The man behind "Black Myth: Wukong": How powerful is Feng Ji's IP marketing ability

Feng Ji made Black Myth: Wukong a phenomenal game with his outstanding IP marketing ability. He not only has a deep understanding of the art of story marketing, but also has demonstrated extraordinary strategic vision in creating momentum and leveraging momentum. It was in the battlefield of IP marketing that Feng Ji skillfully used "momentum" to make Black Myth: Wukong the focus of global players' attention.

I mentioned yesterday that the popularity of Black Myth: Wukong is inseparable from the man behind him - Feng Ji.

He is a pragmatic idealist and a veteran in story marketing. (Feng Ji's journey to learn from the scriptures: the humanity and dreams behind "Black Myth: Wukong"!)

Not only does he tell a good story, but his IP marketing for Black Myth is also textbook-level and worthy of careful study.

Where exactly does success lie? Let me explain it to you from three aspects.

When it comes to IP marketing, it’s all about influence.

Where does influence come from?

In the past, people spent money on advertising, invited celebrities, and expanded channels. This is the old way of doing things.

Now, the IP gameplay.

The core is to do two things.

Creating momentum - persistence is the key, repeating the form and iterating the content;

Taking advantage of the situation - the key is to choose, to know how to borrow, and to borrow correctly.

With potential energy, there will be a constant flow.

1. The first level: IP promotion requires persistence

The so-called creating momentum means to first raise your own status and think highly of yourself.

Therefore, when "Black Myth: Wukong" was launched, it was positioned as China's first 3A game.

What is 3A? Its standard is: a lot of time, a lot of resources, and a lot of money. Simply put, it is a blockbuster in the game, such as "GTA5", "The Last of Us", "The Witcher 3", etc.

In the past, 3A games were exclusive to Europe and the United States, and domestic games were always crushed, so this benchmark instantly raised the bar.

After shouting out this positioning, all that’s left is to persist, shouting it year after year, each time louder than the last.

Therefore, from the first performance to the actual release, maintain at least one video + one event every year to warm up.

Let's look at this timeline:

August 20, 2020: The first actual machine demo was released, marking the official presentation of "Wukong" to global players and the first step for Chinese 3A games.

August 20, 2021: A new real-machine demo is released, supporting 4K, 60 frames, and ray tracing, entering the UE5 R&D era. (Technical iteration)

August 20, 2022: A 6-minute live action video clip is released, featuring a new demo video of NVIDIA ray tracing + DLSS. (Under iteration)

On August 20, 2023, the official "Black Myth: Wukong" organized an offline trial session in Hangzhou.

At 10:00 a.m. on August 20, 2024, Black Myth: Wukong was officially launched worldwide. In just one hour, more than 1.3 million people were online at the same time, topping the global best-selling list of Steam, the world's largest game distribution platform.

For a game, for five consecutive years, a video was released and an event was held at the same time every year.

Regular and repetitive events are most likely to attract people's attention and form node memories.

In the past, the e-commerce industry’s festival marketing, Taobao Double 11, JD 618, and “10 billion subsidies” were all similar.

This is the secret to IP hype.

Black Myth has been very clear in its persistence over the past five years.

2. The second level: IP leverage: Leverage brand potential

IP leverages momentum, what it leverages is potential energy, not popularity.

Popularity is not completely equal to potential energy. Potential energy represents a kind of power, a high-level energy, and explosive power.

Different brands have different potential energy. The stronger the potential energy, the stronger the IP and the stronger the traffic.

For example, Starbucks and Luckin Coffee have similar levels of popularity, but Luckin Coffee certainly has greater potential energy at the moment.

Therefore, it was not enough for Black Myth to build momentum and set up an altar. It needed to find a great immortal to take the platform and perform rituals on the altar.

I studied the official partner brands of Black Myth and found that some are from the gaming industry and some are not. However, if you want to increase the potential, you must break the circle and collaborate with top brands outside the industry.

Among them, three brands took advantage of the situation very accurately, correctly and critically.

No. 1, Luckin Coffee

Luckin Coffee has collaborated with "Black Myth: Wukong", and the co-branded drinks and related peripherals were officially launched on August 19.

As everyone knows, Luckin Coffee, which collaborated with Moutai last year, became popular all over the country and it was hard to get a cup.

Now, its revenue and number of stores have both surpassed Starbucks, making it the national coffee brand, and its brand potential is at its peak.

In addition, male users account for 52% of Luckin Coffee, and their ages are 25-44, which happens to be the post-80s generation, the current high-quality male consumer group.

Therefore, the collaboration with Luckin Coffee IP is a powerful combination.

No. 2, JD.com

JD.com is the global official partner of Black Myth: Wukong and has become the reservation platform for the physical collector's edition and physical deluxe edition of the game.

As we all know, JD.com started out as a 3C digital company, and most of its users are males with high quality and high spending power, all of whom are game players or potential players.

JD.com has 500 million active users, plus its target audience is precise, and it is exposed on the homepage. With such momentum, it is definitely the winner.

No. 3, Nvidia

From last year to this year, NVIDIA has been as popular as GPT/AI, and has long been in the top 3 of global hot topics, overshadowing Tesla and even the US election. NVIDIA is a global brand, and cooperating with it will definitely be of great significance to the overseas expansion of Black Myth.

Of course, Hisense, Lenovo, Didi, INART, ZHITAI and others are also part of the Black Myth brand leveraging momentum.

In terms of brand leveraging, Black Myth’s IP marketing capabilities have also reached the second level, which is worth learning.

3. The third level: IP leverage: leveraging the power of the industry and the country

The highest level of taking advantage of the situation is to take advantage of the trends of the times, the destiny of the country and the laws of history.

The sudden popularity of Black Myth: Wukong overseas is, on the surface, the overseas expansion of the culture of Journey to the West (Sun Wukong IP), but at its core it is the rise of a strong culture brought about by China's strength.

Reform and opening up have made China prosperous and powerful; the Belt and Road Initiative has allowed China to reach more corners of the world and stand tall among the global players.

The story of China's rise is a realistic account of how Sun Wukong fought monsters and leveled up, overcoming numerous difficulties and achieving victory.

As Chinese people we are confident, and we also gain confidence overseas.

Black Myth has become a milestone in Chinese domestic games and has achieved such a huge success.

Of course, this is due to Feng Ji and his team’s ability, hard work, and the correct decision-making based on the current situation.

But there is no doubt that Black Myth has taken advantage of the industry and national momentum in IP marketing.

This was also confirmed in a recent media interview.

When asked why Black Myth received so much attention, Feng Ji said

"In fact, we were not expecting the attention to be magnified to this level, and we are flattered. Youke got a great deal, and it happened to appear when players' expectations for domestic "3A" works reached a peak, carrying everyone's most simple love for this country and nation. "Wukong is a household IP, so everyone will give this product the orthodox aura of Chinese culture, and think that you can represent the Chinese taste."

However, Feng Ji's answer remained low-key, humble and impeccable.

But in fact, it reveals the most important reason for the success of Black Myth.

Throughout history, there have only been heroes of the times, but no times of heroes.

Therefore, the third level of IP marketing is to leverage the power of the industry and the country.

Back to the topic, today IP marketing has become a must-have skill for many brands. Brands like MINISO, POP MART, Three Squirrels, and Disney are all collaborating with different brands to achieve cross-border customer acquisition and brand potential.

As I said, IP marketing is all about influence.

Either create momentum or take advantage of it.

Whether creating or borrowing, you still need to be strong yourself.