Kunpeng Project
Since the rise of social **, talent marketing has become an important marketing method, in the era of double micro (Weibo and WeChat), they are called KOL, in the short ** era, talent for the first time became the mainstream of the industry, and formed the most important force in brand marketing. Starting from the rise of Douyin around 2018, influencer marketing has gone through about 5 years so far, so has influencer's marketing reached its peak?Far from it,According to the data of Giant Star Map, in 2023, the scale of influencers who can receive orders will increase by 137% year-on-year, and the number of business orders received will increase by 142%, which shows that the marketing ecology based on influencers is still growing vigorously. In my opinion, the era of influencer marketing has just begun, but after 5 years, some new trends have emerged in influencer marketing, which will be what brand marketing needs to study and pay attention to. New Trends in Talent Marketing 1The rise of micro-influencers, the formation of a stable ecology at the head, waist and tailIn the influencer marketing trend in recent years, the rise of micro-influencers marks an important shift. Unlike top influencers with a large following, micro-influencers usually have a small following, but they are favored by brands for their authenticity, credibility, and close fan relationships. The most effective way of marketing is word-of-mouth marketing, and in the traditional era, micro-influencers were our relatives, friends, classmates, neighbors, ......The people they influence, although limited, are real and effective. In the era of social marketing, micro-influencers exist in large numbers among the platform's waist-tails and verticals, and most of their followers are close friends, classmates, or associates, and when they post a piece of recommendation, these fans will pay close attention and be affected. In the past few years, some brands did not choose the head influencer when doing grass marketing on Douyin, but chose dozens or hundreds of KOC or waist tail influencers, which took into account the real and credible characteristics of micro-influencers. Today, more and more brands are partnering with micro-influencers, especially for those looking for precise targeting or deep engagement. In such an environment,Influencer marketing is transforming from a single influencer-led model to a more diverse and balanced ecosystem, gradually forming a healthier olive-shaped influencer ecosystem. 
2.The niche market ushered in a vertical talent marketing boom I once heard a friend tell a story about a self-employed piano teacher who got clues by teaching people piano skills on Douyin in his spare time, and then successfully recruited new students through offline contact. In fact, practitioners in specific fields such as teachers, property consultants, and organizers are accelerating their entry into the ecosystem and participating in influencer marketing, and these vertical influencers are not only content creators, but also experts in their respective fields. Through their expertise and real-world experience, they attract a specific audience. For example, some vertical experts and sales of 4S stores who know a lot about cars use live broadcasts to introduce the selling points and information of a certain model to attract interested users, so as to help car brands get clues. There is such an example on Douyin, a brand can bring dozens or even hundreds of clues on average by finding hundreds of such KOCs for live broadcasts, for such vertical creators, they themselves do not have a high number of fans, but through this marketing method, they can earn up to a few thousand yuan a day. 3.In the traditional marketing model, consumers usually need to go through a long path from understanding the product to the final purchase, which often involves multiple platforms and steps, such as from the content of social media to the purchase of e-commerce platforms. Now, that model is changing. Taking Douyin as an example, the influencer marketing of the Douyin platform is achieving rapid conversion from content** to user purchase. This is due to the multiple functions integrated on Douyin, such as matching anchors for different industries and product categories, post-viewing search, etc. These features allow users to search for related products directly or purchase them directly through links at the same time as influencer content, greatly shortening the decision-making path. For example,oneWhen a mother and baby expert shares parenting tips on Douyin and recommends a milk powder, users can directly link to related products through **anchors. After the audience is interested, they can directly click on the link to browse and buy without leaving the platform. Similarly, through the post-viewing search function, users can directly search for brand or product information after ** content, learn more about product details and complete the purchase. This integrated marketing model not only improves the shopping experience of consumers, but also creates a more direct and efficient conversion path for brands. It reduces the number of users moving between different platforms and reduces the barriers to purchasing decisions. It is foreseeable that the further shortening of the quality and efficiency link will become an important development direction in the field of talent marketing. 4.In the early days, talent marketing often relied on manual operations, including manual search for suitable talents, communication and cooperation details, etc., and the measurement standards of early talent marketing were also more subjective, lacking in science and accuracy. This is all changing with the introduction of artificial intelligence and machine learning Xi technology. Most platforms have launched tools to connect brands with influencers today, using these tools, brands can automatically match suitable influencers according to their marketing goals, including targeting target audiences, content trends, and automatic recommendation of suitable influencers through data analysis. For example, the big cloud map provides brands with data analysis and insights to help them understand consumer behavior and trends. This information can be used to guide a brand's strategy when choosing a co-host, ensuring that marketing campaigns are more targeted and effective. In terms of measurement, marketing science is also becoming more and more accessible today. Because the platform provides pre-investment data insight tools, post-launch conversion links and all relevant data, it is becoming easier and easier for brands to measure from pre-data research to drive decision-making, medium-term content strategy to post-marketing effect quantification and optimization. 5.From spontaneous marketing to co-creation marketing with platformsIn the marketing industry, many marketers like to do things with their heads covered, and do not pay attention to the dynamics of some big platforms, in essence, they are still doing things with traditional marketing thinking. When you pay attention to the dynamics of the platform, you will find that the platform is leading some marketing activities almost every month, and their purpose is to get more brands involved. The essence of brand participation in platform activities is the logic of hot spots, when brands take advantage of hot spot marketing, it is to obtain the tilt of hot spots in user sentiment and platform traffic, platform activities are actually the platform itself to create hot spots, and the platform needs more brand participation to make hot spots bigger, and brands should also participate in it to obtain the potential energy of hot spots. Under the logic of e-commerce, brands that want good business will definitely participate in the promotion, and under the marketing logic, brands that want good results should also consider participating in the marketing activities of the platform, the same reason. 
Under the new trend, how can brands do a good job in influencer marketing?When the new trend comes, of course, brands also need to follow the trend and change their marketing strategies, so how should brands do a good job in marketing under the new situation?Here are some of my suggestions. 1.Break through the head effect and dig deep into the value of the head, waist and tailThe problem with this kind of thinking is that the risk is very high, once the marketing is not done well, the budget will be wasted at least half, which is essentially a big gamble. Under the new talent marketing trend, brands should break through the single thinking of relying too much on the top talent, and instead dig deep into the value of the waist and tail and vertical talent. Although it is difficult for this diversified strategy to make the brand an instant hit, the long-term operation can accumulate brand equity, and it can also lead to qualitative changes in quantity. At last week's Giant Star Map Talent Festival, Douyin divided the talents into four categories, and the top talents who meet the needs of the brand to break the circle needless to say, here are the other three types of talents. Mid-waist influencers: These influencers are better at "planting grass", and their audience tends to be more focused and loyal, so recommendations are more likely to generate trust. For example, Luckin's sauce-flavored latte was spread through the middle-waist talent matrix, and it won 43 hot lists on Douyin on the same day, with a total of 1 billion related content, and on Douyin, the related short** average of 7 interactions, 1 cup of sauce-flavored latte was sold, setting a new record for a single variety of grass. Vertical experts: They focus on specific verticals, such as food, health, travel, etc., and have high professionalism and influence in their fields, and can effectively drive conversion. For example, the "Only Dream of Red Mansions: Drama Fantasy City" attraction in Langfang, Hebei Province, has successfully attracted the surrounding high-spending crowd through cooperation with vertical experts in the field of culture and tourism, and has achieved effective transformation. Emerging influencers: While these emerging influencers are growing, they are often more dynamic and creative, bringing fresh perspectives and content to the brand. Their content may not have high short-term traffic, but it is relatively high-quality, and if brands are good at using their materials, they are likely to achieve a small cost to leverage large dissemination. In view of the value of different types of talents, Giant Star Map has also launched the "Talent Plus" solution, from the perspective of the brand, it can help merchants achieve more certain marketing and measurement methods, from the perspective of talents, it provides more suitable growth and monetization paths for talents, and in the whole marketing process, the platform provides a more efficient link between the two to achieve matching efficiency. Therefore, in the new situation, there is no need for brand marketing to hold on to the head, and make good use of the value of the middle waist and tail talents, which can also bring value to the brand. 2.Break through the pure ** thinking, tracking and marketing integrationMost of the traditional marketing only pursues the brand, but as mentioned above, under the new talent marketing trend, the link from the brand to the effect transformation is extremely shortened, so marketers should pursue the integration of marketing. For example, the full-link solution of "Star Push Search Direct" of Mega Star Map, through the cooperation of Mega Star Map experts, first obtain high-quality content, and then amplify the high-quality content through content hot push, dou+, etc., and then combine the search product specialty, and then complete the conversion in the live broadcast room. In the middle of this year, Honor released**Tablet Magic Pad13, Honor's marketing strategy is to achieve the integration of planting and harvesting through talent placement**. Honor first cooperated with a large number of star map experts to select head experts + vertical circle experts, and delivered the core selling points of office products through the content interpretation of science and technology, evaluation, drama and workplace talents. Then, by embedding product links and search keywords in the content, the audience was guided to further explore the product information, complete the "search after viewing", and through star promotion and search drainage, the search PV increased by 341% in more than a month. Finally, Honor has done a good job in traffic undertaking by laying out search products and Douyin live broadcast rooms, which has driven the positive growth of GPM and GMV in the live broadcast room and further improved the conversion effect. 3.Breaking through the independent combat thinking, taking advantage of the platform IP and traffic, there are more and more brand co-branding this year, Luckin co-branded Moutai, Heytea co-branded Fendi ......Because it's getting harder and harder, more and more brands are learning to take advantage of it. It is much more efficient for brands to cooperate with influencers to build IP with the platform party, or participate in the activities of the platform IP, and take advantage of the traffic. The wind-making IP project launched by Giant Star Map helps brands customize topics and achieve hot spots, which is to market together with brands and talents. For example, this year, Giant Star Map and clothing and outdoor brand customers have created a very new outdoor topic marketing. The specific approach is that the giant star map is linked to the huge number of calculations, the trend of the content in advance, and then calls on the influencers to stimulate users' interest in the outdoor lifestyle by publishing relevant content, such as outdoor equipment display, outdoor activity experience sharing, etc., and the sub-topic "People in the City" is in the field Rushing to the top 5 of the hot list. This campaign proves that through in-depth cooperation with platforms and influencers, brands can effectively leverage the platform's traffic and IP to achieve higher marketing efficiency. Conclusion: 2023 has entered the end of the year, and the five trends of influencer marketing mentioned above: the rise of micro-influencers, the vertical influencer marketing boom, the extreme shortening of the quality and efficiency link, the co-creation of marketing with the platform, and the scientific marketing will also run through the influencer marketing in 2024. Therefore, following the evolution of the marketing ecology of talents, and constantly improving and practicing their own marketing methods is a compulsory course for every brand.