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Find here Daxue Talks episode 64. In this interview, our guest Miro Li tells us what brands and KOLs are doing differently on Bilibili in response to COVID-19.

Full transcript below:

What kind of KOL’s gain popularity during the coronavirus outbreak?

We see many KOL’s like vloggers post vlogs and share their daily life. We know that BiliBili is a platform that’s focused on ACG content, animation, comics and games. So actually, a lot of KOL’s on BiliBili are like gaming KOL’s; they livestream the whole process of their play online game or mobile game. Gaming live streaming is actually becoming more popular and gaming KOL’s are also becoming more popular on BiliBili.

A lot of people are taking online courses on BiliBili or like to watch educational videos on this platform. There is actually a very popular hashtag on BiliBili called #Studywithme, where the users live stream their whole process of studying. So when I do this live streaming, I don’t really talk, I just quietly sit here and I’m just studying or I’m just reading a book. So, this is what students watch on BiliBili when they are trying to study. They would open a study live streaming room and they would watch other people – it’s like your virtual companion when you’re studying and it makes you feel less alone. Therefore, the study live streaming KOL’s are also becoming more popular, which is very unique for BiliBili’s path work.

How have brands’ behaviors on BiliBili changed during the coronavirus?

I think brands have started to do more live streaming and they started to push more videos here on BiliBili during the coronavirus because live streaming is a very good way to connect with your followers. Previously I just shared Xiaomi had a 72-hour, non-stop live streaming, and McDonalds may have a 24-hour non-stop live streaming on BiliBili. Brands have started to have offline events to online and to live stream this whole event like Xiaomi with their own press conference on Bilibili. Actually many brands are starting to explore some new online channels, and they are starting to set up on BiliBili because during this time people actually spend more time online, especially on entertainment apps. Apps like Red, Douyin or BiliBili actually have more views. Before, brands have focused more on big platforms like WeChat and Weibo, but now they’ve started to focus more on niche platforms like BiliBili or Red. They are starting to have more content on BiliBili and setting up their own official account or work with KOL’s to push their brands and products.

What are your suggestions to brands that currently want to launch campaigns on BiliBili?

First you need to understand the GenZ(ers) because they are your target customers. The users of BiliBili mostly are Gen Z so you need to speak their language. If you only post too formal or too official content, it’s not really useful. Same with some hot selling content, it’s not very useful on BiliBili. So you have to understand this group of content and you need to speak their language. Also, you need to be creative because BiliBili’s users are actually very strict on the content quality. If you can’t provide value or useful information to them, even though it’s an ad, they are actually willing to watch it.

Learn to be creative and to present your brands or products in a creative way; learn to provide more value instead of just hard selling thing to your customers. If you want to launch campaigns on BiliBili, you need to really choose the local KOL’s, the suitable KOL’s because BiliBili users are more familiar with the deep rooted, local BiliBili KOL’s. Therefore, you have to really select and understand which KOL is more localised. [Those KOLs] actually know how to communicate with their audience, so you need to choose the suitable KOL’s. Also, because we know bullet screen is a very unique function to this platform, in Chinese it’s called dan’m, brands can actually learn how to use bullet screen function to communicate with your customers or to advertise. These are what brands can explore on the pathway.

Any questions? We will find an expert to answer them. Drop your questions in the comments or send us an email – dx@daxueconsulting.com.