This article is reprinted with permission from Xinbang
Weibo has over 10 million followers, and public account followers have exceeded 5 million last month. For the "Uncles", the problem they face is no longer how to become popular, but how to stay popular and remain popular. According to public reports, Tongdao’s annual revenue reached 50 million yuan in 2015. Before that, “Uncle Tongdao” had realized the ceiling of self-media monetization.
When we talk about "Uncle", these four words have different meanings for the new media industry. As one of the most successful “self-media” companies, “Uncle Tongdao” is making an unprecedented effort in a battlefield where most of its peers have not yet arrived - surpassing self-media, transforming into a brand, an IP, and ultimately establishing a stable constellation empire.
We know nothing about the difficulty and feasibility of this path, but this path is of great significance to content entrepreneurs. It means whether the content entrepreneurship that we are talking about can really reach an industry highland where people can make money by "brushing their faces", thereby fundamentally improving the imagination space and market position of content entrepreneurship.
When we talk about "Uncles from the Same Road", what are we talking about?
We may be talking about one person - Cai Yuedong, the founder of "Uncle Tongdao". Post-90s, Chaoshan native, graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, Tsinghua University in 2013.
We may be talking about an avatar - the comic image of "Uncle". There is a tuft of hair on the top of his head, his eyebrows and nose are connected together, his beard covers one-fifth of his face, and his mouth is crooked in a wicked smile.
We may be talking about a self-media - a content matrix of "Uncles from the Same Path" that started on Weibo and has spread across various platforms. Currently, it has more than 10 million fans on Weibo and more than 5 million fans on its official WeChat account.
We may also be talking about a pan-entertainment group company - Tongdao Culture Group. It includes Daozai Media, Tongdao Life, Tongdao Pictures and other subsidiaries, and operates new media marketing, publishing, derivatives, e-commerce, drama and other businesses. Revenue in 2015 reached 50 million yuan.
Since the release of the first zodiac sign complaint on Weibo in July 2013, "Uncle Tongdao" has been out of control, attracting 5 million followers a year, becoming the number one zodiac sign on Weibo, and later extended to WeChat and other platforms. From the simplest simple drawings to the current series of zodiac signs, from comics to animations and videos, the influence is increasing day by day. Nowadays, "Uncle" has become synonymous with zodiac signs.
Like people's impression of Chaoshan people who are good at doing business, under Cai Yuedong's painstaking management, "Uncle Tongdao" is standing at the forefront of content entrepreneurship, and has far exceeded the connotation of the three words "self-media".
The "Uncle Tongdao" as we know it is just a Weibo and a public account. Unnoticed by the public, "Uncle Tongdao" has become a comprehensive pan-entertainment and cultural group that includes new media, dramas, variety shows, derivatives, physical stores and other product business lines.
Upgrade! evolution! extend! Beyond self-media
In October 2015, Fan Sun and other members of the IP development and management team joined Tongdao Culture. At this time, Tongdao was launching a strategic upgrade plan with the intention of evolving from self-media and Internet celebrities to a platform. This upgrade is divided into three aspects, from KOL to IP upgrade, from IP to brand evolution, and from online to offline expansion.
Upgrading from KOL to IP
“KOL relies heavily on individuals, and its life cycle and scalability are extremely limited, and IP can solve bottlenecks at both levels.” Fan Sun, operation consultant of Tongdao Culture, said that this transformation and upgrading can be said to be deliberate. In order to build Uncle Tongdao into a ten-year brand, this is the inevitable path.
The upgrade from KOL to IP is carried out at two levels:
First, the visualization of "Uncle". Within four months from October 2015 to February 2016, "Uncle" was no longer just an image of a little white man. Each of the 12 zodiac signs had its own specific image. These images were selected from popular animals on social media and turned into avatars of the constellations.
Second, separate Cai Yuedong, the founder of Uncle Tongdao, from his specific image. The image of Uncle Tongdao = the image of a big-headed hood ≠ Cai Yuedong. "On the one hand, the consideration is that Cai Yuedong is not an IP, and 'Uncle Tongdao' is an IP, which is different from the situation of Papi Jiang who directly appeared on the scene. On the other hand, by releasing Cai Yuedong from 'Uncle Tongdao', he can devote more energy to management and other creations, such as creating a second 'Uncle Tongdao' IP image."
Evolution from IP to brand
IP represents virtual assets that can be explored, and commercialization must rely on products. This is the meaning of evolving from IP to brand. "Previously, Tongdao provided content products on Weibo and WeChat, and the purpose of upgrading to a brand is to provide more other types of products." Fan Sun said.
Tongdao's content products have also been extended to publications, "Never Know a Capricorn" and "As long as I'm here, no one dares to touch you!" " were published in May 2015 and August 2016 respectively. In Tongdao's plan, each of the twelve constellations will publish a book.
In addition to publications, there are a wide variety of products that our colleagues have developed and plan to develop. On July 8 this year, at the Tongdao Culture Strategy Conference, Tongdao officially announced that it has designed and developed 8 major categories, 88 sub-categories, and accumulated more than 1,200 SKU (stock keeping unit) derivatives, covering various categories such as clothing, home furnishings, accessories, 3C, stationery, snack food, animation, and cultural derivatives.
In March 2016, Tongdao Culture signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Rococo Design Group to establish the "Constellation Laboratory" to design and develop related products. In the plan, Tongdao Culture will have more than 3,000 SKUs of self-developed derivative products in 2016.
From online to offline
This wave of content entrepreneurs are using the power of the Internet to gain fans and monetize their content. There are people who have gone from online to offline, but maybe none of them will implement it as a strategy like "Uncle".
On July 8, 2016, "Uncle Tongdao·Trendy Constellation Carnival" opened in Guangzhou Zhengjia Plaza. This is an offline exhibition built with the image of Tongdao Constellation as the core. According to Fan Sun, in more than a month, the carnival sold more than 10,000 tickets, and offline derivative sales reached nearly 2 million yuan, which verified the stickiness and spending power of fellow fans.
The carnival is a temporary project, but Tongdao’s vision is to become a regular presence offline. In Shanghai’s Super Brand Plaza, the renovation of a coffee shop is nearing completion. This is Tongdao Coffee, the first offline physical store created by Tongdao Culture.
“Why can Comrade make coffee? The reason here is that both zodiac signs and coffee have both social and emotional attributes. Tongdao’s cafe is not just a place to simply sell coffee, it is also an offline display space for Tongdao culture and an exhibition and sales space for derivatives. Fan Sun also revealed that based on the influence accumulated by colleagues on social media, shopping mall operators will provide very favorable rental conditions to attract people.
Build a pan-entertainment ecological chain and target big movies
Tongdao Culture’s positioning is to build a pan-entertainment business empire with constellation culture as its core. In the case of "Uncle Tongdao" = constellation culture, Tongdao has quietly extended its influence beyond social platforms, involved in more content forms and cultural fields, and is also exploring more business possibilities.
In the pan-entertainment ecological chain built by Tongdao around the constellations, in addition to the publishing, exhibition and sales mentioned above,Products include film and television, games, groups, art, etc., which have exceeded the scope of media. Moreover, colleagues have already tried their best in several areas.
In 2015, a play of the same name created by Tongdao was tested on a small scale in Shanghai. Without large-scale promotion, all 40 performances were sold out through the ticketing platform.
The purpose of doing drama is not to make money, Comrade has a longer-term plan. "The drama is a low-cost way to test some logic. For example, will the constellation-themed story be accepted by users? This is to prepare for future constellation-themed theater movies. We are still in awe of what we have to do. Movies are a very complicated thing, and colleagues will not try it rashly."
In addition, Tongdao also infuses the "experimental" spirit into other aspects, and participates in the operation of more fields such as movies, variety shows, groups, etc. through the joint production model.
Fan Sun said: "For Tongdao, these are all foreshadowing, mainly to let users form brand awareness and let them know that Tongdao can also do these things. In the future, we still have high expectations for theatrical movies. We hope that through movies, Tongdao's brand will be pushed to a breaking point and become the highest peak of a brand."
Breaking through the ceiling of content entrepreneurship
During the rise of content entrepreneurship, there is always a question that bothers everyone: Where is the ceiling for content entrepreneurship?
Entrepreneurs want to know, investors also want to know, and even the editor who is immersed in typing also wants to know, because this is related to the future of hundreds of thousands or even millions of people. For all the content entrepreneurs we talked about who are based on platforms such as Weibo, official accounts, Toutiao, etc., their business models theoretically include advertising, e-commerce, copyright, value-added services, etc., but in fact, the most effective one is still advertising. In the wave of content entrepreneurship, the first wave of people who made tens of millions of dollars basically relied on advertising.
The advantage of advertising lies in its high monetization efficiency and mature model. Especially in the context of the collapse of traditional media channels, the market share of Internet advertising is rising steadily, and the situation of social media advertising is excellent. But the disadvantage is that the advertising ceiling is too low. The limited content output can only carry limited advertisements. It is estimated that fans feel that too many advertisements will undoubtedly kill the goose and lay the eggs. In 2015, "Uncle Tongdao" had revenue of 50 million yuan, more than half of which came from advertising. Fan Sun said, "It has almost hit the ceiling. Even with an annual growth of 25%, the room for imagination is already very limited."
There are two paths to breakthrough: horizontally, through self-replication, creating more accounts and achieving revenue growth; vertically, building IP upwards and extending downwards. In essence, the horizontal dimension only achieves scale effects through the superposition of manpower. The "Uncle" chose to challenge in the vertical dimension.
Director of Chuangdongfang Investment, "Wang Rui, project leader of "Uncle Tongdao", mentioned in an article that "IPization of large IDs" is an important derivative trend. Breaking through the boundaries of media and developing towards pan-entertainment can not only break through the limitations of advertising and e-commerce in monetization channels, but also get rid of dependence on a certain social platform and extend the life cycle. In reality, this is also the breakthrough direction of Tongdao Culture. Let's take a look at the possible revenue channels of Tongdao Culture outside of advertising in the future:
1.IP image commercial authorization;
2. Development and sales of publications and derivatives;
3. Offline exhibitions and coffee chain operations;
4. Drama, variety show, game and film and television development.
The commercial potential of various monetization channels cannot be underestimated, which also depends on Tongdao's own brand management. However, from the upcoming Tongdao Coffee, we found that it will greatly increase the ceiling of Tongdao's imagination.
“Coffee + derivatives = display space, this is a good way to make money. At the same time, coffee shops are also a highly replicable business model. Several coffee shops can be opened in each city. Fans who buy one Tongdao pillow may not buy a second one, but they are very likely to drink a second cup after drinking a cup of Tongdao coffee. "Fan Sun optimistically estimates that if done well, the annual revenue of a single Tongdao cafe in first-tier cities can reach 20 million yuan. If it covers first- and second-tier cities, the annual contribution to Tongdao's revenue will be in the amount of 100 million yuan.
Of course, the business of a coffee shop is more complicated than a public account, and there are more links that need to be controlled, which also means higher risks. "Uncle Tongdao" has the advantage of accumulated influence online and low offline store costs, but this is still a risky move. Among the countless factors that determine the success or failure of a coffee shop, as long as one factor is not considered properly, the failure of Tongdao Coffee will have a huge negative impact on the brand.
But on the other hand, if it succeeds, as a pioneer in online overcoming offline, colleagues will also be able to enjoy the honors and bonuses that the first wave of crab eaters should have.
(Authors: Zhang Heng, He Meijing)
