Introduction: High-frequency cross-border linkage may be just to create an unrestricted carnival.
Game-Time report/If you want to take stock of the co-branded kings in the IP industry, the Sanrio family will definitely be on the list.
Since 2023, the popularity of the Sanrio family has continued to rise. Its popular characters such as Hello Kitty, Cinnamon Dog, and Coolomi have gained a strong presence on domestic social platforms such as Douyin, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu. McDonald’s, TOP TOY, Bubble Mart, Uniqlo… From daily necessities to trendy toys, clothing, and food, almost every collaboration has been snapped up. In the “2023 Double Eleven IP Value List” released by Taobao & Tmall, Sanrio’s ranking also soared to TOP4.
At the same time, the same linkage speed and out-of-circle momentum are also taking place in the gaming industry: in the past year, the popularity of “Eggboy Party” has skyrocketed, and the unique Eggboy-style IP linkage has refreshed the industry’s perception: the average interval is less than 11 days of high-frequency cross-border linkage made the game a “top game” in the eyes of young people, attracting 500 million users.
Recently, two “top players” in the IP industry have joined forces – on December 29, 2023, “Eggman Party” will start a linkage with the Sanrio family. With a full-dimensional cross-border linkage model covering skins, manors, parks, activities, and scenes, “Egg Boy Party” has set off a new round of topic discussions and refreshed the industry’s understanding of IP linkage.
Full-dimensional coverage, emotional resonance, and two-way pursuit of “girly hearts”
In the official popularity vote of the Sanrio family in 2023, Big-Eared Dog ranked first and Kuromi ranked third, which shows the public’s love for these two popular characters. In this linkage event, “Eggman Party” directly introduces the two “top players” of the Sanrio family into the game, bringing multi-dimensional linkage content.
In addition to 1:1 restored appearance skins, this linkage also includes various accessories such as glasses, fans, and backpacks to help players and fans “transform” their favorite characters from head to toe. For example, the cute and charming Kuromi linkage skin carefully restores the pink skull, the exclusive logo on the head, and adds a vivid and arrogant expression, which fully demonstrates Kuromi’s personality.
Related accessories also highlight the characteristics of the character, such as the round frame and lavender designed Coolomi sunglasses, which bring out a sweet and cool temperament; the dark purple Coolomi mobile phone also has a pink skull logo, tailor-made for the character. It can be said that it hits the fans’ hearts directly.
Of course, the collision between two “top players” in the IP co-branding industry is not limited to a single scenario. In addition to the traditional linkage theme appearance, this event further creates deeply customized content, bringing a new themed linkage area “Sanrio Family Main City” and a hide-and-seek map “Sanrio Family Garden Party”.
The “Sanrio Family Garden Party” is mainly pink, purple and blue. The personal characteristics of the two “big stars” are perfectly displayed. The details of the scene are also full of Sanrio family elements, such as the e-sports game full of cool rice elements. Room, cafe designed based on big-eared dog…
The main city linkage area clearly integrates the dreamy, sweet and joyful labels of the Sanrio family, creating an immersive theme park that eliminates the boundaries between reality and dreams. The park contains multiple rides and several fantasy play experiences. On this basis, “Egg Boy Party” has further designed the “Coolomi Parade Diary” activity to attract more fans and players to participate.
During the event, players only need to check in every day to get rewards. For example, take a ride on the Big-Eared Dog Pirate Ship, join the Kuromi stage, take photos with Big-Eared Dog and Kuromi… Simple tasks and generous rewards simultaneously meet the fans’ needs to enjoy a relaxing park experience with two popular characters up close and personal. Players yearn for free appearance.
According to Game-Time, the reason why “Eggman Party” chose to launch a full-scale and in-depth cooperation with Sanrio is not only due to the compatibility of the art style, but more importantly, the personality characteristics represented by the characters can be consistent with “Eggman Party”. Resonance with players’ emotional needs.
For example, the closeness and companionship of the big-eared dog coincides with the spiritual core of the “family party” emphasized by the game; the sweet and cool Kuromi is even more popular among many young female players.
This is not unreasonable. UGC maps with the theme of the Sanrio family have already appeared in the game and are loved by many players. After the “girly hearts” of this group of female players were captured by the official, they directly linked up with the “rightful owner” and had a two-way relationship with the players’ inner emotions, which also added fuel to the speed of this linkage.
So far, the topic #danzaipartysanrio linkage on Douyin has been viewed 280 million times, and #danzaipartysanrio family linkage on Xiaohongshu has received 7.33 million views; the Weibo topic #danzaipartysanrio family linkage# has been read The volume is nearly 90 million… You can also see lively discussions and sharing of second creations among users on social media. There are not only traditional themed activity guides and “sunbathing” skins, but also rich forms of player creations, such as simple drawings of Danzi’s big-eared dog, clay making tutorials, etc.
The most interactive Danzi, redefining “happiness”
Of course, this linkage is not the first time that “Egg Boy Party” has relied on IP cross-border cooperation to make an appearance.
Fast forward to 2024, cross-border marketing is becoming more and more common in the gaming industry, but there are only a handful of true win-win cases. On the other hand, “Egg Boy Party”, which has been linked to an average of once every 11 days in the past year, has always occupied the high ground of social media traffic and triggered waves of discussions. Such high-frequency popularity of “anti-industry common sense” can be said to be quite rare. .
Looking back at Danzai’s game linkage journey: from animation to catering, charity organizations, trendy toys, fast-moving consumer goods, and even NetEase’s own “Fantasy Westward Journey”, “Ace Racing”, “Identity V” IP… “Eggzai Party” There are almost no boundaries for linkage objects. Although the frequency of linkage is high, the content quality has never dropped. Linked appearance, activities, gameplay, maps and other content will always be launched together. This kind of linkage sincerity is rare even outside the gaming circle.
Thanks to the huge and diverse content system and the free and independent social scene, “Egg Boy Party” naturally has high multi-cultural scalability and can accommodate almost all types of IP linkage. At the same time, Danzai-style IP linkage is not just a “slogan shouting” style, but a customized activity based on the theme itself.
Judging from the results, it is this rather broad and inclusive selection of linkage objects, as well as the serious quality of the activities, that makes every linkage highly recognized by players and fans.
It must be admitted that high-quality content with high frequency and regular updates can indeed continue to catch the attention of players through periodic bursts.
But the real key is that “Egg Party” not only encourages the production of relevant social topics in content design, but also pays attention to promoting the continuous spread of joyful emotions.
In this regard, the official even personally “went off” to create memes, collected all kinds of hot topics and moved them into the game. They even made a special inventory of the official annual hot memes, and were regarded by players as the “king of memes in the game circle”. It is in the process of resonating with the interests of Generation Z that users can spread game content along the positive emotional channel and continue to expand the joyful atmosphere.
In other words, when it comes to IP linkage, this new “linkage maniac” in the gaming industry has gone in his own direction, and his pace is becoming more and more steady – that is, constantly breaking through the upper limit. Through high-frequency, high-quality, full-dimensional linkage, we can improve our own linkage territory, thereby breaking the barriers to happiness transmission, and running in both directions and playing with more players, which is extremely precious in the fast-paced linkage era.
In a modern social environment where people’s emotions are alienated, “happiness” has become a veritable luxury product. The high-frequency cross-border linkage of “Egg Boy Party” may be to create a group carnival that is not limited by time, region, culture and preferences, and to redefine “happiness” in the current era.
Conclusion
In November last year, “Danzi Party” launched the “Danzi Linkage Family Project”. The earlier “Light·Yu”, KFC, China Post and this time the Sanrio family are all part of the linkage plan. .
From games to FMCG, logistics, entertainment… the cross-border linkage of “Egg Party” has entered people’s lives, truly achieving full-dimensional coverage. The linkage form also gets rid of the one-way transmission of content, but further develops the prosperous characteristics of the game’s UGC ecosystem and promotes users to create and innovate together.
It is foreseeable that “Danzi Party” will inevitably conduct cross-border cooperation with well-known brands in more fields to promote the more complete Danzi linkage universe. We have every reason to believe that the Sanrio family linkage is just the first surprise brought by “Eggman Party” in 2024. It will continue to move forward in terms of IP linkage and delivering happiness.
