Recently, when I was scrolling through Xiaohongshu, I found that more and more people seemed to be posting cute peripherals of "Yuanmeng Star", which is somewhat unusual at a time when major social media are generally swiped by Spring Festival content.
In fact, in the preview live broadcast of the Spring Festival version on February 2, "Yuan Dream Star" announced the blockbuster IP linkage of Ultraman and Milk Dragon, introduced the new gameplay of the Spring Festival and New Year benefits, and also officially announced the cross-border cooperation with the two major brands of Zhejiang Kailan Brand Management*** hereinafter referred to as "The Green Party" and "Lingli", and jointly built theme stores and launched plush and pendants, building blocks and other IP derivatives.
Thanks to the rapid implementation of the cooperation, the enthusiasm of players to go to the store to purchase peripherals was ignited, which in turn led to the rise and spread of related topics on major social media.
The Green Party (hereinafter referred to as TGP) theme store.
Previously, most of the industry's attention to Yuanmeng focused on its continuous development of content and social ecological construction, and many explorations made to build a new scene of online entertainment by shaping a "small family carnival metaverse" for players, such as GameRes also recently published an article looking forward to its Spring Festival performance.
But for a top-notch new product that has accumulated more than 80 million users, Yuanmeng's "ambition" is obviously more than that, through this cooperation with Kailan, it is not difficult to see that its goal is to carry out cooperation and layout around "IP derivatives", and further connect online and offline social entertainment scenes, in addition to bringing players new choices for the New Year, but also laying a solid foundation for its long-term IP construction.
Unlock offline social entertainment scenarios and provide players with new choices for the New Year
As an important step to open up the offline social entertainment scene, the number of the first batch of theme stores of "Dream Star" has exceeded expectations - the green party has 253 stores, 191 smart stores, and a total of more than 450 stores, which means that during this Spring Festival, almost all people across the country can feel the happiness of being surrounded by "Xingbao" when shopping in first- and second-tier cities.
Complementing the number of stores is the category of IP derivatives.
This time, the game launched a variety of peripherals including plush dolls, blind box figures, and epoxy pendants, covering a number of popular characters of Yuanmeng, which is enough to meet the needs and preferences of different players.
At the same time, during the Spring Festival, some stores have set up a special "check-in area", and players can receive a red envelope redemption code as long as they complete the check-in and praise activities, which not only reveals the concept of "Yuan Dream Star" "pet fans" to send benefits, but also combines "shopping" and "playing" together, so that players can enjoy a more sufficient "sense of festival ritual" through the substantive social behavior of taking pictures, punching cards, and sharing.
The check-in area of the smart theme store.
In Gameres' view, the core significance of the landing of the theme store is to open up a new social entertainment scene for players.
Closer to home, during the Spring Festival holiday, in addition to being able to gather at home in the "Little Metaverse of Family Carnival" in "Yuanmeng Star", in addition to unlocking a new way to celebrate the New Year, it is also not impossible to go to the "Yuanmeng Theme Store" to choose a favorite Yuanmeng peripheral for brothers and sisters during the Spring Festival City Walk, and redefine what the "New Year's goods" belonging to young people should look like.
Even a series of lively peripherals are expected to become a new link to the player's emotions offline - imagine that when a player catches a glimpse of the "Mei Shanshan" pendant on a stranger's backpack in the subway, supermarket, café and other places, it may be possible to respond to the sentence "Hey, so you are also 'Xingbao'!".The opening remarks and harvested a precious friendship.
It can be seen that with the landing of theme stores and the launch of IP derivatives, the new way of social entertainment created by "Yuan Dream Star" is also expected to complete a new round of transmission from online to offline, providing more choices for players who want to jump out of the traditional New Year experience and yearn for new surprises in the New Year.
Through IP derivatives to connect online and offline, the long-term IP construction of "Yuanmeng Star" began to exert force
Why did "Dream Star" start to lay out the IP derivatives market early?
From the perspective of industry trends, in May last year, the "2022-2023 Mobile Game IP Market Development Report" released by Gamma Data showed that the scale of China's mobile game IP derivatives market has grown for three consecutive years, reaching 3.5 billion yuan in 2022.
Combined with the characteristics of "continuous growth + small market share" in this market, it is not difficult to find that the current game IP derivatives are still in their infancy, and there are still a lot of long-tail potential to be tapped.
Although the issuance of IP derivatives is an indispensable part of the long-term IP construction of games, most small and medium-sized games are often constrained by the scale of users and the depth of content, and lack the foundation and driving force to open up the market.
However, "Yuanmeng Star" is different, the solid foundation of more than 80 million registered users in the first month of its launch, coupled with the increasingly mature product form of "Family Carnival Small Metaverse", has given it the confidence to build a long-term IP and even develop into a "national-level IP" in the future.
On this basis, strengthening the IP penetration rate and influence of offline scenarios and accelerating the layout of the IP derivatives market is undoubtedly the only way for its IP long-term operation.
As Chang Jian, an analyst at Gamma Data, once said: "The purpose of developing the derivatives market is not limited to improving the profitability of the game IP industry, but the prosperity of the derivatives market can improve the ecological activity of IP and provide a path for the expansion of IP influence, which is a favorable condition for the long-term development of IP and the IP market." ”
After figuring out why "Dream Star" wants to do IP derivatives, the next question is, what can IP derivatives bring to its long-term IP operation?
Gameres believes that this can be summed up in three key words:
Activation
Since its launch, "Star Treasures" such as Rabbit and Mei Shanshan have already won the love of a large number of players with their distinctive image and temperament.
As a concrete reflection of "Xingbao" in reality, IP derivatives can carry players' emotions and strengthen the sense of brand identity by giving players a "sense of companionship". On the other hand, IP derivatives can also create more topics for players to socialize, and further open up social links between players.
In the long run, not only will the emotional bond between players and games be stronger, but the user ecosystem will also be more active along with the strengthening of social experience.
The love for "Xingbao" has become the centripetal force for players to start social discussions.
Break the circle
The emergence of IP derivatives provides more possibilities for the circle-breaking spread of "Yuanmeng Star".
On the one hand, based on the characteristics of visible and tactile physical media, IP derivatives can help them form a new communication effect and reach more users who are difficult to reach by traditional online marketing methods; On the other hand, players' discussion of "tap water" for IP derivatives may also help the game achieve cross-circle "planting".
After opening up a new link of online and offline communication, not only will the game attract the attention of more incremental users, but its IP influence will also be released in the process of communication.
Users who have been "planted" have asked how to buy it.
Empowering
From "Lena Belle" to be out of stock every time there is a new around, to dolls such as big-eared dogs and kulomi that have become "must-have fashion items" for young women. In the past few years, behind the rapid growth of Disney, Sanrio and other head IPs, almost all of them are inseparable from the help of IP derivatives.
Based on this, Yuanmeng, which has the same common characteristics as them as solid online content and a solid user ecology, is also expected to make IP derivatives become the "third pole" driving its growth, and constantly renew the surrounding form from the needs of players, so that it can empower the construction of game IP in the long run.
Some players are already looking forward to the "Special Edition Merchandise".
With the support of this smooth development logic, it can be expected that the layout exploration of the IP derivatives market by "Yuanmeng Star" has just begun, and there will be more big moves in the future.
For example, as far as the cooperation with Kailan is concerned, the two parties will most likely further promote the integration of resources in the future, work together to explore more diversified cooperation methods, or may extend horizontally, and choose to link with Kailan's sub-brands to launch other new projects of in-depth cooperation.
At the same time, in the future, it may also cooperate with more trendy toy brands and pan-entertainment IPs, and create more co-branded IP derivatives and other forms, in addition to bringing continuous surprises to players, but also opening up more new offline social entertainment scenarios that can link with the public and convey the happiness of "family carnival".
Conclusion
In the face of the Spring Festival, a traditional festival with the most "family carnival" atmosphere, the launch of the New Year version has seized the online social entertainment scene, just to let players live a "family carnival small metaverse" Spring Festival that has never been before; to join hands with Kailan to open a theme store to let the "Xingbao" into reality, and provide players with new choices for the New Year while opening up new scenes of offline social entertainment.
In the face of such a set of New Year combinations, we have to sigh: "This year's Spring Festival, everyone will be 'surrounded' by Yuanmeng." ”
What's even more commendable is that in addition to the "bright line" that redefines the new way for players to celebrate the New Year, a "dark line" involving its long-term IP construction has gradually surfaced with the advent of IP derivatives - for Yuanmeng, its purpose is not to compete in the category stock market, but to take a path of its own It is the long-term goal of its IP evolution.
Judging from the performance of "Yuanmeng Star" since its launch, I believe that the arrival of this day will not be too far away. (Wen Nanshan).