The Rose-like Growth Revelation is becoming a new narrative for brands and audiences to walk on the flowery road together

Why has the Rose-like Growth Revelation become a new narrative? This article uses a popular drama "The Story of the Rose" to help you understand the reasons.

When actor Lin Gengxin stayed up late at night and argued passionately with netizens who cursed his character, CCTV Culture and Tourism had already posted a mixed-cut video of his Beijing trip, responding to Lin Gengxin's classic quarrel lines in the drama. "Who is in Beijing?" was even turned into a popular transition material by netizens on Douyin.

On Xiaohongshu, the topic "Mother-in-law is the real-life version of Huang Yimei" topped the Xiaohongshu hot list with over 11 million views. It has been a long time since such a grand occasion. The hot topics discussed on various content platforms all come from the recent hit drama "The Story of Rose". This story that resonates with the audience is stimulating everyone's desire to express themselves outside the drama.

1. Every flower path has common experiences and reflections

Since the show premiered, social media platforms have been bombarded with hot discussions about "Rose's Story", with topics such as marriage, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and workplace becoming hot searches on Weibo. Unlike hot searches related to the plot alone, the discussion area not only shows viewers defending Huang Yimei, but also reflecting their own experiences.

Xiaoyao, a post-90s audience member, told Hedgehog Commune, "I think I see in her what I want to be, but I may not be able to be now."

"The Story of Rose" is adapted from Yi Shu's novel of the same name published in 1981. The charm of classic IP lies in the fact that the same proposition and similar dilemma will always cross the ages and happen to different people. From novel IP to film and television drama, in this dialogue spanning 43 years, more and more girls are willing to say bravely like Huang Yimei: "I completely and absolutely host myself."

Good content that resonates with the audience will eventually "take the flower path" in early summer.

In terms of playback data, "Rose Story" topped the Cool Cloud list with a single-day full-terminal playback volume of over 100 million and a playback share of over 33%. At the same time, "Rose Story" became Douyin's 2024 hit series. As of the end of the membership period, the popularity value of the Douyin TV series list once reached 1.28 billion, exceeding the total popularity value of the series ranked 2-9, breaking the highest record in the history of the series.

2. Choose the right hit drama to create the most suitable soil for the brand's "flower road"

Advertisers have a very keen sense of smell. Wherever users' attention is, that's where their brand placement will appear.

According to statistics from the Douban "Carrot Go Away" group, including the title sponsor Jindian, there were as many as 10 online ads in the first episode of "Rose Story". As of June 23, "Rose Story" has received advertising from 44 brands, with a total of 308 ads, ranking first on all platforms in 2022-2024. Among them, the title sponsor Jindian was even joked by the audience: "All four men will leave, only Jindian will accompany you to the end."

As a high-end white milk brand under Yili, Jindian’s sponsorship of the TV series is worthy of attention.

From a strategic perspective, the continuity and narrative ability of film and television dramas can achieve the dual goals of reaching consumers frequently and completing brand narratives. For fast-moving consumer goods with high repurchase rates, it is an important means to continuously increase presence and favorability.

The reason why Jindian’s sponsorship of "The Story of Rose" became a leader in the drama marketing market in the first half of the year is due to its prediction of a "hit drama".

The first is the basic element of "explosion" at the hardware level, which tests the first-level strength of the platform. "The Story of Rose" has been favored by many industry insiders during the shooting and production period. The adaptation of classic IP, the blessing of a reliable team, and topics close to real life make the quality of the drama itself stable and controllable.

Secondly, it is the long-term creation of "explosive dramas". The top-level production and resource investment of the leading platforms provide another guarantee for "explosive dramas". This is the second level of capability of the platform, which also allows the brands and platforms to screen big dramas to form a positive cycle of mutual trust.

The above are all standard formulas. Today, as the audience's self-awareness is fully awakened, new requirements have been put forward for "hit dramas", namely whether they can trigger collective empathy. The platform's humanistic consciousness and content thinking will be thoroughly tested at this step. The level of understanding of the times, people and content will also determine the depth of integration of the cooperating brands.

Different hit dramas have different core values ​​and different foundations for brand narratives. "The Story of Rose" and Jindian are absolutely two-way fusions. When Huang Yimei said "I completely and absolutely preside over myself", she actually outlined the greatest common divisor of everyone's imagined rose life on behalf of the audience. This is a poke of collective emotions. Therefore, even the hot searches are not just discussions about the plot, but more like the audience's self-story substitution. This ideology that infinitely amplifies the sovereignty of "self" also allows Jindian's brand spirit of "organic life, defined by me" to be concretely displayed.

As Huang Yimei's personality traits became more and more full in each story, Jindian also completed the brand narrative through the plot, creating this flowery road that can arouse the empathy of countless "Huang Yimei".

3. Brand attitude is integrated into the expression of watching dramas, and brand flower road becomes the entrance of audience empathy

In an era of increasingly competitive marketing, the brand's empathy is determining the upper limit of marketing. Exposure and exposure are only basic items. This visual benefit presentation is only an operation from the brand's perspective. Therefore, becoming an "audience" first will be the key to truly widening the gap in terms of effect after the brand selects a hit drama. Only when the brand empathizes with the audience first can it know how to transfer the user's resonance with good content to the brand.

Jindian's empathy in "The Story of Rose" covers all aspects of the plot content, viewing experience, and off-site interaction. Finding the emotional intersection between the core of the story, brand concept and audience needs is an important strategy to ensure that it stimulates collective emotions.

1. Cleverly integrate the growth narrative: Rose

The golden quotes in growth-oriented dramas often have a higher impact and spread rate because they can enlighten the audience. When the audience resonates with the golden quotes in the drama, they will have a need to record them. There are even a lot of graphic and text content on Xiaohongshu that specifically records Huang Yimei's golden quotes.

Jindian's "Rose Motto" anticipated this demand and transformed the brand TVC at the beginning of the film, which seemed to be only beneficial to the brand, into a more valuable content for the audience. The appeal is self-evident. A Weibo user shared: "I am always broken by Jindian's rose motto at the beginning."

In Rose Proverbs, the audience will first see Huang Yimei's golden words, and after having emotional identification, they will see the Golden Classic brand TVC performed by Liu Yifei. With the same main character and smooth transition of value concepts, Golden Classic amplifies the altruism of advertising by putting itself in the shoes of the audience to think about the content value they need, and while maintaining the immersive feeling of watching the drama, it strengthens the audience's resonance with the brand concept.

2. The interaction between condensed imagery and expression of chasing dramas: Flower Road Barrage

Interaction is often the best practice for connecting with users' emotions. In addition to using golden sentences to connect with each other and achieve empathy, Jindian has also developed new imagery for barrages. At every highlight moment of the plot, the barrage in "The Story of Roses" will turn horizontally into a rose, that is, the barrage of "Jindian accompanies the rose on the flower path", and the audience's barrage content together forms the branches and leaves of the rose.

Barrage has always been a free gathering place for the audience's will. It also expresses the audience's pursuit of dramas by typing. The flower road barrage is undoubtedly the next level. From words to image symbols, it condenses the highlights of the characters and the strong emotions of countless audiences. By borrowing the classics to walk out of this collective flower road, the brand has become an indispensable core role, blooming with the audience.

3. The highest expression of empathy: empathy within the play and choice outside the play

In the marketing of big dramas, what is the ultimate empathy? And how can brands maximize the subjective initiative of audience empathy?

When people are generally discussing how charming Huang Yimei's subjectivity is in "The Story of Rose", Hedgehog Commune believes that Jindian noticed this before the show was broadcast, because it was extremely bold to let everyone face life choices together with the protagonist, extending this subjectivity to the audience.

The topics in "The Story of Rose" appear in the lower right corner through the classic "Rose's Choice". The marketing product becomes a container for the audience's emotions, providing an outlet for the audience to express their opinions and emotions. Is this an effective mobilization of collective emotions? The data of over 41 million interactions has given the answer.

For example, facing the four men who appeared in Huang Yimei's life, "Rose's Marriage" created the emotional point of "helping Rose choose a man". The choice is not only performed in the play, every audience has the right to choose. By placing the audience's subjectivity in a high position through voting interaction, it can maximize the enthusiasm for participation and improve the communication effect.

Only by selecting the right content, strengthening resonance, and taking on emotions can brands take advantage of the hit drama, and the key is to transform marketing into a "two-way" campaign through the mindset of pampering fans, such as Jindian's use of the "co-creation" gameplay. In the drama, Jindian invites the audience to "co-create roses", and the audience can draw roses blooming at the same frequency as Huang Yimei; outside the drama, Jindian invites fans to co-create new packaging and deeply participate in the linkage and co-creation of the drama and the brand.

In addition, the official Jindian mini program also launched an activity to plant roses and win limited edition derivatives, further binding the brand with the story IP, improving the conversion effect from drama fans to brand users, and allowing "The Story of Roses" to enter the audience's life in the form of "things", allowing every audience to walk into Jindian's flower road and maximize the IP potential.

As a content carrier that wins with its narrative attributes, TV series must be an "emotional" game for brands. Compared with predicting a hit drama only through hard conditions, the current audience's strong demand for emotional resonance determines that brands must also know how to walk a flowery path that comes with their own spiritual power.

The soil foundation of this flower road is the hit drama, the skeleton is built by the brand, but the flesh and blood need to be filled in by the audience. How to make the audience willing to walk the brand flower road together depends on how the brand and the platform build a value system together, and through the full-link marketing layout, turn the popularity and influence of the drama into the use of the brand.

Yili, which sponsored a TV series for the first time in 2024, used the cooperation case of Jindian and "The Story of Rose" to create a unique model of total championship marketing. Starting with the core value of the drama to amplify the brand concept, and ending with paying attention to the audience's expression of chasing the drama to activate strong emotions, through the full-link marketing layout, more innovative interactions and more comprehensive leverage on the basis of value convergence were achieved. The online topics, national attitudes, and global popularity created by "The Story of Rose" have all become the cornerstones of Jindian's brand potential, achieving a more immersive and long-lasting empathy effect.

Only empathy can trigger sincere empathy. From the drama to the brand to the audience, although the three parties have different interests, their values ​​are highly consistent.

Jindian's attitude marketing, paved with flowers, is itself very similar to "The Story of Rose" which was released at the same time under a brand narrative. From brand exposure to spiritual touch, it leads a new paradigm of attitude marketing in Tencent's entire domain, and embarks on a splendid journey with the characters and the audience.

Author: Liu Nan; Editor: Director

WeChat public account: Hedgehog Commune (ID: ciweigongshe)