(Image source: Visual China)
Economic Observer Network reporter Ren Xiaoning On the evening of July 10, another online live will be screened, and the singers are Zhou Huajian, Laolang, and Zhang Jingying. From Wang Xinling’s popularity to Jay Chou’s screen, it is no surprise that if you want to get out of the circle this year, you have to rely on middle-aged and elderly artists over 40 years old who became popular at the end of the last century or the beginning of this century.
Internet platforms have seen this nostalgic trend, and more and more nostalgic artists have been invited. Douyin invited Stefanie Sun and Beyond, and Tencent Video invited Luo Dayou and Jay Chou. Not to be outdone by Kuaishou, Jackie Chan has made his live broadcast debut. This kind of fierce competition makes the post-70s and post-80s feel happy, “capital finally no longer only pleases young people.”
For Douyin, Kuaishou, and video accounts, cooperating with these celebrities who were once popular all over the country and are still influential today is also a good business that can quickly attract attention, quickly get out of the circle, and can get commercial returns.
to please the elderly
A Biao, 42, re-downloaded Douyin just to listen to a full Beyond concert on July 3.
“That’s my brother’s youth!” A Biao, who is middle-aged, rarely gets emotional ups and downs, but when he hears the song of Beyond, he will still be excited, he will think of his youth, and he will miss singing Beyond on KTV When the song got a full score, “Maybe only those of us in our forties feel it.”
On May 27, the night of Luo Dayou’s online concert, the circle of friends was even more joyous for middle-aged and elderly people. From the age of 30 to 60, people of all ages are watching Luo Dayou’s live broadcast. Some male entrepreneurs who rarely speak up can’t help but transfer a live link.
“The Internet has finally begun to please our group of middle-aged and elderly people.” A Biao told reporters.
An interesting phenomenon in 2022 is that Internet users begin to collectively feel nostalgic. The hottest TV series this year are “The Legend of Zhen Huan” 11 years ago, and “Do You Know If It Should Be Green, Fat, Red and Thin” 4 years ago. It is rare to have a new drama “Meng Hualu” that has attracted attention. The center of the topic is Liu Yifei, who became popular 19 years ago. This year’s hottest variety show “Welcome to the Mushroom House” was short of funds but unexpectedly became popular. The guest was the top 13 “Happy Boys” in 2007. Even Wang Xinling, who became popular in “Sister Riding the Wind and Waves 3”, has maintained the appearance of more than ten years ago, which is in line with the first youth memories of the post-70s and post-80s.
The post-90s and post-00s are chasing new songs, and they are chasing Jay Chou, who has been popular for more than 20 years. Even Jay Chou himself is nostalgic. Every second of the new song released on July 6 is mysterious and familiar, as if it is a big integration of his own old songs. Not to mention the online concerts that have been screened in the circle of friends this year, from Luo Dayou to Sun Yanzi, plus the deceased Leslie Cheung and Huang Jiaju, and the recently appeared Zhou Huajian and Zhang Jingying, all of them are old singers.
In stark contrast to the explosion of nostalgic artist concerts this year, since 2020, platforms such as Tencent Music and NetEase Cloud Music have held hundreds of online concerts of various styles, with an average of one every two weeks. For large-scale performances, there are many well-known artists such as Zhang Jie, TFBOYS, Soda Green, Deng Ziqi, etc. However, the real online concerts still have to rely on middle-aged and old artists.
Harvest emotional traffic
The other side of the carnival of middle-aged people is that the Internet platform uses nostalgic traffic to raise new topics once more and activate old traffic.
The traffic brought by nostalgia has no doubts, and wave following wave of record-breaking numbers can prove everything. Cui Jian’s first video online concert attracted 46 million viewers, and more than 40 million people watched Luo Dayou. It was Jay Chou who finally broke the video account record, with nearly 100 million viewers for his two online concerts.
Douyin’s data is even more exaggerated. The Beyond concert was re-screened on Douyin by a total of 140 million people, and 240 million people watched Stefanie Sun on Douyin.
On June 25, Jackie Chan’s live broadcast debut on Kuaishou also handed over a 100 million-level transcript. The whole live broadcast has been watched by more than 220 million people, the total number of viewers has exceeded 130 million, and the interaction has exceeded 320 million.
Zhang Yi, CEO of iiMedia Research, is not surprised by such data. “There are regarding 350 million effective netizens born in the 1970s and 1980s, and they are the backbone of the overall netizens.” Before, these middle-aged people did not take the initiative to speak out, and they seldom participated in the online topics that young people were keen on. When the stars they liked frequently appeared once more, they set off a good memory of their youth and naturally formed a wave of nostalgia.
In 2022, the first batch of post-90s generation will be 32 years old, and they will begin to enter the “middle-aged” career in the traditional sense. When the post-80s and post-90s, the largest Internet population in China, collectively enter middle age, they will become the traffic that attracts attention. pool.
“The last few times of nostalgia have inspired the post-70s and post-80s, and even some post-60s have become active, so nostalgia is very helpful for users to activate.” Zhang Yi told reporters that the current post-95s and post-00s They are still active users of Internet platforms, and all platforms basically have what they should have, and their activity has not declined. But the post-70s and post-80s need to be reactivated. Especially under the premise that Internet user traffic has peaked, major platforms are weak in increments, and they need to activate existing users, so they pay more attention to middle-aged users.
This nostalgic trend is still continuing. A list of investment promotions circulating on the Internet shows that the video account may also hold multiple online concerts. The stars listed include Rene Liu, Eason Chan, Wu Bai, etc.
Nostalgia is on the rise this year, and for Internet platforms, “essentially spending money to buy traffic.” Zhang Zhaoyi, a veteran music industry practitioner and founder of Artisan Music, told reporters that the music platform had invited Eason Chan, Lin Junjie, Liu Ruoying, Deng Ziqi and other well-known artists to hold online concerts before, but none of them had such a huge volume. This year’s online concert artist lineup is not considered the most advanced, but it is very out of the circle. Compared with the previous years, the income status of artists under the new crown pneumonia epidemic this year is not good, and they are willing to lower the price tag and will not ask for sky-high prices. The platform has launched a nostalgic style at this time, and the cost performance is also higher than in previous years.
business behind the scenes
In the internet world, traffic is money. After this year’s wave of nostalgia for the post-70s and post-80s, the commercial value of emotional traffic is also becoming prominent. The Cui Jian concert held on the video account on April 15 is the source of the nostalgic concert. The sponsor of this concert is BAIC Jihu. According to media reports, Jihu disclosed that the sponsorship fee is tens of millions of yuan.
At Cui Jian’s concert, Jihu’s high-frequency exposure on the concert poster, between performances, live gift giving and the performance stage, in the WeChat index on April 15, Jihu’s attention increased by 747.45% compared to the previous day.
Jihu Automobile also disclosed the commercialization conversion rate of Cui Jian’s online concert: a total of 90 million users have been reached, and nearly 10 million exposures have been achieved. The high-intention retention information exceeded 1,000, and the conversion rate reached more than 50%.
Another Luo Dayou concert also has sponsors, also Jihu. The huge traffic brought by the middle-aged “Ye Qing Hui” has become a new profit channel for the Internet platform.
Jay Chou’s re-screening concert was exclusively titled by Pepsi. During the live broadcast, the brand store link was launched from time to time, selling Jay Chou related accessories such as pillows, bracelets, figures, etc. Among them, the most expensive Night Guard · Zhou limited figures (two different versions respectively) Priced at 529 yuan and 4999 yuan), 2,800 copies were sold in 2 hours on May 20.
A person familiar with the hosting of Jay Chou’s concert told reporters that there are many sponsors interested in this concert, and they are chasing following the title.
On the evening of July 10th, Tencent Music’s Golden Song Awards invited Zhou Huajian, Zhang Jingying and Laolang. They also have sponsors, and Beijing Hyundai has the exclusive title. According to the reporter’s understanding, Tencent Music will continue to hold online concerts focusing on nostalgia in the near future.
Of course, there are also online concerts that don’t make money directly. On April 1, Leslie Cheung’s re-screening concert had no sponsors and no sales, and it was all free. The Beyond rerun concert is also free. However, Douyin and Tencent took the opportunity to promote their cloud service technology and 4K restoration capabilities.
Jiang Han, a senior researcher at Pangu Think Tank, believes that compared to live concerts, re-screening concerts only costs technical costs. Many on-site costs can be saved, and the costs are relatively controllable and low-cost. “It’s a means of increasing revenue for music platforms.”
Zhang Zhaoyi told reporters that it is hard to say whether the business of nostalgia will last. In this year’s wave of nostalgia, in addition to direct benefits, the platform has also gained brand value and capital value, and can tell new stories in the capital market, which is also very important to them.
Notice:The above content is the original work of “Economic Observer”, and the copyright belongs to “Economic Observer”. Without the authorization of the “Economic Observer”, reprinting or mirroring is strictly prohibited, otherwise the legal responsibility of the relevant actors will be investigated according to law. For copyright cooperation, please call:[010-60910566-1260].
