Content marketing, such as opening blind boxes

Content marketing is like opening a blind box, full of endless surprises and possibilities. From creative packaging to content publishing, we will analyze how to use content marketing techniques to bring users a unique experience, just like opening a blind box, and arouse their curiosity and desire to explore.

A long-term popular content often gives people a blind box feeling . Every time new content is released, it is like opening a blind box. There are expectations and surprises. At the same time, there is the indispensable sense of collection of blind boxes.

What we are going to discuss today is: content marketing, such as opening blind boxes .

Blind boxization is the inherent law that ensures content continues to be popular.

For example, Geng Handong, a famous expert with tens of millions of fans across the Internet, constantly launches various handmade forged products of his own. They are not only imaginative, strange and interesting, but also very useless. Even "uselessness" has become the biggest attraction of these works, which constantly surprises netizens. In fact, Geng Handong is creating his own blind box of craftsmanship.

For example, Mr. Luo Xiang, every new video he releases has a new and unexpected way of committing crimes, constantly exploring the boundaries and criteria of the law, which is constantly surprising. Not only has Mr. Luo Xiang become an IP, but Zhang San has also become a super meme. This is a blind box story about the lawbreaker Zhang San.

I also followed an account called "Worker Xiao Zhang" on TikTok. She was an ordinary girl who took selfies and made a series called "How to How". She filmed common sense in life that most people are familiar with into half-scientific and half-fun videos, such as how to go to Haidilao, how to sit in the business class of the high-speed rail, and how to make a gold bracelet. It became very popular and was nicknamed "the top streamer of social survival" by netizens. In fact, what "Worker Xiao Zhang" did was a blind box of life that teaches how to break the daily routine and popularize different experiences.

It’s not just personal IPs that often succeed by relying on “blind box”-style content.

Many companies are also constantly creating "blind box products", making marketing, products, and brands all become content.

For example, Luckin Coffee breaks the rules, continuously develops various new products, and quickly iterates and updates them to bring continuous surprises to users. This is a product-style blind box, which is the most effective way to bring repurchase rates and popularity.

For example, the IP joint actions of tea shops such as Heytea or Nayuki's Tea are actually also a kind of blind box, which not only constantly creates topics and launches new packaging, but also allows users to continue to collect various limited edition cups or gifts.

There is also the cultural tourism boom in Harbin at the beginning of the year, which is actually a blind box of "Harbin Stalks". Through the continuous emergence of new highlights and the stimulation of waves of craze, from frozen pears to tofu pudding, from southern small potatoes to small sugar oranges, whether it is objects, attractions, or people, they have become the "Harbin Blind Box" of Stalks, and there are even hidden models. My article at the beginning of the year: "Harbin's "Stalk" Storm" describes this phenomenal case in detail, you can click to see it.

In short, if you want to do content marketing well, you must master skills like designing blind boxes, so that the audience can experience the constant surprise and pleasure of opening blind boxes.

How to design content blind boxes?

The answer is simple, it comes from the imagination of life.

Because blind boxes can be found everywhere in life, not just in trendy toys.

For example, a pair of newly-acquainted lovers can discover new and interesting things about each other every day. The two of them keep going to various places and changing various positions in bed, which are all new explorations. This is a blind box story about love and desire.

For example, in a family with a growing child, the child wets the bed today, grows teeth tomorrow, and learns to walk the day after tomorrow, all of which can continuously bring surprises of growth. So in this family, a blind box story about growth is constantly happening.

For example, a person who works hard in life will not only indulge in the boredom of daily life, but will also spontaneously find many different experiences, from an affordable meal, a cup of milk tea to a different work experience, and to an unexpected short trip, all of which can turn life into the joy of opening a blind box.

Every little bit in life is the source of inspiration for content blind box ideas.

Wang Ning of Pop Mart once told me that people like blind boxes because of their "childishness". Everyone has a child who never grows up in their heart, and blind boxes are the most authentic growth experience of a child. Therefore, blind boxes are very popular among adults with childlike innocence.

On this point, you might want to take a look at my interview with Pop Mart’s Wang Ning four years ago.

Next, let’s talk about how to design a popular content marketing blind box.

The principle is very simple, three key points:

1. Have an emotional box that can hold and locate emotional value

Since it is a blind box, of course there must be a box. The first and foremost function of this box is to carry the most instinctive emotions of human nature , thereby providing emotional value.

Why emotional value? And not rational value, or something else?

This is because, in almost all content flows on social media, the first driving force that attracts people, makes them stay, like, and forward content is often the emotional resonance brought about by emotional value .

Emotional values ​​can be love, desire, attachment to life, fear and relief from death and darkness, reconciliation with oneself, desire for adventure, and a little bit of darkness or humor. These are inherent in human nature, not bound by reason, and need to be satisfied at any time.

Emotional value is different from rational, human instinct.

For example, there is love behind the little tangerines, Xiao Zhang, the worker, is a small adventure in daily life, Luo Xiang is a relief from fear, and Geng Handong is a persistence in the creativity of life.

Why are children, beauties, and pets often the most popular content? Because there is love behind them, and they are a cure for loneliness in life.

Why are adventure and exploration content so popular? Because it can make life richer, more extraordinary and more complete.

Therefore, when doing content marketing, we must first have an emotional value positioning to constitute the box of the content blind box.

2. There is a bubble making machine in the box

The bubble maker is a metaphor.

The bubble maker actually refers to:

In the same situation, constantly create fresh and changing content productivity .

Under the determination of the situation, the content also requires a constant flow of creativity, just like a bubble-making machine, constantly creating interesting, unique, surprising and unexpected little content.

If the situation box is immutable, then the small content created by the bubble maker is variable.

What is being competed here is the insight into life, the cognition of the world, and the sensitivity to people's hearts, which boils down to one thing: the ability to imagine life.

For example, Geng Shougong constantly creates extraordinary and extremely useless daily necessities.

For example, the migrant worker Xiao Zhang constantly experiences stories of "top social survival studies" that go beyond his daily routine.

For example, Luo Xiang can constantly throw out hypothetical cases that challenge the boundaries of the law, which is both thrilling and entertaining.

In each of Li Ziqi's videos, she can present a different delicacy in a certain oriental cultural context. She is actually a master of bubble making.

How to create an extraordinary content bubble maker?

As long as we observe and analyze, we can find that any content that is popular for a long time must come from the projection of the inner love and ability of a certain person or a group of people.

This means that the essence of a bubble maker is a person’s unique talent and skillful ability.

So if you want to create a bubble-making machine, look to the most unique and emotional parts of yourself and your team.

Extraordinary comes from within, not from outside. There is nothing outside the mind.

3. There must be an IP elf in the blind box

Why must there be an IP elf in the content blind box?

Because people need a carrier to express their emotions, to carry or express their love.

Because social communication requires a social currency, and IP elves are this social currency.

This IP elf can be a person, an anime character, or a virtual character.

For example, there are two IP elves in Luo Xiang’s video, one is Luo Xiang himself, and the other is the tool man Zhang San, both of them have been IPized.

In Li Ziqi's video, there is Li Ziqi; in the video of Working Man Xiao Zhang, there is Xiao Zhang, a girl who creates extraordinary things in ordinary life; in Handicraft Geng, there is Master Geng, an interesting and "useless" craftsman; in Zhang's video, there is Mr. Zhang, an intellectual who lives in the wilderness, and so on.

In McDonald’s “Pink Sisters” marketing content, the protagonists are the pink sisters who are ordering instructors all over the country.

In the content marketing of M&M chocolate beans, there is a group of cute chocolate bean dolls.

In Jiang Xiaobai’s content marketing, there is a little person named Jiang Xiaobai who is just like us.

In all of Heytea’s IP co-branded marketing, what remains unchanged is Heytea’s own tea-drinking doll.

Content is a two-way process. It is both an accumulation process for creators and a collection and transmission process for readers. This requires a cultural symbol.

The essence of IP is a cultural symbol. The ultimate successful destination of all content is to become a cultural symbol, such as Zhao Benshan, Shen Teng, Han Han, the Snow King of Mixue Ice City, NIKE's AIR JORDAN, and so on.

The content without the IP elf is incomplete. Only when the IP elf exists can the content blind box come alive and grow like life.

Therefore, when creating content marketing, you must design an IP that is full of personal charm.

Content marketing is becoming more and more important nowadays.

In the future competition in the AI ​​era, what will be challenged is the innovation of content production.

Whether it is a company or an individual, in this era of online self-media, it is necessary to create content and make content that can be spread. Everything is content and everything can be spread...

And content marketing, such as opening blind boxes.

Author: Chen Gray

WeChat public account: IP Fried Rice (ID: IPCOOK)