Celebrities take part, brands increase their investment, who is profiting behind the hot “explosive reform” trend?

From ordinary people to celebrities, the trend of "explosive" videos has been blowing for a long time, and the traffic popularity remains high. How to leverage diversified monetization channels through explosive content? The author analyzes the commercialization of content creators based on actual cases.

The trend of "explosive reform" has been going on for a long time, and it seems to be getting more and more intense this year.

The explosive modification of Yang Di, the explosive modification of Zhang Dada, the explosive modification of Ma Zi in "Kuang Hun"... @A makeup artist Rabbit in Banna (hereinafter referred to as makeup artist Rabbit) seems to have no creative bottleneck.

Makeup artist Tu Zi has become popular with her series of content on the TikTok platform called “Challenge to Change the Heads of 100 People”. In videos of less than three minutes, she quickly “changed the heads” of funny celebrities, comedians and entertainment stars.

Yang Di, who finally made his debut after much anticipation, instantly transformed into a handsome guy with a Korean drama vibe; Tang Jianjun, the actor who played Xie Guangkun in "Country Love", saw his visual age drop by 30 years after his "dramatic transformation", turning into a blue-eyed overlord; Song Jiateng, who played "Brother Pockmarked" in "Storm", was "dramatically transformed" into a little idol with silver hair.

Jin Jing, Zhang Dada, Peng Yuchang and other celebrities all took to the stage, using makeup worth hundreds of yuan to create exquisite atmosphere blockbusters. With the help of styling lighting and makeup, celebrities and celebrities have reached the peak of their looks, with a contrast and stunning feeling that "even their mothers wouldn't recognize them". "Explosive change" has thus become the traffic code for Weibo hot searches.

Although some viewers have become aesthetically fatigued with "assembly line" makeup and criticisms continue to emerge, it still cannot stop the popularity of "explosive" content from rising.

The popularity of this series of content has further revealed its commercial potential, with brands and film marketing participating in it, and the creators' ability to attract offline traffic and acquire customers has been enhanced. Celebrities, influencers, and brands have all gained popularity and attention from it. The popularity of "explosive reforms" has also given some creators some inspiration for monetization: How to leverage diversified monetization channels through explosive content?

1. Hot content: From amateurs to celebrities

From the transformation of ordinary people who "listen to advice" to the transformation of celebrities who believe that "everything can be transformed", the creation of content with transformation has gone through a cycle.

At the beginning, the content of the revamp was not limited to people and objects. Characters, clothing, and home furnishings could all be revamped. The most representative of these was the transformation of the amateur @小艾同学 on Xiaohongshu.

In 2021, @小艾同学 humbly asked for advice on Xiaohongshu and posted a post titled "I can't find a partner, what do you think is my problem?", which attracted thousands of comments from netizens.

Netizens gave him all-round guidance on how to change his hairstyle, body shape, weight loss and exercise, and clothing matching. After a year, @小艾同学 has indeed undergone an amazing change. His weight and appearance have changed from "looking like a real estate agent" to "that handsome guy" as netizens said, and his income has doubled. Now he has even found his ideal love.

Image source: Xiaohongshu screenshot

Since then, there have been numerous online posts by ordinary people seeking advice and reform. Even now, many foreign netizens have followed the guidance of TikTok netizens and come to Xiaohongshu to seek reform.

Most of them are teenagers from Europe and the United States. They held up small cards that said "I will listen to advice", indicating that they are not fragile and asked Xiaohongshu netizens to give them "cruel and honest" advice.

Image source: Xiaohongshu screenshot

The emergence of "listen to advice" and "explosive changes" type content relies on high-quality UGC interactive content and the unique and friendly community atmosphere of the content platform.

The "100 Girlfriends" who gave advice to @小艾同学 on Xiaohongshu are now serving as clothing stylists, growth partners, and even confidants to the influx of foreign high school students. They provide advice on appearance transformation while providing certain emotional value.

Makeup Artist Bunny's content also starts from the "explosive transformation" of ordinary people, follows the creative logic of short videos, emphasizes the affordability and immediacy of makeup transformation, and highlights the high contrast before and after makeup.

In the early days, makeup artist Tu Zi’s videos focused on displaying the results of atmospheric blockbusters. The likes data for the Xishuangbanna Princess, Dunhuang Flying Fairy Makeup, and the same goddess makeup as in film and television dramas were relatively good.

Image source: Tik Tok screenshot

After a period of exploration, makeup artist Tu Zi has a fixed model to work with. The celebrity @戏精少女-小胡, who looks like a tomboy before makeup, can transform into various traditional Chinese beauties in less than 30 seconds under the hands of makeup artist Tu Zi. The magic of "head-changing" is fully demonstrated. The number of likes for makeup artist Tu Zi's content has risen to a new level, and occasionally the number of likes for popular content can reach millions.

Image source: Tik Tok screenshot

@戏精少女-小胡 is also a professional cross-dressing blogger with nearly 3 million followers on Douyin. The contrast she created in her videos pointed out the direction for the content of makeup artist Tu Zi's videos, which is to emphasize visual contrast, use the celebrity effect, and use strong "head-changing" creative makeup to break the public's inherent impression of celebrities, making the content of makeup artist Tu Zi quickly go viral.

In November 2023, makeup artist Tu Zi began to cooperate with many celebrities such as @于小惠, @何婧婧 (必发财版@我是你的cc阿, @锅盖wer, @痞幼, etc., to release videos of explosive makeup changes, and gradually formed a content series "Challenge 100 People to Make Over Their Makeup".

Image source: Tik Tok screenshot

Makeup artist Tu Zi invited celebrity and Douyin celebrity Zhu Zixiao to create a personalized makeup look, and the video has been played 28 million times. Since then, makeup artist Tu Zi has gradually begun to invite performing stars and comedians to participate in the creation of explosive makeup looks, such as Jin Jing, Yang Di, and Zhang Dada. The fermentation of Weibo hot searches has helped the content to go viral, and the commercial potential of this series of content has gradually emerged.

2. Marketing fever: Brand and movie marketing squeeze into the explosive content

Makeup artist Rabbit’s explosively modified series has a strong content marketing space, and its high popularity has attracted the attention of brands and film and television promoters. In addition, the biggest beneficiary is makeup artist Rabbit’s own makeup photo studio - Xifu Begonia Photo Studio.

The first is that brands, especially cosmetics brands, have been early on into "explosive change" video content.

Although the content of "explosive reform" is different from traditional makeup bloggers' videos, the placement of cosmetics, clothing, and daily necessities is still very natural. For example, pre-makeup skin care products, foundation, concealer and other base makeup products, makeup products, and related brands have all placed "explosive reform" content. The videos of the "explosive reform" amateur blogger @爆改素人计划 have featured the placement of Lancome's Little Black Bottle Essence, Shakeup's Natural Cream, and Mofashijia's facial mask. The recent "explosive reform" video of the comedian @依然你雪 has featured the placement of electric toothbrushes.

Image source: Tik Tok screenshot

Secondly, movie short video marketing has found new ideas in the explosive content. Movie short video marketing, which is often criticized by the audience for "Am I also part of your play?" and awkward content, is expanding its publicity direction and conducting softer content marketing around the movie itself.

Actor Dapeng from the movie "The Annual Meeting Cannot Stop" and actor Peng Yuchang from "Let's Shake the Sun Together" participated in the "explosive transformation", Dapeng became a handsome man with ancient style, and Peng Yuchang became an elf prince. In addition to the regular "explosive transformation" content, makeup artist Tu Zi and the actors also inserted simple interviews and introductions to the highlights of the movie in the video. The likes data of both videos exceeded one million.

Image source: Tik Tok screenshot

The celebrities and influencers choose to join the "explosive reform" wave and absorb the "explosive reform" heat, but their purpose is slightly different. For celebrities, creating topics, being on the hot search, and gaining attention are naturally the primary goals of celebrity participation.

Take Zhang Dada, Yang Di and Jin Jing as examples. They are all famous for their humor and comedy. Zhang Dada’s live broadcast room is a gathering place for hot Internet memes. Netizens can speak freely in his live broadcast room, and he is also the "only entertainment circle connection" for many netizens.

Image source: Tik Tok screenshot

Jin Jing is a famous comedian who has participated in many comedy variety shows such as "Annual Comedy Competition" and "Happy Comedians". They are all famous for their wit and humor. The "explosive" makeup shows their high-value side that is in sharp contrast to their usual image, so they have attracted the attention of many fans.

Some influencers see this as a business opportunity and proactively embed skin care products in their collaborative videos. Influencers like Zhang Dian will shoot an independent video to embed skin care products after applying their "extremely revamped" makeup.

However, the biggest beneficiaries of the "explosive reform" are makeup artist Tu Zi and her offline business. She has attracted a lot of attention by attracting customers to her photo stores in various places. High-quality content is a live advertisement for makeup and photo photos. Collaborating with celebrities to accelerate exposure has enabled her to achieve a win-win situation online and offline.

3. The emergence of business-oriented creators, content is marketing

It is not difficult to find that a considerable number of "business-oriented creators" have emerged, who create traffic online and acquire customers offline as content bloggers. Travel photo studios and makeup artists spawned by the cultural and tourism boom are just one of them.

According to the official mini-program of makeup artist Rabbit Photo Studio, she has opened photo studios in 17 tourist cities including Banna, Lijiang, and Dali. Taking the price list in Xishuangbanna as an example, Xifu Begonia Photo Studio offers shooting packages ranging from 699 to 1799.

Image source: Xifu Begonia Photo Gallery WeChat applet

Similar business-oriented creators, led by beauty industry practitioners in the fields of manicure, beauty, and makeup, can be found on all major platforms.

The sudden popularity of @山城小栗旬的髮切日记, a UP host on B station, has set an example for this type of creator. The contrast of transforming celebrities + "changing heads" is also his traffic code. His "Save B station UP host image series" links @拉宏桑, @盗月社食遇记, @中国BOY超级大猿 and many other top UP hosts, which has brought wide attention to his account and offline business.

Image source: Screenshot from Station B

In addition, immersive experience and immersive packaging have become the secrets for many beauty businesses to "start an account" and acquire customers on the Internet. For example, @七小姐跑吧, a blogger with 340,000 followers on Xiaohongshu, uses immersive shampooing and immersive skin care content to make viewers feel "healed and sleep-inducing", which also brings incremental growth to her offline business. In the comment section, viewers often express their desire to go offline to experience it.

Image source: Xiaohongshu screenshot

Immersive experiences and packaged content have also spread to small businesses in all walks of life. Small and medium-sized businesses in industries such as pet snacks, celebrity-chasing products, hemp handicrafts, and jewelry customization have gained traffic and attention through immersive content and found new customer groups.

Short video content makes up for the lack of interesting content in the local review system, and brings certain customer acquisition possibilities to small and medium-sized businesses in a more diverse, interesting and rich form.

The professionalization and diversification of creator identities will undoubtedly enrich the platform's creator group and content, but this also places demands on their own innovation and sustainability.

Ever since makeup artist Tu Zi started filming the series "Challenge of 100 People's Explosive Makeovers", there have been constant voices of doubt about the homogeneity of makeup among the audience. Although makeup artist Tu Zi is also developing new series besides "Explosive Makeovers", the content is undoubtedly still centered around "Explosive Makeovers".

Regardless of whether they are business-oriented creators or pure self-media bloggers or celebrities, all content creators will face a long-term question - how to maintain the popularity of the content and the update frequency while bringing new and innovative content. Whether they can answer this question well will also determine where the commercialization ceiling of content creators lies.

Author: Laisheng

Source: WeChat Official Account: KOL User Manual (ID: KOL-TOPKLOUT)