Beating Xiao Yangge! This Douyin traffic dark horse is a bit crazy!

The huge cultural differences between the north and south always attract people's attention quickly. Observing different lives from different perspectives can create unexpected jokes. The number of likes for the videos of "Warm Family" has skyrocketed in the past three months, and the number of fans is also on the rise. Let's take a look at what new tricks this funny father-in-law and son-in-law can come up with, and how long the appeal of the lovable father-in-law can last.

Talented people emerge in every generation, and this sentence is the most appropriate to describe Douyin bloggers.

In December 2022, a dark horse "Warm Family" emerged on Douyin, which gained 2.47 million followers in a single month, surpassing Douyin influencers such as Zhang Lan and Xiao Yangge, becoming the account with the largest monthly increase in followers except for official newspaper media.

This account features a father-in-law from eastern Inner Mongolia (geographically considered the Northeast) and his southern son-in-law Jiahui as the protagonists. It uses the differences in life and culture between the north and the south as the entry point for content, and records the two's funny daily interactions in the form of Vlogs.

"Warm Family" joined Douyin in January last year and currently has nearly 9 million followers and 120 million likes.

▲Photo source: Cicada Mom

This magical combination of the north and south broke the stereotypes of the relationship between father-in-law and son-in-law, and vividly interpreted the funny and warm daily life, with frequent jokes and true feelings. The comments section called them "a pair of funny people", "a funny family", "Emma laughed to death"...

1. Find the right entry point, the differences between the north and the south, and create endless jokes

A southern son-in-law takes his northeastern father-in-law to buy vegetables in a southern vegetable market. This is a very common scene in life, but through the lens of "Warm Family", we see the strong contrast caused by different cultural customs, and the funny things in life that make people laugh and cry.

People in the south buy vegetables individually, like potatoes and onions are bought one by one, while in the north they are bought in big bags.

When the father-in-law saw that his son-in-law only bought two potatoes and asked the boss to peel them, and asked for a piece of dried tofu to be shredded, he immediately moved to Bengbu and said, "I would have peeled you a long time ago in the Northeast."

▲Image source: TikTok

The father-in-law who couldn't stand it simply took on the task of buying vegetables: 10 kilograms of potatoes, and filled bags with cucumbers and eggplants. The father-in-law's bold move shocked the southern vegetable seller, who thought he was a restaurant owner and came to buy goods.

The same north-south differences are also reflected in food culture.

When my father-in-law went to a southern restaurant for dinner for the first time, he came up and said, "Two or three dishes are enough for the four of us. We won't be able to finish an additional staple food."

Little did they know that this is the south. The size of a basket of buns in the south and the north are not the same. These two or three dishes are definitely not enough to fill the gaps between my father-in-law’s stomach.

Well, when the dishes came, my father-in-law was shocked, “Shanghai cuisine is so, so exquisite.” The three dishes combined were not as much as one dish from Northeast China.

We went to a barbecue, and it was the son-in-law's turn to be generous and order 20 skewers of corn. The father-in-law thought it was corn cobs and said he couldn't eat it, and played the emotional card, "I don't treat you badly in normal times" (inner OS: You're just treating me to corn?).

What came up was a skewer of corn kernels. The father-in-law was speechless for a moment. He felt like he was being fooled, and said angrily, "Are you kidding me?" The comedic effect was perfect.

▲Image source: TikTok

The barbecue in the south is all mini skewers, expensive and few in number. The comment section triggered complaints from northern netizens and complaints from southern netizens, whether it is vulgar or heroic, stingy or meticulous, everyone expressed their opinions and it was very lively.

Scenes such as buying vegetables at the market, eating at restaurants, and eating barbecue are all portrayals of the ordinary lives of the general public.

"A Warm Family" starts from the huge differences in life culture between the north and the south, observing life in the north (south) from the southern (northern) perspective, thus sparking unexpected jokes.

2. Father-in-law and son-in-law combination + comedy + food, content creation is adaptable

In the first video, the daughter is about to give birth, and the father drives more than 2,000 kilometers to Shanghai to visit her with a car full of Inner Mongolia specialties.

Sticky bean curd, beef jerky, cheese, black-bone chicken, two large buckets of lard, homemade beef and mutton rolls, and even a freezer filled with a whole Inner Mongolian black pig.

The father-in-law drove thousands of miles, and what he carried in his car was not only food, but also his sincere love for his children.

With this short 1-minute video, the character of "the best father" was firmly rooted in the hearts of the audience, while revealing a warm and happy family image, which is very consistent with the account name and positioning.

▲Image source: TikTok

The first video of "Warm Family" received over 800,000 likes. They struck while the iron was hot and continued to update it at the rate of releasing a video every 1-2 days.

There are videos recording his wife’s prenatal check-up and the birth of his daughter, as well as videos of his father-in-law shopping and cooking, but the overall traffic is far less than the first video.

Until January 26, a southern son-in-law took his northern father-in-law to buy vegetables at a southern vegetable market. When he bought a sheet of bean curd, the shopkeeper helped cut it into shreds, shocking his father-in-law: "It would be better to help you fry it than to help you cut it into shreds. The service in Shanghai is really good."

This video completely ignited the comment area, receiving 1.547 million likes and over 70,000 comments. Netizens lamented, "Is the Shanghai vegetable market so humane?" Some people also said, "It's so funny that the father-in-law has never seen the 'market'."

▲Image source: TikTok

Starting from the food culture that is a consensus among people across the country, focusing on the differences between the north and the south, using exaggerated expressions and humorous language, it presents the "natural" things in life. The contrast of regional identities creates the "laughing effect" of the dialogue.

This popular video allowed "Warm Family" to capture the traffic code of "food + north-south differences" and also realized the likability of the identity of the father-in-law.

In terms of content, the film targets the niche track of food that represents the differences between the north and the south to create funny plots, and makes the father-in-law who stutters and has a sense of humor the protagonist, and the son-in-law who looks silly but is actually filial a supporting role.

This father-in-law is not only a funny man, but also a handsome chef. He is good at frying twisted dough sticks, making cakes, roasting whole lamb, and preparing all kinds of Northeastern dishes.

During the food preparation process, the audience can feast their eyes on the sharing of authentic local delicacies, and also have fun laughing from the bickering and complaints between the father-in-law and the son-in-law.

In addition, in order to enrich the image of the characters, "Warm Family" also imitated "Crazy Little Brother Yang" and "Zhang Ruoyu", and added a lot of content in which the two played pranks on each other in the video, such as the father-in-law tricking the son-in-law into licking the iron gate, the son-in-law secretly making faces for the father-in-law, and the son-in-law tricking the father-in-law into eating lemons, etc., which made people laugh and made people feel that their relationship was more like that of a real father and son.

▲Image source: TikTok

In the current era of attention shortage, in order to grab fans' attention immediately, "Warm Family" firmly grasps the principle of golden 5 seconds. The theme of the entire video is pointed out in one sentence on the video cover, and a title that reads out the theme in dialect is added.

In the comedy drama track, "Warm Family" has found the entry point for the content, continuously innovates content around the theme of "food + differences between the North and the South", and incorporates hot topics and hot memes that cater to the trend into the video.

It not only creates a harmonious and happy family atmosphere, but also has a sense of fireworks and dense laughter. In the field of content creation with serious internal circulation, this combination that is better than father and son can also successfully break through.

3. Account matrix, expanding monetization paths

"Warm Family" has two monetization channels: inserting advertisements in videos, and the most important one is live streaming to sell goods.

According to Chanmama data, the account held 43 live broadcasts in 2022, with an average of 946,000 views per broadcast. After October, the GMV of each live broadcast exceeded one million, and the accumulated sales have exceeded 10 million.

The products sold are mainly local specialties of Inner Mongolia, and the categories are concentrated in fresh fruits and vegetables and food and beverages.

During the live streaming sales event on December 29 last year, 18 out of 40 products were labeled with Inner Mongolia and Northeast China . My father-in-law's regional identity and label as a gourmet maker have made him the natural spokesperson for these products.

▲Image source: TikTok

Judging from the fan portrait, female fans account for a relatively large proportion of "Warm Family", and their ages are approximately between 31 and 50 years old. The fan base determines the positioning of the products promoted by "Warm Family".

Within the framework of character settings and funny plots, it is difficult for "Warm Family" to continue to monetize by relying on a single account, because compared to short videos of 1-2 minutes with intensive laughs, people lack the patience and attention for live broadcasts that last for several hours.

At present, "Wen Nuan Yi Jia" has not signed a contract with an MCN agency, and the frequency of live streaming sales is very low. Perhaps it wants to maintain fan relationships for a long time and avoid selling too much goods that will reduce user favorability.

In terms of content creation, "Warm Family" has gradually encountered bottlenecks. There are several repetitive topics, such as visiting the vegetable market, eating barbecue, driving home for the New Year, and making meal bags.

▲Image source: TikTok

The different north-south strategies have accumulated a certain number of fans for the account. Now, in order to maintain and continue to attract more fans, "Warm Family" must think about how to continue to launch innovative plots, or use more diverse character relationships to enrich the story, such as a Northeastern daughter-in-law and a Southern father-in-law, a Southern son-in-law and a Northeastern mother-in-law, etc.

It is easy for a single account to be trapped in the character positioning of a Northeastern father-in-law and a Southern son-in-law, and other family members will inevitably become the background of the story. "Warm Family" is also aware of this problem, so it started to create a content matrix account, and extended it to accounts such as "Uncle Xiaowei" and "Grandpa's Little Lemon".

The protagonist of "Uncle Xiaowei" is a southern grandfather, and it also follows the route of "food + differences between the north and the south + funny plots". It currently has 846,000 fans. "Grandpa's Little Lemon" is a baby-raising channel. It has only released 3 videos so far, and it can be monetized in the mother-infant parenting track in the future.

▲Image source: TikTok

All three accounts are inseparable from the father-in-law’s appearance. Although he is the traffic code of “Warm Family”, putting all the attention on one person, at this level of consumption, the audience will sooner or later feel tired.

The number of likes for the videos of "Warm Family" in the past three months has exceeded 500,000, and nearly half of them have exceeded 1 million. The number of fans is still on the rise.

What new tricks can this funny father-in-law and son-in-law come up with, and how long the appeal of the likable father-in-law can last, depends on whether there will be better content formats to take over the next wave of traffic cycles.

References:

E-commerce Online: On Douyin, has the “Northeastern Father-in-law in the South” series become the secret to a hit?

Author:Hiu

Source: WeChat public account "Internet Brand Official (ID: szwanba)"