The number of fans increased by 6.7 million in 3 months, and an 80-year-old man took the center position on Douyin

The identity of "grandma" is a popular track on Douyin, but how can one get rid of homogeneity and stand out among so many creators? Take a look at the analysis below.

On Douyin, "Grandma" is not an identity, but a track.

In September this year, after the "Peach Can" video became an instant hit, @八零徐老佬 was selected by traffic and took the express train of increasing fans, becoming another "grandma" who became popular in the second half of the year.

With her frequent golden sentences, warm family life, and the temptation of rural food, @八零徐老佬's popularity seems inevitable. In the past 30 days, her account has continued to increase in followers, and has jumped to the 7 million mark. Looking at her fans, most of them are aged 31-40 and 24-30, and 71% of them are women.

@80s Xu granny's works

Since @我是田老老婆 became popular at the end of 2019, "Grandma" has almost become the most popular character in short videos, whether it is family comedy or rural food.

The "endless" number of grandmothers has almost formed a diverse "grandmother" universe on Douyin, including @暴躁小张, who focuses on shooting drama segments and funny daily life, @潘老妈 and @王大师农村一家人, who make rural delicacies, and @老妈手艺, who has tailoring skills and makes all kinds of exquisite dresses for her granddaughter.

What is the charm of grandmas? Why does Tik Tok prefer "grandmas"?

1. The number of followers increased by 6.7 million in 3 months. Has another top-tier "grandma" appeared?

@八零徐老佬’s journey to becoming an account began in January this year. Cheng Cheng, who worked in Shanxi, drove 1,305 kilometers back to his hometown in Liaoning to celebrate the Chinese New Year. During that time, he opened the @八零徐老佬 account and recorded his daily life back home.

After seeing her grandson, the grandmother immediately asked him to warm up on the kang and asked what he wanted to eat for lunch. Cheng Ben originally blurted out "I want to eat spare ribs", but his mother immediately opened the curtain and winked at him, "Don't bother your grandma, get him something else to eat." Finally, the grandmother sat in front of the stove and fried two golden eggs for him in an iron spoon. Although it was just a few simple shots, the old kang and the kitchen piled with firewood still made the user fall into the memory of his hometown.

Although the video received a good number of views, there was no complete content plan for Grandma Xu's account during this period, and most of the videos were fragmented daily life. It was not until four months later that Cheng Cheng quit his job in Shanxi and returned to his hometown. He specialized in shooting short videos centered on Grandma, and after trying many options, he decided on the theme of rural food.

@80s Xu granny's works

The turning point of the account was a "canned yellow peaches" video released in September. In the video, because the canned peaches she made earlier were almost eaten up by Chengcheng, the grandmother had to buy a bag of yellow peaches from the market to make a few new cans. During this period, in order to prevent her greedy grandson from stealing the peaches, the alert grandmother hid the peaches and the water basin, and ruthlessly refused Chengcheng's "help" to peel the peaches. Several battles of wits and courage not only added a lot of highlights and jokes to the video, but also showed the warmth between relatives to users.

Since then, Cheng Cheng has released many food videos with the sentence pattern of "Let me show you what my grandma made...", such as mashed potatoes, braised pork elbow, Northeastern chicken rack, and sweet and sour pork.

Following Cheng Cheng's camera, the image of the grandmother gradually becomes clear: Grandma Xu, who is over 80 years old, worked as an accountant in the brigade when she was young, and now she can use an abacus very skillfully; although her back is hunched, she still works skillfully and is almost never idle at home. She will boast that the food she cooks is "the best"; she loves her grandson, but can't help but say a few harsh words because of Cheng Cheng's weird behavior.

Users who follow more videos are easily struck by Grandma Xu's "sense of reality" - not only the rural appearance, but more the indulgence and pride that the elders in the family naturally reveal when facing the requests of the younger ones: after buying yellow peaches at 80 cents a pound at the market, Grandma picked up the peaches in her pocket and boasted that she had bought a good deal, "the bad parts can be cleaned by peeling them"; Cheng Cheng wanted to eat pork elbow, but Grandma complained that there was so much work to do at home and refused to do it, but in the end she still served out the fragrant stewed pork elbow.

Sometimes, Grandma Xu would also impart wisdom from the elderly. For example, when picking cabbage for pickling, she told Cheng Cheng, "Pick the ones whose core is not completely wrapped, so that they are delicious and expand quickly." The frequent golden sentences are also one of the highlights of Grandma Xu's videos : Cheng Cheng was burned in the mouth by the mashed potatoes just out of the pot, and Grandma mocked his strange action, "Is it not cooked? Fry it again in your mouth"; Cheng Cheng slapped the bee, and Grandma complained, "Don't mess with it, it's a horseshoe bee, if you make it angry, I can send it away"; Cheng Cheng said that the sweet and sour pork was not crispy enough, and Grandma immediately countered, "I eat it crispy, if you don't eat it crispy, your mouth will be damp." These characteristics make users laugh, and further outline the distinctive personality of Grandma Xu.

Although many netizens complained that "did you quit your job to take care of your grandma, or let your grandma take care of you", Chengcheng has also changed his grandma's life. Not long ago, his grandma received an invitation from CCTV's Sunset Red column to go to Beijing to record a video. The three of them took a group photo in front of Tiananmen Square, and Chengcheng also had a chance to "show up".

After becoming famous, @八零徐老佬 also received a lot of advertising cooperation, such as miguhara whitening toner, Haier air conditioner, Jiangzhong Monkey Mushroom Biscuits, KONO, etc., which were naturally inserted into the food production.

2. Will the “Grandma” character never fall?

Looking at the diverse "grandma" universe on Douyin, there are many experts like Grandma Xu. Looking back, the most typical one is @我是田老妈, who highlights her lovely personality in her daily pranks with her grandson.

Grandma Tian's popularity began with a "corn prank" video in 2019. In front of her grandson's camera, the grandma who was panicking to put out the fire while not forgetting to eat corn quickly won the public's favor. As the account was constantly updated, labels such as "Chatty Grandma" and "Tian's Gun" were gradually unlocked, and a straightforward, chattering, and sometimes childish grandma was presented to the audience in three dimensions. Grandma Tian was therefore called the "National Grandma" and accumulated 35.89 million fans on Douyin.

@I am Tian's work

In the food industry, there is also @潘老佬, who is also an early celebrity. The beautiful scenery of her hometown Dabie Mountain and her focus on authentic and down-to-earth food production have contributed to her popularity. Since then, @潘老佬 has continuously optimized the content and added more characters to the videos, such as the naughty little grandson, granddaughter Xiuyuan, and grandfather. To further enrich the video's watchability, @潘老佬 recently launched a new series "Satisfy Food Wishes", and co-produced videos with Dao Xiaodaosama and others.

@Pan Granny's Works

In the talent and skill track there is @Grandma's Craftsmanship. By receiving various fabrics sent by fans, Grandma sewed a series of gorgeous and exquisite dresses for her granddaughter Tongtong. Her exquisite craftsmanship attracted the envy of many users, saying, "Tongtong must have a huge dressing room."

@Grandma's handicrafts

What is the charm of the grandma character? Why is it so popular in short videos? After analyzing this type of account, Kas believes that the two most important points are authenticity and warmth.

Judging from the video mode alone, Xu's works are actually very similar to those of the grandmas who became famous before. Although rural themes are rich in narrative content, the famous masters have already formed a "comfort zone" and most of them have chosen the more stable rural food track, and have built vivid and lovely characters through the interaction between family members - the grandmas are plainly dressed, do things decisively, and the accumulation of years and experience in the past make them sharp in their words, often hitting the nail on the head.

On Douyin, family comedies often rely on "moms", such as Crazy Little Yang Ge and Zhang Ruoyu. The construction of the comedy effect is inseparable from the "domineering" mother; but warmth needs "grandma" to carry the banner, and the wonderful intergenerational relationship is revealed in every meal . As an elder, the grandmother's own affinity and sense of reality will make users deeply involved and empathize, as if they have returned to their hometown full of warmth in a second.

Of course, if grandmas want to be popular, it is best if their videos have obvious regional characteristics to evoke user memories . For example, Tian’s location is in the northeast, and the family going to the fields to break corn during the busy farming season is one of the most popular scenes; @暴躁小张, who has 7.48 million followers on Douyin, has a grandma from Shandong who speaks a very recognizable northern dialect; @潘老妈 is from Lu’an, Anhui, and the unique mountain scenery is one of the highlights of her content.

These grandmas with distinct regional characteristics not only attract people from the same region with similar life scenes, but also attract viewers from other regions with their novelty.

As for the creators themselves, due to their different personal experiences, each grandmother has a unique personality that is difficult for others to imitate and surpass. The contrast between age, image and personality also attracts users to further succumb to their charm . With the addition of these natural buffs, although "silver-haired Internet celebrity" is no longer a new term, it is not surprising that traffic frequently falls on "grandmothers" and elderly people of similar identities.

But more importantly, it is better to say that Douyin loves "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" rather than "grandma" . In the years when Douyin has been working hard to expand into the rural areas, rural short videos have always been a popular vertical category on the platform. From @李子柒, who focused on rural scenery in the early days, to @蜀中桃子姐, and to @张同学, who gained tens of millions of fans in two months, there has never been a shortage of top Internet celebrities in the "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" track.

Based on users' preference for rural themes, in the context of rural revitalization, "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" content has been strongly supported by the platform. One of the manifestations is that while other tracks are sluggish, there are always new stars in the "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" track. Like @八零徐老佬, the video copy is also labeled "New Farmer Plan" - this plan was launched by Douyin in 2020, providing support for "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" content in terms of traffic resources, operations, and monetization, in order to attract more new farmers to join the creation army.

With the strong promotion of the platform, the "top streamers" of the "three rural issues" are constantly changing. In this sense, @八零徐老佬's popularity may not be due to "differentiated" content, but due to "being timely". As long as the "three rural issues" never go out of style, the "grandmothers" will continue to be "popular".

However, although they have been able to stand out in the short video field, the grandmothers seem to be struggling in terms of live streaming monetization. The main channels for monetization are still concentrated on cooperating with brands and accepting advertisements. Among the top influencers, @我是田老佬 and @只穿高跟鞋的汪大师 have both started live streaming to sell goods, and their first broadcasts have achieved good results, but they have all stopped broadcasting due to declining sales. @我是田老佬, who has 35.88 million fans, has only accumulated sales of 100,000 to 250,000 in the past 30 days.

At the same time, it is easy to establish a grandma persona, but it is also easy to fall . No matter how content consumers look at the countryside, "authenticity" is bound to be the underlying color of the "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" expert. For example, @潘老佬 was once found out by users that the meat given to three neighbors in her video was the same, and the steps of the neighbors' houses all looked the same. This kind of "performance" can easily bring a reputation crisis to the expert.

Similarly, almost all early internet celebrities have fallen into the dilemma of losing fans and content homogeneity. Internet celebrities like @田老娘 and @我是潘老娘 are slowly losing fans. Although they have a huge fan base, how to break the dilemma of unsustainable content and extend the life of the account still requires constant "trial and error" from the internet celebrities.

Author: Lin Wu, WeChat public account: Kas Data