The popular village super, you can't learn

What lessons can we learn from the Guizhou Village Supermarket, which became popular this summer? In this article, the author extends the experience and methodology of building local businesses and city IP from the popularity of the Village Supermarket, which is worth reading.

Guizhou tourism has become popular this summer vacation.

Last summer, Taipan Village, a village with a population of less than 2,000 people in Taijiang County, Guizhou Province, held a rural basketball game, and the "Village BA" unexpectedly became popular. In May this year, Rongjiang County, less than 200 kilometers away, held a village-level football league, which unexpectedly ignited the enthusiasm of the entire network again. The popularity of Village BA and Village Super League is similar. They are both very "village" - not only the players of the participating teams are from surrounding villages, but also their occupations are taxi drivers, restaurant chefs, construction workers... The referees and cheerleaders are almost all local villagers. The cheerleaders knock on pots and pans, and the prizes they win are small yellow cattle and pig legs.

During the halftime break, there was singing and dancing on the football field, and the whole place was filled with joy. They are all very "super" - the grassroots players have been practicing their skills since childhood and have their own unique skills. The organization is also well organized, and the schedule setting, event broadcasting, medical insurance and other aspects are all implemented in accordance with the standards of the national league. The famous British star Michael Owen sent his blessings to the Village Super League, and NBA Heat star Jimmy Butler appeared in the "Village BA", which directly made the event "super" out of the country. A fan who drove to watch the Village BA and the Village Super League told "Dingjiao" that these two major events allowed fans to see the purest ball games and also let the audience find fun. "It has long surpassed the game and has become a carnival of entertainment, relaxation and high frequency of the whole audience."

On July 29 and July 30, the village super and village BA respectively ushered in the finals, but the enthusiasm did not subside. Now, teams from other cities have gone to Guizhou to hold friendly matches, and many cities across the country are also busy carrying out their own village super and village BA. Compared with the excitement of the game, people are more curious about why the village super and village BA are so popular? What local businesses have they brought to the fore? In terms of urban IP development, what experiences are worth learning from for other villages that are in urgent need of development?

1. How popular is Village Super?

Every time the village super league's "Super Saturday" comes, the whole Rongjiang County is in a "boiling" state. The official game does not start until 6 pm. When Jamie arrived at 12 noon, the stadium was already full of spectators. Soon, even the runway between the seats and the stands was filled with people, and some people brought rented plastic benches to sit around the sidelines.

The football stadium can accommodate 20,000 people, but Jamie estimated that there were nearly 60,000 spectators in the stadium. According to the local security captain, the number of spectators in the stadium is usually limited when there are more than 70,000 people. Due to the large number of people and the scorching sun, the temperature in the stadium can reach over 36 degrees. Shenzhen fan Bobo went to the stadium to play football for a while before the game. When he arrived at his residence at night, he found that his T-shirt was covered with salt because of excessive sweating.

What kind of competition can make people so crazy that they want to see it despite the high temperature and congestion?

Bobo said that this is completely different from professional games - the facilities are simple, there is no limit on the number of people entering, no tickets are sold, the venue is not cleared in advance, and there are no uniform team scarves. But its excitement is no less than that of professional games - the players may not have top-notch skills, and their techniques and cooperation may not be very professional, but they all play very hard. "Everything is just for scoring goals. The sponsorship fee is collected by the villagers, the prize is a pig leg, and everyone on and off the field works hard and has a lot of fun. This is what football itself should be like. " Bobo said.

Village Super League gives people a sense of purity, that even without a green lawn or spotlights, people can still shed sweat for their passion. When a team scores, no matter which team they support, the whole stadium will shout out Village Super League's unique cheering slogan "Hang Bang Lang, Woo Woo!" This purity strikes a chord with fans like Popo, who come from all corners of the world and find resonance in Village Super League, expressing their love for football and sports.

Village Super League is not just a game, the audience can also experience entertainment content. The cheerleaders will parade before each game. A cheerleading team has dozens or even hundreds of people. They will not only show the unique folk customs, costumes, and intangible cultural heritage crafts of their own village, but also prepare local specialties and souvenirs to "feed" the audience for free. During the halftime break, the cheerleaders will present singing and dancing performances, and the atmosphere is comparable to a grand carnival.

It is not entirely accidental that Village Super, which was born after Village BA, is more popular and out of the circle than the former.

Zhang Dadou, an expert in building urban IP brands, said that Village Super was not favored by everyone at the beginning, but now it seems that its popularity is inseparable from the sense of contrast and emotional resonance. Zhang Dadou learned that Rongjiang local residents were the first wave of power in the spread of Village Super from zero to one. The Rongjiang County Government also conducted short video training for returning youth, and cultivated more than 12,000 new media accounts in the county. People who follow Village Super range from villagers and netizens to Internet celebrities, sports celebrities, and then to social platforms and mainstream media follow up. The total network communication volume exceeds 30 billion and is still growing. In addition, on overseas social platforms, the topics of Village Super and Village BA are also fermenting further. In July, NBA Heat star Jimmy Butler appeared in "Village BA", and international star Irving also remotely recorded a short video to cheer for Village Super.

2. A game boosts business in a small town

More than two months ago, no one could have imagined that Rongjiang County, located in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province, would be flooded with waves of tourists. Data shows that during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday alone, Rongjiang County received a total of 358,900 tourists, a year-on-year increase of 345.84%. In order to accommodate more tourists, starting from July 1, the number of trains stopping at Rongjiang Station has increased from 22 to 40.

The enthusiasm of the Rongjiang people can be felt as soon as you get off the high-speed railway station or enter the highway. Self-driving vehicles can see roadside signs and a dedicated parking lot for the village supermarket as soon as they get off the highway. Tourists coming out of the high-speed railway station can also see the "Village Supermarket Free Shuttle" fleet spontaneously organized by the villagers, with advertisements for their own village football team on the cars.

The villages in Rongjiang are very popular, which not only boosts the tourism and transportation industry, but also the local catering, accommodation, cultural and creative industries, and creates jobs. Every Saturday, more than 2,000 stalls around the stadium and the stadium sell agricultural products, gourmet supper, and intangible cultural heritage products. Most of these stalls are run by locals or vendors from nearby cities. The stalls are free, but the order and environmental hygiene of the stalls must be guaranteed.

"Before entering the venue, you will pass through a 'sea' of rolled rice noodles, barbecue, local watermelon, and Rongjiang bamboo tube milk tea; after entering, from time to time, there are people pushing carts selling intangible cultural heritage items and local specialties. In Rongjiang, there is never a shortage of food, and some people even call the village supermarket 'food football'." Jamie said.

In addition to ensuring hygiene, the local market supervision bureau requires stall owners and shop owners in Rongjiang to clearly mark prices and not overcharge customers. Bobo felt that the local prices were cheap - 1 yuan for a roll of rice noodle, 5 yuan for a drink, and 10 yuan for beef noodle. Similar to Zibo during its peak period, the lack of accommodation was enough to represent the local popularity.

According to statistics from the Rongjiang County government, Rongjiang County, with a permanent population of only 295,000, received more than 420,000 tourists in one month. Many tourists said that although the actual number of tourists far exceeded the local reception capacity, they could feel that the local government had made its greatest efforts to ensure the tourists' experience. A tourist called a local hotel and was told that the current room schedule was already booked until the National Day holiday, but he could consult volunteers, stay at local residents' homes, or temporarily spend the night in the local camping area, or go to the surrounding villages to rest. The huge flow of people has a significant role in boosting the local economy.

According to statistics from the Rongjiang County government, since the start of the "Village Super" on May 13, Rongjiang County has received a total of 2.5067 million tourists and achieved a comprehensive tourism income of 2.839 billion yuan. Not only that, the Village Super also brought many young people who went out to work back to their hometowns. For Rongjiang County, which only got rid of the poverty hat in 2020, the successful holding of the Village Super, which was spontaneously mobilized by the people, has enhanced the local cohesion and pride. Zhang Dadou further analyzed that the structures of large cities and small cities are different, and the difficulty of promoting the development of urban IP is also different. Large cities attach importance to attracting investment and talents. However, the talent structure is complex, and it is not easy to gather the strength of the whole city to create a city IP. The population structure in small places is relatively simple, which is easy to ignite a sense of regional honor. At the same time, Rongjiang is also working with surrounding areas to drive the further development of Guizhou. This year, many travel agencies have launched Guizhou special tourist routes, connecting Village Super and Village BA as two stations in series, increasing the number of tourist days while driving the development of the tourism economy in surrounding cities.

3. Can the village super and village BA in Guizhou be copied?

From the perspective of rural revitalization, the inspiration brought by Guizhou is that rural revitalization must first increase attention, and "heat is the best attraction." However, unlike Zibo and other rural tourism IPs featuring food, culture, and scenery, Village Super and Village BA develop sports into IPs, which has a more unique demonstration significance and is not easy to be copied.

The foundation of historical accumulation is a genetic advantage that others cannot replicate. Zhang Dayou pointed out that Rongjiang's unique historical foundation and local culture are difficult for other cities to replicate in the short term.

Football culture has been developing in Rongjiang for more than 80 years. There is a saying in the local area that "50,000 out of 380,000 people play football." Frequent exchanges and discussions between villages, regular football matches, and 14 standard football fields have laid the foundation for the village super this year. Taijiang, which hosts the village BA, also has a similar basketball cultural heritage. In addition, the value of IP also lies in the right time, place and people. "Football and basketball are the two sports with the most mass base. If there is no city with similar genes to copy the homework, it will be difficult to get such high attention and it is easy to 'imitate the ugly'."

Bobo said. At the same time, many people may not have noticed that Rongjiang has made five attempts to shape its urban IP since 2021.

Among the five attempts, one was bullfighting, but due to safety risks, its spread was limited; one was a basketball invitational tournament, but due to the epidemic, it was not widely spread; the third and fourth attempts were to hold the Drum-Tibet Festival (a traditional Miao festival) and the half marathon + Sama Festival (a sacrificial activity), but they failed to break through due to their strong seasonal and ethnic characteristics; in March this year, Rongjiang County also wanted to "copy Taijiang's homework" and hold a basketball exchange game, but it also failed to surpass the original. Rongjiang also took the detour of "copying IP" until it found a path of mass sports + ethnic characteristics + local genes, and then it really broke through.

"Practice has proved that it is difficult to create a single IP, whether it is sports or intangible cultural heritage, and the two must be cleverly combined." Xu Bo, deputy secretary of the Rongjiang County Party Committee and county magistrate, once publicly stated. In addition, the village super and village BA are not good-looking in terms of technology, but the spirit of hard work. Pure competitions that are not tainted by commercialism are what many fans call for.

In this regard, He Huan, director of the Rongjiang County Tourism Industry Development Service Center, told the media, "Our most basic principle is to insist on commercialization. If we want to commercialize, we will not do it within the scope of this stadium."

The answer given by the Village Super League is to avoid over-commercialization and to seize the opportunity to commercialize outside of competitions.

According to media reports, some cities have also begun to follow suit and launch village BA and village super, but the introduction of too many sponsors too early and too many, and the commercialization of sports enthusiasm before the game has even started, have already caused some opposition. In fact, outside of Rongjiang, many cities and villages in China have a tradition of hosting amateur events. Perhaps in the future, "village horse racing", "village badminton", "village table tennis", etc., can also attract the participation and attention of the general public. Policies also strongly encourage exploration in this direction.

On June 25, the General Administration of Sports and 12 national ministries and commissions jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting Sports to Help Rural Revitalization", proposing to promote the high-quality development of rural sports and establish a new pattern of rural sports development. It also proposed the development goal of cultivating more than 100 "most beautiful rural sports events" across the country by 2035.

Although Murachao cannot be completely copied, its IP creation methodology can be used as a reference.

Zhang Dadou pointed out that every city has its own cultural roots and historical characteristics , and has the opportunity to become popular, but what is lacking is to find a link point that resonates with the current mood, find a label with contrast, comparison, and origin, and promote it with a very positive attitude and matching good enough resources. Hot spots will pass, but IP will remain. Village Super will not be the peak of urban IP, but the beginning of urban IP becoming a model. At the request of the interviewee, Bobo is a pseudonym in the article.

Author: Bruce; Editor: Xiang Yuan

Source: WeChat public account "Dingjiao"