Text | Lei Bao Duan Qing

Edit | Nur Hachi

A lot of animal IP have been fired this year. Among them, the capybara can be described as a well-deserved "top stream", and related videos and surrounding areas have already exploded the major social platforms in China.

In recent years, terms such as "lying flat", "anti-involution", "slow life" and "emotional stability" have become popular among young people. The capybara, a creature, has been warmly sought after by virtue of its "calm and absurd" mental state. It has an enviable "sense of relaxation" and can take it in stride no matter what happens. Birds, cats and dogs, turtles and even crocodiles can coexist harmoniously with it.

In addition, there are net stalks such as "Smith?" and "Rat, Mouse and Me", which bring fire to animals such as monkeys and mice, which are not popular. They are widely spread because they can represent the mental state of young people.

In the high-pressure and fast-paced life, many young people have become loyal followers of "Dolphin Gate", which has also attracted more and more brand attention, tapped the commercial value of these "spiritual idols", created animal IP-related surroundings, and attracted consumers to pay.

So, why did the "Dolphin Gate" rise? How does the animal IP derived from epidemic stalks evolve? What commercial realization attempts have the brand made?

How are the "Capibala" popular?

In the eyes of the elders, capybara, monkey and mouse, which are admired by young people, seem to be in a strange fire.

For capybara, at first, it was just a niche animal that would appear in popular science videos. Its earliest memory on the Internet can be traced back to 2010, when a video of a capybara bathing in an orange spread on Youtube. This video didn’t really make it a online celebrity, but slowly enriched its own "dolphin design" through popular science.

Until this year, a blogger moved the popular song "Capybara" from the internet to the Tik Tok platform, and cooperated with the video created by the capybara, which began to spread widely on the Internet. The related words of "dolphin gate" emerged, and "Capybara" became synonymous with capybara.

Subsequently, the official operation of Xiaohongshu launched the topic of "One Dolphin a Day" to lead young people to join the "Dolphin Gate"; More merchants began to collect peripheral design schemes and launch products in Xiaohongshu.

It can be said that the capybara is based on its cute appearance, catching young people by relying on "emotional stability" and "relaxation", and finally relying on platform traffic to officially push the heat to a climax and realize rapid commercialization.

The monkey "Malou" also originated from the popular terrier. During the Spring Festival in 2022, Guangxi merchants could not resist the voice of netizens urging the listing of sugar oranges, and they all said that "Moluo’s life is also life". As a result, the humble "Molou", which represents migrant workers and college students, has become a "substitute" for young people to oppose involution and vent their pressure.

"Mouse, mouse and me" originally came from the lines of netizens poking fun at celebrities, but what really made this stalk fire was the "mouse man" expression pack derived from it, which also released the emotions and pressure of "bottom workers".

It is not difficult to see that the animal IP born from these netted stems has gone through the process from cognition, identification to resonance among young people. So how can these animals be very popular, occupy the life circle of young people, and even attract them to pay willingly?

First of all, it is an alternative way for young people to express themselves. When people are too tired, young people begin to turn into "spiritual animals". Faced with the pressure of life, they express their sense of resistance by laughing at themselves, while expecting to accept everything emotionally and lay flat like a capybara, but retaining hope for life.

Secondly, this is the projection of young people’s anxiety under the "anti-involution" culture. Or cute or funny animals, with a unique sense of humor, resonate with young people’s inner anxiety and struggle.

At the same time, it is also an emotional outlet for young people. It can let them let go of their burdens, freely vent and export their emotions, reconcile with their own "ordinary", unload their decent camouflage, return to the most primitive animal instinct, and get a moment’s respite.

On this basis, as long as we grasp some characteristics of animals and combine the Internet traffic to amplify their emotional resonance with consumers, such as the "emotional stability" of capybara, the "humble" and "rotten" of Moluo, similar to the explosion of animal IP, it is actually completely possible to achieve re-engraving.

Why did "Capibala" evolve from net stalks to "real money"

After these animals’ IP is abstracted as the symbol of "spiritual stability" and "lying flat", people’s love for them is no longer limited to video, graphic and other creative forms, and the related willingness to pay is increasing day by day, and the surrounding business represented by "Capibala" is booming. Up to now, the number of views on the topic "around capybara" in Xiaohongshu has reached 10 million.

As a category with low threshold and mature supply chain, plush’s commercial value is first valued.

On the one hand, it can fully restore the plush feeling of animal IP itself, so that young people can meet with "spiritual idols" at a little cost; On the other hand, as a typical representative of the healing economy, plush toys have officially become a major category of the 100 billion-wave playing track, and the market of "plush +IP" is also accelerating.

The first to take this step is a new brand "Long live the velvet shop", and capybara is the second plush product of this brand. In August this year, Viva Velvet Store announced that it had joined the "Dolphin Gate" and provided a number of plush design schemes, which were developed and put into production in combination with the opinions and feedback of netizens.

Subsequently, Jellycat, a plush top-stream brand, and The Green Party, a domestic chain lifestyle brand, also launched capybara plush toys, which triggered a wave of buying by consumers.

From left to right, there are capybara plush toys from Long Live Furry Store, Jellycat and The Green Party.

The new tea brand that will "follow the fashion" most has also been launched, and a wave of effective marketing has been completed among young people.

Brands such as Starbucks, Ningji, and Yongpu Coffee have launched Capibala related products and surrounding areas; Xicha directly adopted the capybara "Almond" of Nanjing Hongshan Forest Zoo and made an unexpected linkage.

From left to right are the capybara products of Starbucks, Lemon Season, Yongpu Coffee and Xicha.

As mentioned above, it is not a case that this kind of animal IP has gone from fire to rapid commercialization. Penguins from Jellycat, sharks from IKEA, dogs with light IP lines from Korea, Loopy, etc. all use certain characteristics of animals to capture young people, and then drive consumption.

Combined with the case, it is not difficult to see that, first of all, there is still a lot of room for development of unpopular animal IP.

In addition to the common animal images such as cats, dogs, rabbits and bears, the introduction of IP of unpopular animals like capybara and beaver can bring freshness to consumers on the one hand; On the other hand, there are few products related to unpopular animals, and brands can seize the copyright opportunity to some extent by commercializing them.

Secondly, Internet popularity is a natural means to expand the voice volume of this kind of IP.

The threshold of the net stem can be very low, and the volume can also be small, even just a sentence and an expression pack. As long as it can help young people express themselves and vent their emotions, and meet consumers’ emotional needs and social needs, the net stem can have a "viral" diffusion ability.

Capibala emoticons created by users of Xiaohongshu

Then, the development of IP characteristics can build a new marketing model.

In the past, brands built IP and authorized cooperation, basically relying on the traffic between brands and IP to borrow from each other to improve exposure. However, under the background of the prevalence of healing economy, relying on IP’s own characteristics to quickly resonate and impress consumers and directly achieve effective customer acquisition is a breakthrough in IP marketing.

Finally, young people have a strong willingness to pay for emotional expression.

This phenomenon can be seen from capybara capybara, or Lei Bao’s previously reported Korean light IP, plush play and MBTI marketing. Under the general trend of consumption degradation, young people’s emotional consumption power is more prominent than before.

Generally speaking, behind this kind of IP destruction, IP is no longer just used as a simple image to ridicule and get cured, but more as a spiritual and cultural symbol and an identity symbol. "Capibala" is the symbol of "self" pursued by young people. On this basis, it can provide users with a sense of identity and belonging in line with their needs, which can further strengthen IP value and brand image.

The trend is always changing with each passing day. Compared with "catching up" with the trend, finding the fundamental logic behind the trend, understanding the real psychological needs of consumers, and then "creating" the trend is something that brands and IP licensees should do for a long time.

As many places in the country enter the "two sessions" in 2024, various places have also announced the "annual report" of the economy in 2023.

As of January 25th, 29 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have announced the annual economic performance in 2023. Judging from the published information, the growth rate of 15 provinces has outperformed the whole country.

The growth rate of 15 provinces outperformed the whole country

Statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics show that the gross domestic product (GDP) of China in 2023 was 126,058.2 billion yuan, an increase of 5.2% over the previous year at constant prices.

The reporter consulted the work reports of local governments and the official data of statistical departments and found that among the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China, except Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Hubei, the growth rate of 15 provinces outperformed the whole country in 2023, while Beijing was the same as the whole country. All provinces with disclosed data have achieved positive GDP growth.

Specifically, Tibet’s GDP growth rate reached 9.5%, temporarily leading the country; Hainan, which followed closely, grew by 9.2%; Inner Mongolia ranked third with a growth rate of 7.3%. Other provinces with growth rates above 6% include Ningxia, Gansu, Jilin, Chongqing, Shandong, Sichuan and Zhejiang.

Multi-provincial GDP has reached a new level.

Present potential of western China

Looking through the "transcripts", we can find that the economic development of many places has reached a new level. Guangdong, Jiangsu and Shandong accounted for the top three economic aggregates of China Province in 2023, all exceeding 9 trillion yuan. In particular, Guangdong, as the largest province in economy, became the first province in China to exceed 13 trillion yuan in annual GDP, ranking first in the country for 35 consecutive years.

The economic aggregates of Shandong and Zhejiang, two other major economic provinces, have also leapfrogged, with annual GDP exceeding 9 trillion yuan and 8 trillion yuan respectively. Hunan’s annual GDP exceeded 5 trillion yuan for the first time. Liaoning has successfully entered the "3 trillion GDP Club", surpassing the national growth rate for the first time in 10 years.

In addition, the rise of the western region is obvious. In addition to Tibet, where the economic growth rate leads the country, the growth rates of Ningxia and Gansu both exceed 6%, and Ningxia even announced that all economic indicators are the best in the past years; Sichuan and Chongqing announced that their GDP exceeded 6 trillion yuan and 3 trillion yuan respectively, and the Chengdu-Chongqing double circle as a whole reached a new level. Yunnan’s GDP exceeded 3 trillion yuan for the first time, and Qinghai’s economic growth rate was 5.3%, which also outperformed the whole country.

"Trillion City" expanded by 3 trillion into a new benchmark

Cities also provide a new perspective for observing China’s economy in 2023, among which the most striking thing is that the "GDP Trillion Club" welcomes the new again.

After Changzhou, Jiangsu, and Yantai, Shandong successively announced that they had broken through one trillion yuan, the number of "GDP trillion clubs" in China has increased to 26. Among them, Jiangsu has five "trillion cities", surpassing Guangdong and becoming the province with the largest number of trillion cities in China. From the perspective of urban agglomerations, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta with strong economic vitality have also become "trillion cities" gathering areas, with 9 and 4 respectively.

At the same time, "3 trillion" is also becoming a new starting point for competition among domestic head cities.

Chongqing and Guangzhou announced that the regional GDP will break the 3 trillion yuan mark in 2023. After Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen, the number of "3 trillion GDP clubs" in China has expanded to five. Chongqing became the first city in the western region whose GDP exceeded 3 trillion yuan, while Guangzhou was the second city in Guangdong Province after Shenzhen.

Set goals in various places to make progress steadily.

After the economic aggregates of many provinces and cities reached a new level in 2023, how to set economic targets in 2024 attracted people’s attention. Of the 29 provinces that have disclosed data, 26 mentioned the growth target in 2024 in their government work reports.

Up to now, Tibet and Hainan, the two provinces with the fastest GDP growth in 2023, have the highest growth expectations this year, both of which are around 8%. Most other provinces that have disclosed data have set the regional target of economic growth in the range of 5%-6%.

For example, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Shandong, which ranked the top three in China in 2023, have all aimed at the figure of 5% this year. Among them, the goal of Guangdong is set at "5%", while Jiangsu and Shandong should strive for "more than 5%". The expected target of Tianjin’s economic growth rate is below 5%, which is set at around 4.5%, but it is still higher than its economic growth rate of 4.3% in 2023.

The goal has been set, and the key to the future lies in how to accomplish it. When planning the road map for development in 2024, many places showed strong interest in emerging industries, and new quality productivity and new industrialization became the focus of attention.

Shanghai: We will actively promote new industrialization, cultivate and upgrade high-end industrial clusters such as new energy vehicles, high-end equipment, advanced materials, civil aviation and space information, and accelerate the construction of future industrial leading areas.

Chongqing: Insist on putting the high-quality development of manufacturing industry in a more prominent position, persistently grasp the leading belt ecology, promote industrial agglomeration, technological innovation and integrated development, and vigorously cultivate new quality productivity.

Promoting consumption is still the key work in the work reports of many provincial governments.

Jiangsu: Vigorously develop digital consumption, green consumption, healthy consumption, sports and leisure consumption, increase the cultivation and promotion of new consumption formats of cultural tourism, and create more domestic "trendy products" and brand-new consumption scenarios.

Beijing: We should "make great efforts to stimulate potential consumption", promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional business districts, build an international consumption experience zone, boost bulk consumption, cultivate "fashionable products" of domestic products, support the development of service consumption, and promote the integration of diversified consumption formats.