Sam Blumenthal

"After using the AI broadcaster, we noticed record views every day," said Xiang Jing, who is in charge of Philips outlet on the Tmall shopping platform, adding that nearly 80,000 people watched the livestream during the peak hours.

According to Gordon, what makes mystery boxes such effective marketing is not only that “people love mystery” — it’s also that the experience of unboxing is so shareable and reproduceable. When someone watches a 5 Surprise unboxing on TikTok, he said, “people then want to experience that for themselves.”