2015 Digital & Social Trends Report

DIGITAL & SOCIAL
TRENDS REPORT 2015

How They Release Energy In Life?
Part I
Engagement Approach
Part II
The Network Pattern
Part III

How They Release Energy In Life?
Part I
The trend of individuals lifestyle & digital

Digitalis already everywhere in
our lives, while … Digital is not only
about tools or devices. It’s about
behavior of people.

When we talk about digital. We tend to
talk about people’s life.
There is no meaning talking about
digital trend without studying people’s.

This part of the trend is tend to study
the emerging changes in people’s life
activities – the behavior pattern and
motivations behind. We reveal the
digital trend from the satisfaction
people have from the digital solutions in
life.

How do they spend the life energy? –
on what kind of activities
How does digital enhance their these
activities?
Behavior pattern
Emotions/Motivations
Digital

Overview the behavior patterns
Handcraft
Gardening
Younger
entrepreneurs
Maker
Fans
Runner
Writing
Cooking……

Runner
It’s always about a lifestyle when people talks about running.
Why do people choose to run?
Initially, they run to be healthy, to lose weight or to release pressure.
On and on, they ﬁnd running is more than just a physical exercise…

Here, we see a group of energetic runners.
They love running wholeheartedly, and they are passionate about marathons.
They join organizations to have planned training together, and they cheer up for
each other.
They enjoy themselves a lot in marathons and developing themselves.

We want to look into their lives,
See the patterns behind their behaviors,
And ﬁgure out how they transform their emotion and energy.

7
For these runners, they expect balance between life and work,
body and mind.
They’ve been looking for an active lifestyle.
They need a focus, for letting out energy and emotion that they
can’t release in their lives.

Running is a container in which everyone can get something.
Marathon is a visible milestone.
Reaching the goal with efforts and persistence can help people
acquire the sense of safety, satisfaction and self-consciousness.
1 Aspiration

8
“我努力奔跑在人
生路上，想要每一
天更精彩，更有意
义。北京马拉松，
我人生第一个半马，
希望我顺利完成！
腿啊腿，要加油，
别再痛了”
“跑步原本是自己比痛苦
的事，不想也坚持了一年
有余，最初开始的原因我
已经记不清了，可能是好
玩。现在跑步我是在享受，
毎达到自己一个目标都是
一个胜利。都是下一个目
标的基础。为2014上马准
备中，这是自己的第二个
马拉松比赛祝自己好运”

“跑步人人都会，坚持却
很难。漫长的跑步历程，
锻炼身体，磨练意志，修
炼精神。无数的汗水，无
尽的艰辛，只有克服困难，
战胜自己，才能享受到乐
趣。跑步让我意志更加
坚定，心态更加平和，思
维更加敏捷，身体更加健
康。跑步是我的态度，我
的信仰，我的一种生活方
式。”
“从跑步获得特别多
快乐，认识很多有趣
的人，跑到最后，往
往有一种征服全世界
的感觉，对克服生活
中的一些困难也是有
帮助，对生活有积极
的影响。”
“汪哥说的话，有犹
在耳，‘我们这些业
余跑马拉松的，马拉
松对于我们来说是个
爱好，健康才是我们
的目标。我们锻炼身
体，归根结底还是为
了有质量的活着。’”
“距离广州马拉松
还有4天,明天就要
把装备弄好！临近
比赛不要高强度训
练，也不可以停止，
放松练习就好！！！
我们不是和别人比
速度，我只想跑赢
我自己！Just do
it !”

9
Suppressed
Pressure
Some pressure they have at work can’t be
share with family or friends. They can just
keep with themselves.
Living a tame life without
“Hobby”
Lacking of something to craze about –
makes they feel life is so tame as if they
are zombie in the routine setting.
Bored with passive
entertainment
Some ﬁnd themselves bore after work.
They have time and want to enjoy
something but just don’t know how..

Concerning the
Health condition

City life get people move less and it get
to the poor condition of body, the
obesity and etc.
2 Anxiety

#上马备战中#本周计
划完成80% 下周继
续努力 #当我跑步时，
一切的兴奋，恐惧压
力都得到释放，我能
做的只全神贯注的下
去。
“有时候我问自
己为何要跑步，
为了有健康的身
体，为了有点追
求，为了找点事
情做。22119期
待明天的上马能
顺利完成”
“看这跑步的姿势，
看这沉稳的步伐，
希望我们都能继续
保持好状态，不仅
仅是为了参加上海
马拉松赛，更是给
自己一个健康，绿
色的生活状态。大
长腿们跑起来！
“这些天心情因
为工作压力降低
到了极点，希望
明天的马拉松跑
步能让自己得到
点儿释放”
“周末离开魔都，放下压力
山大的生活节奏，参加十公
里常熟马拉松，冒着大风暴
雨，环绕尚湖让自己心灵得
到彻底释放，沿路听着抒情
的流行音乐，告诉自己我还
有很多梦没有做，我还有很
多理想没达成，我还有很多
明天，加油加油!!!!
或许生命在于运动，除了死，
什么都是小事”
“大学同学最近几
天的功勋章我忽然
发现自己落伍了和
他探讨了一会儿马
拉松的心情觉得自
己很多时候都无所
事事不知不觉的活
到了今天如何挑选
自己爱好很重要我
也想要有一天能在
国内参加这样的大
赛没有任何思想包
袱的锻炼自己的体
能。 ”

11
1.Level up - make self progress

Make monthly running plan. Set long-term
goals. Level up. Use all kinds of Apps or tools
to record daily running status.
2. Circle - establish new circles

Join running circles. Train together.
Organize activities. Cheer up for each
other. Share experience.
3. Travel - see the world

Choose the place to run. Take part
in worldwide marathons. Feel the
world while running. Leave your
steps all around the world.
3 Practice

12
1. Level up –
make self progress
Every runner has a
long-term goal and
monthly or daily
running plan.
They use various digital
tools to record and
mark their distance.

After ﬁnishing a goal,
they’ll have a feeling of
“level up”.
Their pressure will be
released.

Watching themselves
going up will help them
acquire self-
consciousnes。
Review
Learn
Set goals,
make records
Record the distance
/ keep self data
Everyday, Steven trains himself
according to his plan. He takes his
equipment and open the app on his
cellphone. After ﬁnishing his distance,
he stores it in app and share it on
Weibo and WeChat.
Share the feeling &
learning
Max shares her gains on Weibo and
WeChat. Sometimes it’s a picture of
the moon while running. Sometimes
it’s her own thoughts. Sometimes it’s
a tip bumping out while running.
Collect books and blogs about
running experience to improve
by learning
Wang will pay attention to marathons all
around the world on Weibo and BBS.
Searching books and tips about running
helps her improve herself.
Look back after reaching the
goal / Review the process
After a period of running plan, Roy will open
the app or go back to Weibo and make a
review. Share his record and communicate
with other runners.
Buy equipment to
encourage oneself
Joy thinks excellent
equipment is important. So
she likes walking into the store
to check out what’s new on
her way home. She’ll buy
newest shoes and equipment.
And she’ll go to Taobao to
compare the prices.
Purchase

13
2. Circle - establish new circles
Many runners will join organizations. They will have lots of new friends and new circles.
They train together, act together, cheer up for and supervise each other.
Runners feel the power and fun in a group. They will also have new mental experience.
•  Group talking. Share the newest
running activity message
•  Appointment making. Settle the time
to run together.
•  Body Warm-up. Warm up before
running.
•  Activity sharing. Share group
activities with photos or apps.
Alex was dragged into a running group. He was a bit
shy at ﬁrst. But after group running a few times, he
was totally in and took part in a hill running training
activity. He took pictures of every activity and
posted them on Weibo, WeChat and BBS. He said
he was feeling the power of group.
•  Searching for running organizations
and activities around positively
•  Check out running dates on BBS
•  Find running friends in apps.
Linda started from a simple goal, to lose weight. But
she gave up after 4 days because it was boring to
run alone. .After a chat on WeChat with a friend, she
knew that friend was running and had joined in a
running organization to take part in weekly
interesting group running. She then joined in the
WeChat group and ran with them. She
said, ”running isn’t alone any more. It is much more
fun.”
•  Group talking. Share tips and
experience of marathons
•  Tactics making. Settle the
pacemaker
•  Game sign=up. Take photos
before running and celebrate
after running
Lion has run 6 marathons. He’s
experienced in the group. He became the
pacemaker in Shanghai Marathon. He
analyzed the tactics before running. He
said helping others to success was a kind
of happiness.
· Take part in other
celebrations in the group
such as birthday parties,
anniversaries to feel the fun
in this group.
Vicky has had a special
birthday. Her running friends
organized a celebrating
running for her. She said, “This
is the moment I’ll remember for
my life.”
Searching
Training Group
racing
Celebration

14
3. Travel
- see the world
Runners say they are
addicted to marathons.
Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo
They don’t want to miss
any one of them if physical
conditions permit.

Most runners have
persistence that normal
people don’t have.
Running is like the
confrontation to the tiring
life. Choosing worldwide
marathons to run brings
satisfaction, and it’s a long
self-struggling process.
When your body is open to
feel the pulse of your soul,
you can also taste different
cultures from the colorful
world.
Explore the City
Plan the trip
Keep
training
Get
marathon
News
Pay attention to marathons
worldwide. Run marathons
and feel the success.
Kim said runners all had a dream to
run marathons all over the world. He
would feel complete if he could
collect all medals. So he watched
closely on Weibo and BBS to get
message of marathons and made
arrangements according to his own
time and physical conditions.
Plan itinerary according to the
target place to ensure the leisure
time after running.
It’s Kelly’s ﬁrst foreign marathon. She spent 15
minutes to book her hotel and plane tickets on
Qunar.com and Booking.com. Then she
started searching for tips to run in this city
with her friends. She also went to Qiongyou
and Mafengwo. She insists, "Use your heart to
feel every inch of the foreign land while
running.”
After marathon, making time for
yourself to play and relax let you
feel the colorful world and
release your pressure.
ZY left 3 days after running the marathon as
she wished for herself to taste local food,
go sightseeing and take pictures.
Warm up ﬁrst after arriving to
ensure the best statement for
marathon.
After arriving in Boston, Stay checked
in and found their running route with
friends with the assistance of Google
map. Then they went to the park
nearby to do warm-up training.

15
You might hear more and more people saying “I want to be an entrepreneur”.
Surprisingly, most of these courageous voices come from the 90s generation.

Reports indicate that most of 90s generation are ambitious realists who are
not fond of a regular job, but 40.9% of them incline to work for their interests
or initial their own businesses. (referred from “Baidu insights on 90s
generation”)

From Facegang to JIECAO extraction, the ﬂourishing 90s generation CEOs
express an ambition to “change the world”, which is differently from the value
held by entrepreneurs from 70s, and 80s generations.

We discover that digital plays an important role in career and social life of this
group of people. Therefore, we conduct a research on their life, aiming to
analyze how they transfer their emotion and energy into success.
Younger
Entrepreneur

16
These 90s generation entrepreneurs share almost the same aspiration.
They spare no effort to realize their dream.
All in to make it come true!

Different from their predecessors, the main driver for their entrepreneur
behaviors is not material, but purely the impetus to realize their dreams.
Therefore, “Fresh entrepreneur” is a more appropriate title for them.

They expect to change people’s behaviors through their efforts.
They possess the ambition to change the world.
They are seeking for their “One Piece”!

1 Aspiration

17
“年轻人更大胆和贴近梦想。他们在一开始就不
向人生的Hard模式妥协，而70后80后要在大学
毕业脱离家庭独立后，才能做到不妥协。 ”
“对90后来说，竞争、自由和个性化才是安全感
的来源。我依靠自己的能力获取报酬，想在这家
企业工作就工作，如果明天不认同这个老板的价
值观，随时可以走。在90后看来，依靠能力建立
的一套价值观，才给他带来真正的安全感。”
“我认为的特立独行，就是独持偏见，一意孤行。
我们不同于那些被世俗磨灭理想和追求的人们，
我们敢于"固执！”
“2009年，我那时候就跟同学说毕业后要在学
校门口开个情趣用品店，那样一定会很爽，每天
被各种爆点爆来爆去，我就是喜欢特地独行，喜
欢和别人过不一样的生活”
“父母希望我过一种安定的生活，但我从小就喜
欢挑战，希望过一种冲和闯的生活。注册资金
100万元都是自己积累的，父母没有出钱。这些
钱是以前赚的广告提成、活动费用。”
“90后其实并不一定为了赚钱而做某件事情，我
们在这个圈子里交流的很High，感觉很重要，
很多人也愿意为这个集体无偿贡献力量。”
一起唱的创始人尹桑
锐波创始人兼CEO 孙宇晨
Powerful网店马佳佳
大象创始人刘克楠
深圳市丁叮文化产业发展有限公司执行董事丁仕源
90后创业圈创始人李伟忠

18
No way to realize their own
dreams working in others’ team
with other vision
It is not possible to realize their own dreams when
working regularly for a company. A shortcut is
available through building up their own teams.
Working as a screw on the
streamline paves no way for
their own interests towards life
It is not possible to experience the joy of
exploration when following in the designed
process in a boring job with no consistence with
their personal interests.
2 Anxiety

19
“总之在那一年我一直没能想明白，一直挺迷茫
的，那个时候真的是很痛苦，因为没人能给我答
案，内心很不踏实，自己想做的事情没人能理解
~”
“创业过程中会遇到各种各样的阻力，这个时候
一定要经得住考验。要学会调整好自己的心态，
团队不能有负面的情绪。”
“但腾讯有2万人，你只是其中之一。你有很多
东西要学，更多的事是大家分配给你的，这个时
候就会有点问题。”
“枯燥且不对口的工作，与我想象中的精彩纷呈
背道而驰，而且在人际上处处栽跟头。公司里没
人会把我当做小孩子：被忽视，冷落，挨批评，
每日做着并不习惯的枯燥的工作……”
“那是我最迷茫也是最痛苦的时候，一个项目做
了发现不合适，马上就开始寻找另一个项目，但
总是重复着失败。”
“看到身边的人一个个都在平淡的职场中磨灭了
自己的梦想，我在为他们担心的同时，下定决心
不做这样的人。在这样一个物质化的时代，没有
梦想，人只能变成一幅空壳子。”
Segmentfault 创始人高阳 “为你爱”创始人兼CEO 华盛
俊杰网络文化传播机构总经理赵俊杰
脸萌创始人郭列
手抓饼大王禹化普追梦网创始人杜梦杰

20
Doing by learning

The road of starting a new business is full of risk,
with new problems emerging continuously and
without any cases to refer. The only way for
success is to keep learning during working. To
them it’s not at all painful but full of challenges.
Inspiring creativity through a global vision

The rich content from Internet and many digital platforms
have provided them access to global information, which
enables them to broaden horizon and improve products.
3 Practice

21
Doing by
learning
If we compare the road of
entrepreneur with the
grand route in “One
piece”, then countless
unknown troubles on the
route are the same for
entrepreneurs
No cases to refer means
exploring by themselves
Difﬁculties are asking for
self-learning and
searching for resources
Dreams relieve them from
pains during the exploring
journey
Brainstorm
with friends
Go to school

Consulting
Make a try
Search

Self
learning

Internship
“Mimicking”
“the
beginning
of
problem

is
the
beginning
of
adventure”
· Group discussion
· brainstorming
Sunny has a group of friends with same
interests. She often invites them to
discuss the improvement of her new
products. These discussions usually last
a whole afternoon. Moreover, she
consults the experts in the area to get
professional recommendations, which
helps her to avoid many problems.
· Ask experts online
· Ask questions to friends
working in the industry
· Ask friends who are
interested in these areas
Whisky has a dream to start a
business, helping clients to plan
creative parties. Since he has no
idea about running a bar, he
decided to work in a bar to gain
experience. During work, Whisky
observes the managing and
operating way of a bar and apply
all these on his own project.
· Work in companies to learn
enterprise operating experience
· “Fourteen days’ experience” to gain
the features of certain profession

Alex wants to develop a mobile app to
encourage users to insist their dreams. He
started learning programming from video
courses and textbooks. From the product
launch till the establishment of the enterprise,
Alex has been improving his product every
day. The website has still recorded the code
that he wrote in the very ﬁrst day. He said “I
don’t dare to fail. I dare not even try myself.“
· Education institute
·Cooking/art/
programing/coffee/
design courses
· Pilot launch / Beta launch
Sa spent six months to learn to design his own
website. He said he was expecting the one
thousand browsers both excitedly and lonely. He
phoned several his friends to make a trial. On the
third day, the increase of over 60 new browsers
gave Sa strong energy to strengthen his idea to
improve the website.
· Search similar questions online
· Download similar app for
comparison
· Google/ Baidu
When encountering new problem, Ken
always try to solve them by himself. First, he
would search similar problems online. If there
is no similar solution online, he would
download a lot of new applications to inspire
his ideas from the perspective as a user.
· MOOC
· Video lectures
· Download manual
· Buy textbook

Inspiration
from a
global vision
This is the best times
with open information
and shared resources
Fresh entrepreneurs are
fully aware of this. They
rowse global
information to broaden
their horizon
They compare these
information with local
one to inspire new ideas
and to perfect their
products
Collect fresh ideas
Travel for
refreshment

Ask foreign
“strangers”
Go abroad to feel idea
crash and to find new
directions
Zoe thinks that she can only design her product
“One person Travel” to the most comprehensive
way when she feels the outside world, encounters
different thoughts and behaviors and experiences a
travelling abroad by herself. Therefore she booked a
flight ticket to Paris, starting her trip of thought
crash.。
· Browse magnificent design works
· Collect fresh creative ideas
· Focus on user experience and
website design
Lee is fond of the frontier design and simple user
experience of overseas website. Every day he
browses overseas (interactive) design websites to
access the most recent trends. Meanwhile, he saves
some niche overseas forums to absorb new
information. Combining these creative ideas with
his own ones, Lee is seeking new insights on his
products.。
Seek
overseas
help
in

different
perspec8ve
•  Leave the questions on the IT
forums overseas and wait for
foreign netizen to answer them
•  Search educating videos on
YouTube
When Sion encounters difficulties, it is
sometimes difficult to find answers in local
resources. He will then leave his question
on an overseas IT forum. He can always
find someone from abroad replies his
question the next day. Although
sometimes these replies do not actually
answer the questions directly, Sion will
seek the chance to generate insights from
them. Furthermore, Sion usually watch the
educating videos on YouTube to find
some clues for his questions.

23
In the past
Fans were crazy about the perfect man in Korean soap operas or mainly
singing groups.
Girls called them “Obba”.
Girls were attracted by their handsome appearances and perfectness.
and they even imagined them as their boyfriends.

Now
We ﬁnd that there’s a growing group of “idol guardians”.
They are mostly in the generation of people born after 1995 or 2000.
They are mania of younger stars – those who around their same age instead
of remote perfect idols.

Love “soft “and “cute” things with healing ability
Rationally care and guard instead of blindly chase after
With motherhood, though young themselves, they call their idols “children”.
Fans
chasing
teenaged
idols

They are in their tens with dreams.
They go back and forth between their home and school.
However, they have fantasies and imagination.
They love beautiful and natural things to heal them and bring
positive energy to their life
They are keen to ﬁnd those close to their situation
Those who they can grow up with
To ﬁnd the way to deal with the life ahead
1 Aspiration

25
TFBOYS
in
others’
eyes=stars.
TFBOYS
in
clovers’

eyes=
models=mo=va=on
for
study
=
pusher

=ideal=shiner=life
goal
=youth=guider=
teacher
and

friend=direc=on
of
dream=
the
right

people=lover=symbol
of
strong=source
of
eﬀorts
=

reason
for
struggling=
worth
lifelong
guarding
They
are
the
kind
of
wonderfulness
I
didn’t
met
at

their
age.
They
make
me
want
to
be
a
beGer

person.
They
light
up
my
boring
life
and
mo=vate

me
to
struggle
to
be
beGer
and
beGer.
“I’m
really
relieved
that
they
become
popular

now.
I
love
their
reality
and
eﬀorts.
They’re
like
my

brothers.
Liking
them
and
seeing
the
things
their

fans
do
for
them
make
me
love
them
more.”
I
love
the
energy
they
have
that
let
me
believe
there’s

love
in
the
world.
Most
fans
love
them
because
they’re

Chinese
and
don’t
have
a
company
behind.
They
have

kindness,
innocence
and
diligence
that
belong
to

children.
Their
success
tells
us
that
it
makes
sense
to

persist.
I
want
to
hold
on
to
what
I
love.
There’s
a
kind
of
calmness
and
persistence
in
Kai’s

eyes.
The
innocence
and
fascina=on
in
Yuanyuan’s

eyes
bring
you
happiness
and
warmth.
Qianqian
is

the
love
of
life.
His
eyesight
can
heal
and
are

sincere.
His
dimples
are
the
greatest
thing
in
the

world.
“They
are
brave
to
pursue
their
dreams
and
remain

commiGed.
They
can
do
many
things
I
can’t
hold
on
to.

They
are
the
kind
of
people
I
wanted
to
be
though

they’re
not
perfect
now.
I’m
gePng
beGer
gradually,
I

get
energy
from
them.
For
me,
idols
are
not
people
to

imitate
but
to
learn
from.

26
2 Anxiety
Pressure of school life
(System)
Busy school work and expectations
of parents and teachers make them
restrained and pressed.

In a research of high school students, students
said they were under heavy pressure,lacked
sleep and had endless homework.
In the research, 39.29%and 53.57%of students
separately chose “always” and “sometimes” for
“feeling anxious about the failure of improving
grades in a short time”. They concerned much
about their grades.
In summer and winter vacations, except
homework, they have to go to all kinds of extra
classes.
Personality of resisting
competence (Personal)
Except hard-working, they are gentle
and soft, hoping to enjoy a carefree
life. They don’t want to and are
unable to stand out.
The research showed that fans born after 2000
have good grades, though not excellent. They
were satisﬁed with being in a stable
environment.
They appear conﬁdent but are fragile inside.
They ‘re afraid of obstacles so don’t want to be
outstanding in a group.
Having nowhere to place
youth (energy)
They are independent because parents are
busy. They don’t communicate with parents
on anything. In the era of digital, they have
more chances to know about the world.
However, their emotions and energy can’t
be released in the daily life,
The research found that teenagers at present
barely were willing to talk with their parents or
teachers. They preferred losing their tempter,
chatting online, writing diaries and listening music
to express their unhappiness and depression
They were in touch with digital from a young age.
The research found that 44.5% of children had
their own cellphones when there were kids. They
could use cellphones and tablet PCs from
kindergarten.

27
1. Practical energy -
seeking positive energy
by relevant occasion

Idols go to school, do homework and
take exams every day. When fans meet
up with pressure in their study, they
can get energy from the behavior of
their idols facing pressure bravely.
2. Share dreams -
help idols realize
their dreams

They help idols lift their image
and hope to see the realization
of dreams come true .
3. Team work - an
organization sharing the
same hobby and goal

They cooperate to support idols, share and
discuss together, even including topics of
real life. Gradually they become real
friends. They become an organization
because of having common hobbies.
3 Practice

28
PM

•  After a day’s tiring study, they
watch videos of stars before
sleep to relax themselves.
Daisy didn’t surf the Internet from the
early morning. Before sleep at night, she
opened the APP of Yinyuetai to watch
videos of TFBOYS. She was moved so
she opened her IPAD and voted for them.
She hoped she could work harder
tomorrow.
•  Use star-related stationary while taking
exam and reviewing
•  Share their experience of preparing for
exams by @ their stars on Weibo
•  Share videos and photos of stars and
state that they won’t do it from
tomorrow to the end of the exam
The mid-term exam is approaching. Linda
bought lots of stationary on Taobao with star
pictures. When reviewing, she would take
pictures of using the stationary and post them
on Weibo and @ the stars, showing that those
pens would bring luck to her.
•  Listen music with QQ music while
doing homework and share them
•  Do homework as quickly as possible
to listen to new songs and hi boards.
•  Work harder at the thought of that
their stars are working too
Vicky felt sleepy when doing homework at
night. Then he opened QQ music and do
homework along with TFBOYS’ songs.
Seeing their pictures made her feel that they
are accompanying her. When she found song
she like, she would make screenshots and
share them on Weibo or QQ zone
•  Seeing their stars sing and dance
after class, they will go to that
kind of classes.
•  Seeing their stars have good
grades, they will go to extra
classes.
Seeing that TFBOYS keep practicing
under heavy study, Lily signed up for a
dance class and go there every week. She
would also watch their dancing videos
and dance along.
。
1. Practical Energy – seeking positive energy by relevant occasion
AM

Relief from exams
Healing before sleep
Company of homework
Motivation for
weekend classes

2. Share dreams help idols realize their dreams
· Keep the completeness
of the hitting-board
account to prevent it
from being cleared
· Play, download, share,
comment and collect
everyday to lift the points
on board
· Focus on the boards on
which the place has fallen
· Find the awards that
their stars have
possibility to win and try
to vote as much as
possible
· Donate money on
websites started by stars
and NGOs
· Repost topics started
by stars
· Join star groups in APP
and help keep the first
place of their stars.
· Cover those negative comments by posting
positive ones on Weibo and Douban
· Use negative blogs to clear negative ones on
Baidu BBS

· Post their self-made
videos on bilibili and
discuss in subtitles.
· Post birthday wishes
to their stars on
Tudou
· When there’s offline activities or shows of their stars,
they’ll go and support them with a lot of stuff.
· When their stars appear in the airport, they’ll go there
and welcome them or see them off
Purify the
internet
Clear
negative news
Keep the first
place on boards
Vote whenever
there are awards
Do good deeds
in the name of
the idols
Keep active by
organizing offline
activities
Expressing
support by
videos with
subtitles

3. Team work - forming an organization for having the same hobby and goal
· Spontaneous
cooperation for high
efficiency
Kelly opened a QQ group
for fans to discuss and
cooperate to hit boards. Become mutual fans because of discussion on
BBS·/ Meet each other in other cities
Fans concern a lot
about places of
their stars on
boards. They’ll try
their best to
spread news and
call on others to
help stars get
higher
•  Spontaneously find boards with lower
places and call others to help lift them
•  Learn PS and make teaching blog for
hitting boards and voting for other fans
· Fans in the same
city will gather and
celebrate on star’s
birthday.
Bella likes taking part
in parties for star’s
birthday and make
cake with other fans.
They’ll take pictures
and @their stars.
•  There are many
requirements for
posting in BBS
•  Everyone get and do
their own job
•  Fans will obey the rules
in BBS
Many fans go to stars’ school and follow them. When
there in appropriate behavior is shared on social
network, many fans will condemn them.
Many people criticize that TFBOYs are idiots. So
many fans will argue with them. But some will stop
this behavior, considering this will affect stars’ images
· Respect stars’ privacy and condemn those
who don’t
· Stop the behavior of fighting and arguing
of other fans
Spontaneous
cooperation
Connect in real life
Norms & Culture

John B. Watson, the American psychologist in his radical behaviorism,
put the emphasis on external behavior of people and their reactions on
given situations.
Expression is one of the behavior. With digitalization, people can express
themselves freely. In previous trends, we studied their behaviors on
digital/social, and found them expressing emotions rather randomly and
simply - such as complaint, happiness, loneliness and showing off…

As users getting sophisticated, their standard of self-expression
becomes higher. More and more people are not satisﬁed with simply
showing emotions. They hope to use creation to present themselves and
ﬁnd the sense of existence.
They are Makers.
Drawing, cooking, planting, woodworking, …….
Apart from the life they’re living, they hope their expression can be of
more quality through digital ways. As a result, they turn their hobbies
into a way to communicate and interact with others, a way to show
personal value.
Maker

“Action should not be a reaction but
creation”

33
Say goodnight by calligraphy
She’s a senior student in college.
She practices calligraphy every day
and she will take pictures to share
them in the goodnight photo album
in Douban.
Show the persistence by pottery
Ling used to be a designer in a ad company.
The she had her own studio to create
according to his own art idea. He made lots
of pottery work and @ his friends on Weibo
to discuss with him.
Amateur photographer
becomes the wedding
photographer
Peter is an exchange
student abroad. He likes
ﬁlm cameras. He
followed many foreign
photographers on ins.
And he also post his
own work on Internet.
As a result, he received
many orders of wedding
photography.
Personal Aesthetics in Drawing and Calligraphy
Dress like people in cartoon
Tina is a designer. She will
draw her dress-up everyday
after work and share it on
Weibo.

· A reserved
engineer
chooses cooking
to express
himself

· Happiness: self-made
tea break
In the weekend afternoon,
Saray will invite her friends
and make their own tea break
in her house. They’ll post
their gathering pictures on
Weibo and their recipes on
Douguo。
· Everyday cooking makes a better
life. May chooses to cook everyday for
healthy food and always takes photos for
them. She loves tableware and purchase
them in IKEA or Taobao. Many fans follow
her on XiaChuFang and ask her about her
cooking experience.
· Insist on cooking
every morning for
two years
Hana is a translator. On
weekends, she gets up even
earlier than weekdays. She
goes to the supermarket to
buy raw materials to cook
breakfast.
Food Photography——Warmth Every day

Make a Fairytale by Needle and Yarn
· Go to the felt class
to make mushrooms
Penny likes making
things by felt. She
noticed a studio Weibo
that offered relative
classes and teachers
who made beautiful
work. So she purchased
the class on Taobao
and went there on
weekends.
· Make your own dolls
Sarah likes Japanese
cartoons. She usually buys
materials on Taobao and
transform those ordinaries
dolls into ones she likes.
She share them on
WeChat and Douban. She
also opened a Taobao
store to make dolls for
others.

·∙ Manual Work with Cloth
A machine, all kinds of
cloth and threads will
compose Lorrain’s
beautiful work. She posts
them o Instagram and
Blog. It is now an
essential part of her daily
life.

· Hand-crochet Time
Abby is good at making hand crochet stuffs, such waistcoat,
cup mats, hats, accessories and dolls. She shares her work and
stitch explanation with friends on Weibo, digu and WeChat

The hand made, the original returned
· A female engineering PH.D and her rubber
stamps
Patty’s passion towards rubber stamps is
triggered by her hobby and making the
gifts . Now Patty will post her work on
Guokr and Weibo regularly, she accepts
personal customized orders on Taobao
while sharing ideas with Guokr fans.

· The creator of miniature worlds and his memory
Ben creates many real and delicate miniature worlds
and shares his work on Weibo and Douban in his
spare time. He also initiates at a kick starter website,
encouraging people to support his idea of
reproducing miniature crafts for childhood.
· Wood-made crafts bring life back to basics
Jimmy remembered his childhood with craving
wooden crafts, and he keeps the hobby of making
wooden crafts to decorate his home. At the mean
time, he updates his Weibo, Lofter, Douban and
instagram with the making process and some
techniques, encouraging people to enjoy life by this.
· Teach mothers make handcrafts
Molly has been a mother for a while,
and she enjoys making handcrafts and
teaching other mothers by weibo in
order to have more interactions with
their children. Molly also sells her
handmade dolls on Taobao for
pleasure.

· Designer and her plants
Becky creates her own forests by glass
containers, healthy soil, green plants and
some delicate stones. She shared pictures
of her gardening on blog, Tumblr and digu,
which received a huge popularity.
· IT guy and his micro bonsai
Joey ﬁnds the way of releasing
stress by making micro bonsai. With
the increased popularity of his
micron bonsai on Weibo and
Douban, he started a project on
zhongchou website, sharing his
happiness with more
· Cute succulent plants
Jolly’s balcony is ﬁlled with cute
succulent plants that keep her smiles.
She captures the growth of these plants
with Meitu and shares lovely moments
with friends on WeChat and Weibo,
Gardening, the miniature wonderland of city life

Build a Lego kingdom
· LEGO miniature kingdom
Candy has a LEGO land。Her passion
towards American movies and comics
drives her to recreate ﬁlm scenes with
Lego and her own ideas. She will take
photos and retouch them with Picasa. Her
ideas are very popular on Weibo, and
attract many fans on Lofter. Even
worldwide instagram friends like her
amazing work.
· Let Lego Be Part of Your Daily Life

Tracy is a big fan of Lego. Unlike others,
Tracy doesn’t use Lego only for building
scenes and displays, but she also enjoys
making daily accessories including rings,
calendars and keys with Lego.Her
colleagues asked about holding a Lego
Sharing Session on weekend after they
saw the fridge magnet made by Tracy.
She also posts her work on Instagram,
Weibo and Lofter.

Geeky skills make dreams come true
· Picture own stories on Harleys
Mooi is an entrepreneur who works at
company during day time. She spends
evenings with her boyfriend in refitting old
Harleys and picturing their stories on
motorbikes. They posted the whole process
on Weibo, WeChat and Tumblr.
·Old clothes become
bracelets

Gary never dumps old
clothes, instead, he makes
bracelets with them. These
beautiful and unique
bracelets attract many
Weibo fands and taobao
customers.
· Fly the bike
Kim added an vortex engine on
his bike. He enjoys riding the bike
with the special sound generated
by the engine. Lots of Weibo and
Lofter fans are attracted as soon
as he posted the whole refitting
process and test driving videos.
· Architect’s flying dream
Steve and his five friends enjoy studying aircrafts
in their spare time. They designed a new model
by using their architecture skills. The aircraft has
been recognized on Weibo and Lofter, and it is
one of the cases collected by the Makers

Let’s look at
How people choose to release their energy in life?
What kind of life activities they are actively engaged?
The digital solution is to
Be meaningful / useful / delightful to enhance their life
activities.
Create contents / design experience to make them think
it’s a “hobby”, lead their life activities, or be part of the
hobby – be part of the thing that they’ve been spending
their life on.
Digital is a mindset and it’s about people’s behavior.

Engagement approach

of Branded Applications & Digital Products
Part II

“The future of content is the gamiﬁed experience.”

We talked about brand approaches in digital age. Brands now are not just running campaigns
on mini-sites or writing pieces social stories for posting and sharing. They invest more
sophisticated digital applications.
DIGITAL
PRODUCT
APPS DIGITAL
CAMPAIGN
…
The future of content is no longer the single piece of content, or
collection of separate content, or various contents containing same key
message… It will be a well-orchestrated set of contents that drive the
behavior change of the user, Namely the gamiﬁed experience.
It is the “game” in a broader sense – the designed experience for business purpose, user’s long-
term engagement and for behavior changing.

The designed (gamiﬁed) experience
Content is the king, and now it becomes the 2nd
important thing. The most important is the user.
The designed experience is user-centric.
Gamiﬁcation is the mindset of the experience
design. It is to use of game elements and
game design techniques in non-game
contexts.
The social aspects of engagement is also
considered to connect users, and embrace the
social media environment. Social

Methodology to evaluate the engagement approach
•  Refer to Social Engagement Verbs Mapping (2011) for engagement evaluation
•  Leverage 2 dimensions for mapping the verbs: Acting vs. Interacting; Content vs. Players
•  The most used verbs and actions in the engagement indicate where the engagement is
positioned
User as the
“Player”
Content
Acting
Players

Interacting
Engage people by
content VS by
achievement
Personal act VS
interacting with others
Express
Explore
Collaborate
Compete
Position
PlayersContent
Acting
Purchase
Customize
Decorate
Win
Challenge
Compare
Collect
Rate
Review
Share
Give
Interacting
Pass
Join
Trade
Search
Show off
Source: Smart Gamiﬁcation: Seven Core Concepts for Creating Compelling Experiences | Amy Jo KIM

Overview of the 4 patterns of engagement positioning
Cooperate achievement:
Collaboration are a purposeful,
non-zero-sum way of
socializing, People who enjoy
collaboration like to "win
together" with others
User can explore others’ content:
Exploring content, people, tools, and
worlds can be a rich and rewarding
activity. . People who enjoy exploring
are motivated by information, access
and knowledge
Content
Acting
Interacting
Players
User create own content:
Self-expression is a key driver for
modern social gaming and
social media - and a major
motivator for engagement and
purchases/monetization
Single achievement
Competition drives social
gameplay and self-
improvement . People who
enjoy competition assume
everyone likes competition
Express
Explore Collaborate
Compete

Cases study
How the engagement is positioned and designed?

Engagement case overview
XIACHUFANG
QYER
Application
超级减肥王
Fitness
Walkr
163 MUSIC
MEET YOU
Lifestyle
CMB
banking
英语流利说
Education
Nike
running
Foodie
Moji
Weather
Starbucks
Travel 运动
Music
KUAIDI
Utility Health
Brand APP cases
Dettol Oreo
Zing
lemon
Brand HTML5 cases

Player
Acting
Interacting
EXPRESS
EXPLORE
COMPETE
COLLABORATE
Content

CASE 1
QYER Provide service and tips for world travel
•  A platform to those who want to go travelling abroad help
each other and make the trip easier.
•  Collection of tips and notes of users’ trips in any other
countries
•  Travel planner to customize own trip route.

Core Features Business
Opportunities
•  Cooperate with Travel
products/ Hotels, one
click to booking
•  80% operating income
is the commission from
every deal
•  Selling products for
travel like T-shirt etc.
on the E-market
Tips
aggregator
Recommendation of
scenic spots
Review or ask others
travel story or tips
Travel planner
Choose the date and
place can customize
travel schedule
Collect others travel
notes
Discussion
board
Find others by LBS
Discuss with others
about travel topics Purchase
Links to travel
booking
Get coupon

CASE 2
NIKE RUNNING Tracking running records and compete with
others
•  Tracking and analysis the whole running process to help you
ﬁnish the goals.
•  Share the running records and compete with others.
•  Make more eﬃcient running plans.

Ranking with
others:
•  add friends from social
platform
•  sharing the results can
compete with friend
on ranks of each
month and week
Tracking running
process
•  tracking the data and
GPS mapping of the
running process
•  through the running,
you can get reminding
and cheer up

Challenge
setting
•  set goals and invite
friends to take a
competition together
Coach running
plans
•  get diﬀerent level of
running plans by
professional coach
Core Features
•  Tracking and get users
data
•  The utility is combine with
brand concept and users
life, which makes long
relationship with users
•  Build social community of
Nike
•  When user record the
running process, they can
mark the type of shoes,
which make product
placement
Business
Opportunities

Case 3
MEET YOU
Female community and tool to record own
calendar
•  Tools of record own calendar of physiological cycle with
remind of body condition everyday.
•  Community only for female users to communicate.
•  Female topics collection in all areas.

•  The APP amassed an
enormous amount of user
information and
segmented them, so they
got ﬁnanced
•  content banner to
Cooperate with female
brand
•  Build point system, and
cooperate with female
brands to build points
mall
•  Record and tracking users
data
Core Features
Calendar reminder:
•  Record female cycle in
calendar to get remind
and analysis of body
condition
Segmented model
•  Choose the model of
mom, prepare for
pregnant or female
cycle
Theme discussion
•  Explore female topics
about all areas.
•  Follow experts in
female area
•  Share own or comment
others’ topics
Tasks in point
system
•  choose diﬀerent tasks
can get more points
Business
Opportunities

CASE 4
KUAIDI Tool to call the Taxi
•  Call the taxi more convenient.
•  Each time take a taxi can get points to exchange coupon for
paying taxi driver or buy other stuﬀ.

•  Points mall to putting
ads in, including brands,
hotels, movie, travel,
restaurants, etc.
•  Users can use the points,
which gets from they
finish each order, to
exchange with coupon
and other voucher
•  Bounding to Alipay,
which to expand the
user base
•  Promote the market of
business-car renting
Core Features
Call the taxi
•  Can call the taxi
immediately or make
appointment
•  Communicate with the
taxi driver directly
Points collection
•  Each order can get
points and send red
packets to friends
•  In some specific point
in time can use points
to exchange with
coupons which can be
paid to the taxi driver
Points mall
•  can use coupon to
buy other stuff in the
Points Mall
Business
Opportunities

CASE 5
WALKR Use walking energy to fuel the ship and
discover other planets in the game
•  Have adventure experience by exploring and collecting
new planets in the game.
•  With healthcare like reminding user to walk and drink
water.

Core Features
Explore by self
•  Explore the virtual
universe by using
walking energy
•  Put iPhone in pockets
and it will automatically
record the steps
•  Build own galaxy and
devise to increase
population
Collaborate with
others
•  To help other creatures
ﬁnd their home
•  Compete with friends
and visit their galaxies
•  Combine the utility of
health care, to attract
more users
•  Users can buy the tools
in the game(In-App
Purchase)
•  Combine the social
media to share the
achievements
Undertake
missions
•  Earn achievements and
show oﬀ collections to
social network
Business
Opportunities

CASE 6
163MUSIC

Provide vast library of songs and customize
personal songs list
•  Explore all the diﬀerent kind of music or radio
programs, and comment on them.
•  Collect own or follow others songs collection or
ranking list.
•  Share own radio program.

Core Features
Customize own songs
collection:
•  Collect others songs list
in the big songs library
or choose songs into
persona lists
•  Get recommendation
combine your interests
•  Banner to brand
placement
•  Cooperate with the
entertainment
company
•  Cooperate with the
communication
common carriers
Theme topics
•  Discussion the music
theme topics edit by
experts or DJ
Social elements
•  Explore and follow
music experts, DJ or
by LBS, and their
songs lists
•  Comments on each
songs with other users
•  ranking the music
sharing experts
Radio program
•  Make and share own
radio program
•  listen to others radio
program
Business
Opportunities

CASE 7
超级减肥王
As a weight-loss experts teach and help you
to keep ﬁt
•  Exercise video and record tools to lose weight
•  Communicate with professional coach with users as
personal trainer
•  Partner with friend to supervise with each other
•  Record you exercise data

Core Features
Video episode
•  Teach you to have
exercise by videos.
Data recording
•  Tools to record and
analysis you data and
customize your tasks
•  Missions and reminds
to encourage users
•  Tracking and get users
data
•  Cooperate brands of
ﬁtness products and
female products
•  Combine with the real
products for sales
Discussion board
•  Communicate with
Professional coach
•  Discuss related topics
with others and share
own experience
Partner sharing
compete
•  Partner with friend to
supervise with each other
Business
Opportunities

CASE 8
英语流利说
Training spoken English as a game
adventure
•  Push spoken English training tasks everyday.
•  Techniques to valuate and grade your spoken English.
•  Finish the training by passing diﬀerent levels as game.

Core Features
Levels to unlock
•  there are many levels
as in a game to unlock
by scores
•  Choose different
theme of English
speaking tasks by
interest
Point system:
•  Get points by finish
missions
•  Ranking the scores
with others
•  The APP amassed an
enormous amount of
user information, so
they got financed
•  Cooperate with
other related apps
•  Analysis users data
•  Cooperate English
teachers
Discussion board
•  Share and discuss
topics about learning
spoken English
•  Communicate with
experts Data for progress
•  Analysis the
learning process to
see the achievement
Business
Opportunities

CASE 9
MOJI Weather
Notiﬁcation of real-time weather and air
condition with visualization
•  Get notice of real-time and future weather condition.
•  Advice of wearing according to the weather.
•  Share weather condition to friends or families.

Core Features
Notiﬁcation of
Weather:
•  Check the real-time
weather
•  Provide wearing
advice according to
users and weather
condition
Real-time view:
•  Share and check real-
time photos of the
weather condition
•  Receiving or giving
likes and comments
•  Rank of users who
share photos
•  In-app advertising for
other brands
•  Linked with physical
products and drive to
the E-commerce
•  Combine with the real
products related to
weather and
environment condition
& travel
Business
Opportunities

CASE 10
XIACHUFANG
Explore all the recipes and ﬁnding others
story about cooking
•  Collection of users recipes and cooking methods.
•  Share or ﬁnd others tips for cooking.
•  Recommend seasonality and popular menu of food.

Core Features
Recipe collection
•  Explore the recipe and
cooking methods
•  theme recipe
collection
recommendation
•  Recommend of
Seasonality and
popular menu of food
Theme of recipe
ranking
•  ﬁnd the top popular
or seasonality recipe
•  Behind each recipe
users can sharing
own cooking photos
Market
•  Customize
shopping list of
food
•  one click to
purchase on E-C
Upload recipe
•  Upload own recipe
and cooking
experience
•  discuss and upload
own result behind
recipes
•  Income from the
adverting of
Taobao

•  Cooperate
with
E-‐C

like

food
related
products

•  Cooperate
with
Oﬄine

supermarket

Business
Opportunities

•  淘宝客和谷歌的广告收
入
•  与食品网商（生鲜）的
合作
•  线下实体商城
上传菜谱
•  上传自己的菜谱和烹
饪体验
•  讨论或上传自己食谱
烹饪的背后故事
菜谱收藏
•  探索食谱和烹饪方法
•  主题菜谱收藏推荐
•  推荐季节性和流行食
物的菜单
主题菜谱排名:
•  找到最受欢迎的或季
节性的菜谱
•  每个用户可以共享自
己按照食谱烹饪背后
的照片
集市
•  定制食物的购
物清单
•  在网上商城上
直接点击购买
主要功能商业机遇
Brand APP cases

CASE 11
掌上生活
A ﬁnancial tool for customers of China
Merchants Bank
•  Self-service and self check of all the info.
•  Explore the activity and coupon.
•  Get tasks to get more points and discount.

Core Features
Financial service
•  Manage your account
•  Check and pay the bills
•  Purchase by installment
Special deal
•  Discover the coupon
of the online E-shop
•  Get tricks of secret
coupon
Points system
•  Mission to get more
points and rights
•  Exchange the gift
with points
•  The ﬁnance service system
which make users to finish
their business more easily
•  Combine with point system
to get special deals
•  Points mall to accumulate
users purchase
Business
Opportunities
To improve:
•  Incomplete system with
very little tricks
•  Not motivating enough to
lead users to purchase

CASE 12
STARBUCKS Register the reward card and record all the
status about Starbucks
•  Register all the rewards card to one account and keep
track of purchase action.
•  Receive all the latest activities of brands.
•  Find the nearest store.

Core Features
Purchase record:
•  Record your
purchase info. about
the frequency, place
and time
•  keep track of stars ,r
ewards and upgrade
program level
Achievements
collection
•  According to the
mission can get
bage
Store locater
•  Find the nearest stor
e and check in
Activity news
•  receive all the latest
activities and info. of
brands
•  Tracking and collecting
DATA of consumer
behavior
•  Combine the sales of the
reward cards and stores
•  Promotion the brand
concept and activities,
which to build long term
Business
Opportunities
To improve:
•  Build online interaction
can make more
engagement

•  消费者行为的大数据收
集
•  分段奖励
成就收藏
•  完成不同的任务可
以获得不同的勋章
购买记录:
•  记录消费者购买信息，
包括频率、地点和时
间
•  追踪星数、奖励和升
级项目
活动新闻
•  收取有关最新活动
和品牌信息的消息
门户定位
•  找到最近的
星巴克门店
Brand HTML5 Cases

CASE 13
滴露
A game of Snake eating beans to ﬁght the
bacteria
•  Combine the classic game model with the image of “Angela”
to spread brand concept in an entertainment way.

Core Features
To improve
•  No long term records
•  Lead to purchase but no
coupon
Score system
•  challenge combine
with celebrity image
•  Pass the diﬀerent
levels in a map
•  Use classic games to
attract users to play
•  Combine the image
of celebrity with
product features to
spread the brand
concept
•  Share the results
to social
network
The result

CASE 14
OREO A game of balance the products
•  Combined with popular movie, to balance the product
to win.

The result
Core Features
•  Use games to attract
users trying the new
products
•  Take challenge to
get lottery
•  Challenge is to keep
the products in the
security zone by
press the “Stop"
•  Share the result to
moments to have the
opportunity to get
products
•  Combine the movie
with topics of
vacation to promote
the game
•  Through the game to
make users to feel the
features of the new
products
To improve
•  No link to purchase

CASE 15
ZING LEMON
Take part of the game to get top 100
scores
•  combine the brand image to create a game of stabbing the
lemons.
•  Each time of checking the new products info. can get a
chance to get a lottery.

Core Features
Ranking scores
•  Each time of
taking part of the
game can check
the ranking
•  Each week
announce the
ranking or you can
check by your self
Self challenge
•  The game is to stab
more and more
lemons
•  the top 100 scores
can get free
products
Sharing can get
more points
•  Each others click
the link of your
sharing can get
more points Lottery
•  check more info. of
the products can
get more chance of
lottery
•  Combine the game mechanism
with product features, which
makes users know more about
products
•  Each week announcing the
ranking , attract users to play
more, and build long term
•  When users share can get more
score which spreading the
game
The result
To improve:
•  Build social community, which
can build long term
relationship

•  利用游戏吸引更多用户
关注和了解产品，与品
牌互动，形成长期的关
系
成绩排名
•  每玩一次游戏都可查
看单局或总分排名纪
录
•  每周会公布游戏成绩，
玩家可以查看自己的
排名。
自我挑战
•  游戏内容是尽可能多
的扎到柠檬，前100
名可以免费获得产品
作为奖励。
分享可获更多积分
•  其他用户每点击一次你
的分享，你就可以获得
更多积分
抽奖
•  浏览新品信息
还可以获得抽
奖的机会
Indications

Position the interaction with “verbs”
Map
the
core
verbs

Do
a
posi8oning
for
the

engagement
You
can
posi8on
in
any
of
the

4
approach,
while
you
shall

know
the
core
challenge

Each
posi8on
need
diﬀerent

engagement
and
techniques

Players

Content

Acting

Interac8ng

Express

Explore
Collaborate

Compete

Need to provide the
utility/ tools which
can attract users
Need to
continually
update to fulﬁll
users needs of
challenge
Need time to
accumulate the UGC
which can build a
system of
community
Raise users common
cause or big and
meaningful goal
1

Long-‐term
engagement

approach
will
help

brand
accumulate
the

digital
assets.

The
successful
cases

show
us
the
best

prac8ces
are
Starbucks

Most brands are working on short term engagement, how
to balance the Long term relationship?
Data tracking
Through the reward card to track the purchase behavior into data,
as LBS, purchase behavior.
Link user achievements with purchase behavior
There are different motivations to drive behavior change. Brand can
design enjoyable loops for users to accumulate achievements; and
relate these achievement to purchase behavior.
CRM segments
Each purchase can get rewards, to upgrade the levels which
accumulate users to purchase more
Embrace user with more context - ofﬂine & online
User can receive the newest activity to go to ofﬂine by locate the
nearby store on the APP
Build long-term engagement with data
2

For
short-‐term

engagement,

there’re
are

highlights
to
look
at.

Leverage story-telling
Build campaigns and products features into story – meaningful and
enjoyable for users

Single-minded tools
with game mechanism and rewarding
The small functionality related with product usages will enhance the
experience for the brand. The game is easy to play and end quickly with
rewarding, which make users revisit and engage for more times
Friend challenge Inviting user to compete with a friends gets a
quick start for the engagement. Ask more friends can get more scores
which spread the game more
Other game gimmicks

•  Chance Involve unexpectedness in the tasks and rewarding

•  PBL system: Point collection, Lead board for ranking & Badges to
motivate users to play more and more to upgrade their scores

From the html5 cases we list up some practice brands can
refer to for short term engagement
Design short engagement more enjoyable
3

To Engage is to Get Users to
PLAY!
Brand as an “adverb”
is to enhance consumers to take their actions.
It's to enhance the "verbs" of the user.

The Network Pattern
Part III

The Emerging & Invisible Tribes
In previous trend, we talked about TRIBES, and
shared our observation that:
Users today are getting more and more
scattered into small groups per interest or life
focus.
For example, they are engaged in group
chatting on mobile based IM, WeChat or app
where they are more actively interacting around
a topic/theme.
Also we see they’re moving from open network
platforms, to close network ones, which gets the
engagement pattern more complicated.
Here comes some further thoughts and facts …

POV 1: Network Gets Segmented
The mass network is getting more and
more segmented.
This is because the users are more
sophisticated. Their digital behaviors are
turn into unique habit upon personal
preference, which makes them less
homogeneous in actions.
As they changed their behavior in one
way or another, or some remain further
in their way; the structure of the mass
network becomes segmented.

Case: Social Content Spreading Pattern (Durex & Stride)
Background
We try select some brands and study the pattern
of how social conversation get spread in its
network on digital. The brand we picked is Durex
& Stride, and the platform we focus on is Sina
Weibo.
Methodology
We try comparing the conversation spreading in
network in different period, to see if it justify that
the network gets segmented.
We select randomly samples of original contents
from Durex & Stride Weibo accounts, respectively
from 2012, 2013, and 2014 – same marketing
period.

Findings – Durex case
1.  Pattern change to scattered The pattern of the conversation spreading, changed from a centered one to a
scattered one. From the spreading pattern, it justify the structure of the connection – it gets more scattered, and
segmented.
2.  More conversation happens after several times’ spreading In 2012, 89% of the user conversation comes from
the direct forwarding upon Durex brand content, only 11% are from sharing after 2nd time. While in 2013 the conversation
still get spread well, but more through multi-layer sharing. The sharing after 5-times stands for 57% of the total
conversation. In 2014, the sharing from multi-layer is more than 61%.
3.  More layers in the pattern We try comparing the conversation spreading in network in different period, to see if it
justify that the network gets segmented.
In summary - The durex Weibo content case shows a clear pattern change in the conversation
spreading. It from one aspect justify the structure change in the fans of the brand and in their
connection behavior.
89% from the direct forwarding upon Durex brand
content. Only 11% from sharing after 2nd time
43% from direct forwarding upon Durex brand content
57% from sharing after 5 times
39% from the direct forwarding upon Durex brand
content 61% from multi-layer sharing
Year 2012 Year 2013 Year 2014

1.  More conversation happens after several times’ spreading: In 2012, 100 % of the user conversation
and sharing came from the direct forwarding upon Stride brand content. In 2013, while the
conversation still got spread well, 42% comes from sharing after 5 times. In 2014, the ratio of multi-
layering sharing, 53 %, exceeded that of direct forwarding 47%.
2.  The pitch point for spreading is not just focusing on some particular users, while it is scattered and
multi-node driven.
In summary - The Stride Weibo content case shows that the existing mass network has been
segmented. Users who spread conversations have become scattered, forming distinctive
tribes.
Year 2012 Year 2013 Year 2014
100% from direct forwarding upon
Stride brand content
58% from direct forwarding upon Stride brand
content. 42% from sharing after 5 times
47% from direct forwarding upon Stride brand
content. 53% from Multi-layering sharing
Findings – Stride case

POV 2: Tribe Engagement is Driven by a Cause
As the network gets segmented, the reason why those
who remaining connected gets more clear, pure, and
meaningful.
There are meaning behind the tribe formation and the
active engagement behavior of the users.
In open network, they used to be driven by emotional
release, or self-expression – some still do; while more
and more people are connected by a purpose,
common interest, sharing project… or whatever
cause.
It’s not more simply for connection, no more purely for
opinion sharing, but people are actively engaged in
tribes for a meaning.
The tribe is more goal-oriented. All activities and
conversations are built around it by the members.

Case: Coke Social Content Tribes Study
Background
Based on former study, we found scattered pattern. We
want to deep dive in TRIBES to see inside contents and
users, and to understand what drives tribes to be
connected.
Methodology
We selected one common Weibo that resulted in high
forwarding and spreading rates from Coca-Cola's ofﬁcial
Weibo.
What we did after entering sharing layers
•  Observe the number and the type of users who forward and
promote the sharing of this Weibo
•  Analyze the relationship between the Weibo content and users
•  Compare various tribes in order to ﬁnd distinctive differences
•  Understand the connections and relationship between the
Weibo content and users from all these aspects

W
The original Weibo content：Dare you to tell Coke what’s the nearest red stuff around you?
Analysis chart of forwarding hierarchy
1.Study of sharing layers of the
original Weibo shows that there are
many small-sized tribes among
users who take part in forwarding:
only 7.5% comes from the direct
forwarding by Coca Cola, the
remaining 92.5% are from users’
sharing; spreading patterns are
segmented to tribes
User segment with reason behind
2. Deep dive into the user structure
of inside pattern from an essential
forwarding pitch point: key nodes
that bring over-5-times forwarding
have 3-5w fans，Weibo contents
are special and unique, which
become the core of tribes
3. Select 3 tribes for respective study:
Tribe A: users love animation, and their usernames mostly
come from animation, which are highly distinctive；
Tribe B: users are fans of TVXQ, and they forward idol
related contents in a crazy way in order to show the
power of TVXQ
Tribe C: all users have watched Sesame Street and they
are impressed by the leading actor, Elmo, which triggers
their reminiscence
……
动漫
芝麻街
东方神起
Many tribes revealed by analysis
Findings – Coke case
In summary - Among sharing layers, we indeed found some content being shared through small-sized patterns.
As the network gets segmented, the reason why those who remaining connected gets more clear, pure, and
meaningful.
The Coke case clearly shows that there are different interest or purposes within tribes. Users are gathered in tribes out
of a common interest or purpose. That is, tribes are divided by interest/purpose with distinctive identities.

Case: WeChat Tribe
Background
We ﬁnd some TRIBES, that can’t be seen from
outside, are actively invisible. Many of them are
from WeChat platform, so we want to
understand the reasons behind and how these
visible tribes exist
Methodology
We sent messages to random selected users
“ What WeChat groups that consist of over 5 members
do you want for actively chatting more than 10 times
per day?”
We wanted them to provide some captured pictures
of this kind of active WeChat groups, so that we could
analyze those contexts in order to understand the
meaning behind.
In total, we collected 100 captured pictures and
reorganized them, which enlightened us a trend and
some patterns

Pattern behind
100 WeChat
groups from
random sampling
The Little Worlds

Take Away
Network are segmented into tribes
– visual or invisible.
People are connected for a cause,
purpose, same interest… anything with a
meaning. They engaged in/around the
tribe with a common behavioral-goal.
And these behaviors are crossing
platforms, via different interface, screens.
When looking at the network, it’s more
and more important to see the cause
that drives people active and the
engagement behavior of that.
It will give huge insight for the context
and experience design to engage tribes.

We will zoom into different tribes and study the detailed interaction
between the users. By doing that, we are able to discover the real
pattern of connection, information ﬂow and inﬂuence activities.
The learning will be shared from our next trend.

CONTACT US IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN CO-
WORKING FOR THE TRIBE PATTERN!
TRIBE
STUDY
Stay Tuned!
EMAIL:
discovery_sh@digitaslbi.com

2015 Digital & Social Trends Report

2015 Digital & Social Trends Report

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to 2015 Digital & Social Trends Report

Similar to 2015 Digital & Social Trends Report (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (7)

2015 Digital & Social Trends Report