How to create a trend on Xiaohongshu? Can pickleball become the next Lu Chong?

Introduction: If there is a sport that combines badminton, table tennis and even tennis, would you dare to try it? The author takes the trend of pickleball as an example and briefly describes the marketing methods of Xiaohongshu and other platforms. I hope that while popularizing sports, you can also learn new communication knowledge.

Have you heard of pickleball?

This tennis-like sport is gradually becoming popular on Xiaohongshu and may become another trendy sport after skiing, land dashing and frisbee.

Currently, the number of searches for "pickleball" on Xiaohongshu has reached over 30,000, which is almost 1/3 of Lu Chong's.

Compared with users' thinking about Lu Chong's purchase decision, Xiaohongshu's discussion of pickleball is more about what it is, which further reflects that pickleball is still in the early stages of the category.

Figure 1: Pickleball VS Luchong search volume

A brief introduction to pickleball. Pickleball is a sport in which a ball is hit with a racket. It originated from Benbridge Island in Seattle, USA.

It is most appropriate to say that it is a hybrid sport of tennis, badminton and table tennis. Compared with tennis, it is more friendly to beginners and easier to get started. In fact, Lu Chong is easier to get started with than skateboarding, which is similar to the fact that it is easier to get started with skateboarding.

Figure 2: Pickleball example

The popularity of pickleball on Xiaohongshu also made me think, how can a sport or product become a popular trend?

To understand what kind of diffusion path it will take, we need to refer to the book "Diffusion of Innovations" published by Rogers and Shoemaker in 1962, which proposed the innovation diffusion theory. The innovation diffusion trajectory is S-shaped, with different groups of people in each stage.

As a lifestyle platform for young people, Xiaohongshu has users who like fresh and interesting things, and it has a natural soil for popular things.

Figure 3: Rogers and Shoemaker's innovation diffusion law

In the diffusion of innovation, the spread is divided into innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards.

Obviously, pickleball is still somewhere between innovation and early adopter, which is explained in detail below.

Innovators: about 2.5% of the total number of people, gatekeepers of new ideas, they are trend discoverers, and their characteristic is that they like new research;

Early adopters: about 13.5%, opinion leaders, successful but cautious innovation adopters. Remember that they play a key role in popular trends. For example, bloggers in various communities and fields are core key leaders.

Early majority: about 34%, thoughtful, cautiously follow the trend but rarely lead. This is the vast majority of Xiaohongshu users who see the trend and then buy related products.

Late majority: about 34%, are skeptical of innovation and follow innovations only after most members adopt them;

Laggards: About 16% resist innovation and adopt it only after they are sure it will not fail.

Following Rogers' communication method, I tried to gain insight into the spread of pickleball on Xiaohongshu. With the help of the third-party tool Huitun, I exported some notes about pickleball. I found that the pickleball data was earliest concentrated in 2022, but the core was concentrated in 2023, accounting for more than 85%.

Figure 4: Pickleball Xiaohongshu Notes

Screening the notes for 2022, the overall screening shows that it is not related to pickleball and the popularity is average. However, when screening for 2023, there are many popular articles on pickleball, including those by amateur bloggers, pickleball clubs, and Little Red Potato officials.

In particular, the official launched a topic called "Play Pickleball Together" and called on bloggers to follow up and post to further expand the popularity of pickleball.

At this time, the official plays the core role of early adopters, calling on fitness and outdoor bloggers to try pickleball.

Figure 5: Pickleball official Xiaohongshu notes

In addition, judging from the blogger’s post, the core is still to popularize the sport of pickleball, what it is, how to play it, and how to experience it for the first time?

Most of them are in the science and pickleball category, which also verifies the official emphasis on users. Users create trends, and communities lead trends, which further amplifies the voice of Xiaohongshu, takes the lead in leading trends, and then drives industry consumption.

Figure 6: Xiaohongshu focuses on trend definition

From the current merchants participating in the Pickleball site, it is still mainly Pickleball clubs. The sales of products have not yet started, the sales volume on the site is almost zero, and the highest sales volume of Taobao merchants is less than 100.

With the popularity of sports, I believe there will be more and more extended products and advertising placements, allowing demand to drive consumption.

This also raises a question for brands of related products: how to integrate their own product branding through new fashion trends.

Author: Jianghe team

Source: WeChat public account "Jianghe Chat Marketing"