Special feature of 1905 film network Have you ever had such an experience in the process of catching up with film and television works — — Open the social software, the characters in the play seem to live on the hot search list for 24 hours, and every move of each character can come up with a topic that attracts countless discussions; Brush a short video, one group of people is breaking through the defense in the cinema because of this detail, and another group of people is beginning to think about a certain bridge in the play … …
One-pass operation is as fierce as a tiger, and these bombing marketing makes many works naturally become the "explosion" of the opening year/season in the eyes of netizens. However, under the tropic of cancer, many of these so-called "hot" film and television works "have no such drama" among the audience.
Why is there such a puzzling "contrast" Not long ago, People’s Daily and Guangming Daily successively issued articles criticizing the excessive pursuit of flow effect in the marketing of some film and television works, and the publicity stunt runs counter to the quality of content, even destroying the film and television industry environment in which the audience objectively and rationally perceives art, and causing serious damage to literary and artistic creation.
# Over-marketing can’t win the hearts of the audience # The topic immediately went to the top of the hot search list, and commented at the bottom of the article. Many "long-cherished" viewers left messages denouncing the influence of over-marketing on the feeling of chasing dramas, and many even directly pointed out the works and stars suspected of "over-marketing" in their eyes.
It is true that the fierce competition makes it inevitable for the drama side to be "drunk and afraid of the deep alley." However, nowadays, the escalating marketing means has not only helped the industry to explode, but also exposed more and more problems. What is marketing, what is "excessive marketing", and why does the industry need to grasp this "degree"? Through investigation, we found that superficial marketing chaos such as hot search and list brushing, water army control and evaluation are bringing deeper hidden dangers and harm to film and television creation.
24-hour "stalking" of the whole network, planting stalks and burying lines in the preparation period of the script
Film and television practitioners suffer from "anxiety" of hot search and out of the circle.
According to the "nomination" of netizens under the topic # Over-marketing won’t win the audience’s heart #, we have verified the marketing data of several film and television dramas: during the broadcast period, the number of hot searches of an online drama that was rated as "more hot searches can play cards" reached 1,300+,of which Weibo platform alone exceeded 800. Calculated, this 15-episode film and television drama has about 90 hot searches on the whole network, and the proportion is really amazing.
Another artist whose name appears frequently, whose recent hit works are also frequently searched on the list. According to incomplete statistics, the number of single-platform hot searches for this series has exceeded 300 in about two weeks. Of course, we also found the data of several "hot search regulars" in the same period of the show, and the hot search volume of the whole network has reached a similar level.
"Overmarketing" or "Really Out of Circle"? Naturally, it is impossible to jump to conclusions only by the number of hot searches. In the same comment area, netizens also had a heated discussion around whether the drama XX and XX really "exploded". Some people think that if the drama has a good reputation, it is understandable to make more efforts to promote it, but more voices immediately refute: this is not the reason why the starring actor creates a topic to brush the list with a little trouble!
It is not difficult to see that excessive marketing is making some works lose their popularity. But why are most drama parties still eager for this?
As one of the "hot searches" in others’ eyes, Ms. Wang, who is engaged in film and television marketing, bluntly said to us: "Sometimes I hope this marketing model will be’ eliminated’ more than anyone else." It is understood that the broadcast cycle of a drama is usually about 3 weeks. The "premiere day" is the most important announcement node of a work. For publicity, this day basically needs to be followed by the whole network 24 hours a day, paying attention to public opinions and topics, keeping up with hot spots in time, and adjusting the announcement rhythm.
However, with the increasing influence of marketing and data on the broadcast volume and investment promotion effect, the "24-hour" that needs to be watched is constantly lengthened in the broadcast cycle. Nowadays, in addition to the marketing plan that has been formulated in the early stage, the publicity department will always pay attention to the discussion of fans and netizens on the Internet, grab the content that has the potential to board the hot search, and then spread it through the topic.
We took the hot search data of the dramas nominated by netizens to Miss Wang, and she admitted that "it is indeed a very high number". However, as a "peer", Ms. Wang also made an analysis from another angle: "This drama is slightly different from other works on the market, because its number of episodes is very short, which means that there is no more time for it to ferment word of mouth during the hit period, so it is also a kind of idea to intensively create topics."
Creating topics to achieve hot search and out-of-the-box content dissemination has now quietly become the "ultimate goal" of some film and television projects. Ms. Wang revealed that in order to facilitate the creation of topics in the subsequent all-media marketing, some dramas have advanced the cycle of planting stalks and burying lines to the project preparation stage: "Now some publicity and marketing parties will start to intervene from the script stage and plan what plots or artists may be hot."
In her view, this seemingly "intentional" marketing is more harmful than the "trivial" topic that disgusted the audience — — The function of creation and publicity is "putting the cart before the horse", but content production serves "going out of the circle" and "hot search": "For example, for a while, it was quite popular for a long time, right? At first glance, they are all golden sentences, which are actually particularly abrupt in the play. " Ms. Wang said that this "strong output" style has been particularly favored by emerging media platforms in the past two years, which is also determined by the preferences of the audience.
Regarding the view that losing the popularity of the road and winning the hearts of the audience, Ms. Wang bluntly said that if "over-marketing" has become a "general trend", most of the authorities will acquiesce in this kind of gameplay: "I feel that it has become an obsession to be out of the circle and hot search, which is the anxiety and heart disease of everyone in the industry. As long as the data that bombing marketing can bring is greater than the so-called lost popularity, then this routine will never be eliminated. "
From "Overmarketing" to "Malicious Marketing"
Brushing the list and controlling the superficial chaos are creating deep harm.
In 2021, during the special rectification of "Clear Rice Circles", we conducted an in-depth investigation on idolize and marketing chaos in artists and fans. Nowadays, the problems exposed in the "over-marketing" of film and television works also tend to be "rice circle", or they have been interdependent and influenced each other for a long time.
Relevant people familiar with the matter introduced to us how some platforms can achieve marketing purposes by purchasing all kinds of data: the drama party can first buy a batch of marketing numbers, usually 5-10 in a group, and publish the same content in a centralized way, attracting users to turn, comment and praise a lot in a short time, and increasing the degree of topic discussion. If the heat fails to meet expectations, the marketing number will also find ways to control and evaluate it. This way, to a certain extent, can affect the platform algorithm and help marketing content get on the hot search. Once on the list, we will continue to spread the "square", buy users to increase original discussions on topics, further consolidate the popularity, and help the content hot search ranking continue to rise.
In addition to the number of hot searches, there are various scoring platforms that need marketing means "public relations". At the end of last year, Douban was once reported as "the water army’s brush quantity control and evaluation before the drama started". Although the platform made a statement at the first time, it also hammered the existence of abnormal scores in the drama evaluation system.
On the 17th of last month, Netcom Office released ten "Clear and Clear" special actions again in 2022, many of which involved the rectification of MCN organization’s content standards, comprehensive management of algorithms, and cracking down on traffic fraud, black public relations, network water army and other marketing-related chaos.
Screenwriters and film critics have always paid close attention to the series of chaos between the entertainment field and the Internet public opinion field in the era of big data. In an exclusive interview with us, he said that the marketing of film and television works, as a means TO C (user-oriented), is a normal business behavior to invest a certain cost in publicity, which is understandable. However, in recent years, especially after the rise of various platforms on the Internet, the purpose of drama marketing has changed from simple TO C to to TO B (enterprise-oriented). Many people use algorithms to manipulate data and increase the online "traffic" of film and television works or artists, thus improving their commercial value in disguise.
On the day of publication, the Central Network Information Office officially took the lead in launching the special action of "Clear 2022 Algorithm Comprehensive Management". Wang Hailin believes that the use of data algorithms to create and chase traffic is the core issue of over-marketing in the film and television industry in recent years. "In the past (due to the purchase and sale mode), people rarely did a lot of publicity and marketing for the series, but now they need it because it has traffic." He revealed that at present, many production companies have to brush their own evaluation on various platforms and scoring websites through marketing, "not only give their own works high marks, but even give other opponents malicious low marks in the competition."
In Wang Hailin’s definition, excessive marketing has developed into a malicious marketing. In order to create traffic, many hot searches are divorced from the content of the play and the acting skills of the stars, which even makes many viewers feel bored and puzzling: "Why do these boring contents have to be searched?" Because they want to keep the heat, this heat can be converted into commercial value. "
However, when over-marketing has long been out of the scope of works propaganda, it has become a new means to create heat and commercial value, and it is bound to trigger more behaviors that do not conform to the norms and even impact the "bottom line" in the industry: "Competitors and traffic people use marketing methods to suppress each other, amplify negative comments, and cause the public opinion environment to deteriorate, which also makes the public’s perception of the film and television industry very negative." Wang Hailin pointed out the deeper influence behind the superficial chaos, such as "brush quantity control and evaluation" and "data falsification".
As a matter of fact, when some playwrights and artists’ brokerage companies that are not properly marketed or even maliciously marketed still use traffic online to guide fans to control and comment, and brush up the list to create gimmicks, truly outstanding works have been "quietly" out of the circle with good stories, good acting skills and good reputation, and really won the audience’s love. Wang Hailin gave us an example. The TV series "In the World", which was popular some time ago, was not widely promoted on the online platform, but both the record-breaking ratings and the high degree of discussion in life proved that the drama was a real "explosion" in 2022.
At present, the special action of Qinglang in 2022 has been rolled out. Although various platforms have been rectified and inspected for related excessive and malicious marketing problems before, it is obviously difficult to achieve tangible results only by their own supervision. Wang Hailin said that malicious marketing works and artists still need to really hit the "sore spot", and those who have caused bad consequences to the industry should be given substantial punishment after investigation. "After last year’s action, some companies, especially traffic brokerage companies, did not see substantial disciplinary measures, but intensified. It is also necessary (relevant departments) to conduct more detailed management of malicious marketing and propose targeted measures. "
