Young people who are driven crazy by work have made Loopy a top star

Recently, the pink beaver Loopy has successfully become the new "top streamer" in the IP world. From emoticons to peripherals, they are sold out as soon as they are launched, which is enough to show consumers' love for it. How does Loopy attract users and make them pay for its IP co-branding? Let's take a look at this article.

Recently, a pink beaver named Loopy has become the new "top streamer" in the IP world. From Loopy emoticons to offline co-branded peripheral products, they have become the hottest objects among Generation Z.

On July 15, MINISO launched a co-branded doll, pendant, backpack and other products with Loopy, which were all sold out as soon as they were launched on the mini program. Some consumers told Value Planet that the co-branded dolls with Loopy are also out of stock in MINISO's offline stores, and the arrival time has not yet been determined.

On the TikTok platform, the #Loopy hashtag has been played over 1.93 billion times, and there are over 150,000 notes about Loopy on Xiaohongshu.

The popularity of Loopy both online and offline is enough to show the charm of Loopy. This pink little beaver has become the "hottest female star" in the Chinese market after Lingna Belle, once again demonstrating the powerful influence of popular IP on young people.

Image source: screenshot from Xiaohongshu

With the changing trends of popular culture, the traffic stars in the IP world are also constantly updated. Looking back, there is the Sanrio family, whose IPs include Hello Kitty, My Melody, and Kuromi; more recently, there is the Disney Duffy family, which became popular in the past few years, whose IPs include Lingna Belle, StellaLou, ShellieMay, etc. Whether they appear alone or in groups, these IPs have a large number of followers willing to pay for them.

After the LoopyIP became a huge success, other supporting characters in the original cartoon were also "excavated" by netizens, and they are showing signs of becoming popular.

It can be said that once an IP becomes popular, it is equivalent to being hit by "a flood of wealth". However, how to obtain traffic, and how to maintain and convert traffic is a science.

1. Loopy emoticon package becomes popular as a spokesperson for workers

Loopy is a supporting character in the Korean cartoon "Pororo the Little Penguin". She is a little beaver who is a little shy and sensitive, but friendly and kind to her friends. She has two cute hairs and iconic rabbit teeth, and her chubby pink face always has a smile on it.

As one of the "pink female stars", Loopy was not born with a silver spoon in her mouth like the leading actress of Disney, Lingna Belle, and has attracted much attention from the beginning. Initially, her good friend Pororo was the protagonist of the animation, and was a household name in South Korea, and was even called "President Po".

"Little Penguin Pororo". Image source: Baidu

For Korean consumers, Pororo, which has been broadcast since 2001, is a classic animation, which has accumulated a certain amount of original national popularity for Loopy in Korea. But for Chinese consumers who have Sun Wukong, Sanmao and Pleasant Goat as their childhood memories, how did Loopy become so popular?

Loopy’s popularity in China originated from a set of “working people” emoticons.

"I don't want to get up", "Hello, my dear slacking partner", "I'll be really annoyed if you don't get off work soon!" Loopy's facial expressions are not particularly rich, but after being matched with text and scenes, they achieve a "natural" effect, perfectly adapting to the mental state of working people.

Loopy worker emoticon package. Source: Weibo

Many times, an important reason why people use emoticons on social media is that they can vividly express their emotions. In Loopy, some workers can compare themselves to their own feelings of "wanting to complain but not being able to, being angry but not being able to speak out". Whether it is a strong complaint or taking advantage of the situation to make fun of oneself, this kind of identity recognition and emotional resonance has greatly promoted the spread of Loopy's emoticons, and has also made more and more people familiar with Loopy's image - the popular pink mouse.

Xiaodou is one of the earliest users of the Loopy emoticon package on the Internet. "At first, I only saw my colleagues using the emoticon package. Later, several bloggers created secondary creations, and the scope of use became wider. It feels like everything can be Loopy."

Expanding the audience of emoticons is the first step for Loopy to gain more traffic. After the second creation of Loopy, the emotions expressed by it are more diverse. No matter whether it is eccentricity, despair, or Internet madness, no matter what mental state netizens are in, they can always find a suitable Loopy emoticon package.

As a result, Loopy appears in more and more occasions: when encountering a "conspicuous person" on the Internet, send a Loopy with a tilted head to express sarcasm; when encountering troubles in life, send a Loopy with tears to show vulnerability; when in a good mood, send a dancing Loopy to express happiness.

Loopy emoticon package. Image source: Weibo

Although all this was not officially promoted and was just a coincidence of young people's online entertainment, Loopy was indeed made famous and started to become a top star.

2. Behind the cute Loopy is professional IP operation

In addition to emoticons used in chatting, Loopy has also taken over major social media platforms.

"Now when you open any social media, a Loopy will appear without even swiping your finger three times," Xiaodou said.

On social platforms such as TikTok, Xiaohongshu, and Weibo, someone initially asked in the comment section: "Who is this pink mouse? I keep seeing her." Now that she has "occupied" the comment section, Loopy has become the new code for online traffic.

Data shows that topics related to Loopy have been on Weibo's hot search list several times, with the highest number of views reaching 35 million. On Xiaohongshu, there are more than 150,000 notes about Loopy. Its official account ZANMANG LOOPY was launched on May 4 this year and currently has 251,000 followers. Each post maintains a high level of activity.

Number of notes related to Loopy. Image source: screenshot of Xiaohongshu

If it was a coincidence that Loopy became popular in China with emoticons in the early stage, then maintaining its popularity and establishing itself as a hot IP in the future would have been inseparable from the effective support of a professional team.

As a virtual two-dimensional image, Loopy is more serious about his business than many real-life celebrities.

On April 1 last year, Loopy registered his own account on Youtube and released his first video. So far, Loopy's account has released 686 videos and has 1.63 million subscribers.

The number of Loopy's followers on YouTube. Source: Screenshot from YouTube

Different from the anime IPs that have been popular in the past, Loopy does not promote itself by rehashing old animation clips through editing original animation clips, but instead produces a lot of new extension materials specifically for the purpose of creating a new independent IP.

Browsing Loopy's Youtube account, you can find that the content of its videos is very diverse. There are various life vlogs, such as making delicious food, traveling with good friends, work diaries, etc.; there are also various creative videos, such as remaking classic scenes from film and television dramas, learning popular songs, etc.

Loopy, who already has a lot of traffic, is also very good at "taking advantage of hot spots". Whether it is the girl group Girls' Generation or the boy group NCT, the Korean drama "Hotel Del Luna" or "Crash Landing on You", as long as Loopy wants to "take advantage of it", related videos will definitely be shot. Some time ago, Loopy covered the dance of the girl group (G)I-DLE, which caused heated discussions on the Internet.

Video from Loopy account. Image source: Screenshot from YouTube

In addition to planning video content that attracts young people, Loopy's account also keeps up with the trend of the times in terms of business methods. In addition to regular long videos, the account also uploads vertical short videos to cater to the fast-food mobile entertainment needs of young people.

Loopy often enters the live broadcast room with a virtual image to interact with major Korean idols. In the live broadcast room, the cute Loopy is full of spirit. When facing beautiful idols, he will ask questions like "Can I be your twin?" and can also confidently perform a personal solo in front of the camera.

The powerful fan effect combined with the novel live broadcast method, "Double Chef Ecstasy" punched the hearts of the fan group.

Loopy live broadcast room. Source: YouTube screenshot

At the same time, Loopy's account is updated frequently. The intensive content output not only provides fans with topics to discuss, but also greatly enhances fan stickiness.

For many fans, being a fan of Loopy means being a fan of a versatile, passionate and dedicated idol. The most important thing is that she won’t have any bad reputation.

3. IP collaboration, how to attract Generation Z to pay?

After Loopy became popular, the commercial value of its IP began to gradually emerge.

In South Korea, Loopy can be found in collaborations ranging from luxury goods and credit cards to daily necessities such as clothing and condiments.

In the collaboration between Loopy and Burger King, Loopy transformed into a burger-making clerk, helping the brand promote new burgers to diners.

The collaboration between Loopy and Amorepacific hair dye made fans smile: Even though Loopy only has two hairs, he is still actively doing business and promoting personal care products by wearing a wig.

Loopy and hair dye collaboration. Image source: Xiaohongshu

As Loopy becomes more popular in China, joint collaborations with brands are constantly being launched, and related products are often sold out quickly.

On this year's Children's Day, Lelecha teamed up with Loopy to launch a "Working People's Package" and limited edition peripherals. Its flagship product "1 Liter Watermelon Coconut (Loopy co-branded model)" sold 65,000 cups on the day of its launch, and the plush mirror peripherals, which were limited to 4,500 pieces nationwide, were sold out within 1 minute.

Loopy became a top star as soon as it debuted and officially opened up the market in China. Its subsequent joint activities have become more and more popular.

In July this year, Loopy and MINISO jointly launched a number of plush toys and other products. On the day of the launch, the MINISO mini program crashed due to too many visitors. In offline stores, many people "didn't even see Loopy's fur." ​​As consumers' enthusiasm for buying co-branded products even exceeded the official expectations, MINISO repeatedly issued a statement saying that "the factory is urgently restocking and hopes everyone will understand."

Xiaodou also participated in the rush to buy Loopy co-branded toys. She told Value Planet that before Loopy co-branded with domestic brands, the only way to get Loopy peripherals was to buy them from Korean agents, which had very high fees and were almost several times the original price.

Therefore, when the news of the collaboration between Loopy and MINISO came out, Xiaodou was excited and made plans to buy them early. "I prepared three days in advance, thinking that I could enter the mini program at the right time and buy all four dolls in the same series, but I didn't expect that I couldn't squeeze in at all, and I didn't buy the last one. Some friends also waited in offline stores to buy them, but just like the collaboration between KAWS and UNIQLO a few years ago, you can't get them without some means and courage."

This made Xiaodou realize that the little beaver, whom he had secretly liked in the past, had become a "big star" that attracted the attention of the whole nation.

The target customers of most trendy brands or cultural and creative products are actually Generation Z consumers. Judging from the market performance in recent years, the marketing methods of Internet celebrity consumer products are essentially similar, and many cases have quickly exited the market in the great waves.

The reason why a little pink beaver can have such a great influence, quickly and smoothly achieve popularity and monetization, and make Generation Z willingly pay for IP collaboration is that the key lies in establishing a deep emotional connection with consumers.

The first thing that attracted attention about Loopy was its "working man attribute". Lelecha cleverly grasped this point in its collaboration with Loopy. On Children's Day, the brand said to young people who had just become office workers through Loopy: "Why work? Come in and celebrate Children's Day!" The accompanying picture also showed Loopy working listlessly. Such a precise grasp of the user's psychology is as heartwarming as an old friend who understands you very well.

Loopy and Lelecha's collaboration. Image source: WeChat Advertisement

The collaboration between MINISO, Jiumu Zawushe and Loopy is mainly focused on plush toys. The emotional attributes of dolls need no further explanation, and the soft, plush and cute Loopy brings unique healing power to young girls.

Of course, the social value of Loopy also adds a lot of value to the IP collaboration. As a popular image at the moment, Loopy can not only become a topic of discussion, but also meet the social needs of young people to check in and share, which is almost the core logic of Generation Z's "want every collaboration".

Netizens share their own Loopy purchases. Image source: screenshot of Xiaohongshu

Currently, Loopy is still very popular, and IP joint cooperation has just started, and there is still considerable potential to be tapped.

For brands, how to accurately leverage the advantages of IP and maximize the appeal of co-branding to consumers is an important question that tests the company's marketing level. For Loopy, becoming a "new top streamer" is only the first step. How to maintain its position as a top streamer for a long time among the Z generation, who are particularly "new and old", may really require some "new things".

*This article is based on public information and is only for information exchange purposes and does not constitute any investment advice

Author: Shi Chen, Editor: Ma Ji

Source: Public Account: Value Planet (ID: ValuePlanet), discovering company value and telling capital stories.