Author | Cheng Meng
When "Operation Red Sea", "I'm Not the God of Medicine", "Nezha" and other word-of-mouth movies have achieved good box office results, there have been cases where "Shanghai Fortress" and "Galaxy Tutorial" have been released. The final box office of movies with a lot of momentum in the early stage was difficult to meet expectations, and word-of-mouth box office double losses occurred from time to time. The industry and audiences are increasingly believing that the film market has rules to follow, that is, content wins.
But at the same time, along with the recognition that content is king, there is a voice in film marketing: Now that the content starts to determine the box office performance of the film, the role of film marketing will become weaker and weaker.
In the era of "content is king", is the role of film marketing for films really diminishing? As some people have said, as the audience’s viewing quality improves, film marketing becomes more and more difficult for "word-of-mouth" movies to have an effect? With these questions, Maoying Entertainment interviewed An Yugang, CEO of Yingxing World.
expand the opening
"I very much agree with the statement that content is king, whether it is paid or free, small screen, medium screen or large screen, content is always the most important, but this does not mean that the market segment represented by marketing is not I used it." It wasn't because of the enthusiasm of the industry he was in. An Yugang gave a sufficient explanation next.
In his opinion, marketing also has a blessing effect on word-of-mouth movies-widening the opening.
Generally speaking, the so-called word-of-mouth movies, without marketing or not doing a good job in marketing, drove the first wave of audiences who were brought in by Amway through the word-of-mouth communication of a small number of accurate customers in the previous movies. Afterwards, with high-quality content, word-of-mouth gradually accumulated, and waves of new audiences came in to consume, and the momentum of the movie became more and more snowballed, and finally achieved a box office that exceeded expectations.
"For a film that has the potential to rely on word of mouth to counterattack, if the opening is opened at the beginning, will it have better results?" After talking here, An Yugang asked a question.
"However, the ceiling of the film is there. Will the size of the opening only determine the length of time it takes for the box office to reach the ceiling?"
asked Maoyingtv (maoyingtv), and An Yugang gave a different view: I don’t think that the box office of a movie has a so-called ceiling. You can’t put a ceiling cover on the movie just because the marketing is not done well.”
first explained the increase in the user population after expanding the opening, in addition to attracting the direct audience of the movie , Some audiences with herd mentality can also be attracted in.
is then reflected in word-of-mouth communication. At the beginning of the film, the user population is large enough, and the demand for information is higher, and word-of-mouth communication will be faster and wider. "It's like making the snowball embryo bigger at the beginning. Under the superimposed effect, the snowball that rolls up will only be larger than the one that accumulates slowly."
did a good job of pre-marketing like this, and the word-of-mouth was overwhelming before the release. There are not a few films that eventually achieved outstanding box office results. For example, "I'm Not the God of Medicine" and "Nezha" have already detonated the Internet at the beginning of the release.
Stirring emotions
On the other hand, the reason why word-of-mouth movies impress the audience, is spread word of mouth, most of which are related to the movie’s inciting a certain social mood. Whether family affection, friendship, love, happiness, sadness or today's patriotism, affect the emotions of the audience will make the audience willing to spare no effort to "Amway."
Connecting the content conveyed in the film with the mood of the masses is exactly what marketing does, and this is what An Yugang has always believed in marketing value. "Film is actually a spiritual thing in the social system. It is not a pure commodity. It is more necessary for us to sell it with a logic that can move social emotions." Compared with
, those that can move It seems that “out of the circle” of social emotional films is much easier. For example, the current National Day archives "My Motherland and Me", "Captain China" and "The Climber" three films, before the release, many viewers were looking forward to it, and even included in the holiday must-do list. The reason why
has not yet been released is so touching, and it has a lot to do with the extreme patriotic sentiment that was passed on to the masses in the previous material. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the motherland, when the patriotism in the hearts of the people was strong, the three films were labeled as "gift films", showing patriotism again, and it is of course the first to gain popular sentiment.
In fact, in An Yugang’s view, marketing has now become part of the product itself.Minute. The complete process of the transaction is a series of actions, such as user perception, purchase, experience, and evaluation of the product. Regardless of its level, marketing is an indispensable part of movies.
Of course, the premise is still to do a good job in marketing, so that he can become a bonus part of the film.
Marketing Misunderstandings
Speaking of his marketing philosophy, An Yugang summarized it as: precision marketing, tend to do better. The so-called precision marketing of
is not only to precisely locate the target users of the film, but also to classify these target users and carry out targeted marketing for different target users.
Take the trailer as an example. Some people tend to rely on a trailer to cut out the selling points that impress everyone. An Yugang’s approach is that a trailer has a clear main direction, highlights the core promotional points, and focuses on impressing the meeting. Those who are interested. "Except for RMB, there is nothing that can please everyone." He joked, "People have different tastes. It is unrealistic to make a trailer and make everyone like it."
So many times, His marketing work is all in differentiation. "For example, when I made the first trailer, it was aimed at male users. My context, title, and the cutting method of the trailer will all be focused on the way men like to do it. As for what the female users would think, It may be something I want to consider in my second trailer." For a group of people, only do things that this wave of people like. When
is doing marketing, An Yugang also pursues the trend for the better. "There have been some projects on the market. Because the so-called fans have not responded well, they have been constantly making changes to avoid the scene to mobilize the sentence, but it is still difficult to make all the fans satisfied."
is always going bad, adding Regardless of the large workload, it is difficult to obtain better marketing results in the end. Because any product has people who like it, there must be people who hate it. Instead of this, it is better to ignore the opinions of the group of people who do not like, refer to the feedback of the group of people you like, and enlarge the things they like to firmly grasp this group of people.
"So my logic is to find someone who likes me to make him like me more, and finally come to buy me." An Yugang concluded.
Change and change
has entered the film marketing industry for more than ten years and has participated in the marketing of more than 100 films. As a witness to the development of the domestic film marketing market, An Yugang has personal experience of the changes in the context of domestic publicity and distribution .
"Too many changes." An Yugang recalled. The first is the changes in channels, such as the development of newspapers and TV column platforms when he first entered the industry to the later information platforms Mtime.com and Sina Toutiao, and then began to have interactive platforms such as Weibo and Renren, and then to today’s With the advent of the short video era, publicity channels have undergone several changes.
Secondly, the behavior of users receiving information is also changing. From the earliest passive receiving of information, to the selection of information reading, to the interactive receiving of information, these changes require changes in marketing methods.
Therefore, we have seen that the marketing methods of movies have gradually evolved from the past relatively simple online information dissemination, offline premiere ceremony, etc., to various offline activities, brand linkage, online social network operations and other forms. After
hit Weibo and Renren in the "33 Days of Broken Love" in 2011, creative video promotion began to become a standard feature of movie marketing. Then, in "Predecessor Strategy 3", the two musics "Decent" and "Should Disperse" have brought high exposure to the film on Douyin, and short videos have become a new front for film marketing.
"I still find the target audience and do what he likes." An Yugang believes that no matter how the marketing context changes, the core of marketing work remains the same. In his view, whether it is marketing channels or marketing methods, they are all carried out with the steps and methods of users. The core of the so-called changes comes from changes in user behavior.
In An Yugang's view, the future film marketing trend should be the product of the "big data + user behavior psychology". The first is to use the technological advantages of Internet big data to find target audiences faster, more comprehensively, and accurately, and continuously update corresponding marketing actions in response to changes in target users' information receiving and purchasing behaviors, and finally achieve conversion. For example, when his team was working on the "Godzilla 2: King of Monsters" project this year, according to the changes in the market environment and user behavior, a special short video marketing team was set up specifically for similar short videos such as Douyin, Kuaishou, etc.The video platform customizes content that meets the preferences of platform users, and accurately expands its influence under the action of big data, and promotes the film in a way that young people like.
In the end, An Yugang also said that short video marketing will be a more important direction after filming. "Marketing must go where the user is. Only after the user can marketing be effective."
