Ding Sanduo pleads for students to have mercy on him since he’s “only five years old” (the age of the app), that give him “all five stars in one payment, no installments.” Tears streaming down his adorably pitiful cartoon face as screenshots of jokingly negative reviews flash on the screen, Ding Sanduo calls the trolling teens his “daddy” and begs them to “find another way.”Ĭhinese netizens were delighted and flattered by the video. The aesthetic is undeniably “internet” - low production values, lo-res gif-like animations, well-known rage comic characters and WeChat icons, a chipper 8-bit melody backing. In response, DingTalk created a short animated video starring their mascot, Ding Sanduo 钉三多. Some users jokingly commented that they would be willing to give the app five stars, but not all at once, only in 1-star “installments”. The DingTalk app sank to a dismal 1.5-stars, helped along by some adults who were also fed up with their bosses nosily tracking their productivity through the app.
Bored, stuck at home, and (like teenagers everywhere, even without a pandemic) looking for a way to get out of doing their schoolwork, Chinese students latched onto a rumor that apps with low ratings would be automatically booted off the Apple App Store and started spamming DingTalk with 1-star ratings. DingTalk’s online culture-oriented strategy paid off for two reasons:ġ) They tapped into an existing culture at their own youthful workplaceĢ) They approached their audience not as a peer, but as a fan, expressing admiration and self-deprecation instead of pretending to “get it”Īs schools shut down in and around Wuhan in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, schools adopted DingTalk to hold online classes, assign and grade coursework, and make sure students were staying on track.
The video was widely praised by both adults and the teens it was aimed at, and it successfully offset the brand’s earlier negative PR. This makes the success of Chinese app DingTalk’s (钉钉） cheeky meme-studded video “apology” to its teenage trolls all the more impressive. At best, these attempts at generational pandering get a publicity boost and some ironic appreciation for the effort. Cringe-inducing, tone-deaf “memes” and awkwardly outdated cultural references invite scorn instead of enthusiasm. More often than not, companies that try to appeal to their adolescent, ultra-online user base end up falling flat on their faces.
This Chinese startup bounced back from weeks of bad press and one-star reviews by cleverly showing a genuine appreciation for and understanding of their user base.
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