Behind celebrity imitation shows is actually a traffic business. During the short holiday period, many celebrities such as Lei Jun, Zhou Hongyi, and Hu Xijin were copied on short video platforms, and the imitators' behavior caused great controversy. According to Sanyan Technology, starting on May 2, a netizen named "Lei Min" began to post short videos. He was wearing the same blue suit and T-shirt as Lei Jun, and had basically the same hairstyle. One of the video BGM used is the famous "Areyouok". Before this, his videos were all positive jokes, but he dressed like a scavenger.
The boss was copied
Zhou Hongyi, who has been at the forefront of traffic recently, has not escaped either. A blogger who calls himself "Zhou Honger" has been imitating Zhou Hongyi since April 25. In addition to wearing glasses, iconic red clothes, and short hair, he also imitates Zhou Hongyi's speaking speed and gestures.
Several of the videos imitate Zhou Hongyi's jokes about selling cars. "Zhou Honger" said that he wanted to sell his "Baoshijie" (Chevrolet car keys, with the word "bao" before the logo and the word "jie" after the logo) and planned to buy a domestic brand SUV. Before this, some of Zhou Honger's videos were related to stocks, and some were about Simba shouting about Kuaishou.
Earlier, Hu Xijin's imitators became popular, commenting on popular events by replicating their make-up, speaking style and tone. His performance almost succeeded in "surpassing" Hu Xijin himself. Some comments said that since I brushed you, I have never brushed that real old Hu again. How did you find this track?
In response to these imitative behaviors, some netizens pointed out that these people are likely to receive "special care" from the legal departments of companies such as Xiaomi or 360.
In this regard, the customer service of the short video platform stated that if this type of imitation is pursued, it can be regarded as an infringement of other people's portrait rights or privacy rights, but the party concerned needs to initiate an infringement report. If the imitator cheats money, induces rewards in the live broadcast room, or insults others, ordinary users can report it.
There is precedent for the platform’s argument. In February this year, Xiaomi officially reported a well-known blogger to Xiaomi for calling Lei Jun "jun'er" in multiple videos, requiring the relevant content to be removed from the shelves. The reason given by Xiaomi for the complaint at that time was that the author had long used the word "jun'er" to refer to the leaders of Xiaomi Company, and used joking techniques to ridicule and ridicule the leaders of Xiaomi Company.
In Tang Chen’s view,If it is just for entertainment and recreation, there is nothing wrong with this type of imitative behavior.On the contrary, on the basis of moderate ridicule, we can enhance the public affinity of corporate leaders, shorten the distance between the brand and the public, and maximize the value of traffic to alleviate their own traffic anxiety.
Just like the previous article "The whole Internet is learning "Lei Science", will Lei Jun be counterattacked by the traffic? According to the analysis in the article, in this regard, Lei Jun has lived up to the Lei Jun of the times and has become a benchmark. He said that he kept up with the trend by conducting live broadcasts and making short videos because he wanted to resonate with young people and speak something that young people can understand.
Therefore, a Xiaomi SU7 press conference and a live broadcast of his personal show made the entire automotive circle, mobile digital circle, marketing circle, parenting circle and even the successful academic circle see the madness of Lei Jun’s traffic black hole.
This has also successfully stimulated business tycoons to put down their posture and shoot short videos and live broadcasts. For example, Li Bin, the founder of Weilai, and Lei Jun jointly posted a video, praising "Xiaomi SU7 is too powerful, even Ledao can't price it"; FF founder Jia Yueting also posted a message to criticize Xiaomi Motors from overseas; Zhang Yong, CEO of Nezha Automobile, said: "It is not shameful to learn from Lei Jun in marketing!"
With traffic, there will be greater business benefits, and they are much higher than traditional marketing methods.Zhou Hongyi directly promoted Lei Jun to the level of "marketing god". While receiving a wave of traffic, he also straightforwardly revealed its operating logic. He said that Lei Jun of Xiaomi and Yu Chengdong of Huawei are great Internet celebrities. “They have a lot of fans. Through their constant speeches and various communications, I feel that everyone has at least helped their company save billions in advertising fees.”
Behind it is the traffic business
It is worth mentioning that in the process of building mobile phones and new energy vehicles, Lei Jun has been questioned as imitating Apple founder Steve Jobs and Tesla CEO Musk.This earned him two nicknames: "Rebus" and "Resker", which imply a cross-border jump in the mobile phone digital circle and the automotive circle.In a recent live broadcast, Lei Jun himself responded that the similarity in clothing was purely coincidental. If he really wanted to imitate Jobs and Musk, he could do better.
The reason why Lei Jun does not avoid this issue is because imitation itself can bring great market attention to Xiaomi's products and brands. In the same way, there is a huge traffic business behind the imitation of celebrities by amateur bloggers.
This type of commercial imitation is very common in the entertainment industry. Intuitively, the "Copycat Celebrity" column, which imitates celebrities, has always existed and effectively boosted the TV station's ratings. For example, Southeast TV once had a variety show "Happy 100", in which the "Happy Celebrity Face" section was very popular. The more famous ones are Hunan Satellite TV's "The Variety Show" and CCTV's "Open the Door".
"Celebrity faces" have become the gimmick and punchline of the show. Amateurs have also come to the stage by imitating celebrities. While gaining exposure, they have also obtained commercial performances and endorsement opportunities. Almost ordinary people such as A Bao, Brother Dayi, copycat Liu Xiang, and copycat Jay Chou have become famous at one time.
This model has become faster and more mature in the short video era.On the one hand, the decentralized traffic distribution and rich media content expression of short videos have a stronger visual and emotional impact on the audience, and also greatly lower the user's usage and consumption threshold.
On the other hand, these mobile Internet natives are more proficient in the use of short video tools. They stand on the shoulders of "giants" and rely on their imitation skills to seize the public's preferences, weaknesses or desires in the virtual world of smart terminal screens, and then quickly capture traffic and then monetize it. Moreover, they know very well which platform is suitable for attracting traffic and which platform is suitable for monetization.
Not only that, due to the professional operation of relevant MCN organizations, a large number of similar accounts can quickly copy another after one becomes popular.In this process, the role of the platform is very vague, serving as both a benefit recipient and a referee.
This contradiction has led to some imitations being only given warnings or removed from the shelves when they go too far. In the face of the huge temptation of benefits, this traffic diversion model with lower trial and error costs is undoubtedly a huge temptation for most bloggers and MCN organizations.
Most of these "copycat celebrities" make a lot of money on short video platforms through attracting business cooperation and live streaming rewards. Some people in the industry have learned that the promotion fee for copycat celebrity advertising placement is around 5,000-30,000 yuan, and a commission rebate of about 15% is required, which fluctuates depending on the similarity and the number of fans.
But the end of traffic is live streaming. Their commercial value is also highlighted in the live broadcast room.Based on the industry average commission ratio of 20% and the actual order ratio of 50%, an anchor with sales of 40 million can get at least 4 million, which is still about 2 million after tax. After a year of business cooperation, this number may not be reached.
Previously, similar news such as the copycat Lu Ha earning 5 million a month and the copycat Jack Ma earning 40 million a month were constantly amplified, allowing more people to see the business opportunities behind imitating celebrities.
Some people may ask, how long can this kind of attention and popularity gained through marginalization and imitation last? In fact, these imitators will not care about such "academic" questions.For them, calculating short-term profits is the most practical thing. Lu Han's imitator "Lu Ha" once said, "We are indeed taking shortcuts, but we really don't want to follow the old path of our parents."
As long as they don't overly parody, distort or investigate moral flaws, their shrewd "ways to get rich" are not inconsistent in the current context. They may not meet the world's understanding of success, but they really made the Internet shine and brought happiness to their fans.