Editor Chen Fang

At 1 o on the morning of May 5th, Beijing Radio and Television Bureau ordered iQiyi to suspend the catalogue system of the third season of Youth with You. Many people speculated that it might be related to the Xinhua News Agency's publication the night before. In this article, Xinhua criticized the phenomenon of "pouring milk for shooting idols" that appeared on the Internet recently.

This phenomenon means that fans buy sponsors' products crazily in order to get the QR code on dairy bottles, and don't drink a lot after buying them. In fact, under the fan economy, the phenomenon of recharging idols with krypton is nothing new, which can be traced back to Super Girl sponsored by Mengniu Yogurt in 2005. However, the intention of sponsors to "harvest" fans is becoming more and more obvious.

Marketing routines of merchants

The third season of "Youth has You" is a men's team draft program launched by iQiyi. The title sponsor is Mengniu Zhenguozi, and Zhenguozi specially launched four drinks as support. More bluntly, only these four products can make fans scan the code and vote.

There is a prize card in each box of the true fruit "Youth has You" series, and the two-dimensional code is set in the bottle cap of the Huaguo light milk series. Whether it is a prize card or a two-dimensional code, it can be exchanged for the supporting player's grain. This means that the more fans buy, the higher the support the players get and the chance to win in the draft.

This model is familiar to FMCG brands that want to win over young consumers. According to statistics, except for Creation 10 1 in 20/8, the title sponsors of mainstream idol talent shows in every quarter are all beverage giants. Mengniu and Yili, two dairy giants, almost divided up the most popular variety shows every year. In 20 19 and 2020, the series "Youth with You" and "Creation Camp" were sponsored by Mengniu.

To this end, the price paid by enterprises is also high.

In 2020, Mengniu's advertising and publicity expenses will be 6.803 billion yuan, accounting for 8.9% of its income, which means that Mengniu will spend18 million yuan on advertising and publicity every day for 365 days a year. However, compared with the previous year, this has been reduced by 20%. In 20 19, Mengniu spent 8.49 billion yuan, accounting for about 1 1% of the total revenue.

However, crazy marketing is not unique to Mengniu. In 20 19, Yili invested 1 10.4 1 100 million yuan in marketing expenses, accounting for about 12% of the total annual revenue. In 20 19 years alone, the sum of the advertising and marketing investment of the two dairy companies exceeded 195 billion yuan a year, which means that the two companies will spend more than 50 million yuan on marketing every day on average.

In the 2020 financial report, Mengniu said that Huaguoqingru was successfully listed and promoted through the title sponsorship of iQiyi "Youth has You 2". Since its listing, it has been deeply loved by urban white-collar workers, college students and other consumer groups, and the e-commerce platform has been sold out many times. However, if we understand the sales logic of flowers and fruits, it is not unreasonable to "sell out".

Buy milk for idols

Because of the voting rules of variety shows, Mengniu Chunzhen, Huaguo Light Milk and other products have their own sales "passwords". Words such as "torn code", "backed" and "unsupported" often appear in product selection, which is a kind of transaction between buyers and sellers. "backed" means that fans can buy and vote with confidence, while "torn code" and "unsupported" are more sold to consumers who drink everyday.

These yogurt with voting function are in the eyes of fans, and no one cares whether the products are delicious or not. They are just a naked vote, which is the "milk ticket" that the pink circle is keen on. This leads to the abnormal development of normal commodity circulation, which leads to the differentiation of those who specialize in selling milk tickets, those who specialize in selling products without size two, and dealers who tear up the code and disguise the goods before mixing them into the circulation channels.

Mengniu Flower Fruit Granule has been the exclusive sponsor of Youth with You for three consecutive years. In the links of various businesses, "Green 3 Voting" has become the most important introduction of Mengniu Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Light Milk Lactic Acid Bacteria Milk. There is a QR code in the bottle cap, and a bottle can vote for two times, which is what fans care most about.

Where there is demand, there are people who cater to it. After purchasing, some consumers found that the scanning code of the bottle body was cut and then carefully pasted, and the scanning code QR code was invalid. This kind of thing happened long ago on Mengniu Chunzhen yogurt. On the online channel, many fans found that they could not vote after buying. "I can't support it, I bought it for nothing." Some angry fans gave bad reviews for this. On the black cat complaint platform, there are more than 1000 complaints about "Chunzhen", almost all of which are products that cannot be voted. The box is sealed, and every bottle in it has been tampered with.

This is not surprising in the deformed pink circle economy. On Taobao and idle fish, there are merchants selling bottle caps and QR codes. A flower and fruit light milk bottle cap costs 5 yuan, and you can cast two votes. Large quantity and more favorable price. It also gave birth to the behavior of "collecting milk", "collecting pure Zhen 28 yuan, real fruit 25 yuan, you vote, I drink milk", fans directly place an order, fill in the "collecting milk" address at the harvest address, and then the "collecting milk" person shoots the milk ticket to the fans, or scans the code to vote for them.

On the online channel, there are different merchants who specialize in selling goods with prize cards removed. For example, a merchant selling Mengniu Chunzhen Xiaoman Waist Yogurt on Taobao clearly stated that "the original bottle of yogurt has not been moved, and the prize card has been removed, so mind taking it carefully", with a broken bottle photo. The price of a box of these unpacked goods is more than 30 yuan, while the regular-priced goods are more than 60 yuan in the official flagship store.

The last Mengniu Chunzhen Xiaoman Waist merchant in Pinduoduo specially marked the product name, "New goods in March, no voting". On the details page, it was explained in bold black letters, "One voting code of this product has been used, and the review has scratches. Once again, it is emphasized that it is not allowed to vote and support. The QR code is broken, so mind not shooting!"

A consumer asked for help in the comments of the official flagship store. "Beautiful guys who haven't thrown bottles yet, can you help me scan the QR code XX to vote? Please." The following comments directly rejected her, "I can't help you because I am right at home" and "I bought it to vote for the players".

"Predictably, the program group and sponsors have gained high popularity and huge benefits." The Xinhua News Agency asked, "At the beginning of planning this way of shooting, did you consider the risk that it might cause a lot of waste? Have you ever thought about your social responsibility? Before this Labor Day, there was a Youth Day holiday. What kind of bad influence and guidance will this marketing method have on young people? "