The Newest Buzzword ‘Involution’ and How Brands Have Responded to It in China

‘Nei juan (内卷)’, also known as involution, has become a trendy word among young netizens as of late in China. In contrast to ‘evolution’, involution refers to an inward overelaboration due to hypercompetition. As the “996” working schedule (nine in the morning to nine in the evening, six days a week) and even “007” (working online twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week) became the norm among large tech firm workers, many felt the feeling of anxiety, stress and endless race. Such phenomenon fuels an opposite concept named ‘Being Buddhist (佛系)’ that the young generation rejects the ‘victory or death’ ethos, while embracing a chilled, laid back lifestyle. It further develops into a ‘sang (丧文化) culture’, the celebration of sardonic apathy and nihilism.

Involution is felt by citizens everywhere in China

According to a popular thread on the Chinese question-and-answer platform, Zhihu (知乎), involution happens almost everywhere. It is in every sector and business in China. For example, a netizen shared her experience of socializing with ‘Shun Yi Moms (顺义妈妈)’, who are similar to mothers in the Upper East Side in Manhattan (if you’ve ever read Wednesday Martin’s ‘Primates of Park Avenue’). When with these women, she realized that many of them trained their children way advanced than the standard requirement of their age group. For example, they speak three languages in kindergarten.

Another story came from a recent graduate from an Ivy league university who just returned to China. The graduate remarked, “It’s harder to find a job as a haigui (海归, an overseas returnee) in big cities nowadays. Even a taxi driver in Beijing has a university certificate.” People are pushing themselves to the extreme to succeed, yet they feel like they are going nowhere. They also feel all the work is still not enough.

Involution has undoubtedly resonated with China’s millennials and Gen Z. According to BBC China, involution was the Top 10 hot topics in 2020. It also gained 10 billion searches on Weibo in 2021. So, how have Chinese brands responded to the wave of discussion around ‘Neijuan’ or Involution?

Involution Trendjacking

For content marketers, trendjacking is an effective way to reach new customer segments, while still retaining the core values of their brand. It requires them to constantly keep an eye on hot topics and respond quickly to capitalize the buzz. Many times, human or human-related events are at the center of the discussions. For example, #FriendsReunion and Bernie Sanders at the inauguration in the western world. Similarly, celebrity-led trends appear quite often in China’s marketing scene.

Lelush on Produce Camp 2021

If you follow Tecent’s reality show ‘Produce Camp 2021’ (or ‘Chuang 2021’), you should be familiar with the name ‘Lelush’(利路修). Lelush’s real name is Vladislav Ivanov. The Russian model ‘accidentally’ joined the competition for the next generation boy band with 90 contestants. Not long after the competition began, Lelush relaized he didn’t want to be there. But he had signed a contract and could only leave if the show producers kicked him off or the audience voted him out. So, he began trying hard to make that happen.

Compared to his other peers who show proactivity and diligence in the training programs, Lelush often had a ‘sang’ face and took every opportunity to slack off. He told the producers and the audience that he ‘wants to leave’ and asked, ‘When is it my turn to be weeded out?’. However, things went against his wishes and many people started voting for him to stay in the game. People resonated with his involution attitude. His fans called themselves ‘Sun si (笋丝)’ and voluntarily created many online memes about Lelush.

Brands Begin Collaborating with Lelush

Luckin Coffee (瑞幸咖啡) was the first brand that reached out to Lelush to collaborate. The campaign was launched after a short 13 day’s preparation from signing the talent, creating the script and actual production. Carrying a slogan ‘YYDS (永远滴神)’, a buzzword that means ‘greatest of all time’, the campaign launch video had almost two million times on Bilibili within 24 hours and the official hashtag #瑞幸冰咖推荐官利路修 (Chief Recommendation Officer Lelush) broke a billion mention record on Weibo. The brand was riding on the social hype of the campaign. Its sales also reached a historical high since its scandal in 2020. 

In my opinion, the reason behind Luckin’s success is not only the high agility and efficient execution, but also it truly paid efforts on understanding the trend. This allows it to maximize the uniqueness of Lelush as an influencer while still keeping the essence of its brand.

The advertisement’s storyline matched well with several iconic scenes of Lelush in Produce Camp. As a result, it perfectly picked up on the fans’ ‘deja vu’ moments and created brand advocacy. Because the concept of involution was smartly reflected in the ending scene when Lelush said ‘can I leave work now?’ in his typical tired, emotionless voice, even his non-fans can resonate with the campaign and get a laugh out of it as well.

Not everyone is able to correctly capture the involution trend

Involution is such a hot topic among millennials and Gen Zs that many brands want to tap on it in China. However, not everyone did it well.

Earlier in May, a post by Zhang Jun, Head of PR at Tencent received over 60k angry reactions on Weibo as he posted about staying late for the Youth Day campaign whilst the real youth were asleep. Su Mang, former chief editor of Harper’s Bazaar China, recently apologized for her ‘inappropriate interpretation’ of involution as ‘a reflection of high desire but low willingness to put in the work among the young generation’.

Both were pointed for being ignorant of the real societal state the young workforce is in and the living pressure brought by endless competition. Apparently, the concept of involution is a double-edged sword, only those who truly understand its meaning and impact on the younger groups can capitalize off its influence. The same applies really to any controversial topics. Brands must rely on their marketers to determine which trends are appropriate to associate the brand with.