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A well-known listed auto company was caught buying a "water army" to boost rankings and was banned from a social media platform for up to 6 months, with the news also shared by central media.

This news quietly passed, but as a case that can clean up the automotive public opinion environment, it should not be ignored but highlighted and reviewed to serve as a warning.

1. A Social Media Platform "Unnamed" Punishes Well-Known Auto Company's "Shocking Marketing"

On July 2, the social media platform actively carried out a special crackdown on online black industries and discovered, during its continuous verification of previous central media reports on "paid water army boosting trending topics," that some enterprises had purchased online black industries to inflate data and boost rankings, collaborating with media in irregular marketing practices.

This action caught 16 branded enterprises, with the fourth case being a well-known listed auto company. The social media platform's special action was shared by China Auto News.

Regrettably, even after being caught, the social media platform still did not name the auto company. This approach is quite shocking, as there are numerous listed well-known auto companies, leaving netizens to speculate.

In fact, companies buying a water army to boost rankings is quite foolish and shocking, as the traces are too obvious and the methods too crude.

With current big data analytics capabilities, regulators can easily identify and crack down on such practices. Therefore, this crude marketing method of buying a water army can be called "shocking marketing," as it truly shocks people. A significant characteristic of water army boosting is the intensive surge in trending topics in a short time, which cannot be missed once you open your computer.

In today's fiercely competitive automotive market, auto companies are competing not only in products but also in public opinion, where information can be true or false, and national brand factors are superimposed, resulting in a murky automotive public opinion environment.

Many companies have raised the banner of "catching water armies and black PR."

2. Great Wall Spends 10 Million to "Catch Water Army," BYD Offers 5 Million for "Black PR" Evidence

They all claim to be victims.

In March 2023, Great Wall launched a 10 million yuan reward plan for a net-cleaning campaign. On July 19, Great Wall Motor's official social media account announced the first rewards for the 10 million yuan campaign against online water armies. Great Wall Motor stated that it had received nearly a thousand clues from netizens, and some malicious smear campaigns by water armies had entered judicial proceedings.

In June 2024, Li Yunfei, General Manager of BYD Brand and Public Relations, posted that a certain auto company had used black PR tactics to denigrate, discredit, and maliciously slander BYD's brand and products. To this end, BYD collected effective clues and evidence of black PR and promised rewards ranging from 200,000 to 5 million yuan to those who provided them. On July 2, after identifying, screening, and evaluating the thousands of emails and private messages received, BYD planned to provide preliminary rewards ranging from 1,000 to 500,000 yuan to 21 individuals.

There is a fundamental difference between Great Wall and BYD's public reward approaches. Great Wall's approach is general, indicating the existence of water armies in the industry, while BYD's specifically refers to "a certain enterprise," effectively convicting it. This approach is inappropriate. If there is no evidence to collect, how can one definitively claim that "a certain enterprise" engaged in black PR against you?

From the public punishment of the well-known auto company by the social media platform to the public rewards offered by Great Wall and BYD, it is clear that the automotive public opinion environment needs rectification. However, we must be vigilant against overcorrection, arbitrarily accusing others, and suppressing public voices in the name of combating black PR. We must also be alert to companies using their status as victims to harm other, as yet unconvicted, enterprises. Companies can collect evidence but should not specifically incite confrontation and divide the public.

3. If No One is Guilty, Stone Him to Death

There is a story in the New Testament:

The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus. They said to him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?"

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept asking him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her."

Then they went away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left.

I quote this story not to excuse the "well-known auto company" for buying a water army, which deserves severe punishment. The story is intended to ask, in the auto industry, which company dares to pick up a stone?

In fact, marketing is not the core competitiveness of auto companies and should not be placed at a strategic height comparable to technology.

After some auto companies gained prominence, they successfully misguided the direction of automotive development, turning technological competition into traffic competition, with auto executives rushing to become corporate internet celebrities on various online platforms. But is such marketing really effective?

When company leaders spend all their time trying to become internet celebrities and live-stream car sales, where do they find the energy for strategy and technology?

Marketing is not the core competitiveness; technology is the high ground that auto companies should strive for. Companies should focus on technology and selling cars, each in its own way, which is the right path for auto companies to develop.