Stephen Chow launches short drama label, "theatricality" becomes the keyword of the industry this year?

This article analyzes the news that Douyin recently announced a collaboration with Stephen Chow to produce high-quality short dramas. The article mainly covers three aspects: why Stephen Chow was chosen, the recognition of the short drama brand, and the changes in the short drama market. Come and take a look!

After last year's wild growth, will the short drama market continue to grow rapidly this year or will it decline? With the market flooded with homogeneous content that follows the trend, where will the next breakthrough in the short drama track be? A piece of news that attracted the attention of the entire network yesterday gave us the answer, that is, "Stephen Chow enters the short drama market."

On January 29, Douyin announced that it had reached an exclusive high-quality micro-short drama cooperation with Stephen Chow. The two parties will jointly develop and operate the "9527 Theater". The first high-quality micro-short drama "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" Season 1 is expected to be launched on Douyin in May this year.

Few people would have thought that Stephen Chow, who had been away from the mainland market for five years since "The New King of Comedy", would make a short play as his first work after his return. The cooperation between Stephen Chow and TikTok and the official announcement of "9527 Theater" may become a weather vane for the future trend of the short play market, which not only means the full entry of the "regular army" in the film and television industry, but also means that the short play platform has truly entered a new stage of competing with "brands".

01 Why did Tik Tok ask Stephen Chow to shoot a short drama?

Audiences familiar with Stephen Chow's works should feel very familiar with the name "9527 Theater". It comes from the "9527" meme that has appeared many times in Stephen Chow's works. In the movie "Flirting Scholar", the number of Tang Bohu, played by Stephen Chow, who sneaked into the Washington Palace as a servant was "9527".

This name clearly reflects the content positioning of "9527 Theater" - telling the sad and happy stories of ordinary people in a light-hearted and funny way. Stephen Chow's presence also means that the "Zhou-style comedy" style is expected to continue in the field of short dramas, and he will also become a trump card in the hands of Douyin short dramas.

The entertainment value officer found that on Douyin, Stephen Chow's content has been played nearly 100 billion times, second only to Andy Lau and twice as much as Jackie Chan, which shows how deeply he is popular among Douyin users. Although Stephen Chow has not settled in Douyin as an individual, his works have been widely circulated here. Some time ago, the photo of Yang Ge and Zhou Xingchi was also hotly discussed. In the "national superstar battle" on short video platforms, Stephen Chow is also an important weight. Today, Douyin has not chosen to invite Stephen Chow to settle in and live broadcast, but to bring him together to create a short drama label, which shows its determination to continue to increase its investment in the boutique short drama track.

When Tencent Video invited Wong Kar-wai to "come down to earth" to shoot "Blossoms" to comprehensively improve the quality of domestic dramas, Douyin chose to invite Stephen Chow to inject more humanistic care and spiritual core into the fast-food short dramas. The classic Zhou style nonsense meets the fast-paced, high-stimulation short dramas, which has raised the audience's expectations to the maximum.

It is worth noting that the first work of "9527 Theater", "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf", will not only be produced by Stephen Chow and supervised by Yi Xiaoxing, but will also be starred by first-line actresses. First-line directors + first-line actors have greatly improved the lineup of boutique short dramas, and may accelerate the speed at which top film and television resources flow into this track.

In fact, under the co-creation plans of major video platforms, film and television companies such as Lemon Studios, Huace Group, Perfect World, and Bad Monkey have already entered the market. More and more short dramas have used professional actors and film-level production equipment. However, the actors currently participating in short dramas are still limited to third- and fourth-tier stars and short video experts. This year may become the first year that first-tier stars collectively join the short drama market, thereby quickly driving the shift in fans' viewing habits and bringing a wave of new traffic to the industry.

Douyin chose to officially announce the "9527 Theater" at this time to add fuel to the upcoming Spring Festival. On January 18, Douyin held the "Star Project" and Spring Festival release conference, and released 10 short dramas targeting the holiday market in one go. On January 25, Kuaishou also announced the newly upgraded Kuaishou "Starry Short Drama" cooperation plan before the Spring Festival. Just like the movie Spring Festival period, the short drama Spring Festival period is also becoming a must-fight place for video platforms.

02 Why hasn’t the short drama track produced its own “Misty Theater”?

At first glance, "9527 Theater" is nothing new to the short drama market, because major long and short video platforms have been promoting various short drama theaters from the beginning. Unfortunately, after a few years, the short drama track has not yet produced a recognizable brand like "Misty Theater". What is the problem?

As early as August 2019, Kuaishou built the "Kuaishou Small Theater", officially laid out the micro-short drama business, and established the industry's first leading short drama brand "Kuaishou Xingmang Short Drama". At the end of 2019, Mango TV officially launched the "Big Mango Plan" and released the short drama brand "Big Mango Short Drama". Subsequently, major video platforms launched their own short drama brands - Tencent Video's "Shifen Theater", Youku's "Youku Small Theater", B Station's "B Station Small Theater", etc...

However, after investigation, the entertainment value officer found that these "short drama theaters" are different from the "Misty Theater" and "X Theater" that focus on vertical content types, but are just "short drama channels". The short drama theaters of each video platform cover various types, and they are similar to each other without distinct brand characteristics.

For each platform, the audience can only remember the hit short dramas, not the short drama theaters. For example, few Tencent Video users know that "Provoke" is from "Shifen Theater". At present, the two most popular works of "Shifen Theater", "The World of Aunts" and "Provoke", are aimed at completely different audiences, which makes the "brand effect" empty talk.

Why, after several years, video platforms have not really started to "theaterize" short dramas? The entertainment value officer can find the answer from the awkward position of the "High Sweet Theater" in Kuaishou's Starry Short Drama. Behind the "High Sweet Theater" is Kuaishou's ambition to create a vertical short drama brand. However, more than half of the works in the Starry Short Drama Channel are love dramas with themes such as urban, family, ancient style, and campus, which makes it difficult to distinguish the "High Sweet Theater" from other content on the platform, giving people a feeling of "forced theaterization."

When all major platforms are crowding towards the two single-plank bridges of "cool" and "sweet", the superficial diversity of themes cannot conceal the homogeneity of the core. The vertical, precise, and typified "short drama theater" naturally becomes a luxury. At most, there will only be "cool theater" and "sweet theater".

Now, the emergence of "9527 Theater" has sent a signal of change in the short drama market.

03 “Theatrization” may become the key word in this year’s short drama market

The 2023 Micro Drama Industry Report shows that the proportion of suspense, comedy, fantasy, family and other themes increased significantly last year, and new tracks such as male-oriented, police and gangster, and youth all produced representative works. This means that the tastes of the audience of short dramas are becoming more vertically segmented, and there are higher and higher expectations for innovative themes and content.

"Branding" is expected to become a keyword in this year's short drama market. In addition to short drama brands such as "9527 Theater" backed by well-known directors, major platforms will also seize the minds of users in short drama tracks such as suspense, comedy, and fantasy.

After last year's explosive growth, the short drama market will be more polarized this year. On the one hand, the "regular army" in the film and television industry is squeezing out the "grassroots teams" that are chasing profits from the market, and high-quality short dramas will replace those homogeneous, routine, and low-quality content and become the mainstream of the market; on the other hand, short drama consumption is also changing from "passive choice" based on algorithm recommendations to "active choice" based on platforms and brands. Audiences are no longer accepting everything, but are starting to be selective.

In order to attract professional content creators and mature audiences, video platforms also need to say goodbye to the content following strategy and create their own short drama brand based on the platform's tone.

The "theaterization" of short dramas is also the only way for video platforms to attract brands to invest and release the commercial potential of short dramas. At present, most brands' short drama investment is just an extension of short video investment. Since short dramas often find short video experts to perform, investing in short dramas is equivalent to investing in two marketing positions: short dramas and "expert accounts". Through the live broadcast of video experts during the hot period of short dramas, the title sponsor can often achieve efficient conversion.

The reason why businesses give priority to "expert short dramas" and pursue conversion efficiency rather than brand bonus is that most of the short drama market, from producers, platforms, and brands, adhere to "short-term thinking" and the awareness of long-term operations has just begun to form. Only when video platforms have created short drama brands that are recognized and watched by the audience and attracted precise and high-quality audiences, will brands be able to abandon "short-term thinking" and conduct in-depth cooperation and binding with the platform. The business model of short dramas can also be aligned with long videos, realizing the "user payment + advertising" two-legged approach.

The entertainment value officer hopes that the entry of Stephen Chow and the launch of the "9527 Theater" are just the beginning of the healthy growth of the short drama industry.

Author: Xingye; Editor: Meiqi

Source: Entertainment Value Officer (ID: wenyujiazhiguan)