Is the money spent by brands on skit marketing worth it? A set of data can help you quickly sort out your thoughts

As an emerging marketing method, short drama marketing is gradually changing the landscape of the film and television entertainment industry. With the rapid growth of the short drama market, brands have also begun to turn their attention to this field, exploring how to achieve a marketing effect that combines brand and effect through short dramas.

Short dramas are rewriting the landscape of the film and television entertainment industry, from the initial small-scale operations of amateur teams to the current dimensionality reduction efforts of many professional film and television directors and celebrities. Hengdian Film and Television City has also been jokingly called a "vertical store" by many netizens.

According to iMedia Research, the market size of China's online short dramas will reach 37.39 billion yuan in 2023, up 267.65% year-on-year. With the continuous enrichment of short drama content and the continuous growth of audience demand, it is expected that the market size of short dramas will exceed 50 billion yuan in 2024.

Major video platforms have also entered the market and have continuously increased their investment in short drama content in the past two years, making it a new major content track. Among them, the three major short video giants, Douyin, Kuaishou and Video Account, have shown their unique business models and operating strategies.

Growth Black Box and Gouzheng Technology have captured the TOP 30 Douyin and Kuaishou short dramas with the highest cumulative viewing volume in the first half of 2024 (January 1, 2024 to June 30, 2024), and found that Douyin occupied 18 seats and Kuaishou occupied 12 seats, with little difference.

However, the brand marketing content of the two platforms is very different. The brand cooperation rate of Douyin short dramas is as high as 83% (15 out of 18 dramas have cooperated with brands), and there are cases where multiple brands are implanted in one drama, while the brand cooperation rate of Kuaishou short dramas is only 42% (only 5 out of 12 dramas have cooperated with brands).

At the same time, we observed that Kuaishou’s brand owners are mostly e-commerce platforms, pharmaceuticals, etc., while Douyin’s brand owners are mostly fast-moving consumer goods brands.

Chen Duye, vice president of Douyin, disclosed to the media in January this year that in 2023, the number of users who actively searched for micro-short dramas on Douyin every day increased by 2 times, and the number of micro-short dramas with over 100 million views reached 500, of which 12 works had over 1 billion views, and the daily views of micro-short dramas doubled.

Therefore, in this article, we are going to analyze the new form of brand marketing in the consumer industry around Douyin short dramas:

When doing short drama marketing on Douyin, are brands doing it for fame or profit?

Why are fast-moving consumer goods brands paying more and more attention to short drama marketing and are collectively optimistic about the Douyin ecosystem?

How to do short drama marketing? Are there any successful experiences that can be copied directly?

1. Short drama marketing can actually achieve brand-effect integration

1. Beauty brands are testing the waters the most, and the domineering CEO plot is never boring

Research data from Growth Black Box and Gouzheng Technology show that among the top 30 brands in the micro-short drama brand volume list in the first half of 2024 (January 1, 2024 to June 30, 2024) (the statistical method of volume is explained in the chart notes), 28 brands have cooperated with Douyin short dramas, and Douyin has an absolute advantage.

Among them, beauty brands have the largest number, indicating that beauty brands' exploration of short drama marketing is the most mature and successful. In addition, food and beverage and personal care and cleaning are also the main categories that have entered the short drama marketing.

In terms of subject matter, over 50% of the short plays are about love, whether it is urban love, campus love, workplace love, or pure sweet love. It seems that the power of film and television sugar substitutes is enduring and has played a huge role in brand marketing.

Take Pechoin, which ranks third, as an example. As an old domestic beauty brand, Pechoin has currently launched a total of three Douyin short dramas, namely "Restart My Life" (launched on February 28, 2024), "Crossing Mountains and Rivers to Love You" (launched on March 23, 2024) and "Three Presidents' Beloved Daughters" (launched on April 7, 2024).

These Douyin short dramas are about 8 episodes in size and are relatively mature short drama works. Pechoin product placements appear many times in the drama, and advertising clips of brand spokesperson Xin Zhilei are played.

We found that after the three dramas were broadcast intensively within a period of more than a month, Pechoin's sales also showed a significant improvement. The sales volume and sales revenue in March more than doubled compared to February.

It seems that the short drama brings not only exposure to the brand, but also tangible sales results.

2. More than 70% of brands saw sales growth, and 30% of brands saw sales double

Of course, Pechoin is not the only one to achieve sales results.

Therefore, Growth Black Box captured the sales data of various brands on Douyin e-commerce and found that:

Among the short dramas in the top 30 of the brand voice list, a total of 48 brands were involved (brands that sponsored multiple short dramas were counted as multiple brands). Among them, the sales of 35 brands on Douyin e-commerce increased month-on-month after the short dramas were broadcast, while the sales of 13 brands increased negatively.

Among the 35 brands with positive month-on-month growth, 15 brands achieved a month-on-month growth of more than 100%, with a significant positive impact. Among them, KFC’s sales growth rate even reached 1890% month-on-month due to the launch of new products in the same period and the marketing promotion impact brought by the short drama.

Take "Rebirth: I'm the Protagonist in a Short Drama" as an example, which ranked third in total broadcast volume in the first half of 2024. Ten of the 11 brands that sponsored the drama had positive sales growth month-on-month, and the only one whose sales fell month-on-month was Blue's cat food, but its sales still increased by 4% month-on-month.

If we look at sales volume, there are 10 brands that have achieved positive month-on-month growth, and the only one that has declined month-on-month is Mibeier, but its sales have increased significantly by 151%.

What is more worth mentioning is that the sales and sales volume of two products of Hanxuan: White Waist and Revitalizing Toner, increased month-on-month after they were featured in the short drama, which is in sharp contrast to the decline in Hanxuan’s overall sales during this period.

In recent years, Hansu brand has achieved outstanding performance in short drama marketing.

Throughout 2023, Hanshu collaborated with many female influencers to launch a total of 22 short dramas. These short dramas brought significant traffic and attention to Hanshu during key promotional periods such as "Double 11" and "6.18", and successfully attracted a large number of young consumers, especially female users in third- and fourth-tier cities.

According to The Paper, Hansu used a short drama marketing strategy in collaboration with TikTok influencers to achieve a total playback volume of 5 billion with an investment cost of less than 50 million.

Combined with the combination of "expert traffic + brand self-broadcasting", Hansu's sales on Douyin e-commerce have achieved significant growth, rapidly increasing from tens of millions of RMB to hundreds of millions, with a growth rate of more than 100%.

According to a report from Tencent, Hansu achieved explosive growth on the Douyin platform in 2023, with annual revenue reaching 3.09 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 143.8% from 2022, ranking first among domestic beauty brands.

Hansu's success is not only reflected in its sales, but also in its high repurchase rate. According to Xueqiu.com, its 30-day average repurchase rate reached 20.69%, far exceeding the industry average, ranking first on Douyin's e-commerce repurchase list.

In the first quarter of 2024, Hansu's sales on Douyin e-commerce increased by 29.87% month-on-month, far ahead of the beauty category. In addition, Hansu's GMV on Douyin e-commerce exceeded 2.499 billion yuan on May 7, 2024, continuing to rank first in the beauty category.

We have previously analyzed how Hansu achieved explosive growth through short drama marketing (click to see), and apparently, many other brands wanted to imitate this path later.

After all, which brand wouldn’t be tempted by a marketing method that combines product and effect?

2. Why have short plays become a new battlefield for brand marketing?

Although short dramas are similar to film and television dramas in form, they are closer to short videos in their spiritual core. This requires producers to have innovative thinking about short videos rather than simply copying the production model of traditional film and television dramas.

1. Although the skit is crude, its marketing value is not low

A popular view in the industry recently is: "The brand structure participating in short dramas is changing. The brand budget originally invested in long videos, as well as the effect budget for short videos, are gradually shifting to the short drama field."

Although it seems to be just a fine-tuning of brand strategy, it actually reflects the profound changes in market demand. The reason why short drama marketing has become a new favorite of brands is that the unique audience base and market trends provide brands with a new channel to communicate with consumers. As a new favorite of brand marketing, short drama has the following three significant characteristics:

Short production cycle Most short dramas take as short as one week to as long as half a month to shoot, and the entire cycle from project establishment to final launch is within 2-3 months. Compared with traditional film and television dramas, such a fast production cycle is unimaginable. The natural timeliness and flexibility of short dramas are very suitable for the fast-changing marketing needs of brands, especially for customizing content according to marketing nodes.

In traditional long-running drama marketing, brand communication often results in a situation where the popularity is good but the sales volume is not proportional. In contrast, short dramas can focus on precision marketing. Whether it is for campus students, working women, the elderly or niche hobby groups, short dramas can combine hot topics and mature themes to accurately reach specific audiences, directly achieve sales growth, and truly achieve brand-effect integration.

The interactivity and community atmosphere of short video platforms make short dramas more approachable and down-to-earth. This strong interactivity helps to narrow the distance between brands and users, and even achieve the effect of "plot driving sales". Short drama marketing has a great chance to fundamentally change the strategy and logic of brand marketing and provide new possibilities for interaction between brands and consumers. The above three characteristics determine that the marketing tools that short dramas can use are more diverse, including not only traditional methods such as naming, oral broadcast, and advertising frames commonly used in long dramas, but also innovative means such as live interaction and search advertising.

The main audience of short dramas is young people, who are highly receptive to new things and have strong purchasing power, making them an ideal target customer group for brands. Short dramas can attract the audience's attention in a short period of time and create more exposure opportunities for brands, which is undoubtedly more attractive than traditional advertising.

The younger generation’s preference for short video content and the viral spread of skits on social media allow brand messages to be delivered to target users in a novel and highly engaging way.

At the same time, by aligning the content with the brand value, the advertisement can be naturally integrated into the plot without disturbing the audience's viewing experience. The short play provides space for brands to shape a personalized image, which helps brands establish a unique brand impression in the minds of consumers.

The unique marketing value of short dramas can be summarized in one sentence: its length and format provide brands with the possibility of deeply customized content, while its production cost and cycle can flexibly fit the brand's delivery rhythm.

It’s no surprise that short dramas have become a new battlefield for brand marketing.

2. Audiences are more tolerant of advertising placement in skits

Compared with those lengthy serials, the audience is more tolerant of the commercial presentation of short dramas. This tolerance is reflected in two aspects:

First of all, most short dramas do not have pre-roll advertisements, the brand content embedded in a single episode is more concentrated, and user acceptance is relatively high.

Secondly, the short drama’s short and concise size and length give users a psychological expectation when watching it. For content of a few minutes, the insertion of advertisements is relatively easy to accept. After all, on the small screen of a mobile phone, if the progress bar is slightly pulled, it is very likely that the main film will be missed.

Therefore, it is not uncommon for multiple brands to sponsor the same short drama at the same time. Especially in some situational short dramas that do not pursue plot continuity, multiple brands can be implanted in different episodes without affecting each other.

Taking the series of IP short dramas "Life and Death Moments at School Season 3" as an example, the drama has a very strong ability to attract money in the first half of 2024. Among the 42 episodes that have been launched, 20 episodes contain brand implants. A total of 118 brands including 58.com, 999, HaiLan Home, KFC, etc. have been implanted, making it the most "money-making" micro-short drama in the first half of 2024.

The account that broadcasts the drama, Tuojiangkai, is a well-known comedy blogger with nearly 21 million followers on Douyin.

The quality of the short drama shows that its production cost is relatively low, and it is shot entirely in life-like scenes, allowing the audience to feel the intimacy that comes with it. The plot is advanced through constant plot reversals and funny lines, and the story takes place on campus and in the classroom, which naturally attracts a large number of young audiences.

Take the 10th episode, which has the highest number of likes, for example. KFC was naturally embedded in the episode through the plot of college students ordering takeout in their dormitories, without any sense of disobedience. At the same time, the homophonic pun between "Fast Fortune" and the abbreviation of KFC was used, combined with the consumption climax of the Spring Festival, which truly made the brand marketing both popular and well-received.

Tik Tok short drama: "Life and Death Moments at School Season 3", Brand: KFC

3. Three golden rules for skit marketing

Although Douyin is a big stage and short plays have made major brands eager to try, they still need to carefully consider what to put in the new bottle. For different types of products, more effective marketing strategies must be formulated in combination with their own characteristics and market demand. We found that:

• Beauty brands generally need to fully implant brand information through emotional short plays;
• Food brands focus on showing the daily usage scenarios and delicious effects of their products;

Technology brands need to use sci-fi stories to showcase the high-tech features and innovative functions of their products. For example, when Xpeng Motors released its P7 special commemorative edition Dark Knight, it cleverly implanted the model into the sixth episode of the Douyin short drama "The Mystery of Earthly Branches". The model was used as the exclusive car for the protagonist Liu Yexi when he went on missions, demonstrating the convenience and technological sense of its products.

Douyin short play: "Earthly Branches Maze", brand: Xiaopeng P7

Therefore, skit marketing must not be copied mechanically, but there are three golden rules to follow.

1. Content innovation: resonance between products and emotions

Brand content innovation in skits is the key to attracting audiences. Ad placement needs to cleverly combine brand information with emotional resonance in skits to attract audiences' attention.

Brand-customized short plays are a representative type of production, which require close cooperation with the creative team. From the conception of the script to the shaping of the characters and the arrangement of the scenes, every detail must be perfectly integrated with the brand elements.

The essence of this type of skit is to create an original story that resonates with the brand spirit, not only to convey the brand's core concept, but also to touch the heartstrings of the target audience.

The customized short drama "Dress for Growth" jointly launched by Hansu and Silver Land MCN Agency cleverly integrates Hansu's skin care products into the characters' daily lives by depicting the journey of youth growth.

The message it conveys is: On the journey of growth, Hansu is not only a companion for skin care, but also a witness to the self-growth and changes of the younger generation.

This narrative technique not only deepened the emotional connection between the brand and consumers, but also conveyed a positive attitude towards life through the character's growth story, successfully resonated with consumers, and strengthened Hansu's brand image as a force for support for personal growth and change.

Tik Tok short play: "Dress up for growth", brand: Hanshu

2. Natural integration of brand information to avoid hard advertising

The plot design of the short drama should naturally integrate brand information and avoid hard advertising to increase user acceptance.

In early 2024, Guyu launched two specially customized short dramas on the Douyin platform: "New Year's Day" and "Picking up Gold - Fang Yu Yining". "New Year's Day" combines dramatic elements such as childhood sweethearts, divorce and running away with the baby. The drama is starred by well-known actors Xu Mengjie and Li Chuan. It has 14 episodes online, with a total playback volume of more than 1 billion, and the highest number of likes for a single episode has reached 1.67 million.

Guyu products naturally appear in the play as small props for the emotional development of the male and female protagonists. Such placement not only increases the brand's exposure, but also improves the user's sense of participation and brand awareness through the in-depth combination of the plot and the product.

Douyin short play: "New Year's Day", brand: Guyu

3. Enhance user stickiness, and the serialized format is more attractive

The continuity of short dramas can effectively enhance user stickiness. The Douyin short drama "Double A Couple is Beautiful and Cool" created by Marubi tells the story of how the double A couple, composed of the daughter of Marubi Group and a mysterious rich man, support each other in adversity and fight against the enemy together.

Douyin short drama: "Double A couple is beautiful and cool", brand: Marumi

In the play, "Marumi Four Antibodies 2.0" becomes the key to the heroine's comeback. Her competitor stole her product formula, and the comparison of the effects of the two products becomes the key point of the entire short play.

Whether it is a close-up of the product in front of the camera or a conversation between characters about the product's effects, the brand information is cleverly integrated into the story, allowing the audience to have a deeper understanding of the Marubi brand while enjoying the plot.

The continuity of the plot attracts the audience to look forward to the development of the plot, while also keeping their attention on the brand. This serialized short drama marketing strategy not only increases user stickiness, but also creates more contact opportunities for the brand.

IV. Conclusion

In the past two years, we have witnessed how short drama marketing has become the new favorite of brand communication with its unique narrative charm and high communication efficiency.

It not only shortens the distance between brands and consumers, but also builds an invisible bridge of emotional resonance. Short plays not only enrich our cultural life, but also expand the boundaries of brand marketing.

With the popularity of short dramas and intensified competition, brands entering the short drama marketing will still face many challenges and tests in the future.

• Standardized management: Brands need to comply with relevant laws and regulations to ensure the compliance of skit content and brand placement, which is also the primary guarantee for the healthy development of the industry.
• Content refinement: The quality of short drama content directly affects the marketing effect. Brands need to pay more attention to the creativity and production quality of the content. Fine content can not only improve user stickiness, but also enhance the dissemination effect of brand information.
• Technological innovation: In the future, technologies such as AI and VR will inevitably make short drama production more popular. Brands can use technological innovation to enhance appeal and interactivity and enhance user experience.

In this era of information explosion, short drama marketing has opened a window for us in its own unique way, through which we can see the infinite possibilities of combining brand and content.

Against the backdrop of the gradual disappearance of traffic dividends and increasing marketing costs, short drama marketing has provided brands with new opportunities as well as new challenges.