A small “IP” has become a “great contributor” to Shenzhen’s cultivation of new consumption scenarios. Recently, Shenzhen’s “Innovating the ‘IP+’ Integration Model and Igniting a New Wave of city-wide Consumption” was selected as a typical case of “IP+ Consumption” by the Ministry of Commerce. Shenzhen focuses on the integrated development of business, culture and tourism. By creating best-selling products through IP collaborations and integrating business districts to build IP consumption clusters, it has blazed a new trail of “IP+” integration and sparked a new wave of IP consumption throughout the city.
“IP+ brand”, develop co-branded best-selling products
In recent years, Shenzhen has provided policy support and market guidance to help enterprises cultivate and introduce high-quality IP resources, creating immersive theme scenes throughout the city.
Developing new products and creating bestsellers through IP collaborations is the choice of many enterprises and brands. In collaboration with the globally renowned IP Pokemon, Nanshan District actively organized 89 enterprises from industries, services, wholesale, retail, accommodation and catering, etc., to develop and launch IP co-branded products with Shenzhen-based brands Yise and SKG. Yise’s first release of 15,000 sets of co-branded products was sold out in an instant, and SKG’s product sales during the event period increased by 28% year-on-year.
Shenzhen-based brand “Nayuki’s Tea” has collaborated with the Harry Potter IP to launch 5 tea beverages and 26 creative peripheral products. Within a week of their release, the co-branded tea beverages sold over 4 million cups, and the topic exposure exceeded 90.83 million. As a major collaborator, Heytea frequently partners with artists and fashion brands, which not only ignites its products and stirs up consumer discussions but also further enhances the brand’s influence.
“IP+ Business district”, linking the whole city to create a craze
To stimulate the consumption potential of “IP+ business”, Shenzhen encourages major business districts to collaborate with high-quality ips. Shenzhen has created the first dimensional ecological commercial area in the Greater Bay Area, “Bit City Dimensional Town”, introducing over 30 high-quality 2D cultural brands and “millet economy” business forms. It has held diverse dimensional activities such as street dance culture festivals and ACG anime concerts, with a peak daily foot traffic of 56,000 people. It has become a gathering place for Z-generation dimensions and a main venue for immersive social interaction.
The “Danggu Island Valley” in Qianhai One Square City, Shenzhen, is a 2D theme island. It has introduced over 20 dimensional stores, including the first “Official Pokemon Trading Card Gym” in South China, and has collaborated with more than 100 multi-dimensional brands, covering various business formats such as trendy toys, clothing, trading cards, and figurines. By frequently holding events such as cosplayer exhibitions and idol girl group shows, an immersive 2D social space has been created. Since its opening, the number of visitors and sales performance have significantly increased, making it a new landmark of 2D culture in Shenzhen.
Futian District Xinghe COCO Park has actively introduced multiple high-quality domestic IP resources and held 17 IP events, including 6 national premieres, 6 in South China premieres, and 4 in Shenzhen premieres. It is particularly worth mentioning that the sales of the Harry Potter and Chiikawa pop-up events it held in collaboration with MINISO both ranked first in the country, further attracting more high-quality IP resources for cooperation.
To create a city-wide interactive IP consumption scene, Nanshan District of Shenzhen has introduced the international top IP “Pokemon” to launch the “Chasing Dreams in Nanshan” special consumption promotion event. It has packaged 22 subway stations, over 300 community publication Spaces, and more than 360 outdoor large screens with Pokemon IP elements, creating themed and immersive urban public Spaces. The Qianhai Cooperation Zone in Shenzhen has collaborated with the popular domestic animation IP “Milk Dragon” to launch the “Fun Qianhai, Dragons Appear” event. Relying on the city’s coastal resources, it has held a giant “Milk Dragon” themed exhibition and launched various theme activities, making it a popular cultural and tourism destination in Shenzhen.
Strong policies have been implemented to promote the quality improvement and upgrading of consumption
In terms of policy guidance and support, Shenzhen has also spared no effort. In early June this year, the “Implementation Plan for the Special Action to Boost Consumption in Shenzhen” was released, introducing 39 work measures to boost consumption. It explicitly stated: Promote the quality improvement and upgrading of residents’ life service consumption, encourage restaurants to collaborate with well-known original intellectual property (IP) brands, launch co-branded packages and classic scene performances, and create immersive consumption scenarios.
Immediately following this, at the end of June this year, the “Several Measures of Shenzhen Municipality on Promoting High-Quality Development of Service Consumption” was officially issued. The Several Measures point out that efforts should be made to promote high-quality development of improvement-oriented consumption, unleash the vitality of cultural and entertainment consumption, and support the development of IP physical derivatives and IP collaborations in various fields. Vigorously develop digital service consumption, support the development and content transformation of online cultural ips such as games and animation, and create new scenarios of diversified and integrated consumption. Promote the integrated transformation of commercial complexes, vigorously promote innovative, immersive and experiential consumption models, and create a “super IP launch site” covering film, animation, performing arts, entertainment, music and fitness.
Shenzhen’s “IP+ consumption” is constantly radiating new vitality. Under the support and guidance of policies, Shenzhen has been actively exploring a new model of “IP+” integration with “IP” as the thread, constantly extending and colliding with new consumption scenarios, and triggering a new consumption craze.
