Short drama marketing, embarrassing situation

Short drama marketing has become one of the important ways of brand marketing today. Short dramas are combined with e-commerce conversion and further packaged as "content e-commerce". However, this is not just a track that will pay off as long as you invest, but a track that tests the vision and ability of e-commerce platforms, brands, and producers. Whether it is the ceiling of marketing remains to be tested. Recommended for Internet friends to read.

When the road to re-creating the paid myth of short dramas was blocked, the current short drama traffic story has perfectly transformed into a cash cow for various platforms to earn brand marketing fees. On the one hand, short video platforms continue to shout about the progress of short dramas to become high-quality, highlighting the content and scene value of short dramas. On the other hand, short dramas are combined with e-commerce conversions and further packaged into a better image of "content e-commerce" and pushed to brands.

In this 618 battle, the appearance rate of short drama marketing was extremely strong, and the attention paid by various platforms even exceeded the attention paid to big anchors.

First, the e-commerce platforms have joined forces. From June 5 to June 15, Kuaishou Xingmang Short Drama launched 22 high-quality short dramas exclusively sponsored by Tmall, with a total exposure of 400 million by the end of 618. This is the first time that Tmall and Xingmang Short Drama have launched a talent matrix brand cooperation short drama in the cooperation project, covering themes such as youth inspiration, family empathy, urban workplace, and traditional Chinese style.

Secondly, the big anchors are also busy. Xiao Yangge has invested in many short dramas, and many of his talents have starred in them. Simba's Xinxuan and Oshiman cooperated in the customized drama "She is Like a Pearl", and the heroine Xu Jie is the anchor signed by Xinxuan to bring goods. Oshiman's products can be seen everywhere in the drama. The drama has been launched on Kuaishou for four episodes; Qianxun, who is behind Wei Ya, also fired the first shot in entering the short drama market, combining the two forms of live broadcast and short drama, and launched "37 Days of Exclusive Love of Mr. Feng"...

Yiyuguancha once explained in the article "This time on 618, short dramas take over from "Li Jiaqi"": "This year, many brands have taken the initiative to contact us to launch customized short dramas, with Douyin, Kuaishou and Taobao being given priority, and they can directly link to 618 product links." To a certain extent, this shows that short drama marketing has successfully entered the market recognition system.

However, behind the rapid progress, how much strength did the short drama marketing show this 618? The result may not be satisfactory.

Although there were sufficient ammunition, there were no cases of short drama marketing that went viral on the entire network during the 618 shopping festival this year . Even Hanshu, the "pioneer" of short drama marketing, had 230 million views on Douyin for the short drama "Let Love Surrender" co-produced with Jiang Shiqi during the 618 shopping festival. The views of their previous co-produced short dramas "You Will Be Famous" and "Heartbeat for More Than a Moment" were mostly over 1 billion, and the gap between the two was obvious.

Tik Tok screenshot

After the 618 shopping festival came to an end, it is time for brands to calm down. When short drama marketing becomes a true or false proposition to be discussed within the brand circle, is it more confident to have N short dramas, or is it more valuable to chase the false fire after the trend?

1. Brand-customized skits, Douyin, Kuaishou and Taobao each have their own tricks

"Occupy the spot first, answer the questions later" is the attitude of most brands towards short drama marketing nowadays.

According to an incomplete compilation by the Short Drama Study Room, several major e-commerce platforms, including Douyin, Kuaishou, Taobao, and JD.com, launched multiple short dramas during the 618 promotion period, covering multiple categories such as maternal and child care, 3C digital, medicine, e-commerce platforms, and fashion. The marketing of short dramas has already had the overwhelming publicity of e-commerce live broadcasts back then.

On the one hand, there is brand customization and differences in the forms of various platforms.

In terms of form, Taobao and Douyin both use themselves as intermediaries to connect skits with brands and reach cooperation. When users watch skits and click on product links, they will automatically jump to the Taobao or Douyin store corresponding to the brand. Kuaishou has tapped into the needs of e-commerce platforms. During the 618 period, it launched customized skits exclusively sponsored by e-commerce platforms such as Tmall, JD.com, and Vipshop. When users click on product links, they will jump to the e-commerce platform instead of the brand store.

Kuaishou screenshot

The reason is that Douyin and Taobao have already strengthened their brand attributes, while Kuaishou's white-label products still occupy the high ground, and users' brand awareness still needs to be cultivated.

Although it is a wedding dress for other "e-commerce rivals", Kuaishou's users have the habit of watching short dramas, which is enough for Kuaishou to earn a lot of "advertising fees". Data shows that in 2023, the number of daily active users of Kuaishou short dramas reached 270 million, and the number of heavy users who watched more than 10 episodes of short dramas every day reached 94 million, a year-on-year increase of 52.6%.

On the other hand, the forms are different, and the content types of 618 short dramas are also advancing with the times.

The most common one is the old routine of "the domineering president falls in love with me", such as "Let Love Surrender" produced by Jiang Shiqi in collaboration with Hansu, which tells the story of living with a domineering president, and mainly promotes many Hansu products such as Hongmanyao and Little Blue Bottle.

Some short plays have the blessing of celebrities. "Love as a Blade", the main force of "Taobao exclusive short play", has joined well-known actors Li Caihua, Gao Junxian, and Weng Hong. The leading actors in the play have worn clothing from the cooperating brands many times to attend various evening parties and activities.

Some short plays have incorporated the hottest AI elements at the moment. For example, Kuaishou and JD.com jointly created the customized commercial short play "Reborn as an Agent in the AI ​​World", which is supported by AI technology and AIGC applications. The protagonist will use advanced AI equipment to solve various difficult problems encountered in the mission. JD.com's AI Equipment Museum has become a key element in the advancement of the plot.

Kuaishou screenshot

Compared with using new actors to shoot short dramas from scratch, brands have begun to seek cooperation with MCNs and drama experts who have accumulated a certain amount of fame and fans. For example, Kuaishou has cooperated with four leading professional production teams, including Gumai Jiahe, Kuaiyu, Shenlang, and OST, and with their own talents such as Mo Xi-, Jie Yi Jia Dao, and It Turns Out to Be Brother. Such drama experts often have accumulated a group of firm fans, and it is easier for people to accept them to shoot brand-customized short dramas.

Of course, it’s not just Douyin, Kuaishou and Taobao that are enjoying short drama marketing, some brands have also taken to the market themselves.

The younger generation of brand successors also joined in the fun of the skits. Shi Zhancheng, the third generation of the Jieliya Group, starred in the self-portrait series of skits "The Towel Empire Theater Edition" to promote the brand story of his love-hate relationship with his second uncle, the president. Currently, the Douyin account "Towel Master" has 970,000 followers, and the skits have been played more than 100 million times. Jieliya's preparations for 618 this year also revolved around the uncle and nephew "Towel Master", and launched the "Short Drama + Live Broadcast Debut" on Douyin, with a single GMV of over 5 million and a total number of viewers exceeding 1.5 million.

Tik Tok screenshot

This also provides a new idea: instead of spending money to implant brands in short dramas, it is better to create the company's own IP.

2. Neither good nor popular?

Although all kinds of performance techniques are used, the ultimate goal of short drama marketing is still exposure and sales. However, at this point, it is difficult to replicate the surprise of the first time.

The first thing is to look at the exposure.

According to the short drama study room, in 2023, Jiang Shiqi released a total of 7 customized short dramas throughout the year, of which 4 had over 1 billion views; halfway through 2024, Jiang Shiqi has released 11 customized short dramas, with the highest number of views being 680 million. During the 618 period this year, Jiang Shiqi once again joined hands with Hanshu, but only launched one "Let Love Be Captured", which was only played 230 million times, a significant gap compared to the 950 million views of the four Hanshu customized short dramas last year.

Number of views of Jiang Shiqi's customized short dramas (data as of June 13, 2024)

Even so, "Let Love Surrender" can still be regarded as the brand-customized short drama with the highest number of views during the 618 period. The number of views of some other "unpopular" short dramas such as "I'm Not the President's Wife" and "Wake Up, Sister Screenwriter" did not even exceed 1 million.

In this regard, even the top anchors have felt a similar "cooling down", and their attempts to enter the short drama marketing market have also failed. Although the first short drama "Master Fu, Your Substitute Bride is a Boss" of the MCN Three Sheep Network, where Crazy Xiao Yangge works, has been played more than 90 million times, the popularity of the drama displayed on third parties is poor, and it has not even entered the Top 20 daily list. Recently, the drama has been removed from the Three Sheep Theater.

The second is word-of-mouth feedback and content highlights.

As brands are eager to enter the short drama market during the 618 shopping festival, a variety of problems have frequently occurred, such as short production cycles, short script polishing time, and a focus on sales rather than content. This has also led to the excessively frequent placement of advertisements in brand short dramas, which has also caused the audience to be disgusted. Many characters in the short dramas even directly read advertisements to the audience in the drama, and the sense of drama is similar to the ubiquitous placement of advertisements in "The Truman Show".

Some netizens said, "The plot is not developed much, and there are advertisements one after another, which is like looking for a story in the advertisements." In the comment section of many customized short dramas, the most complained about is the problem of "dense advertisements".

Simba's anchor Xu Jie cooperated with OSM to customize the short play "She is as Bright as a Pearl". In the play, the heroine picked up the "OSM Anxin Moisture Compress" on the eve of a big case negotiation. The implantation of the series also continued the strong gene of live streaming. At present, the play has accumulated tens of millions of views on Kuaishou. Although many viewers praised Xu Jie's acting skills in the comment area, few comments indicated that they had placed orders for related products, and the specific sales volume is unknown.

Kuaishou screenshot

Ultimately, it comes down to sales conversion.

Take the cooperation between Jiang Shiqi and Hanshu as an example. Last year, the customized short play "Heartbeat More Than a Moment" added Douyin's small yellow car link sales reached 2.5 million to 5 million yuan, with sales of 5,000 to 7,000. In this year's customized short play "Let Love Be Captured", the sales of the small yellow car link for the same single video were 1 million to 2.5 million yuan, with sales of 2,500 to 5,000, which was nearly half of last year. This situation also appeared in other customized short plays by experts. The embarrassing situation of neither good nor popular has been reflected in the marketing of brand short plays.

3. It is difficult for a domineering president to use the "golden finger"

"If someone offers you a spot on a rocket, take it, no matter how good it is."

In the early days of the Internet's wild growth, this sentence was often used as a metaphor for the opportunity that should not be missed. However, as the Internet's growth dividend approaches its ceiling, no one can guarantee that they are riding on a rocket ready to take off.

According to incomplete statistics, "custom short plays" projects account for more than 70% of all brand short plays in 2023. Behind this, brands often invest hundreds of thousands of budgets.

Compared with instant transactions in the live broadcast room, whether a short drama can lead to conversion transactions still depends on multiple links such as script preparation, content shooting, and exposure. It is not that you can directly see the rolling GMV numbers by shouting "321 start buying" in the live broadcast room.

A short drama practitioner once said that the cost of investing in short dramas is constantly rising, but the effect is difficult to guarantee.

At present, the average ROI of the short drama industry barely maintains around 1.1. This is not a sufficiently attractive number, and the high investment and consumption makes short drama a financial leverage game.

Yiyuguancha also stated in the article "Short dramas are going brand-customized, how many "Hanshu" can be created?" that brand-customized short dramas will conduct information data analysis in advance based on the characteristics of the target audience's age, gender, hobbies, shopping habits, etc., to produce content that better suits the tastes and needs of the target audience. The production cycle of short dramas is short, and the production team can timely optimize the plot based on user viewing, comments, likes and other data, so that subsequent works can better match the audience.

However, this also caused another potential crisis in the customized production of short dramas to erupt ahead of time, that is, most brands face the same customer base, and the content they want will also be "same", which makes it difficult to avoid the serious homogeneity of customized short dramas.

In this internal competition, it is difficult for the "heroine of a cool novel" or the "domineering president" to "use the golden finger" at will.

Image source: NetEase Data Reading

From the consumer's perspective, few people really watch short dramas with the intention of buying things. The same old plots may not necessarily effectively establish brand awareness, let alone truly immersive brand concepts and scene experiences like long dramas. And if there is no storyline that can stimulate a sense of excitement, it is far less crude and direct than buying things in a live broadcast room.

Brands invest in short drama marketing not because they believe that short dramas can be effective in building brand awareness. The fast pace and exaggerated content of short dramas naturally make it difficult to complete the scene guidance required by the brand, not to mention how to form a long-term emotional connection with users. Therefore, the two most core assessment points of short drama marketing are traffic data and driving conversion efficiency. These two points are undoubtedly where the platform needs to do everything possible to tell a better story and build a more direct mechanism.

The smoke of this year's 618 has gradually dissipated, but for brands, it is a short drama marketing training ground worthy of special attention and reference. This is not just a track where investment will pay off, but a competition that tests the vision and ability of e-commerce platforms, brands, and producers. The overall market share and industry ceiling still need to be continuously verified.

Author: Thick Code

Source: WeChat official account: "Yiyuguancha (ID: yiyuguancha)"