Marketing decoding丨 5,000 people queuing in the early morning only for Lingna Belle, Disney mass production of "traffic stars"

Wen | Peng Qian Editor| Qiao Qian

Thousands of people lined up to shop in the early hours of the morning, most of which had previously appeared on the eve of Apple's annual new product launch. This time, though, the protagonist was replaced by Disney.

According to a number of media reports, at 3:00 a.m. on December 29, more than 5,000 people had lined up at the entrance of the Shanghai Disney scenic spot, and by 5:00 a.m., the queue next to Wishing Lake had circled twice. Due to the long queue time, there have even been extreme incidents of consumers shouting "blood in the urine".

In fact, the offline sales on December 29 are only the remaining inventory of the "2021 Duffy and Friends Christmas Series" products after the previous online lottery + offline purchase model is released, and "Chuansha Daji" Ling na Belle has long been sold out due to its popularity, so it does not participate in this round of secondary sales on the 29th. Because the Shanghai Disney Resort official did not disclose the specific amount of remaining inventory, fans eager to buy dolls and scalpers who wanted to make a wave of scalpers appeared in the early morning queue.

About a week ago, Shanghai Disney Resort officials released a limited sale of "2021 Duffy and Friends Christmas Series Merchandise" products in the form of lottery + limited purchase. Its offering process requires both online registration through the official WeChat to participate in the lottery, and the Shanghai Oriental Notary Office to draw lots, which is as complex as buying a house.

Disney's restriction on the sale of Duffy family peripheral products is a hunger marketing strategy on the one hand, and an objective environment on the other hand. Since the beginning of this year, due to the global supply crisis, the inventory of the "female star" of the Duffy family has been urgent, and Disney has had to limit sales three times and twice, especially the Lingna Belle popular network, the demand for fan purchases has risen sharply, and the scalper has provided the opportunity to pick up the oil.

Some Duffy family fans have posted sighs: "Away from the big spectrum, today asked a hand scalper, Disney's new Lingna Belle price, only to know that it is not a problem to buy at a higher price, buy Disney plush dolls actually have to be distributed, you must buy other peripheral products to a certain amount to queue up to get." ”

The reason why the "Six Sons of Chuansha" Duffy family was robbed was nothing more than that the family produced two "top stars" - the ballet actress Star Dailu, who was born in 2017 and loved by everyone, and Ling Na Belle, a migrant worker who premiered at Shanghai Disneyland at the beginning of this year.

This year's Mid-Autumn Festival, a Disney Star Dew Rabbit Festival limited doll sold out two days after it was launched, and the purchase price was speculated to thousands of yuan, and more sellers hung up the "sky-high price" of 2599 yuan. The Lingna Belle Christmas series has even been speculated to nearly 10,000 yuan on trading platforms such as Dewu, and the price is close to the limited edition tide to play "Grumpy Bear".

According to the relevant data disclosed on the fifth anniversary of the establishment of Shanghai Disneyland, the fastest growing popularity of Shanghai Disneyland is Xing dai lu, and the total height of the star dai lu theme products sold since 2018 is equivalent to 119 Mount Everest.

How was the "Money Grabbing Heavenly Regiment" refined by the Duffy family?

Another way to star-making

Disney's creation and accumulation of IP accompanies it throughout its life cycle.

In the early years, Disney created a number of classic animated characters based on its strong "Imagineer" team, with its wild imagination and rigorous engineer style. In addition to countless Chinese and foreign princesses, there are also classic IPs such as Mickey, Donald Duck, and Pluto. At this stage, Disney completed the original accumulation of content IP.

In order to continuously accumulate its IP content library, Disney has spent nearly 100 billion yuan to acquire excellent production companies such as Pixar, Marvel, Lucas, Fox, etc., and purchased IP images of many animations, including "Frozen" and "Dream Quest". To date, Disney has produced and shot more than 400 films, successfully created more than 20 growth films (the "Finding Company" series), portrayed 108 Marvel heroes, and the Star Wars series and X-Men series.

In addition to increasing the number of content IPs, Disney is also looking for reliable delivery channels for its content IP by acquiring broadcast television stations such as ABC and ESPN. In recent years, with the development of streaming media, Disney has launched the Disney+ platform, and the live-action version of "Mulan" has become the first princess series of movies to launch Disney+ and not go to the theater.

However, in the past, such IP images often have a complete story, such as based on a movie or an animation. Because of the strong story background of this type of IP, it has also helped Disney successfully develop many industries related to content IP, including parks, hotels, cruise ships, consumer goods, video games and publications.

But the Duffy family, which has exploded in recent years, is "very different". These 7 members not only did not rely on any movies and stories, but the background description of the characters themselves was relatively thin, with simple personalities and single personalities.

Background of members of the Duffy family, picture from Disney official

However, it is worth noting that although it seems that each member of the Duffy family is very simple in personality, it is also straightforward and distinct, not only following the KISS principle of design (that is, Keep It Simple & Stupid), but also very much in line with the fragmented and labeled communication method of the current Internet: as long as a memory point is created that is in line with the current social environment, it can be spread very efficiently. For example, Lingna Belle's label is "hit worker", and it is precisely because of this persona that conforms to the social psychology of ordinary people at present, watching Lingna Belle work hard in the park can make many young people who call themselves "social animals" have great empathy and can also get the release of pressure.

Disney's new idea of creating IP in this way can be said to be a strategy that draws on the entertainment industry to create a traffic star: as long as you grasp a certain emotional point, customize the corresponding personality, and add traffic, you can become popular on the Internet. Similar to its thinking are Line Friends and various fashionable toys.

For Disney, the advantage of this is that it can get a substantial return even without investing a lot of resources, and the financial report data already shows this.

However, it should be pointed out that the popularity of the Duffy family lies not only in its adaptation to the communication law of the new era, but also in its ability to rely on Disney's deep accumulation in the field of cultural industry for many years. Even without stories and content, the Duffy family still shares Disney's park scene, communication channels, and supply chain of peripheral products like other IPs.

When IP no longer needs good stories

In the matter of creating an "image IP" without a story, Disney is just an apprentice, and the teachers are Line Friends and Bubble Mart.

However, the situation of these two masters today is very different.

Line Friends only has a few well-known IPs, and has gained greater attention by opening offline experience stores, pop-up stores and co-brand marketing methods, but because of its inability to continue to launch image IP with vitality, it eventually gradually declined.

Since the beginning of 2019, Line Friends has frequently reported the closure of offline stores. In addition to China, the Line Friends boulevard store, which had a monthly sales of 5.76 million yuan in South Korea, was also affected by the gradual decline in tourists and closed on September 30, 2019. In the first quarter of 2020, line friends' global store revenue decreased by 43.4% year-on-year to $193 million.

In the early days of its development, Bubble Mart also faced similar problems with Line Friends, with overall sales relying too much on a single IP (i.e., Molly), and Molly's products accounted for nearly 50% of revenue at one point.

However, Bubble Mart soon realized the need to "demolly", so it chose to create a richer IP ecosystem, from retailers to platform parties (incubation IP + external IP supply + blind box IP sales) to help Bubble Mart continue to create explosive models.

Since then, Bubble Mart's IP has planned for the number of DOIs launching new series every year. Sed Zengjie, vice president of Bubble Mart, said that the top IP launches 3-4 series a year, 2 to 3 medium IP are in the cultivation period, and the new IP is 1 to 2. A single series of sales cycles of 12 to 18 months, after expiration, will no longer be sold, which is also a way to control the total amount and ensure rarity.

In order to produce image IP with high quality and high volume, Bubble Mart has greatly expanded its design team and copyright library. At present, the company maintains close contact with more than 350 artists outside the company, and also carries out in-depth cooperation with 28 designers of Tide Play in the form of acquiring copyrights or exclusive licensing.

Disney, which also has strong capital and resource strength, also has the strength to become an IP ecological platform. But perhaps it should be faster. Especially in the context of Lingna Belle's continuous "overturning" of the human set and the high premium of the Duffy family dolls has been criticized many times, how long Lingna Belle's top position can sit is still unknown.