Sugar, sportswear, and face masks are crazy! How did “Squid Game” become the world’s most popular “cargo king”?

456 contestants gambled their lives for a prize of 45.6 billion. Recently, Netflix’s new drama “Squid Game” has made global audiences sweat across the screen with the exciting battle royale plot.

How popular is this show?

Since its launch on September 17th, “Squid Game” has topped the Netflix hot list in more than 90 countries and regions, and the topic of #罐鱼游戏# has been read nearly 2 billion times on Weibo. One of the actresses, Zheng Hao Yeon, had only 400,000 Instagram fans before the broadcast, but it skyrocketed to 19.32 million after the broadcast, and even won the global brand ambassador of luxury brand LV.

It is not only the drama and the actors themselves that have become popular, but the derivative surroundings of “Squid Game” and small games such as 123 wooden people, picking sugar, and marbles have all come out of the circle with an overwhelming battle.

Squid game addicted? Place an order of 8,000 pieces of puffy sugar at a time, and sell 300,000 face masks

Open Taobao and search for “Squid Game”, and you will find that puffing sugar has become a hot commodity.

Some Taobao stores show monthly sales of more than 10,000. According to a report from “Times Finance”, some consumers even booked 8,000 puffs at one time on Taobao.

Some businesses have introduced more difficult designs such as the Starbucks logo, the Wangzai logo, and the lucky cat. The offline cafes started selling pum, and some people even wanted to drive for an hour to check in.

Overseas, making molds seems to be more popular than forming puns. Food bloggers on Instagram and YouTube are busy making puff pastry and sharing recipes. Picking puff pastry has even become a TikTok challenge. Users can use the tip of their nose as a needle to try to pick up the “electronic puff pastry” on the screen.

What is even more unexpected is that “Squid Game” has set off a fashion trend of “survival games”.

Who would want to wear green sportswear, red jumpsuits, and inexplicable symbolic masks for no reason?

According to data observed by the fashion website Lyst, a few days after the show was launched, global searches for retro-style sportswear (+97%), white sandals (+145%), and red jumpsuits (+62%) all appeared. Has soared. The unremarkable Vans white canvas shoes on the feet of game players have seen a 78-fold increase in sales, and even show that they are out of stock on the official website.

In “Game of Squid”, the man in red wears ○, △, and □ masks at all times to monitor the contestants’ every move. A Taobao seller Duan Pengcheng said that he put the mask on the shelves two days after the series went live. Taking advantage of the popularity, he could sell more than 2,000 masks in three days. Up to now, the factory has received more than 300,000 foreign orders.

And on Amazon, eBay, and even Wal-Mart’s websites, the green sportswear with number numbers and the weird red jumpsuits are added with keywords such as “Halloween” and “role playing.” Combined with the cruel and bloody atmosphere of this drama, it’s also very suitable.

Although the response was a little slower than the Yiwu factory, Netflix’s e-commerce platform also launched its own squid game peripherals, mainly T-shirts and hoodies, with prices ranging from 30-50 US dollars.

Of course, what is more attractive is the official peripherals that the stars have received but have not been released. For example, this creepy 123 wooden doll will turn its head.

In addition, there are also squid game alarm clocks, figures, dolls…Even if you haven’t watched this show at all, it will not prevent you from being surrounded by screens in social networks. You might even be curious about the surrounding area:

Hey, what the hell is this “Squid Game”? How did the fire become like this?

The factory setting of “Squid Game” is “Highly Commercial”

The plot of “Squid Game” is not excellent among similar battle royale works, but it is also true that it has conquered the global market without precedent.

Of course, Netflix is ​​willing to spend money for one reason. In September of this year, Netflix revealed that it has invested in more than 80 Korean film and television works in the past three years, with a total investment of 770 billion won (nearly 4.2 billion yuan), and promised to add 500 million US dollars (about 3.2 billion yuan).

The most important thing is that, regardless of the criticized plot, “Squid Game” is very clever in the overall visual and plot settings, presenting an industrial but exquisite action and violence spectacle. In other words, its factory settings are highly commercialized. This is reflected in three aspects.

“Squid Game” stairs. Picture from: Douban

First of all, tug-of-war, marbles, wooden people, these childhood games of East Asia unity, can transcend cultural differences across the world. “Squid Game” is a dark adaptation of the childhood game, so that the characters and the audience do not need to bother to understand the rules, and can easily perceive their different faces in the adult world.

“Squid Game” male protagonist. Picture from: Douban

Perhaps the dramatist understands the tastes of the target market so much that he can produce “superficial but not so superficial” content.

Secondly, “Squid Game” is particularly brilliant in terms of visualization, with great care in serving the road, scenes, and color matching.

The colors in the play are mainly pink, yellow, and green. Yellow is the main color of stairs, puffing sugar, and giant “123 wooden people” dolls; pink appears on executives who hold the power of life and death; walls, tug-of-war tracks, and contestants’ clothes are green. These bright colors are used in the battle royale story, vividly contrasting the weirdness and cruelty.

“Squid Game” 123 Wooden Man. Image from: Douban

In the process of picking up the candy, in addition to the triangles, circles, stars, and umbrella patterns on the candy pie, the fences and equipment on the walls also imply basic shapes such as triangles and circles, creating a harmonious sense of space and hiding the gun. The untouched murderous breath.

Picking up the sugar. Picture from: Douban

The masks with three patterns of circle, triangle, and square respectively represent the three classes of performers. They are also ordinary people controlled by rules and order.

“Squid Game” poster. Image from: Douban

Life and death, desire, capital, gambling…The theme of “Squid Game” is still human nature, no matter whether it is deep or not, it is presented in symbols. These symbols are highly condensed themes, and they are easily recognized, memorized and copied like a stalk, so they have a strong commercial driving force.

Netflix has created a special brand area on Wal-Mart website to sell official peripherals; Taobao, JD.com and other e-commerce platforms sell a wide range of replica products; private masters have also appeared one after another, and Xiaohongshu has rolled up a wave of homemade pummeling.

Among all the peripherals, the lower unit price of puns, T-shirts, face masks, the same white shoes and sportswear sold very hotly. The most popular in sportswear is the same style of No. 67 Jiang Xiao and No. 001 Grandpa. These two numbers carry important plots and delightful designs, and also reflect the aesthetic preferences of overseas consumers.

No. 67 Jiang Xiao. Picture from: Douban

Furthermore, in addition to visual presentation, the rhythm, tension and atmosphere of “Squid Game” also have rules. With a total of 9 episodes, each with a volume of 60 minutes, the visual impact is concentrated, conflicts and contradictions are frequent, and the audience can always be drawn to continue to unlock the unknown.

You may not have seen “Squid Game”, you must have seen such a question-“Why is Squid Game so popular?” The initial flames may rely on the publicity of Netflix and marketing accounts. When it accumulates to a certain audience, and a few more people ask “why it is hot”, the popularity will rise exponentially. This is essentially because the strong plot content of “Squid Game” is easily spread word of mouth on short video platforms, and passers-by are easily attracted by the clips and converted into loyal audiences.

Netizens’ evaluation of “Squid Game”. Picture from: NGA

The various game units of “Squid Game” are also very suitable to be separated for commentary. The commentary video of “Watching Squid Game in One Breath” has reached more than 5 million views at station B. The popularity and number of fans are naturally “one ride”. dust”.

In terms of plot alone, Japanese Manga “Gambling Relapse Record” may be much better. From the “starting point of the strategy”, it took twelve or three episodes for the protagonist Kaisi to defeat the “swamp” pinball machine. The author’s description of the game system, the intellectual struggle between the manipulator and the gambler, and the psychological activities of the gambler is very full and vivid, and the audience will follow the protagonist repeatedly ups and downs, and feel extremely tortured. In fact, its plot is not advancing fast, and the delicateness and depth of it are not felt without watching the original drama, and it is difficult to compress, cut and spread.

“Gambling Relapse Record”. Picture from: Douban

In short, as a cool drama with facial makeup and strong plot, “Squid Game” does not lack basic human thinking, and has a very symbolic presentation in visual and plot. In the subsequent marketing operations, these symbols can be attached to various short videos and commentary videos, and can also be packaged on the actual surroundings, to please the majority of people, and leave space for the audience to give their meaning. .

This is a mature routine for selling IP. The CEO of Bubble Mart once expressed his hope to do more things that combine art and business, and put some things that are not purely emotional into business. This kind of truth is common. The exquisite vision, the flowing symbols, and the cool narrative of the average line may be enough to create the explosive physique of an IP.

How long will the popularity of “Squid Game” last?

You can always trust Yiwu.

Many netizens expressed similar emotions when they saw the rapid sales of “Squid Game” related peripherals.

In an interview with E-commerce Online, Taobao seller Duan Pengcheng stated that he put on the mask two days after “Squid Game” went live. Because of the low cost and early entry, the gross profit could exceed 80%. A person in charge of a processing plant in Yiwu said that the mold city manufacturers are basically making the same face masks. The orders are mainly sold to South Korea and the United States, and the supply is still in short supply until November.

The keenness of the merchants and the rapid coordination of the supply chain, before Netflix reacted, bought a time gap for the unofficial surroundings of “Squid Game”. But this also brings another problem: infringement.

On October 5th, Sungshin Women’s University Professor Xu Gede pointed out on his Facebook that “Squid Game” was being illegally spread in China, and even the clothes in the play were also copied and produced without copyright, which caused heated discussions.

The reason for the hot discussion is that the professor used the stills from when Wu Jing appeared in the movie “Good Teacher”. While clarifying misunderstandings, some South Korean media pointed out that most of the peripherals are indeed made in China and sold all over the world, rather than officially launched by Netflix.

According to the company’s investigation, “Squid Game” and “Squid Sugar” are currently being registered as trademarks by many domestic companies. The classification involves education, entertainment and convenience food, and the status is under application. According to the Beijing News, some lawyers believe that although peripheral products such as sugar, sportswear, and T-shirts are “counterfeit”, they do not infringe intellectual property rights.

The Wall Street Journal also noticed the unofficial surroundings sold on Amazon, pointing out that this is a “grey area”-although Amazon refused to respond, it is estimated that there is a risk of infringement and delisting.

Related peripherals on Amazon

For domestic businesses, the impact of the decline in popularity may be even greater. Although “Squid Game” is currently a global topic, in the eyes of many Taobao sellers, the popularity will slowly decline in one month.

Like the squid game, if there is a second season, then it can continue to be made, if the official second season is no longer produced, then I may stop the product and no longer make it.