We analyzed the top 10 drama experts and 60+ brand customers and uncovered the secrets of "drama seeding".

In 2023, brands are enthusiastic about investing in drama accounts, and many brands are frequently cooperating with top drama accounts. What kind of content is suitable for seeding? Why can these tens of millions of accounts become the choice of brands for seeding? What changes have brands made in their delivery logic and delivery preferences? The author of this article breaks down the two aspects of accounts and brands for relevant analysis. Let's take a look.

The gift I gave my crush at Christmas was Novan chocolate;

The evidence of reliving the time of love lies in the fragrance of Liby laundry detergent;

Show your care for your colleagues with McDonald's breakfast;

Start a Starbucks group order mode with your ambiguous partner to create more opportunities to spend time together;

Drive the latest Ideal car with your loved one to meet the first snow, and feel the romance of watching the snow scene under the panoramic sunroof...

To a certain extent, the carrier of plot-based advertising has moved from television to official blogs and then to short video platforms, and the operators behind the golden ideas have also changed from 4A companies to creative hot shops, and now are at the helm of short video plot celebrities.

In Douyin, these plots can get more than one million likes for a single popular content, achieving hundreds of millions of exposures and directly reaching tens of millions of consumers. A typical example is the previous video "Do you remember the last time your heartbeat accelerated?" by @吴夏帆 and Huawei Bracelet, which received 1.327 million likes and 63,000 comments, and many users expressed that they were "moved at first sight" by the implanted plot.

After visiting many places, Doujiao found that this year brands are particularly enthusiastic about investing in drama-related accounts.

After reviewing more than 10 million-level drama accounts in more than 5 popular fields, we found that in the past 3 months, more than 60 brands in 7 major categories have frequently cooperated with these top influencers. In addition to beauty and skin care, and daily necessities, more and more luxury goods, car brands, and 3C digital products have begun to frequently promote dramas.

The core reason behind this is that brand owners have bid farewell to the past idea of ​​pursuing click-through interactions and have begun to perceive the powerful commercial value brought by exposure.

"From the data level, we can see that the conversion rate brought by exposure is very high, which is equivalent to or even higher than the conversion rate of clicks, but the magnitude of exposure is completely different from the magnitude of clicks," CC, who works in the marketing department of an international brand, once told us. In addition, the strong exposure and fan stickiness of drama content can enhance brand awareness and accumulate potential consumers for the brand.

More importantly, the seeding link of drama content has become shorter nowadays, and netizens can watch, jump and place orders at any time . Many brands have successfully used drama experts to achieve simultaneous seeding of minds and products. For example, Hansu cooperated with @姜十七 to launch customized short dramas such as "You Will Be Famous" and "Restricted by Growth", achieving strong exposure, and achieved conversion through 24-hour live broadcast room to receive traffic, successfully making the Red Waist combination a hot product.

However, what kind of content is suitable for seeding? Why can these tens of millions of accounts become the seeding choice of brands? What changes have brands made in their delivery logic and delivery preferences? In response to these questions, we disassembled several tens of millions of top accounts and tried to explore the logic of these accounts' explosive content and their specific business paths.

It should be noted that currently, short video accounts for plots are mainly dominated by MCNs and operated on multiple platforms. After comparing the activity levels and commercial cooperation frequencies of these accounts, Doujiao focused on analyzing their data performance and commercial cooperation cases on the Douyin platform.

1. Analysis of the Top 10 Celebrities: Sweet and cute stories and refreshing articles hold the secret of traffic

After reviewing multiple expert lists, we found that the types of plot-based short video accounts that frequently appear on the list are mainly niche themes such as refreshing writing, emotions, family, campus, suspense, and ancient style . There are mature top accounts in these sub-segments.

The reason why these themes continue to be on the list is not only because the plots are interesting and resonate with people, but also because they provide brands with rich grass-planting scenarios and emotional genes .

1. Cool articles

From the data, we can see that Shuangwen has firmly grasped the traffic code of drama-based short videos.

@姜十七, who has over 30 million followers on Douyin, has a core storyline of the earthy and refreshing drama "The domineering president falls in love with me". For example, in order to deal with the pressure to get married, I got married casually, but the other party turned out to be a rich second-generation with a net worth of over 100 million yuan; I married a poor security guard who my sisters refused to marry, but I didn't expect that he was actually a top rich man.

When the couple was interacting intimately in the car, @姜十七 took out a Panasonic small square box razor as a Christmas gift for her newlywed husband. The product exposure was smoothly connected with the plot of the cool article, without any sense of disobedience. The "little blue word" pinned at the top of the comment area directly leads to the live broadcast room of the Panasonic flagship store, where you can buy the products you are interested in in the plot with one click.

In addition to emotional stories, @姜十七 also has many workplace and revenge stories. For example, tearing up a green tea colleague, slapping an unreasonable boss, and taking revenge on a cheating man after rebirth. In short, no matter how vulgar the content is or how outrageous the story is, as long as it is exciting enough, the audience can't stop. One netizen commented, "Others rack their brains for the content, but she only cares about the exciting plot, and the audience is not tired of it."

Highly sticky fans and content, modern scenes, and the plot of the prince and Cinderella, whether it is a high-priced car or a small appliance, can find suitable placement in it. Ideal, Ulike, Yingshi Rabbit Lip Balm and other products are seamlessly integrated into the earthy plot that makes people addicted.

Although the plot is corny, the life scenes and production are not, so the brand does not worry about damaging its image.

2. Emotional

Although the "cool" content has caught the "preferences" of netizens, the most popular track is still the emotional content. Emotional content represented by sweet pets is a popular competitive track due to its popular subject matter, large creative space, and relatively low production cost. Although they are all top accounts, @吴夏帆, @三金七七, and @浩杰来了 all hit different emotional pain points.

"The person you like just happens to like you too", this is a romance that has been certified by many people, and it is also the core of @吴夏帆's plot. Whether it is working in the same park with a crush or reuniting with a childhood sweetheart after a long separation, the highly immersive background, delicate lines, and handsome male protagonists, @吴夏帆's content can always make netizens start eating sugar mode within 3 minutes.

The carriers of these sugars all point to specific products. When the crush took out the Chando Polar Water Heart-beating Gift Box, @吴夏帆 tentatively asked the hero, "Are you confessing to me?" At this moment, the netizens and the heroine's heartbeat values ​​soared together, and the pleasure of eating sugar was naturally transferred to the product.

@三金七七, which also focuses on fresh and sweet dramas, adopts the dual account operation logic of "comedy + tragedy". The same male and female protagonists also starred in another drama account @一家美式, but @一家美式 mainly focuses on BE, telling the regrets and misses in emotions.

@浩杰来了 mainly focuses on resolving emotional conflicts, always using introductions such as "It turns out that no one can get out of boyfriend's phone" and "Having a partner who spoils the fun is really suffocating". Of course, the endings are always HE without exception.

Judging from the frequency of brand cooperation, this type of content is also a favorite choice of brands. The core is that these touching emotional stories can help brands create a warm, happy and beautiful image. Moreover, the "sweet" and "heart-touching" emotional genes can also seamlessly match products such as chocolate, drinks, and skin care products. Brands such as Estee Lauder, L'Oreal, and Electrolyte frequently cooperate with this type of account influencers.

3. Family

Compared with refreshing and sweet pet stories, family themes are more difficult to grasp emotions and require a stable partnership between the male and female protagonists. Currently, there are not many top accounts, so the competition is not fierce.

Currently, @这是一个特特的故事, which has nearly 15 million followers on the Douyin platform, conveys the daily life of an old couple and ordinary love. Although the portrayal is a mess, it conveys the deep sweetness behind the daily necessities. Many netizens said, "The whole network is creating anxiety and persuading people to break up, but only this blogger is teaching people how to cherish and manage."

Family stories also have significant advantages in brand cooperation. Family scenes, couple emotions, and children's education can accommodate many related brands: after work, I bought Nova chocolate and flowers for my wife, and my wife accused me of wasting money on the surface, but she felt warm inside; I prepared a Nutrilite nutritious breakfast for my partner who was busy taking care of the children, so that love and being loved can happen at the same time. It is these real embarrassments and happiness that resonated with netizens and added more emotions to the products that appeared at the right time.

4. Creative

As a "hit-making machine" in the field of drama-based short videos, the popularity of creative content that opens up your mind is no less than that of emotional themes. The difference is that this type of content has higher requirements for scenes, production, and creativity, and is difficult to copy.

For example, @王七叶, who created popular content such as "Can't Afford Series", "Steel Wool, Get It in Full", and "Wear the Right Shoes, Every Day is Valentine's Day", has attracted countless fans with his funny but not vulgar creative videos with a big contrast. @李宗恒 also has creative plots, but they are mainly comedy content, and his success lies in the unexpected and anti-routine plot design.

Wang Qiye is an account created specifically for advertisers. It does not need fixed scenes or emotions. Bright creativity is enough to attract the attention of brand owners. Sanjiu Weitai, Gaofan, Kangfu hair dryer, OPPO and other brands have all placed ads. The plot is full of twists and turns, making "guessing what advertisement is" one of the fun things for netizens to watch Wang Qiye's content.

5. Campus

Campus dramas are also a popular topic for short plot videos due to their low creation threshold. However, due to their limited audience, the content needs to be interesting enough to stand out.

@宋嘉儿 created four roommates with different personalities and backgrounds by playing four roles, and performed a series of campus sitcoms around the dormitory scenes. The content dedicated to the student days also attracted the resonance of many "experienced people". For example, during the graduation season, the roommate wanted to go on a sweet date and even used OLAY Super White Body Lotion just to be in a better state, but her boyfriend planned to give up the relationship and return home. The question "Is graduation season really a breakup season?" resonated with countless netizens.

Moreover, @宋嘉儿's content has also expanded to scenes such as entering the workplace for the first time and internship. When being teased as a "rich girl" by a green tea colleague, the heroine retorted that her good skin was due to the use of Safeguard Camellia.

Stories and scenes that bear the imprint of youth are very popular among brand owners, but they mainly attract products with lower average order values, such as beauty and skin care, and daily necessities.

6. Niche topics

In addition, the development of the drama-based short video track has also spawned a number of high-quality accounts for niche and vertical themes, such as suspense, realism, and ancient costumes.

@名探小宇 is based on a suspense story, incorporating realistic thoughts such as "the actual impact of Japan's nuclear wastewater" and "every bystander may be the next witness". @慧慧周 is mainly based on social hot spots, discussing topics such as "do you still have to pay the mortgage if the house is unfinished?", "scholarship incidents", and "school bullying". @灰姑娘佩佩 uses the model of plot + popular science to bring a lot of history and stories of traditional Chinese costumes.

However, in terms of commercial cooperation, these niche themes have a low frequency of cooperation due to factors such as special scenes, sensitive emotions, and clear audiences. They mostly attract vertical brands. Among them, realism has a broader commercial prospect. @慧慧周's positive energy content is often matched with brands such as Lancome, Hongqi, and Helena, conveying values ​​such as "not afraid of evaluation, control yourself."

Overall, the current plot-based short video content is affected by multiple factors such as subject selection, emotional orientation, plot design, production cost, and audience range, and commercial cooperation is also related to these factors. Among them, sweet pet, refreshing, and creative genres have greater traffic and a higher probability of brand cooperation ; more subdivided genres such as family, campus, and niche vertical genres have more precise audiences, but they can also attract limited brands.

After the short drama became popular, many drama short video experts also began to create short dramas and achieved commercial cooperation. For example, Wu Xiafan launched "The Matchmaker Lives Next Door to My House" and "Heartbeat Beyond the Line", and Jiang Shiqi has released 20 short dramas on his Douyin account since April 2020, including "I Guess You Love Me", "Confessions of a Villain", and "Another Me in the World".

2. 7 major brands increase investment: Drama short videos become a new blue ocean for seeding

From production to subject matter, the development of drama-based short videos is becoming more and more mature. In recent times, almost every content of some popular drama-based short video accounts contains commercial cooperation.

From the perspective of product categories, beauty and skin care, 3C digital, and food and beverage brands are old players in the short video marketing. Due to their abundant budgets, most brands regularly cooperate with drama-themed influencers during new product launches, big promotions, festivals, and other events, using a wide-net approach to attract everyone from big Vs with tens of millions of fans to mid-level influencers with millions of fans.

Products with high customer unit prices, such as automobile brands, have also increased the frequency of their collaborations with drama influencers in the past two years, but most of them are promoting new nodes, targeting lifestyle and love influencers, and have high requirements for the tone of the product placement.

In addition, some game and Internet platforms have also begun to cooperate with plot experts, but due to the strong seasonality of this type of production, the frequency of cooperation is relatively low. Internet platforms in particular mostly focus on intensive investment during e-commerce festivals such as 618 and Double 11.

From the perspective of subject matter preference, sweet pet, refreshing, family, creative and other types of plots are particularly popular among fast-moving consumer goods. When Sanjin Qiqi cooperated with Liby Master Fragrance Laundry Detergent, the product became a "prop" for her and her ex to identify each other when they met again on the street. Guided by the fragrance, the male and female protagonists looked back at each other in the Korean drama style camera movements and costumes, which also highlighted the brand's "fragrance" memory point.

But it is worth noting that in the sweet pet content, brands also prefer stories with a happy ending . A typical example is that @杯美式, the BE aesthetic creator who plays the same male and female protagonist as @三金七七, stopped updating for a long time. Although the official reason was not announced, netizens speculated that "it was because he couldn't get advertising", "the investment was given to Sanjinqiqi", and "the brand father also likes sweets".

Compared with the above types, realistic themes can cooperate with fewer brands, but the frequency of cooperation is not low, especially loved by big brands. Its uniqueness lies in the strong empathy effect of universal emotions. In January this year, when Huihui Zhou cooperated with Volvo, she designed a plot in which the daughter could not recognize her father who had not seen him for a long time until she put on a doctor's hat and mask. In the flashback, the father, as a medical researcher, has to sleep in the car under the non-stop work, which has become a small habitat for him to talk to his family. In the short story of one and a half minutes, Volvo's clean cockpit and blind spot information system and other functions are cleverly combined with the plot, which also won the audience's praise.

The brands that can cooperate with the niche content of Guofeng are relatively limited , mainly Guofeng clothing, jewelry, etc. In order to ensure that the embedded advertisements in the ancient style plots do not distract the audience, most of the cooperative brands will be relatively obscure, without too many straightforward oral broadcasts and user experiences, but mostly with the help of short video content to only present the "on the body" effect. @灰姑娘佩佩's way of cooperating with jewelry brands such as China Gold and ancient costume stores such as Jin Ye and Bu Fu is to place window links under a large number of videos involving related content and outfits, guiding users to buy on their own shelves.

The second is short drama content cooperation. After the short drama became popular, it brought new business opportunities for the creators of drama short video content. Since last year, many drama influencers have expanded the content of short dramas and started to cooperate with brands. At present, the cooperation of short drama content mainly includes full-episode customization and single-episode implantation . Hansu has launched 5 customized short dramas with @姜十七 this year alone, which shows its determination and strength.

However, as all brands are striving to reduce costs and increase efficiency, why are brands so enthusiastic about investing in drama-based short videos?

The main reason is the transformation of brand owners' cognition of exposure. "Good content can reduce the cost of exposure. If we want to invest in a hard advertisement that achieves the same effect as the exposure of a hit short video, the investment cost is very high." Drama short video content has the characteristics of wide dissemination and strong exposure, so it has become the choice of many brands. This year, Hansu launched a hit product by exposing short dramas and taking over traffic in the live broadcast room.

Secondly, the shortening of the seeding link also brings real conversions to brands. For example, influencers can guide purchases and collect user information through relevant search terms, window links, and top links in the comment area in short video content.

Plot-based promotion + shared bikes, plot-based promotion + brand official live broadcast room, plot-based promotion + celebrity showcase, plot-based promotion + user retention...different ways of playing have now become very mature. In the process of guiding purchases, brand coupons can also be used with one click, and the infrastructure is very complete.

In addition, the brand's emphasis on product-effect integration has also driven the investment in more "mind + product" dual-seeding content. As mentioned earlier, another major function of short video content with plots is to integrate brand values ​​into the plot and help the brand establish awareness. "We usually have a lot of brand-oriented investments, such as shooting creative and plot-based TVCs, but now some high-quality plot accounts can actually achieve this function and can also help sell products," the head of the brand department of a beverage brand told us.

In the past, people would open the Orange app while being inspired by the product; now, they can quickly buy and learn about the product the moment they are inspired. As a result, the commercial value of short drama videos is being magnified, and brands are more determined to invest in short drama videos.

It is worth noting that, despite the rich creativity of drama influencers, except for a few top influencers, the advertising cooperation of most drama influencers is still not smooth enough, and they are still implanted with relatively stiff oral broadcasts. Within a minute and a half, users tolerate the advertisements out of their expectation and love for the creators' subsequent content, but they do not really get the product selling point. In the future, as more and more creators flock to this soil, drama influencers will also need to face new challenges in upgrading their advertising creativity.

Author: Douya, WeChat public account: Spicy