Meituan is filming a "cool drama": free of charge, just for advertising?

When Meituan was no longer satisfied with connecting consumers with local life services, it began to use short dramas to tell brand stories and explore new marketing horizons. This article will take you to explore how Meituan combines short dramas with local life services to open up new marketing paths, and explore whether short dramas will become a new standard for brand marketing of Internet giants.

Meituan has entered the market to shoot short dramas?

Recently, Meituan's self-made short play "I Changed My Fate in My Diary" was launched on multiple platforms, and comedian Tian Fang was invited to play the leading role. This short play adopts the routine of "cool drama", but its purpose is to advertise.

From opening an independent entry for short dramas on the APP to now entering the field of short dramas, why does Meituan favor short dramas so much? And what new variables will short dramas bring to the local life track? Will they become a standard feature of brand marketing for Internet giants?

01 Meituan secretly shoots short drama

"Welcome the young master back to inherit the family business."

"Did what I wrote last night come true?"

On August 7, Meituan's hilarious short play "I Changed My Fate in My Diary" was launched on Meituan App, Video Account, Douyin and other platforms. The short play has a total of 5 episodes and has now been completed.

"I Change My Fate in My Diary" is a combination of urban, counterattack and emotion. The short play invited comedian Tian Fang to play the leading role. It tells the story of Tian Fang, a security guard who has a magical diary. As long as he writes his wishes on it, they will come true, but he needs to pay a price.

For example, he wished to become the chairman of Longcheng Group, but the price was that the group was on the verge of bankruptcy; he wished to marry the heroine, but the price was that the heroine suffered from a terminal illness; he wished that the heroine would recover, but the price was that she would lose her memory...

The unexpected and exciting plot twist is undoubtedly the biggest highlight of this short drama.

The beginning of the story follows the classic formula of many short plays oriented toward men: the protagonist loses his love, suffers humiliation, and then ushers in the famous face-slapping scene of "Welcome home, young master", which is extremely satisfying.

I thought the protagonist of this short drama would start a happy life from then on, but in fact, Wang Tianfang, as the president, is not as good at speaking as his secretary. He always listens to the secretary's arrangements and suggestions, and even calls the secretary "Secretary Brother", which gives a bit of a "Young Master and Me" feeling.

The audience was greeted with exciting twists and turns time and time again, and the actual direction of the plot was beyond the audience's expectations.

The act of diary writing throughout the entire skit also reminded many viewers of a line from the movie "Evil Never Dies": "Who would write a diary if they were a serious person?"

"I Changed My Fate in My Diary" is doubled in funniness with the popular line "Who writes a diary?", which becomes another laugh point besides the plot of the skit.

The wonderful plot, coupled with the blessing of Wang Tianfang, who participated in the "Annual Drama Competition", as the leading actor, many viewers said in the comment section of Meituan's official account: "It's not good enough, Meituan should continue to shoot."

02 Meituan’s short drama, for advertising?

"I Changed My Fate in My Diary" is full of the flavor of mini-program short dramas, but it is actually a brand-customized short drama for Meituan, which aims to implant advertisements for Meituan's magic coupons.

From the first episode, the implantation of Meituan's magic coupons was everywhere. "Use Meituan's magic coupons to save more", "Click to expand and you can save more", "Meituan's magic coupons can be expanded up to 100 yuan" and other information were deeply implanted into the plot and promoted the development of the plot.

In the third episode, the male protagonist Tian Fang asked the waiter if he could use the Meituan coupons when ordering food, and then used exaggerated acting skills to show how to save money with the coupons, which impressed the female protagonist. Although the plot is a bit awkward, the advertisement is indeed well-placed.

Xinbochang discovered that this is not the first time that Meituan has used short dramas for advertising.

Among them, Meituan’s monthly series of short dramas, “The Divine Coupon Empire”, uses Meituan’s Divine Coupon Festival on the 18th of each month as a selling point, and invites well-known leading actors from major short dramas to play various types of presidents and perform wonderful plots, thoroughly implanting the selling point that Meituan’s Divine Coupon Festival is “saving” enough, thereby establishing a connection in the minds of consumers.

Meituan also adopted the form of "short drama + live broadcast", using short video pilots to attract traffic for the short drama "The Divine Coupon Empire". After the main film was officially broadcast, the leading actors were invited to the Meituan live broadcast room. In this way, the distance between the platform and users was further narrowed, and the transformation from short dramas to local life products was realized.

Since last year, Meituan is not the only platform that has taken a liking to short dramas. In March this year, Xianyu launched the short drama "Mrs. Fu's Full-Time Cheating", which was adapted from the real story of Xianyu users and also embedded in the platform's various business functions.

Short dramas have become the "new trend" in brand marketing.

In fact, before making its own short dramas and advertising its own businesses, Meituan had already tried the sweetness of short drama marketing.

In August 2023, Meituan sponsored the Kuaishou Starry Short Drama "The Character of Wife", which has been played 490 million times on the Kuaishou platform and is still a popular drama on Kuaishou Starry Short Drama. In addition, the drama also carries a link to Meituan's group purchase products. The audience can grab Meituan's group purchase packages by simply clicking on the small card.

There are hard advertising, and naturally there are also soft advertising.

Meituan has also launched a series of micro-films called "Light Chasers", which mainly tell the stories behind Meituan's merchants; there are also short dramas telling the stories of food delivery riders, which are based on real stories and deeply moved many audiences.

03 New exploration of “short drama + local life”

Today's local life track is in full swing.

Douyin focuses on local life, Video Account’s local life business has launched new policies, and Xiaohongshu is also developing local life services... These have become new challenges for Meituan, the big brother of local life.

Industry observer H said that with the rise of these content platforms, Meituan’s core business - local life services are being eroded step by step, and the content-side platforms are also pressing forward step by step, not missing any growth opportunities and accelerating transformation.

Meituan and content platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu and Video Account will eventually compete in the local life business. Among them, according to media reports, Douyin Life Service's sales before write-offs in the first quarter of 2024 exceeded 100 billion yuan, making it Meituan's strongest opponent.

In order to cope with this war without gunpowder, Meituan has been constantly changing its leaders and adjusting its organizational structure to cope with changing market trends and user needs.

Short dramas have become another new variable that Meituan has seized.

Meituan has long set its sights on the tempting pie of short dramas.

In March this year, Meituan chose to embed short dramas in the app, and then opened a separate entrance called "Theater" for short dramas in the short video channel, presenting content in the form of a single feed that can be slid up and down. It has now been renamed "Short Dramas". With the resources of popular dramas in hand, Meituan has officially been involved in the fierce competition in the short drama market.

However, now Meituan seems no longer satisfied with increasing consumption time and retaining users through short drama content, but also sees the marketing value of short dramas.

First of all, the most direct advantage of short dramas is that they grab traffic. At present, all short dramas on Meituan are free, aiming to attract users and increase usage time.

Secondly, in terms of short drama marketing, Meituan’s core business is mainly life services such as catering, hotels, and travel. These scenes that are closely related to life have more points that can be combined with short dramas.

The characteristics of short dramas are "short, flat and fast" and "addictive". After the advertising information reaches the user level, before the user orders food or books a hotel, the previous related advertising placement will invisibly influence the customer's consumption decision.

However, from the current perspective, the integration of short plays and local life is still in the stage of crossing the river by feeling the stones. How to dig out more highlights, achieve conversion, and achieve the connection between volume and sales may be the problem that needs to be explored.