Netizens disliked it, and brands cut ties with it: What did this pair of "conspicuous bags" do wrong?

There are many couple accounts operating on the Internet, but one of the couple’s accounts caused some dislike among netizens. Let’s take a look at what happened?

"This is not a romantic relationship at all. This is clearly PUAing the woman in the name of love."

In March this year, a college couple @黑马情侣 caused a heated discussion on Douyin. The account shared the daily love life of Heima and Yingzi, and the details of their spending became the target of public criticism.

According to the video, the daily life of this college couple is extremely tight: they only spend 4 yuan for a meal in the morning, the boy has an egg and a bowl of porridge, the girl has an egg and a cup of milk brought from home; they spend a total of 11 yuan at noon, and about 7-8 yuan at night. In a month, the two spent only 1,500 yuan, and they also said, "As long as you communicate well with the person you like, dating doesn't cost money and it saves money."

The overly stingy lifestyle, the girls' tolerance of boys and their stinginess towards themselves, and the boys' stinginess have made many netizens feel confused and even questioned.

After 9 months, the Dark Horse couple has once again become popular and is still the target of "ridicule". Brands such as Hao Huan Luo, Luo Ba Wang, and Mo Xiao Xian have all stated in the live broadcast room that they "have not cooperated with Dark Horse". It is rare to see traffic figures that brands avoid.

After research, Kas found that the account had the wrong positioning and perhaps should not have started. The blogger's "saving money version" love story made many young netizens dissatisfied, so no matter what he did, it would arouse doubts. Once there was a substantial mistake, it would cause overwhelming ridicule and even a complete failure.

1. The first half of the life of the "dark horse couple" who were disliked

The reason why the dark horse couple was disliked was not just because they were "stingy".
First, a frugal lifestyle that borders on "suffering" makes some netizens feel uncomfortable, and they believe that this is unnecessary suffering.

According to online information, the boy (nicknamed "Black Horse") has a monthly living allowance of 500 yuan, and the girl (nicknamed "Late Sakura") has a monthly living allowance of 2,000 yuan. Although the two share the living allowance, they are not rich, and saving money is a choice they made on their own. However, since they want to become video bloggers, they are bound to receive different voices on the Internet, either positive or negative. Second, the unbalanced distribution of living funds is an important reason for the public outrage.

In the video recording, the boy's life is obviously more comfortable. Even though he was extremely frugal, he still used the joint money to buy a new mobile phone, facial masks, sports watches, etc. The boy gained more resources with the help of this relationship.

The girl had to lower her quality of life to save money for the future of both parties. Therefore, the girl was questioned as "love-brained" and was happy to live a life with a declining quality of life with the boy. The girl responded that they saved money to give her an HPV vaccine. But the onlookers still couldn't understand it, after all, "the netizen's breasts are also breasts" and "how can she dig wild vegetables better than Wang Baochuan."

Third, some users questioned the relationship and economic conditions of the two as a "show". Some netizens said that they had encountered the @黑马couple in a restaurant. They each had a bowl of rice and sat face to face looking at their phones. The boy had a delicate hairstyle and shaved his sideburns. "This hairstyle alone must have cost at least 60 yuan." The girl was wearing a light luxury brand.

But in the video, the two people's consumption is "open and transparent". Not only do they rarely buy clothes, but the clothes they buy are not expensive. This sweatshirt has not appeared in their accounts before. However, there is no clear conclusion about their daily living standards and real consumption ability.

Although being questioned and played with by netizens, @黑马情侣 has always gone its own way, continued to create videos and interact with users. Kas looked through the account and found that it broadcasts live from Monday to Friday night, and there are 5 product links in its window. Brand products also appear in beauty and food broadcast videos, and there is no lack of commercial implantation.

However, many of the users who watch their videos are there to have fun or to watch the fun. When they see that some videos seem to have brands exposed, they will go to the brand's live broadcast room to seek answers. Therefore, the Dark Horse couple has recently caused ridicule again, and caused many brands to hang signs in the live broadcast room to clarify that they "have no cooperation with Dark Horse".

For example, in a video posted by @黑马情侣 on December 25, a girl transformed the boy’s outfit and makeup and used Elio’s cleansing mask. A fan went to the brand’s live broadcast room to ask if it was an ad placement, and the brand responded: “No cooperation.” Another user joked, “It must be a competitor who helped you place the ad.”

According to Kas's observation, in the past month, many brands such as Xiaomang Xiong, Mo Xiaoxian, Haohuanluo, and Luobawang have taken the initiative to distance themselves from @黑马情侣 and specifically responded that "there is no cooperation with Dark Horse."

It is rare to see multiple brands cutting ties with a Douyin influencer with 137,000 followers and avoiding him as much as possible. This also reveals a trend: "playing safe" is the consensus of brands. "It is difficult to offend public anger", and brands do not want to be associated with a traffic blogger with a poor reputation and a strong popularity, which will cause consumers to be disgusted.

Looking back at previous brand hot topics that caused a stir on social media, such as the 79 yuan eyebrow pencil incident and the Zhong Xuegao ice cream assassination incident, their origins were all seemingly "insignificant" details. Brands are now cautious and respond early before a bigger public opinion crisis occurs, also for safety reasons.

What’s even more interesting is that contrary to the brand’s “play safe” approach, many content creators still like to “take an unconventional approach” and “take a chance.”

Although the content style of @黑马情侣 has not been supported by users in the mainstream public opinion, some creators have begun to imitate it. For example, the Douyin account @奇奇和苗苗 has accumulated 46,000 followers by showing the life of couples with an age difference in Vlogs. The comments below its video content are also full of doubts and ridicules, "Uncle, are you still going to eat from the mouths of the dark horse couple?"

In previous articles, Kass pointed out that many young people now advocate "cost-effective" consumption and try to quit conspicuous consumption. The stingy men's association on Douban has also attracted multiple media reports. So why do Douyin netizens now look askance at @黑马情侣, @奇奇和苗苗, and express disgust?

In Kas's opinion, the fundamental reason lies in the account positioning. Couple accounts display a large proportion of material life, and the love and life views displayed are the fundamental reason for attracting users' attention.

For couple accounts, users' expectations are mostly "sweet love", "mutual companionship", "equal love" and other beautiful life states. It is not objectionable for a person to live frugally or stingily, but if two people are poor together and say they are "willing", netizens will think that one party is suspected of PUA. This view of love is not advocated by young people.

2. How are popular couple accounts operated?

Couple accounts or CP accounts have always been popular on social media. Dark Horse couples are not mainstream couple accounts in the short video industry. Their alternative approach makes young netizens who are used to watching sweet and delicate couple bloggers feel uncomfortable. This is a problem of user aesthetics.

What kind of couple accounts do young people of this generation like to see?

Before 2023, Kas analyzed many couple bloggers with good data performance. Their fans were enthusiastic about interaction and had high stickiness.

Kas discovered that couple accounts that grow the fastest in followers, have the most interactions, and have better monetization have three characteristics: good looks, interesting personalities (such as humor), and sweet relationships.

For example, @AriaAndBrandon is a couple of good-looking people from different countries. The girl is Chinese and the boy is German. They both live in Australia. The account is managed by the girl. She mainly shares her and her boyfriend's "sweet" daily life with fans, and sometimes introduces knowledge about dressing and makeup.

Although they are far away from home, the two often follow the hot spots in China and play some couple games or couple challenges. Different cultural backgrounds make them laugh more when playing such games.

The real and sweet atmosphere in the blogger's video, coupled with five years of continuous sharing, has confirmed their true identity as a couple, reducing the risk of "collapse" for fans who love to ship CPs. The number of likes for their pinned video has reached 130,000, and the "Meet the Parents" theme video based on this video has also successfully attracted many fans to interact.

Similar cross-border couple accounts are popular on Xiaohongshu and Douyin platforms.

The protagonists of @ONLeeLOVE are also a Chinese-German couple. Starting from June 2022, the content they publish are all about both parties appearing together. The woman sits in front of the camera, putting on makeup, while having daily conversations with her German boyfriend next to her, or exchanging views on a certain topic. There will also be a fragment of life at the end of the video to show their life status.

The account gained 1.54 million followers in October 2022, making it onto Douyin's monthly follower growth list. To summarize the characteristics of the account, the first is the strong contrast between the heroine before and after makeup, as well as her independent, bright and generous image with oriental charm, which is quite attractive in itself; second, the loving and interesting daily life of the hero and heroine not only allows users to taste the sweet dog food, but also allows them to gain life insights and learn some ways for couples to get along. If cross-border love may still be far away from many people, then the combination of college student couples will appear more real and tangible. In the first half of 2023, among the best performing accounts of Xiaohongshu Business Notes, there is such a couple account.

The protagonists of the account @李嗲Lydiaaa are a couple with high IQ and good looks. In addition to posting their daily lives as a couple, the blogger also made full use of their "high IQ" characteristics and took a unique path to increase the number of followers of the couple account through professional scientific evaluation videos. For example, the blogger once gained 389,400 followers on Xiaohongshu in a single month with a sunscreen evaluation note.

According to Kas, in March this year alone, @李嗲Lydiaaa published 3 business notes, with an interaction volume of 1.345 million, ranking first on Xiaohongshu's monthly business interaction list.

Of course, such videos of academic lovers are difficult to replicate. They require high technical requirements and the power of a "circle of friends", which is a circle that ordinary bloggers cannot reach. For example, in August this year, the blogger invited a doctoral student in bioinformatics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences to visit his home and conducted a scientific "fortune-telling". The video received 600,000 likes and 59,000 collections.

In short, the positioning and content presentation of couple accounts should change with the changing needs of users in the short video industry. The premise for successfully starting to monetize is to respect users and not try to subvert their aesthetics and values.

Author: Lou Xingchui WeChat public account: Kas Data