Why has the TV series become a hot topic during this year's Spring Festival?

This spring, "Kuang Da" unified the remote control of the whole family. The TV series with a score of 9.1 attracted the attention of most people. How much marketing value does a good TV series bring? This article analyzes the new routines of TV series marketing from multiple angles such as topic detonation, long video marketing, advertising, and IP peripherals. The core is still the quality and quantity of TV series. Recommended reading for those who are interested in IP marketing and TV series marketing.

During this year's Spring Festival holiday, TV dramas became a hot topic of public discussion.

These days, when I went out to meet friends and have meals, everyone was talking about the TV series "Kuang Du", discussing the personalities of An Xin and Gao Qiqiang, and the acting skills of Zhang Songwen and Zhang Yi. The whole network was following to catch the traitor and analyze the plot.

There are not many TV series that can get a score of 9.1 on Douban. The popularity of "Kuang Da" also led to an increase in platform traffic. According to data released by the iQiyi Data Research Center on January 28, during the seven-day Spring Festival holiday, the average daily active users on the iQiyi platform increased by 6% compared with before the holiday, and the user viewing time increased by 11% compared with before the holiday.

Good content brings marketing value. It is reported that the sponsors of "Kuangbiao" include RIO Qiangshuang, Jindi, GAC Toyota, Kyoto Ninji'an, Sanjiu Ganmao Ling and other medicine, beverage, automobile categories. These customers who bet on the hot products in the early stage, such as Amul, RIO Qiangshuang, Yadi Electric Vehicle, etc. are still chasing investment.

This phenomenon actually shows that an excellent TV series can bring huge marketing energy.

01 Long videos, a traffic hotspot that triggers hot topics

There are deep social reasons for the popularity of the drama "Kuang Bi". The long-awaited Spring Festival holiday and the high holiday mood have added fuel to the drama viewing craze, and the family viewing scene is also returning. At the same time, the audience has not seen such a drama that deeply exposes social problems for a long time. It abandons the stereotyped narrative that similar dramas are prone to fall into, and gives both the good and evil sides rich personalities and complex social attributes, portraying the complexity and fickleness of human nature vividly.

Because of the popularity of the drama, the benefits of brand marketing have also been maximized. Excellent TV dramas can explode in a short period of time, penetrate platforms, and achieve cross-channel dissemination. They can form a huge amount of discussion on Weibo, WeChat, Douyin, Xiaohongshu, Douban, and Zhihu, and often occupy the peak of public opinion topics within a few weeks or even a month, forming a de facto centralized advantage. From "The Bad Kids" to "Squid Game" to "Crazy" all have this feature.

Type "狂飙" in the Weibo search bar and get the search results

Advertising marketing tied to excellent TV dramas has also gained exposure and emotional memory points across time periods. For example, the BBK advertisement before the start of the popular TV drama "Legend of the White Snake" in the TV era is familiar to many people.

In addition to the large exposure and discussion volume, the topics of long videos are often broader. In addition to the topics of actors, plots, shots and other content, an excellent film and television drama often extends to the fields of humanities, society, art, emotions, values, etc., and inspires current life from various angles. Become people's emotional memory.

Today, although the media environment has changed, the commercial logic for film and television dramas has not changed. Its path is still to rely on popular film and television dramas to allow commercial advertisements to gain wide exposure and even great discussion, thereby establishing brand influence among consumers and promoting their long-term purchasing behavior.

The popularity of "The Storm" has brought "The Art of War" to the forefront

At the same time, compared to the model in the TV era where advertising helped brands through pure exposure, in the mobile Internet era, there are more innovative marketing models. For example, brand advertising can be matched with the content scenes of film and television dramas to form a more native advertising model. For example, IP derivatives developed based on film and television dramas can carry people’s emotions for film and television dramas, allowing related products to be integrated into people’s daily lives, helping brands achieve product and effect integration.

02 Long video marketing, the optimal solution for quality, efficiency and quantity

The premise for a TV series to have marketing value is that the series itself has value. Since its launch, "Kuang Bi" has been on the hot search list, and there are still a large number of advertisers entering the market as the finale is approaching. This shows that hit series still occupy an irreplaceable position in terms of triggering topics, strong exposure, and mental impact.

1. A large number of plots to match the best exposure scenes for brands

In the TV era, due to technical limitations, advertisements could only appear at the beginning, end, or in the middle of a program. In the mobile video era, advertisements can be customized based on the content of the video.

For example, in the TV series “Kuaisan”, when the word “danger” appeared in the play, the pre-collision danger avoidance advertisement of the Corolla car appeared. This kind of advertisement reduced the sense of disharmony and enhanced the user’s acceptance.

For example, the innovation of "The Wind Rises in Longxi" in commercial advertising, combined with the positioning of "ancient costume spy war drama", pioneered the "end-credits bookstore" model, and set up the "Longxi Exclusive Intelligence Office" at the end of the film, satisfying the user's desire to spy on intelligence while watching the drama, and also allowing the brand Nanfu Battery to be in the same frame with the bookstore, helping the audience to review the plot and jokingly tell the "chess game".

2. From good content to good IP, commercial cooperation forms are becoming more diverse

When a drama becomes popular for a long time - at least half a year, it becomes a de facto IP, and the film and television drama itself has achieved the transformation from good content to good IP.

After "Kuang Da She" became a hit, the platform quickly launched IP peripherals, taking advantage of consumers' love for the show and integrating these peripheral products into consumers' daily lives, thus extending the commercial vitality of the show.

The IP itself can also conduct cross-border marketing with brands. For example, the "Cang Lan Jue" brand co-authorization cooperation, developing co-branded dolls with Rua dolls; co-branded customized bracelets, bone orchids and other derivatives and "Cang Lan Jue" collection gift boxes with FEO; co-authorized cooperation with Jin Zhizun joint jewelry brand, and co-branded marketing in some offline stores, connecting online traffic with offline popularity, forming an industrial chain-style long-term growth outside the drama.

3. Create a buzz among the public and make communication an “increment” for advertising

If an advertisement based on a popular TV series can be innovative and create a topic for a hot social topic, then its benefits will be doubled: one is the exposure brought by the advertisement, and the other is the volume of discussion on social networks and in society. This is increasingly becoming an important factor for many brands to consider when investing in TV series.

The crossover between "Cang Lan Jue" and Nayuki's Tea, which launched a co-branded milk tea, not only created exposure, but also triggered huge discussions on social networks. This marketing is in line with the preferences of young people today, making the traffic of the two parties form a 1+1 greater than 2 effect.

03 Conclusion

DT Finance once had a report on long videos - "Do young people still buy into advertising? We have 13 new discoveries". The report said that with the current diversification of advertising formats and the impact of short videos and live broadcasts, 20% of young people's ways of getting to know new brands are through film and television advertising.

Young people will certainly like good content. Yao Peina, general manager of iQiyi's advertising strategy marketing, believes that in the current fragmented traffic environment, IP is becoming more centralized. A good IP will form the greatest common divisor of social consensus and reflect the common appeal of social emotions. The greater the value of the IP, the wider the influence radius. At the marketing level, long videos can transcend cycles and fields, continue to occupy users' attention, and form a mental impact on the brand. This is also the reason why young people still know brands through film and television advertisements.

The drama "Kuaishou" became a hit at the beginning of 2023, which seems to be a coincidence. However, in the longer term, as family viewing gradually becomes a trend, the public's demand for high-quality film and television dramas increases, and video platforms continue to increase their content production, there will inevitably be more and more hit film and television dramas in the future. The commercial gameplay based on large-scale content products will also bring more and more innovative breakthroughs in the field of brand marketing.

Author: Xunkong

WeChat public account: Xunkong’s Marketing Revelation (ID: xunkong2005)