Can a professional team really capture the users of short dramas?

With the participation of professional teams, how will the short drama market develop? This article will explore how they affect content creation and audience acceptance. It is recommended to readers who are interested in the trends of the film and television industry, hoping to provide you with valuable industry insights.

From "too rustic, give me more" to "so exquisite, is this still a short play?", many viewers have found that the content of short plays is moving towards high-quality production.

In 2023, short dramas rushed into the mainstream market at a very fast speed and created a number of data myths. From the short drama "Wushuang" to "Oh! The Queen Comes to Work", one after another hit short dramas helped the short drama track become increasingly popular. According to a research report released by iMedia Consulting, the scale of China's online micro-short drama market in 2023 was 37.39 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 268%.

With the increase in popular short dramas, more and more professional film and television companies are entering the short drama market, which not only accelerates competition but also forces the content of short dramas to gradually develop into high-quality ones.

However, not all professional teams can achieve good results in the short drama market. The particularity of short drama content determines that its production cycle and script style are very different from traditional content.

Today, when professional teams come to perform short plays, is it a "dimensionality reduction attack" or "not adapting to the local environment"? In the long run, are free short plays the general trend?

1. Professional team joins the game

High-end clothing, millions of dollars in investment, well-known IP, entry of professional film and television teams... the short drama industry is quietly upgrading in terms of production and plot.

As early as 2023, Douyin launched the boutique short drama "Twenty-Nine", starring actress Yang Rong, produced by Lemon Film and Television's subsidiary. It currently has a Douban score of 7.2 and a cumulative playback volume of 830 million. It is understood that the paid income of the "Twenty-Nine" series on the C-end has reached 10 million yuan, and it is a boutique short drama with excellent reputation and ratings.

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The success of "Twenty-Nine" has undoubtedly set a good start for celebrities to appear in short plays. This year, more well-known directors and celebrities have appeared in short plays. It is understood that the first short play co-produced by Douyin and Stephen Chow will be launched in May this year; Wang Jing brought a professional Hong Kong crew to Hengdian to shoot "The Billionaire Silly Prince"; actor Xu Mengjie participated in this year's Spring Festival short play "Big New Year"...

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The entry of stars has given short dramas a golden signboard, which also indicates that the requirements for actors in the short drama industry are rising. The popular "I Was a Stepmother in the 1980s" (abbreviated as "80s Stepmother") at the beginning of this year, the male and female protagonists both look like stars, which has brought a lot of discussion to "80s Stepmother". Due to the outstanding looks of the male and female protagonists, online acting skills, and a good plot, "80s Stepmother" has become a popular short drama during the Spring Festival, with a recharge of over 20 million on the first day of its launch.

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In addition to the higher requirements for actors, the production team of short dramas is also developing towards high-quality production. The participation of professional institutions has improved the production level of short dramas. It is understood that film and television companies such as Huace Film and Television and Wanda Pictures are entering the short drama market. Among them, Huace Film and Television entered the short drama field in June 2023 and established two major businesses: script development and marketing distribution. Currently, 5 short drama projects have been completed.

Image source: TikTok

In the context of the hot track, the platforms are not satisfied with just earning investment fees and advertising fees, and have invested in the development of high-quality short dramas. In January this year, Douyin launched the "Chenxing Plan" for high-quality micro-short dramas, proposing two major cooperation models: joint production and joint operation. <> In early February, Tencent Weishi, QQ Short Video, and Tencent Content Open Platform launched a recruitment and support plan for high-quality short drama content creators to create high-quality short dramas.

Kuaishou launched the Star Short Drama to create high-quality short dramas. Among them, the 2023 short drama "Donglan Snow" stood out for its pictures full of oriental aesthetics. The high-quality costumes, props and shots made it score 7.5 on Douban.

Image source: Kuaishou

In addition, Taobao launched the customized short drama "Amazing Stories" on Double 11 last year; on February 1, Alipay launched the three-episode short drama "Shark Beer"; on March 6, Xianyu launched the self-made short drama "Mrs. Fu Cheats All the Time"... No platform wants to miss out on the "hot commodity" of short dramas.

At the same time, as the production of short plays becomes more refined, the short plays themselves are also expected to carry more content.

At the beginning of 2024, the State Administration of Radio and Television launched the "Travel with Micro-Short Dramas" plan, proposing to create and broadcast 100 "Travel with Micro-Short Dramas" short dramas to help cultural and tourism areas go viral and create a local check-in atmosphere.

Among the short dramas during the Spring Festival, "My Way Home is Windy" was directed by the Beijing Municipal Radio and Television Bureau and landed on Douyin's Spring Festival schedule on February 16. This short drama is a derivative short drama of the popular TV series "Go Where the Wind Is", telling the story of a white-collar worker who returned to his hometown and explored himself. The number of views on the site has exceeded 100 million, and the highest number of views for a single episode is nearly 20 million.

The idea of ​​"refining" short dramas is essentially an upgrade of the existing market, and the entry of professional film and television teams, platforms, MCNs, and radio and television bureaus will undoubtedly make this track develop towards specialization and refinement.

2. What exactly captures the audience’s attention?

To explore this issue, we have to return to the question of "why short plays are so attractive to audiences."

Benefiting from years of short videos cultivating users' habits, people of different ages and demographics have now joined the ranks of users who consume short dramas.

The potential released by the current short drama industry, just like the free online literature model back then, benefits from users from different groups and age groups.

From the content point of view, during the period of rapid growth of short dramas, what attracted users was naturally not the amount of investment, but the infinite reversals and fast-paced plot.

Unlike long videos, the quick narrative and minimal foreshadowing of short plays are the fundamental reasons why they can attract viewers and go viral. In the shortest time, short plays can create more dramatic conflicts and give the audience more excitement.

At the same time, this is also the reason why some professional teams did not achieve good results in short dramas in the past. The narrative rhythm of traditional TV drama creation teams and short dramas is quite different. Most of the past projects of these professional teams were TV dramas, with an episode of dozens of minutes, and the content was laid out more elaborately and took longer. If the same idea is transferred to short drama shooting, the main selling point of short dramas will be lost, and it is not difficult to understand why they are not suitable for local conditions.

For the production team, only by digging deep into why audiences love to watch short dramas and focusing on the plot can they adapt to the rapidly changing short drama market and find their own suitable position.

If traditional film and television production teams grasp the characteristics of short dramas and give full play to their own advantages on this basis, it will undoubtedly be an impact on the original short drama market.

As the number of movies watched by the audience increases, their appreciation for short dramas will surely improve, and high-quality content will affect users' consumption preferences. After all, "bloody" plots can be watched for a week, but it is difficult to watch them for a year.

In addition, the refinement of short plays will help attract more new audiences for short plays, truly achieving the idea of ​​“it’s not that you don’t like watching short plays, it’s that you haven’t found the short play you like yet.”

The high-quality development of the short drama industry also means that short drama carriers have the opportunity to integrate various IPs and scripts, thereby reaching more users. "The Young Master and I" launched by iQiyi is the most popular film and television IP derivative micro-short drama on the long video website during the Spring Festival.

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Due to the production level and the popularity of the actors' IP, the short play "Young Master and I" has received many hot searches since its premiere and has continued to ferment on social media. It is understood that the two leading actors of "Young Master and I", Zhang Zhehua and Xinzi, were originally a popular group in the variety show "Annual Comedy Competition" under iQiyi. The short play of the same name retains the IP setting of the original work, and evolves and creates on this basis, finally forming a short play.

The success of the IP-derived short drama "The Young Master and I" also reflects the flexibility of the short drama format. It is worth looking forward to how many possibilities there will be when the short dramas become refined in the future.

3. Between paid and free

With the increase in investment from production companies, the marketing resources for short dramas will be further enriched, and the strategies are expected to be more diversified.

It is understood that the current monetization methods of short dramas are mainly user payment and brand marketing. User payment means that users can watch the first 8-15 episodes for free, and then they need to recharge and pay. Users can choose membership subscription or pay per episode. This is also the main method for most short dramas to realize monetization.

The other is that the audience can watch for free and the brand can earn money through product placement. Compared with traditional TVC ads, the data-driven product placement of short dramas is an advantage for brands.

With the development of short dramas, more and more platforms are also sponsoring short dramas. For example, Meituan sponsored the Kuaishou Xingmang short drama "The Character of Wife"; JD New Department Store appeared in the episode of the ancient short drama "Donglanxue"; Taobao App appeared in "Dear Goodbye"...

Although the platform has actively participated, many brands are still in a wait-and-see attitude at present. The effect and stability of the short drama are important reasons for the hesitation of brand placement. Compared with other short dramas, short dramas produced by the platform and starred by celebrities will provide certain guarantees for the brand.

The short drama "I Open a Bar in the Song Dynasty" launched by Kuaishou Xingmang Short Drama is exclusively sponsored by Tmall. The combination of "Doctor Wen" and "Sister Mei" attracted many viewers and also gave a "reassurance" to the brand implantation.

Referring to the development path of the online literature industry, although the current monetization of the short drama industry is still mainly based on paid content, the proportion of free short dramas is expected to continue to increase in the future.

Now, ByteDance has launched a free short drama app, Hongguo Theater, in May 2023. Kuaishou also launched an independent short drama app, Xifan, in early December 2023.

On the one hand, the increase in free short dramas is a competition among different platforms for audiences and traffic. On the other hand, free short dramas also provide more opportunities for brand placement. As for how to ensure the effectiveness of placement, further observation is needed.

It is worth noting that currently various professional teams are entering the short drama market from various processes, but the market capacity is limited. If you enter the market based on the previous "short drama myth", you may be greatly disappointed. After all, the current short drama production, whether it is the investment cost or the production cost, is not the same as before, and the cost of trial and error has increased significantly.

In general, although the track is hot, the current short drama market still has many problems such as unreasonable charges, content homogeneity, and high investment costs, which require careful observation and cautious entry.

Author: Guang Ye

Source: WeChat public account "TopKlout (ID: TopKlout)"