"Huaxia Ancient City Universe" officially "wind up" to explore the "one fish and twelve eat" innovative business model

Source: Beijing News

Luoyang of the ancient city of Huaxia.

The TV series "The Wind Rises in Luoyang" makes thousands of viewers admire the style of the ancient capital: Heaven, Ming Hall, Longmen Grottoes, Luoyang Peony, Luoyang Water Seat... The aesthetic design of the national style with unique oriental characteristics, and the city group portraits that span the rivers and lakes, the people, and the court, Luoyang has become a city with internet celebrities punching cards. "Wind Rises In Luoyang" opens up 12 product forms such as dramas, variety shows, animation films, documentaries, movies, etc. through an IP, realizing close cooperation between culture, enterprises and governments, and ushering in a new situation for the high-quality development of the urban cultural tourism industry empowered by IP.

Behind this series of innovative achievements, it is the "Huaxia Ancient City Universe" plan launched by iQIYI and the innovative business model of "one fish and twelve eats". The Beijing News reporter interviewed Dai Ying, senior vice president of iQIYI and chief producer of "The Wind Rises in Luoyang", and Zhang Heng, vice president of iQIYI, to explore the original intention and prospect behind iQIYI's successful revitalization of "Luoyang IP".

From dramas to anime, variety shows, documentaries, VR...

Create innovative IP based on the ancient capital of the millennium

The creation time of the "Luoyang" series of IP has been more than four years.

In 2017, Ma Boyong began to use Luoyang, the ancient capital of the thousand-year-old culture, as the background of the story to build the initial structure for the "Wind Rises Luoyang" project. At the end of 2018, iQIYI established "Wind Rises Luoyang" as an industry-wide development project. In Dai Ying's view, the choice of "Luoyang" is mainly rooted in self-confidence and recognition of Chinese history and culture. As an important birthplace of Chinese civilization and one of the cities at the eastern starting point of the Silk Road, Luoyang has a cultural history of more than 5,000 years and a history of more than 4,000 years of city building. The ancient capital of the Thirteen Dynasties has recorded too much of the splendid history of Chinese civilization, which can be transformed into a rich audiovisual language in the IP industry chain.

The 27th edition of the "Wind Rises luoyang" was changed, during which Zhang Heng simultaneously began to coordinate and open up the internal of iQIYI. In Zhang Heng's view, iQIYI has a diversified and all-category art form, from dramas, variety shows, animation films, documentaries, movies, to derivatives, stage plays, comics, commercial real estate, VR full sense, games and literature, with the natural advantage of "eating more than one fish". Based on the high-quality cultural IP of "Luoyang", all departments have also participated "spontaneously". Zhang Heng described each meeting as a "trading market", in which everyone listed their own materials, stories, drawings, props, sets, etc. one by one for other departments to extend and create.

For example, the anime tells the story of the fourteen years before the series, making up for the unexploded parts of the series, such as the growth line between Baili Hongyi and Liu Ran, and the previous history of Gao Bingcang. The series also applies scene design such as the animation of Zhongnan City and Bad Well, and will also be applied to offline physical entertainment and stage dramas in the future. Characters and scenes are connected in series with each other, stories complement each other, and IP diversified development makes Luoyang culture more complete.

Facts have proved that the mutual driving effect between "Luoyang IP" is very obvious. In 2021, the comic strip "Wind Rises Luoyang's Rotten Grass for Fireflies" was serialized in iQiyi Da, with a cumulative view of 830 million, taking the lead in opening up the secondary audience. Variety show "Debut! "Luoyang" followed, with a Douban score of up to 8.0, allowing the audience to immerse themselves in the history and culture of Luoyang. Until the drama "Wind Rises Luoyang", the documentary "Shendu Luoyang", and the animation "Wind Rises Luoyang's God Machine Boy" has repeatedly set a new high in the popularity of iQiyi's station, the IP level has received a total of 2740 hot searches for topics, and the reading volume has exceeded 60 billion. It is reported that the live-action movie "The Yin and Yang Realm of Luoyang" is about to be launched, and in this regard, Luoyang drives the "Huaxia Ancient City Universe" to officially "wind up".

The integration of culture, enterprise and government to rebuild Luoyang's city business card

Use good stories to boost cultural self-confidence

It is reported that after the broadcast of "Wind Rises Luoyang", many girls dressed in Hanfu punched under the Yingtian Gate in Luoyang; the sheep soup favored by Baili Hongyi in the play was hotly searched on the food website; the government affairs microblog of the Luoyang Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism won the first place in the current Weibo communication influence. "Luoyang IP" is leveraging the local cultural tourism and economic development of Luoyang from multiple angles and levels.

The out-of-the-loop of "Luoyang Elements" is inseparable from the immersive display of history and culture by IP. Dai Ying said that the main creative team of "Wind Rises in Luoyang" has traveled to Luoyang many times, and they have visited a large number of local ancient city buildings in Luoyang, as well as landmarks such as Luoyang Urban Planning Bureau and Museum to understand the reasons for Luoyang's urban layout. Similarly, Luoyang's rich color elements, water elements, and food culture have reshaped the team's imagination of luoyang's ancient capital.

These in-depth styles are ultimately transformed into creative elements. For example, the series restores the historical monuments of Luoyang such as Heaven, MingTang, Taichu Palace, xianju Hall, etc.; based on the descriptions in ancient books and the copying of grotto murals, more than 100 scenes and more than 15,000 props are restored; and the urban layout of 109 squares in the three cities of Luoyang ancient city is also restored one by one. In addition, the wedding of Baili Hongyi to welcome relatives, sprinkle grain beans, look at the mirror to worship, the introduction of Qinglu, etc., are the epitome of Luoyang's traditional culture. Dramas, animations, comics, variety shows, etc. also invariably integrate Luoyang peony flowers, traditional food sheep soup, dumplings, crispy cheese and so on. Behind these details is the responsibility of the platform party for the inheritance of the ancient city culture of Luoyang.

The reconstruction of the city business card by the "Luoyang IP" is also a successful case of the integration of culture, enterprise and government. Dai Ying revealed that the Luoyang Municipal Government has given great support to the Luoyang Municipal Government from the collection of style, materials, setting to shooting. The close cooperation between culture, enterprises and government is undoubtedly more conducive to fully promoting the comprehensive dissemination of ancient capital cities in the form of integrated media, such as gastronomic culture, urban construction characteristics, etiquette and customs, etc., realizing and opening up a new model of inheriting traditional culture and disseminating Chinese values, and comprehensively enhancing the national self-confidence and cultural identity of contemporary people.

"Eat more than one fish" and the ancient Chinese city universe "when in progress"

Brings a third business benefit model

Although "Wind Rises in Luoyang" has come to an end, the IP creation of "Huaxia Ancient City Universe" has not stopped. It is reported that the "Luoyang" theme script kill and VR full sense will be transformed after March 2022, the theme hotel will be completed at the end of 2022, and the game will be launched before 2023. Dramas with distinct regional cultures, such as "The Wind Rises in Longxi", "Guangzhou Thirteen Elements", "Two Beijings and Fifteen Days", and "Dunhuang", are also promoted simultaneously in the creation sequence of "one fish and more eating". According to Wang Xiaohui, president and chief content officer of iQIYI's Professional Content Business Group (PCG), after Luoyang, more than 20 cities have actively sought cooperation with iQIYI; in the future, iQIYI will also independently build IP around the "Huaxia Ancient City Universe" and continue to deepen other product forms to provide a richer and more diversified IP experience for the public.

Zhang Heng believes that "one fish and twelve eating" actually lengthens the life cycle of IP. Every time the art form is launched online and offline, it can drain the previous art form. Variety shows can drive the transformation of three-dimensional groups into the second dimension of comics; episodes will further divert traffic for comics, variety shows, animations and documentaries. In the future, movies, stage plays, derivatives, offline entertainment, physical games, etc. will be launched one after another, which will continue to bring traffic monetization to the "Luoyang IP". "Luoyang IP provides us with a very good learning opportunity, so that we can operate the next 'Huaxia Ancient City Universe' with greater benefits."

In Wang Xiaohui's view, in the past, Internet platforms basically adopted the profit model of advertising and membership, and "one fish and twelve eating" and "Huaxia Ancient City Universe" undoubtedly opened up a new situation in iQiyi's business model. Ip, a monetized form, is forming a new territory of "advertising, membership and IP" based on its strong value-added industrial chain, and continues to provide better commercial returns for the platform. "If a drama can take a variety of ways to form a multi-dimensional development brand, it brings a third commercial revenue model that may serve as a strong support for the sustainable development of film and television dramas."

It is worth mentioning that in addition to being broadcast on iQIYI International, the drama "Wind Rises in Luoyang" has been released to mainstream channels and platforms in Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia and other regions. The "Huaxia Ancient City Universe" is about to attract attention from all over the world, allowing more people to see Chinese culture and further realizing cultural self-confidence and cultural export. (Reporter Zhang He)

【Error correction】【Responsible editor: Yang Yingying】