: Media internal reference-media exclusive
We can see from the reserve dramas of the three major video websites this year that youth themes still account for one of the five major themes of video platforms. Regardless of whether the theme of youth is the “minimal guarantee” with confidence, or the effort to seek a breakthrough, Youth+ is still the main battlefield that major platforms are unwilling to abandon.
Looking at Aiyouteng's reserve dramas in 2019, costumes, the Republic of China, suspense exploration, urban, and youth are still the mainstream, and the police, gangs, military, etc. supplement the tide of "gift dramas". The development of the platform requires advertising + members to walk on two legs, while members’ renewal depends on the sustainable production of high-quality dramas. It is very important to figure out the general trend and step on the rhythm, but it is not as easy as it is literally.
Among them, youth dramas rarely "lost" in the webcast environment, but it is also difficult to get out of the circle. After two years of craze in 2016 and 2017, the market for youth dramas in 2018 took a sharp turn. In terms of quantity, Youai Tengmang only released 20 youth dramas last year. Among them, "Sweet Crit" with the best data has the lowest reputation, while "Suddenly This Summer", which has a good reputation, does not perform as well as "Sweet Crit". A quarter of that.
Some people have concluded that the bonus period of youth dramas has passed, but we can see from this year's reserve dramas that youth themes still account for one of the five major themes of the video platform. Regardless of whether the theme of youth is the “minimal guarantee” with confidence, or the effort to seek a breakthrough, Youth+ is still the main battlefield that major platforms are unwilling to abandon.
Campus and workplace are the themes, and e-sports is heating up.
Grasping the core circle is the most important task for a work to complete. The main purpose of youth+ is to monopolize the hearts of girls. In addition, the first step in breaking the circle is to catch the young women as an incision to gradually increase the breakthrough power.
One, to deepen IP development, movie-drama linkage
The number of known Tencent video youth dramas has reached 12, and the project includes two popular dramas "The Best of Us" and "Little Beautiful", the sister chapter "Crush Orange Sheng Huainan, "A warm hour to us", "Full-time Master" and "Come on, You Are the Best" by Deng Lun and Ma Sichun. Youku and iQiyi’s highlights are also beyond last year, Li Guangjie, Fei Qiming’s "I’m Waiting for You in the Future", Xu Weizhou, Qiao Xin’s "My Girlfriend Who Can’t Fall in Love", Wang Yilun’s "The Most Beautiful Things", Zhang Yunlong's "While We Are Young" and so on, all spent a lot of thought on the choice of actors.
It can be seen that most of the major campus youth dramas on the three platforms are based on IP, and some have even been released in film. In addition, Mango tv continues to focus on the theme of "Youth, Love". In the self-made dramas, "Accompany you to the top of the world", "Hello, the other side's debate friend", and "I'm out, first love" are all small-scale youth dramas.
Second, the theme of youth dramas hits the field of e-sports and sports.
is adapted from the famous IP of Phalaenopsis and starred by Yang Yang's "Full-time Master" opens the field of "youth + e-sports", Yang Zi and Li Xian's "Honey Stewed Squid" The main focus is "Youth + Workplace". Xing Zhaolin's "Strong Wind Blows" focuses on "Mountaineering", as well as "Hello, Friends" and "Qualified!" "First Love" uses debate and football as the story backgrounds, and a series of works such as "Chasing the Ball", "Ping Pong", "My Friend Is A Champion" and "Extreme S Series" are ready to go.
In terms of the subject matter, a single-element youth drama is outdated, and "youth+" has become a breaking circle. Although "Exclusive Memories" gave a good start to the youth drama in 2019, whether the youth drama can be revived this year still requires users to test subsequent works.
Youth dramas are cheap and have many tricks, at least they can get a guarantee.
In the past few years, youth dramas have broken away from the bloody plot routine of a new path. In contrast, those cautious love and secret love may more touch the hearts of girls. Whether it’s the school, exams, dormitory life, friendship between classmates in "The Best of Us", or the colorful college time between the three childhood sweethearts and their roommates in "Spreading the Window Together", or It is Chen Xiaoxi’s cautious and very beautiful love to Jiang Chen in "To Our Simple Little Beauty". These are not deliberatelyThe simple campus life for this can be regarded as a clear stream in the youth drama, and it is also the most touching story.
creation is periodic. Most of the projects launched in 2018 were produced in 2017. At that time, they blindly pursued the theme and did not have intensively developed scripts, so there were many online projects, but there were empty themes and lack of good content.
But for most investors, youth dramas have always been a "cheap and good quality" business. In addition to the low cost, youth dramas also have a large advertising capacity. Under the conditions of more implantable advertisements and richer types, the advertising revenue of youth dramas is considerable, and it can even be infinitely close to the "stable profit without loss". "'S positioning.
Therefore, youth dramas are regarded as low-risk projects by many platforms and producers. In addition, youth dramas can also attract young audiences to the platform, which is an important way to recruit new members and stabilize members. Therefore, in video sites that increasingly value self-made content, youth themes will never be left behind.
bonus is not there? The market for youth dramas is far from saturated.
From the broadcast of the first youth idol drama in 1990, to the hits of "Summer of Bubbles", "In the Name of Your Youth", "Suddenly This Summer", and "Exclusive Memory", domestic youth idol dramas are in 20 It has undergone several changes during the years: the "publicity and rebellion period" represented by "Sixteen-year-old Flower Season" and "Seventeen-year-old Don't Cry" has been deeply influenced by Korean dramas, and is full of car accidents, amnesia, serious illness, revenge, and mystery of life experience. , The "dramatic routine period" of entangled relationship, and then to the "realistic pluralistic period" with realist creation as the core with the change of policy orientation and industry trend.
youth dramas have been developing in a more and more diverse direction. Inspiration, parting, and entrepreneurship are the constant themes for young people who have grown up in different ages. Although this type of theme is full of thorny, but enduring. Take "Honey Stewed Squid" as an example. From the perspective of the theme, although it is a youth theme, but the scope is reduced, the background it cuts into is "e-sports", which is rare in the youth theme market; In terms of vertical subdivision, it tells another growth story about "inspirational" and "entrepreneurship". Each small branch is enough to support "multiple development" in creation.
At the same time, youth drama is also the main battlefield for "newcomers" and a weapon for "star making". Film and television companies and brokerage companies are eager to bring out the next Liu Haoran, Hu Yitian, and Shen Yue; while the drama party chooses to use new actors, which can save costs from the source. For youth dramas, it is important to be good at selecting newcomers. It is especially important to choose actors who are close to the age and temperament. This will make the plot appear more authentic and credible, and the personality will be perfectly integrated. The audience will not have a sense of disobedience and play. feel.
Nowadays, the audience's demand for fresh faces in youth dramas is increasing. Because of the youthful and beautiful image and the young state, under the blessing of the characters, it is easy to be loved by the audience. Although the youth drama has a strong ability to hold stars, it does not mean that it has no threshold. Judging from the stars who have become popular because of the youth drama in the past, the web dramas they star in are of relatively high quality.
With the continuous enrichment of online drama types and the trend of platform content segmentation, the market space for youth dramas has stabilized, but the market space for youth dramas may not be as large as imagined. Youth dramas are only a small part of the category of major themes of love. To break through the circle, more intensive cultivation is required.
