The passionate firefighting and heart-warming drama "He Came from the Fire" (hereinafter referred to as "Fire") starring Huang Jingyu and Zhang Jingyi has become a dark horse in the National Day season. During the short holiday season when Chinese and foreign film and television productions gathered together, "Firelight" surpassed all other dramas and once ranked No. 1 on the weekly Maoyan online drama list.
When "Firelight" first aired, there were a lot of hot searches for its "highly restored fire scene" industry drama label, and it had the potential to be a carnival across the Internet. As the plot further unfolded, people's interest in the characters and story of "Firelight" Driven by waves of heated discussions about its direction, the popularity of "Firelight" has risen again and again. The ratings and topics have promoted each other, forming a "rising tide lifts all boats" situation.
As the content of the series increases in popularity, advertisements and fancy placements from many merchants such as Vipshop, Tong Ren Tang, C’estbon, Pulse, Maotai Hanjiang, Wong Lo Kat, Saturday Fu, Pepsi, 999, etc. have frequently appeared in "Fire". "Flash", the exposure and interaction volume of related brands have followed the increase in popularity of the TV series, and it has logically gained another wave of double-section traffic and word-of-mouth.
Nowadays, content marketing has entered the era of universalization. How to establish a new way of establishing brand identity with users? How can we get on the high-efficiency train of long-form video content marketing? How can we achieve the best communication path with the help of the platform... Brand owners of these topics can all get some inspiration from the successful case of "Firelight". Entertainment Business Observer will break it down for you one by one.
The triple value of content marketing: high exposure, strong resonance, and mind-grabbing
high exposure: helping brands quickly get out of the circle
Relevant data shows that long videos are more suitable for holidays. According to data released by the iQiyi Data Research Center on the 7th, during the 8-day National Day holiday, the average daily viewing time of platform users increased by 8% compared with before the holiday, and the average daily viewing time of large-screen users increased by 11% compared with before the holiday.
"Firelight"'s strong popularity during the National Day holiday demonstrated the first value of long-form video content marketing - it not only satisfies users' holiday content entertainment needs, but also brings short-term strong exposure to the brand.
takes Nanfu Battery as an example. It cooperated with "Firelight" in the form of a trailer at the end of the film. According to data provided by Baidu Index, the brand's search index increased steadily from September 30 to October 10. On October 7 There was a growth peak every day; and Maotai Hanjiang, which cooperated in the form of a title board, had a popularity peak on September 26 and October 7 when the drama was broadcast. Compared with the highest single-day increase before the broadcast, it increased by more than 1,000 times, reflecting The explosive power of traffic brought by long video content.
’s head-level traffic on the entire network is a great blessing for the exposure of cooperative brands. In the era of fragmented information, if a brand does its own marketing actions, it will face various problems such as low audience participation, weak social communication, and difficulty in innovation execution, making it difficult to gain high attention. It is even more difficult to break out of the circle. However, With the help of high-quality long video content IP fermentation, it is relatively easy to achieve large traffic by taking advantage of the situation.
has strong resonance: shortening the psychological distance with users.
has paved the way for high exposure. The second value is the emotional resonance brought by emotional fit. The theme type, plot direction, the joys and sorrows of the characters, combined with the atmosphere of a specific festival, Drive emotional resonance between the audience and the content.
Take the National Day festival as an example. The emotional tone of the festival is mainly positive energy, tribute to heroes, and feelings of family and country. Content that matches such emotions will be more popular and more likely to resonate with the audience. The drama "Firelight" truly restores the work and life of firefighters. Whether it is the earthquake rescue at the beginning or the large and small fire accidents in the drama, it embodies the active, passionate, loyal and persistent spirit of the times of the firefighters. , perfectly suited to the atmosphere of National Day.
When public sentiment resonates with the spiritual core of the drama, it can help spread the brand's positive value and establish its image. For example, in the play, Yinlu Hao Porridge Road advertises "Nutritious cereals and good porridge road, let's pay tribute to the backfire heroes with you", which is in line with the audience's emotional value of paying tribute to heroes, and users will naturally have a higher favorability towards the brand when watching.
Seize the mind: from "one" to "the only"
After you have exposure, goodwill, and resonance, the more important thing is to be able to establish an emotional link between the brand and the user, which is the third value of content marketing-seize the user's mind. , allowing the brand to change from "one" to "the only one" chosen by users.
For example, in the fire rescue of the Baozi shop in "Fire", even though the fire was very fast, the ancestral gold necklace of the shop owner was still able to be preserved intact; when Nan Chu was rescued from the fire for the first time by Lin Luxiao, although he could not see clearly Although he looked like a man, he remembered the fishtail necklace around his neck, which was also a token that they could finally know each other and fall in love. This kind of plot can very effectively convey the brand proposition of "True gold is not afraid of fire, true love is not afraid of test", form users' effective empathy for the brand connotation, and seize users' minds through emotional links.
Long videos have rich plots, distinctive characters and strong emotional expressions. They can provide multi-scenario, native and immersive content marketing opportunities, subtly allowing users to project their sincere feelings about the content onto the brand, making it easier to establish Create long-term brand personality value. It is these values that continue to drive the two-way rush between high-quality content platforms and advertisers to jointly share the traffic "fire" brought by long videos.
The three major trends in content marketing are universalization, head-based, and full-link
In recent years, the increasingly fierce "traffic strategy" has made brand building confusing. Some old brands even hesitate to go directly to the bottom and fight with dimensionality reduction. However, careless application of the "traffic strategy" often results in new brands becoming popular and dying quickly, which is not necessarily conducive to the long-term construction of the brand. How to empower brand value with traffic dividends, convert plot "traffic" into consumption "retention", and achieve "integration of product and effect" is a new topic faced by stores aspiring to be a century-old store. Judging from "Firelight", many mature brands have insight into content marketing trends and have done a lot of useful exploration.
Trend 1: Content marketing has entered the era of democratization
According to data from the "2023 China Advertiser Marketing Trend Survey", the penetration rate of brand content marketing is close to 100%, which means that content marketing has developed from an optional option before to today's A must-have option, and in the new stage they require dual services of one-click direct access and one-click integration.
One-click direct link is a brand’s content cooperation with the help of the platform, which can open up all media forms and achieve precise links with one click. For example, long video platforms like iQiyi can deeply cover almost all media forms from personal to family scenes, including PC, mobile, large-screen OTT, VR, etc., and accurately reach high-quality long video users. Whether it is spending leisure time with family and friends, or having a holiday reunion with family members and elders, users can find suitable media forms to watch in different scenarios. During the viewing process, brands use advertisements to accurately reach the target group. One-click integration of
can mobilize long video content IP, artists, and creator resources to participate in content marketing in a matrix. For example, the intermediary cooperation between Vipshop and Zhang Jingyi during the broadcast of "Firelight" requires the platform to have the multi-dimensional ability to integrate the artist's schedule, the creative execution of the creator and the value appeal of the brand, effectively conveying the message of Vipshop Brand essences such as authentic products from big brands, value-for-money sales, and worry-free returns and exchanges are deeply disseminated, achieving multi-purpose marketing effects.
Trend 2: Brand owners are more willing to put
on the “tip”. The second is that brand owners pay more and more attention to spending money on the “edge” when marketing content. That is, among similar media, brand owners prefer the top platform. Pinch tip” delivery. The
head platform has the largest paying user base. According to data reports from QuestMobile and Gouzheng in August 2023, iQiyi’s monthly active users have reached 600 million, and these are high-value groups with the ability and willingness to pay. When "Firelight" is released, it will not only help cooperative brands reach high-quality user groups immediately, but also provide a large-scale traffic pool for the next step of content fermentation and exit. The
head platform has the ability to output stable and continuous hits, and has a high degree of certainty in cooperation opportunities and user expectation management.This certainty allows the brand value to be transferred between different popular models and maintain the unity and stability of the brand's tone. The brands such as Vipshop, 999, Pulse, Wanglaoji, Pepsi, Nanfu, and Yinlu that cooperated with "Firelight" this time are all "frequent users" of iQiyi drama content. Years of cooperation in multiple dramas have cultivated content, A sense of tacit understanding between the brand, users and the platform.
Trend 3: Online and offline linkage for incremental growth
This trend is a great test of the platform’s cross-scenario service capabilities. How to bring high-quality online content offline, how to create surprises while meeting users’ content consumption expectations, and how to use IP Extension of the vitality of content, etc., each item is a complicated task to take apart.
During the broadcast of "Firelight", the starring iQiyi swept buildings, visited Fudan campus to popularize fire protection knowledge, and supported billboards in major city business districts and popular websites across the country, opening up online and offline multi-dimensional fields. Boost the release of brand marketing effectiveness and bring incremental exposure to the brand.
At the same time, "Huoguang" launched the finale bonus gift on October 6. The Huoguang CP fate finale, exclusive highlights and other online materials stimulated members' enthusiasm for updates and further promoted the penetration of brand value among the target group.
From "high speed" to "high quality", from traffic to content, the high-quality content of long videos helps advertisers and brands get on the high-speed train of long-term value. With content IP as the core, it carries the emotional force of the content to promote the brand. Long-term growth can be seen from the content marketing of "Firelight". In this regard, Wu Gang, senior vice president of iQiyi, put it to the point: First find good content that matches the brand's temperament, and then find an effective way to communicate between the content and consumers. This is the prerequisite for content marketing to be effective and efficient.
