Living in the digital age means that no one is ever truly disconnected for long periods of time. At the same time, human brains are hardwired to respond to validation, rewarding each scroll through a newsfeed, and each like on a social media site with a release of dopamine. Social media is engineered to be irresistible and, unsurprisingly, brands have incorporated this knowledge into their marketing schemes. 

生活在数字时代，没有人会长时间断联。并且，人脑天生就会对社交互动做出反应、释放多巴胺，激励每个浏览新闻、喜欢社交媒体网站的人。社交媒体成为不可抗拒的日常生活方式。各大品牌也将社交媒体融入到他们的营销计划中，见惯不怪了。

But the combination of an irresistible platform and brands’ awareness of its power often produces ad over-saturation. To see this in action one needs look no further than all the sites and apps we visit and use every day: each one of them, from Weibo to Tmall, from Douyin to BiliBili, is most likely using personalized advert algorithms that guarantee that each user is flooded with promotional contents, something which has already been accepted by users as a tradeoff for being able to access these platforms’ services. And this sensory overload has a very important consequence for brand owners and marketers: it presents them with the seeming impossibility of creating unique and effective advertising in the over-saturated environment.

但社交平台和品牌相结合，往往会导致广告过度饱和。举个例子，我们访问的所有网站和应用程序，从微博到天猫，从抖音到B站，最在使用个性化广告算法，保证每个用户都被营销内容包围。用户对此也习以为常。但这种体验感对品牌和市场营销人员的影响重大:在过度饱和的环境下，似乎不可能创造出独特而有效的广告。

01

 Competition is where creativity thrives.

 竞争是创造力蓬勃发展的源泉。

First of all, we have to get rid of the idea that a competitive marketplace is a bad thing. In fact, it’s quite the opposite: if the specific market that a brand wants to reach is already filled with content, this means that there is a clear demand and that the industry is booming. This means that competitors have already set the tone and established the kind of messages that tend to surround a particular product. 

首先，我们必须摒弃竞争市场是件坏事的观点。事实上，情况恰恰相反:如果一个品牌想要触达的特定市场已经充满了内容，这意味着这个市场有明确的需求，同时这个行业也正在蓬勃发展。这意味着，竞争对手已经为某一特定产品定下了基调，并建立了相关信息。

This could benefit a brand in two ways: first, customers will have already heard about the product and warmed up to it, and second, if there are already some established rules for the industry (such as expecting that ads for certain products use certain tropes: cleaning products always being introduced by housewives or sportswear always being worn only by high-performance athletes, etc.), then your brand will be welcome when it breaks them. Breaking the rules is always rewarded by consumers, as it was the case for Nike’s ad for the Chinese New Year2020, where the tradition of handing Red Envelopes turned into a unique, funny and heart-warming display of sportsmanship by an auntie and her niece. 

这可以用过两种方式使品牌收益：第一,客户已经听说过该产品并对其进行了热身；第二,如果该行业已经有了一些既定规则(例如，特定的产品采用特定的隐喻: 清洁类产品总是被家庭主妇推荐或运动服装总是被高性能运动员穿着，等等)， 那么当你的品牌打破这些固有的思维，势必会受到消费者的青睐。打破规则总是会得到消费者的回报，就像耐克2020年中国新年的广告一样，一位阿姨和她的侄女将发红包这一传统变成了一种独特、有趣和温暖人心的体育精神。

02

Tell your brand’s story and relate to your audience.

讲述你品牌的故事，并与你的观众建立联系。

When a brand is entering a saturated niche, then its branding and story become even more important. This is especially true when trying to separate itself from the competition. One successful example of this approach is the terrific piece of storytelling featured in TVCBOOK and the Jury Prize winner of our last edition of the Golden Lion Awards: the ad “Pujie’s Winter” , a collaboration between China Union Pay and the director Liao Yiyuan. 

当一个品牌进入饱和的利基市场时，品牌和故事就变得更加重要。当你试图将自己从竞争对手中分离出来时，这一点尤其正确。这种方法的一个成功的例子就是TVCBOOK上的一段精彩的故事——2020金狮奖评审团奖得主——“普杰的冬天”，来自中国银联和廖一元导演的精彩合作。

这条片讲述了为身处偏远地区的儿童诗人的故事，并介绍了由Union Pay发起的一项支持年轻文学人才的慈善活动。这部作品受到了今年的评委会主席、麦肯中国的CCO郑诗娜的高度赞扬，她称赞这部电影“讨论了超越国界的普世价值，只需用心理解。”

“Pujie’s Winter” is a really touching piece of filmmaking in its own right: it’s a complete film that tells a bittersweet story about a boy who is trying to transcend his hard situation and develop his talent. It is also beautifully shot and, more importantly, doesn’t pander to the audience or mentions the company that is behind it until the very end, when it simply alludes to the charity work and signals where to find further information about it. This is subdued and socially responsible advertising that is precisely aiming at recovering the human touch.  

《普杰的冬天》本身就是一部非常感人的电影:它完整地讲述了一个苦乐参半的故事，讲述了一个男孩试图超越自己的困境，发展自己的才华。这条片的画面拍摄也很漂亮，而更重要的是，它没有迎合观众，也没有提到背后的公司，直到最后，它只是暗示了慈善工作和提到哪里可以找到进一步的信息。这是一种克制的、对社会负责的广告，其目的正是为了寻回人情味。

This type of brand storytelling means building a cohesive narrative that brings together the facts and emotions that the brand wants to evoke in consumers. Banks, for instance, have a reputation of being cold, impersonal institutions but a story like “Pujie’s Winter” can remind us that they are also doing important work that benefits communities.

这种品牌叙事方式意味着要建立一种有凝聚力的叙事方式，将品牌想要在消费者心中唤起的事实和情感结合起来。这就好比银行以冷漠无情著称，但像“普杰的冬天”这样的故事可以提醒我们，银行也在做一些很重要的有益于社会的工作。

And, on top of that, this kind of advertising can become a more sustainable and long-term trend for brands, since using social commentary or “relatability” to promote a product has been proven to be very effective with consumers, even making them turn the brand into a part of their lifestyle. 

最重要的是, 这一类型的广告可以让品牌呈现出更加可持续和长期的趋势, 通过社会话题或与之相关的“关联性”来推广产品给消费者已经被证明是非常有效的, 这种方式甚至把品牌变成消费者生活方式的一部分。 

04 

Add more value to your brand and products.

为品牌或产品赋能。

In order to avoid the temptation of copying the competition and offer exactly the same as them, brands can take advantage of the fact that audiences are always looking for something fresh. This means that brands need to carve out their own identity and one way to make themselves different is to focus on adding more value. From offering offline and online activities like free courses or podcasts, to opening up spaces where consumers can participate like discussion groups and forums, brands can offer experiences to accompany their products and make consumers feel like they are buying not just a product but also an experience.   

为了区别于竞争对手，品牌可以利用消费者不断寻找新鲜感这一心理。这意味着品牌需要开拓自己的社会认知，增加更多品牌价值。品牌可以提供线上下活动，如免费线上视频课程或语音课程；或者提供开放的空间，让消费者可以参与讨论或论坛。品牌可以提供产品体验，让消费者觉得他们购买的不仅仅是产品，更是一种体验。 

 

05

Invite a new audience or build your audience first.

邀请并建立新的受众。

One way in which brands can shortcut their way to success in a saturated niche is by turning their attention to another audience that perhaps they haven’t considered. Influencers, KOLs, MCNs or other companies selling complementary products that target the same customer demographics can all be utilized to grow on their own audience. When possible, brands should welcome other professionals or companies and build relationships with them to springboard their own marketing efforts.

在一个饱和的缝隙市场，品牌要想取得成功，其中一个捷径就是将注意力转向另一个他们可能没有考虑过的受众。有影响力的人、kol、mcn或公司在销售配套产品时，都可以利用原产品的受众群体。品牌也应该欢迎其他专业人士或公司，异业联动。

At the Golden Lions we have done our best to include the work of KOLs and MCNs, as well as to feature product-placement and sponsorships amongst our categories because we recognize that the work that these professionals are doing on social media is absolutely priceless and one of the best ways to add value to a brand.

 

But besides looking for outside help, something that we have learned is that brands can also have an audience before they actually have a product and build that audience from the ground up by themselves by using social media properly. Brands that create interesting content and manage to get millions of followers on different platforms will have it very easy to break through the noise and successfully launch their products because there is already a large fan base eagerly waiting for them. It will also make it easier to receive valuable insight and feedback from consumers on how to improve the products and make them unique enough to eventually have more value.

但除了寻求外部帮助以外，我们了解到的是，品牌在真正拥有产品之前也可以拥有受众，并通过正确使用社交媒体自行建立起受众。 创建有趣内容并设法在不同平台上吸引数百万关注者的品牌将很容易突破干扰并成功推出其产品，因为已经有大量的粉丝热切地等待着他们。这也将使从消费者那里获得关于如何改进产品的有价值的见识和反馈变得更加容易，从而使产品具有独特性，最终获取更大的价值。

A brand that has proven to be really skillful at harnessing the power of social media is Supreme. The apparel company sometimes doesn’t even bother with live events or fashion shows and simply launches its products on social media, often even making exclusive collections available on Instagram and Facebook before they are on stores, so that fans can give feedback and sometimes receive rewards. Supreme decided to become a social media presence first and a brand second, carefully devising its strategy around accumulating likes, fans and friends with high-quality original content, so that they have followers willing to purchase the products based almost exclusively on loyalty. The success of Supreme demonstrates that brands would be wise to stop seeing people as consumers and begin regarding them as friends.  

Supreme品牌被证明在利用社交媒体的力量方面非常的熟练。这家服装公司有时甚至不在乎现场活动或时装秀，而仅仅只是在社交媒体上发布其产品，经常甚至在商店上架前在Instagram和Facebook上提供独家收藏品，以便粉丝可以随时提供反馈并获得奖励。Supreme决定首先成为社交媒体形象，其次才是成为品牌，并精心设计其策略，以积累具有高质量原创内容的喜欢，粉丝和朋友为目标，以便他们的追随者愿意购买几乎完全基于忠诚度的产品。Supreme的成功表明，明智的选择是停止将人们视为消费者，而开始将他们视为朋友。

As the strategies mentioned above prove, with the right approach, careful analysis, and a relentless commitment to providing something unique and of value to customers, brands will always find a way to succeed even in the most saturated of markets. It just takes some real creativity and to pay attention to what’s happening in the world of advertising. At the Golden Lions we have managed to discover not only these trends, but we have witnessed how advertising in China is entering a new era where traditional strategies just don’t cut it. Brands that don’t adapt and are not aware of what their competitors’ campaigns and marketing efforts look like are going to have a very hard time adjusting to a market that will only become more competitive. 

正如上述策略所证明的那样，通过正确的方法，认真的分析以及对客户提供独特和有价值的东西的不懈承诺，即使在最饱和的市场中，品牌也总是会找到成功的方法。只需要一些真正的创造力，并注意广告界中正在发生的事情。在金狮奖上，我们不仅发现了这些趋势，还见证了中国的广告业正在进入一个传统广告策略无法奏效的新时代。那些无法适应且不了解竞争对手的广告系列和营销方式的品牌将很难适应适应日益激烈的竞争的市场。所有的品牌和代理商都应该明确:人们不信任广告，因为他们看过太多广告，已经不敏感了。消费者对广告的第一反应是冷漠。那么，你打算怎么赢回他们的信任呢?