many years of experience and various successful cases.

With IP images or symbols as the center, and based on the management of world views, stories, characters, and symbolic labels, it is possible to develop entertainment, cultural and creative, and artistic content, apply marketing content such as advertising, public relations, and channels, and connect brands and products.

By doing so, we can effectively address the risks, shortcomings and limitations of real individual internet celebrities, and allow the initially established personal value to be further developed in the form of "cultural social currency", allowing them to advance across boundaries or retreat and maintain their position.

Internet celebrities are only the initial stage of IP. The advanced stage of IP must be the operation and management of cultural symbols. Super IP is a super cultural symbol.

Author: Chen Gray

WeChat Official Account: IP Fried Rice