Zhou Hongyi changed his car, which car brand is the best at "riding the wave of traffic"?

These days, the car industry has become lively again.

But this time, the main character is not Xiaomi and Lei Jun, but the "internet celebrity" Zhou Hongyi!

With a wave of his hand, the "Red Robe Master" made a difficult decision a few days ago:

He decided to sell his Maybach and buy a domestically produced new energy vehicle.

Bazong (周鸿祎) is changing cars? It sparked a frenzy in the automotive community, with nearly 20 domestic new energy car brands, including NIO, Huawei's Wanjie (华为问界), Xiaopeng (小鹏), Jike (极氪), Avita (阿维塔), Yangwang (仰望), Wuling (五菱), Haobo (昊铂), Dongfeng Nanmi (东风纳米), Ruilan (睿蓝), Qichen (启辰), Shenlan (深蓝), Xingtu (星途), Mengshi (猛士), Nezha (哪吒), Kia, and BYD, all jumping on the bandwagon to vie for the attention of Zhou Hongyi.

So, which carmaker stands out the most in seizing this opportunity to gain Zhou Hongyi's favor?

Let's take stock, shall we?

Fastest Response: Huawei's Wanjie and NIO

Zhou Hongyi mentioned that after he posted the "Red Dress Selling Car Call" at 11:30 a.m. on April 18th, he received inquiries from Yu Chengdong and Li Bin later that afternoon.

From a marketing perspective, speed is of the essence.

It's noted that Zhou Hongyi and Li Bin have been attending events together at Harvard recently, giving Li Bin a natural advantage in terms of proximity. However, it's surprising how quickly Yu Chengdong followed up. Kudos to him!

Unfortunately, neither Yu Chengdong nor Li Bin utilized their social media accounts for interaction, which seems like a missed opportunity to leverage this influx of attention. However, there might be other reasons, which will be discussed later.

Fastest "Delivery" (or Withdrawal) of Cars: Xiaopeng Motors

This subheading isn't meant to be humorous; it's actually what Zhou Hongyi himself said.

On the evening of the 18th at 20:20, Xiaopeng Motors tweeted, "Zhou Zong, the car has been delivered to your downstairs." They even posted a photo of the car parked downstairs at 360!

The rapid response speed not only deeply moved Lao Zhou, who said, "I'll go test it at work tomorrow," but also prompted netizens to exclaim, "Xiaopeng is really good at marketing."

However, to everyone's surprise, the next day, the Xiaopeng X9 had already been driven away, as revealed by Zhou Hongyi in his own short video.

So it turns out that everyone has become a "prop" for this topic... Uncle feels it's a pity. Could it be that the editor doesn't have enough authority? Can only show a picture? It's really hard to understand. Uncle thinks this kind of showing off just for work is not acceptable, especially in the current era of "online fan worship" being prevalent.

The "most enthusiastic" service: Jike + Avita

Jike Motors really went all out to "spoil" Lao Zhou this time, with a three-step plan:

First, they sent out Gillette Motors' Senior Vice President Yang Xueliang to recommend the Jike 009 Glorious to Lao Zhou at 3 p.m. on the 18th.

Step two, KuCoin's CMO Guan Haitao followed up at 10:55 am on the 19th.

Thirdly, Guan Haitao personally led the team on the 20th to the ground floor of the 360 building to introduce the new car to Zhou Hongyi.

From the attention of the group leaders to the swift execution by the branch offices, Jike displayed great enthusiasm and sincerity. They also humbly accepted the safety suggestions regarding in-car cameras proposed by Lao Zhou.

Avita also put a lot of effort into it. Not only did the young CEO Chen Zhuo personally pick a car for the spiritual leader and record a video to explain it, but also posted a short video on the official account showing the car being delivered to Lao Zhou and accepting the "Baron's Evaluation".

"Lofty and Aloof" Stance at its Peak: Aspire

As a high-end brand under BYD, Aspire has once again maintained its "lofty and aloof" image.

Their official account only replied to Zhou Hongyi with a few words: "Aspire U8 has made arrangements for you."

And that was it. There was no further follow-up.

The most hilarious "comeback": Wuling Hongguang

In a short video, Lao Zhou directly responded to netizens, saying, "Don't recommend me a good car like Wuling Hongguang, the space is too small."

Wuling Motors responded on Weibo on the afternoon of April 19, saying, "Mr. Zhou said Wuling Hongguang is good, but the space is too small, is it really small? Wuling Hongguang is already on the way to 360 headquarters."

And attached a video. It turns out that this video is from a certain traffic police officer who discovered a severely overloaded Wuling Hongguang, from which more than 20 people got out. This was in response to Zhou Hongyi's questioning of the "small space"!

The uncle feels that the Wuling Hongguang is indeed a popular brand, it really understands traffic.

The most "direct refusal": Xiaomi

When other domestic new energy vehicle brands parked their new cars under Zhou Hongyi's building, only one car brand directly refused Zhou's "invitation," and that is Xiaomi.

According to Zhou Hongyi, a few days ago he met Lei Jun, who praised him for being good at stirring up trouble.

When Zhou Hongyi suggested, "Give me a Xiaomi SU7 as well," Lei Jun responded with, "After carefully studying your criteria for selecting a car, it doesn't suit you. Let's wait until Xiaomi makes an SUV." Lei Jun directly declined Zhou Hongyi's request.

In the comments section of Weibo, that lifelike photo has reappeared once again.

There is also an advanced version:

I'm not sure if Lei Jun is fooling around with Lao Zhou or holding a grudge against him, but anyway, this wave of rejection seems pretty good to Uncle. It has achieved differentiation. In other words, other car companies need to ride on Zhou Hongyi's traffic, but Xiaomi doesn't need to.

The most "disappointing" interaction: Nezha Motors

Everyone with keen eyes can see that the main purpose of Zhou Hongyi creating buzz about "selling Maybach" these days is to pave the way for Nezha Motors, in which he has invested.

From the Weibo post released by Nezha Motors, it's clear that Nezha Motors was going to launch a new car last night (April 22), and Zhou Hongyi and Zhang Yong would appear at the event.

The uncle originally thought that Nezha Motors would carefully plan this interactive event to come up with something unexpected. However, the official Nezha Motors account and Zhang Yong's Weibo interaction lacked sincerity and were full of "gimmicks." It was a big letdown. Other car brands at least would make a short video...

The "too early" trend-hopping: Brave Warriors

On April 19th at 19:00, Brave Warriors posted content to capitalize on a trend, introducing the performance of a domestically-produced electric off-road vehicle. However, unfortunately, this content seemed a bit premature when viewed at that time.

On the following day (early morning of April 20th), Zhou Hongyi officially announced the 6 major selection criteria for cars, one of which is safety, such as "in extreme situations like rollovers, can the safety of passengers be ensured." Of course, Mengshi can also take advantage of this, for example, by releasing a short video of their own rollover test in the wilderness.

Unfortunately, there was no follow-up second wave, and the first wave came too early. This is a typical mistake in opportunistic marketing. Only by continuously trying can there be opportunities for exposure and hot searches. If you give up after just one attempt, how can you attract traffic?

In comparison, Rui Lan Motors specifically responded to the issues mentioned by Zhou Hongyi in their opportunistic marketing copy and made targeted replies.

The most "low-key" car delivery: Ideal MEGA

In the previous article, it was mentioned that nearly 20 car brands have been leveraging the opportunity to interact with Zhou Hongyi on Weibo and ride the wave of traffic. However, there is one brand that has been very low-key, quietly delivering cars without any publicity. That brand is Ideal MEGA.

It is worth mentioning that this MEGA car is mostly red in color. It is speculated that on one hand, Ideal MEGA hopes to shake off the negative impression of being a "cheap car," and on the other hand, it may be because Zhou Hongyi is known as the "Red Robe Master," so they specifically sent a "red car" to match his image.

The most "low-key" mention: Chery Automobile

Not long ago, the brand "Chery" created a "Xiaomi car su7 launch" PPT document internally, and many people took it seriously. However, it is said that most of it was incorrect.

This time, Chery Automobile is also trying to gain attention in Zhou Hongyi's comment section.

Uncle Ling was a little surprised when he clicked on its homepage and found a lot of promotional materials for "Yorongnaid" and Xu Moudong.

The S-curve of Nai Da and Xu Mou Dong... Is it really necessary to be so obvious? Hey, Zhou Hongyi, what do you think? Would you dare to take this car? Feel free to let me know in the comments.

The Most "Grand" Car Gift: Xingtu Xing Jiyuan

Xingtu Xing Jiyuan, sent a senior executive, and sent two cars at once, a sedan and an SUV.

Finally understand what "百台试驾" means in the forwarded message. Does this mean there are still 98 more to go?

It is said that, in fact, Li Xiang gave away two MEGA cars.

Just for fun: Haobo, Dongfeng Nanqi, Kia

It seems like you're expressing frustration or disappointment with the actions of certain car companies, possibly in China. Let me translate and paraphrase your comments into English:

"The uncle really doesn't know how to comment on the actions of these car companies anymore.

Personally, I feel it's just a waste of opportunity, trying to make a presence and join the excitement.

They're not even as good as Wukong Rent-A-Car and Hello Rent-A-Car; they're doing better even though they're just tagging along."

Does that capture the essence of what you were expressing?

Top Luxury Brand: Mercedes-Benz

Zhou Hongyi was supposed to sell off Mercedes-Benz, but the result was that a Mercedes-Benz dealer directly placed multiple Mercedes-Benz cars downstairs at the 360 company.

It's like a mini "Beijing Auto Show". The dealer really understands traffic and knows where to invest.

I wonder if Mercedes-Benz paid for the venue fee. Their advertisement is really aggressive.

The most searched celebrity: Zhou Hongyi.

Of course, don't think that only car companies are riding on Zhou Hongyi's popularity.

In fact, they are all riding on each other's popularity.

Incomplete data shows that just last week, Zhou Hongyi appeared in 11 Weibo hot searches.

He can be said to be fighting on two fronts, on one hand, he is rubbing shoulders with big shots like Ma Huateng, Zhang Chaoyang, Lei Jun, and Robin Li; on the other hand, he is using the image of a tough boss who sells Maybach cars to attract a large number of domestic new energy vehicle companies to hold "car exhibitions" at 360 company.

Uncle saw that even the CEO of Weibo praised Zhou Hongyi's ability to attract traffic and his dedication.

On Douyin, Zhou Hongyi has gained nearly 2 million followers, and his video account is thriving. Even Xiaoma Ge gave him a thumbs up, making him quite the influential "internet celebrity" leader.

However, there is a slight flaw. It was on the second day after he announced the high-profile sale of his Maybach (April 19th) that 360 released its financial report for the 2023 fiscal year.

In 2023, the annual revenue was 9.055 billion yuan, a decrease of 4.89% year-on-year; the net loss was 499 million yuan, with a net loss attributable to shareholders of 492 million yuan.

Although 360 has experienced two consecutive years of net losses, a company originally named "360 Digital Technology" (now called "Qifu Technology") has achieved a net profit attributable to shareholders of 14.01 billion yuan in the past three years. Its products include but are not limited to 360 Jietiao and 360 Zhouzhuanling.

Under the video of the car sale, Uncle saw a comment from a netizen:

"If you don't have enough money, you can use 360 Jietiao; the interest rate is low."

From this perspective, it seems that traffic is a double-edged sword.

Could it be that some leading car companies are reluctant to actively and openly get too close to this "traffic password" completely created by Zhou Hongyi himself?

Finally, what is your take on this matter? Especially in terms of various car companies taking advantage of it?

Feel free to discuss in the comments. (Brands that may have been overlooked are not excluded, and you are welcome to add them.)