Rhino Entertainment Original
Text|Fangzheng Editor|Park Fang
The after-sales variety show began to roll up again.
Following last year's "Longing for Life" after-sales variety show "Welcome to the Mushroom House" among the small hits, platforms have been trying to find ways to tap "high-value" after-sales products from the head variety show, and this year, this development model has matured.
A few years ago, popular Korean drama after-sales variety shows such as "Witty Camping Life" and "Won't Hurt You" caused heated discussions in the industry about the feasibility of developing similar projects in the national comprehensive complex. Recently, Mango TV's "Northeast Transfer Student - Old Iron We Are Coming" finally landed the model, and hilarious scenes such as "Popcorn Old Man Jumping Three Cups of Chicken" have become a new source of happiness for many people.
This year, the idea of developing after-sales variety shows on various platforms is clearer.
Mango TV's "Goodbye Lover 2" is followed by "See Lover Again", "Wife's Romantic Trip 6" is followed by "The Distance Between Love and Marriage", which are all "independent products" born to consolidate the stickiness of IP fans; iQiyi gathered the stars of Xiaoguo with "Start working! "New Life" comforts workers, "Let's Farm" develops "Farming Members Single-line Version" and a number of short video form by-products, all of which greatly extend the long-tail popularity of the main IP; Youku's "Car Paul Has Something to Say" is a self-made star micro-variety for the guests of "Infinite Beyond Class", and it is also an IP linkage play method that moves with the trend.
At the end of last year, Rhino Jun was at
"Derivative variety show, brand new favorite? 》
As mentioned in the article, today's derivative variety shows have basically achieved "independent walking" in terms of content development and commercial monetization. So, what new thinking about "VIP content development" does the platform show about the after-sales variety shows recently developed by various platforms?
Drama reform, the platform's IP value-added business
The "drama reform and comprehensive reform" of the national comprehensive has finally touched the right way.
As we all know, "drama after-sales variety show" has produced a large number of popular Korean comprehensive such as "Witty Camping Life", but what many people don't know is that the exploration of "drama reform" by the national comprehensive is even earlier.
In 2019, "Hot-Blooded Boy" starring Huang Zitao and Zhang Xueying spawned the first domestic after-sales variety show "Help! I'm going to work"; In the same year, the blockbuster drama "Chen Qingling" fissioned into a "Young Listening to School"; In 2020, "Sideburns Are Not Begonia Red" derived from the Peking Opera talk show "Yu You See You on Stage" planned by Wang Peiyu.
However, whether from the perspective of the popularity of the work or the production ideas, these programs neither borrowed the original IP to get out of the circle, nor did they bring blessing effects to the original IP. The reason, "Help! I'm going to work" only Liu Yuning alone carries the beam "lonely wood is difficult to support", "Youth Listening to School" only invites the waist actors in the play to play a "top effect", "Yu You See You on Stage" is too hardcore Peking Opera speech and the CP narrative of the original drama is too weak.
From this, we can understand one of the reasons why "Northeast Transfer Student - Old Iron We Are Coming" can stand out: it completely invited the "original team" of the online drama version of "Northeast Transfer Student" and truly achieved the "sequel" in variety shows.
In "Old Iron We Are Coming", characters such as "Northeast Girl" Han Meimei, "Tiger Bar" Wang Hu and other distinctive characters were retained one by one. The plot framework of "on the eve of the Spring Festival, students gathered in the northeast hometown of transfer student Wang Hu to spend the winter vacation life together" was established, so that the look and feel of the show magically wandered between "down-to-earth reality show" and "hilarious plot bridge".
"Old Iron We Are Coming" reflects the two major content advantages of the after-sales variety show of the series: first, the hot drama actors can truly reunite in the variety show and have a "group complex", which is more sincere than any after-sales activity for fans; Second, the hot drama actors have their own popular "personalities" in variety shows, creating more chemical reactions and variety show hot terriers, which can also attract passers-by and audiences.
To a larger extent, the platform uses hot drama IP to develop derivative variety shows, maximizing the long-tail effect of hot drama IP, essentially doing an IP value-added business (realizing the two-way blood transfusion of "drama with complex" and "comprehensive drama"). It can be seen from the fact that the first season of "Old Iron We Are Coming" has attracted 7 gold owners such as Ariwan, Onion Mate, and Want Want that brands recognize the ability of this variety show to attract fans.
However, for the platform, the current after-sales variety show is still facing practical obstacles in the production of the "original team", especially the head drama actors are difficult to leave enough time for the variety show, which is why the variety show derived from the small-cost online drama "Northeast Transfer Student" stands out first.
"Fancy after-sales" has different ideas
Other forms of after-sales variety shows are also more playable.
After combing through some recent after-sales variety show projects developed by various platforms, Rhino Jun was surprised to find that the development ideas of several major platforms are actually very different, reflecting the unique thinking of each platform on VIP content development.
Mango is one of the most popular platforms to develop after-sales products, and it is also the one with the most diversified development directions. In addition to "Old Iron We Are Coming" taking the after-sales route of the drama, the platform's recently launched "See Lover Again" invites Yang Di to visit the "sadomasochistic CPs" who have participated in "Goodbye Lover" in the past two seasons, which essentially pokes at the needs of VIPs who want to see the subsequent emotional direction of CP.
"The Distance from Love to Marriage" also takes the CP after-sales route, but contrary to the "sadomasochism" of "See Lover Again", it invites the three couples of "Wife's Romantic Trip 6" to live together for seven days and carry out the "7-day talk before marriage" of premarital counseling, and the program may have reference significance for audiences with fear of marriage anxiety.
It should be especially mentioned that Mango's "Detective Heart Detective New Year Concert" is a rare VIP this year, and it takes 12 yuan to unlock a paid product. Despite this, due to the huge amount of Ming Detective fans, the paid show was once whitewashed by the highly loyal Ming Detective to the first place in the popularity of the Yunhe Variety Show List and Maoyan Variety List.
Tencent Video's VIP after-sales development reflects the platform's strong brokerage resource integration capabilities. The Chinese video romance complex "Love This Little Thing" invited 3 pairs of popular love complex CPs from various platforms such as "Half-Acquainted Lovers", "Like You and Me Also 2", "Let's Fall in Love 1" and other platforms, breaking the traditional love complex routine of "from acquaintance, acquaintance to love" in terms of content.
iQiyi's after-sales variety show also reflects the power of resource integration, and the platform invited the Xiaoguo talk show generals who came out of Youtai's "Talk Show Conference" at the beginning of the year, and customized the node-type VIP variety show "Start work!" for migrant workers. New Life", this idea of using comedy content to soothe the emotions of VIP users is worth learning.
iQiyi's "Let's Farm", which has been on the rise recently, has developed a number of after-sales variety show content in the form of short videos in a packaged manner. For example, a version of "Farming Member Single Line Version" was specially cut out to meet the needs of solo fans. The simultaneous development of products such as "VLOG short ensemble" and "immersive live broadcast" by Douyin and Yuanwang Technology is an innovative move in the product form of the platform's after-sales development.
Youku's "Infinite Beyond Class" derivative variety show "Che Paul Has Something to Say" takes a star IP production route similar to the short video variety show. The first issue of "Infinite Beyond Class" helped "Little Old Man" Che Paul out of the circle, and the program group took the opportunity to share his life insights and life philosophy around this popular veteran TVB artist, forming enough differentiation with the main IP program.
After-sales variety shows cannot be "only VIP watchable"
But after-sales variety shows still lack real hits.
Although the platform is increasingly mature in the production of after-sales variety shows, most programs can make enough good reputation among VIP users, but these programs are still a breath away from the "big hit".
From the perspective of investment volume, recently, in addition to "Northeast Transfer Student - Old Iron We Are Coming" due to model innovation attracted 7 gold owners to increase the code, the number of other after-sales variety show projects is only 1 to 2, and the financial owners still dare not invest in after-sales variety shows on a large scale.
Of course, investment promotion is not the main source of income for the VIP product of after-sales variety show, membership income is. But at present, the main problem facing domestic after-sales variety shows is precisely that it is too "fan special".
Just imagine, if it weren't for the fans who chased Ming Detective for several seasons to the guests, which passerby would be willing to pay 12 yuan more to watch the Detective Heart Detective concert? There are too many products such "fan special", and it is doubtful about the blessing role of the long video platform VIP pull.
Back then, the reason why "Witty Camping Life" and "Won't Hurt You" could form a national viewing boom in South Korea was mainly because the program extracted a content model from the original drama that could be watched by passers-by viewers. For example, "Won't Hurt You" gathers the hated "villain men" in "Penthouse", borrowing their sense of contrast in and out of the play to create a sense of variety show, and any audience will find fun when they watch it.
Therefore, the most important point that domestic after-sales variety shows need to improve at present is that they can not only think about VIPs in their development ideas, but also create content that is also "friendly" to passers-by and audiences, so that they will play the best pulling role in attracting new VIP members of the platform.
We can notice that the commonality of "Welcome to the Mushroom House" and "Old Iron We Are Coming" is that both have captured the public family needs of "variety shows are the source of happiness".
After-sales variety shows, although there is the word "after-sales", their service objects should be the majority of passers-by.