How Vape Companies Use Douyin Short Videos to Promote Vaping

How are e-cigarette companies using Douyin short videos to promote vaping? On October 24, a Douyin product salon themed “Inside Huoqi E-Cigarettes” was successfully held. Guests including Wang Liqing, Planning Director for the e-cigarette industry at Jinri Toutiao, and Zhao Weiqiang, South China Planning Director for the e-cigarette industry at Jinri Toutiao, visited Chang’an E-Cigarettes and held in-depth discussions with brand owners and marketing experts on Douyin product operation strategies, helping e-cigarette brands build new short-video operations models.

　　A new traffic era

　　Short videos disrupt the marketing landscape

　　In an era of fragmented attention, changing user habits and the rise of high-quality content creators have driven the rapid growth of short videos that can sustain user interest. According to statistics from the Trustdata mobile big data monitoring platform, in April 2018 the DAU of short-video apps strongly surpassed that of long-form video and livestreaming apps, with mobile users shifting a significant portion of their phone usage time to short videos.

　　As one of today’s leading short-video products, Douyin has grown into a comprehensive short-video platform driven by smart technology and centered on recording beautiful moments in life. Xiao Guanyin, General Manager of the Jinri Toutiao E-Cigarette Marketing Center, said, “As of mid-July 2018, Douyin’s domestic DAU exceeded 150 million, MAU exceeded 300 million, and global monthly active users surpassed 500 million. With its rapid user growth, Douyin has become a value lowland for new traffic, a hotbed for word-of-mouth buzz with mass participation, and a hit-content incubator driven by user behavior.”

　　Xiao Guanyin, General Manager of the Jinri Toutiao E-Cigarette Marketing Center

　　Driven by high-quality content, Douyin has quickly reached the new generation of core consumers and is highly aligned with potential car-buying audiences. According to QuestMobile Growth data, compared with the previous year, short-video penetration among car buyers increased 85% year over year, while penetration among car owners increased 159% year over year. This shows that short videos are steadily expanding their reach among vaping consumers and have become one of the key media categories favored by this audience.

　　Since entering 2018, Douyin short videos have gradually become standard in the marketing mix of many companies. As a massive source of organic traffic, Douyin not only helps brands unlock more platform traffic dividends, but also supports them through marketing matrices tailored to the platform’s characteristics and diverse creative approaches, turning brands into the “new Douyin stars” users love to watch. 　　New product thinking

　　Douyin defines a new marketing era

　　Wang Liqing, Planning Director for the e-cigarette industry at Jinri Toutiao, shared that “Douyin’s product operations model has upgraded from function development to demand-based operations. Through five major product transformations—content distribution, innovative technology, content operations, experience upgrades, and vertical-screen immersion—Douyin has entered the 2.0 era of product operations.”

　　Wang Liqing, Planning Director for the e-cigarette industry at Jinri Toutiao

　　First, at the content distribution level, intelligent distribution technology that deeply understands user preferences transforms users from passive recipients into participants whose interests resonate with content. In terms of innovation, full-screen HD, music, special filters, personalized recommendations, and other technologies better enable users to record life’s beautiful moments, upgrading from functional satisfaction to a more enjoyable experience. In content operations, Douyin uses a decentralized distribution model that makes high-quality content easier to circulate, shifting from centralized focus to a diverse content ecosystem. In user experience, it moves from simple display to dialogue with scenarios, allowing users to connect directly through the senses and quickly perceive content. Finally, through deep immersive vertical-screen experiences, it gains stronger user attention and delivers better interactive click results.

　　Douyin’s product transformation has delivered an exceptional user experience, quickly influencing a massive user base. Its ability to capture time and drive behavior has pushed platform activity to more than 47% above the industry average, making it a product that truly penetrates users’ daily lives. This has also brought about marketing transformation, creating brand-new marketing value and ushering in a new marketing era for the e-cigarette industry.

　　Wang Liqing stated, “Douyin’s product-oriented mindset is driving marketing into a new era, creating four major forms of value—traffic, content, technology, and platform—and enabling resonance in e-cigarette brand marketing.” 　　A new traffic entry point

　　Douyin Blue V builds a new marketing ecosystem

　　As Douyin’s user base and product formats have developed rapidly, the Douyin Blue V ecosystem has also been gradually forming a closed-loop marketing ecosystem. Blue V verification for business accounts creates a fully native brand homepage, delivering four major marketing values: user asset data management, accumulation of brand content assets, publication of brand interactive topics, and vivid brand image building, thereby creating a strategic base for short-video marketing. #p#Page Break Title#e#

　　Zhao Weiqiang, South China Planning Director for the e-cigarette industry, shared that “Blue V’s authoritative identity verification and privilege system allow brands to be quickly identified among countless Douyin accounts. Brands enjoy multiple benefits on their homepage, forming a marketing base made up of a brand information area, external-link conversion area, topic interaction area, and content accumulation area. This helps brands develop a methodology for social content marketing on Douyin, build a multidimensional social communication matrix, and create a closed-loop marketing ecosystem.”