Author|Wei Xie
Almighty agent photography and station sister never lack pictures, "watching a drama in Reuters" has long been the norm in domestic entertainment, and now, this Reuters wind seems to have blown to variety shows.
According to incomplete statistics, with the recording of many reality shows such as "Let's Run" and "Youth Travels", more than 30 variety show Reuters-related topics have appeared on the hot search since March. Among them, "Riding the Wind 2023" (hereinafter referred to as "Sister Lang 4") has 6 topics on the hot search in 4 days: childhood goddess Jia Jingwen, Cai Shaofen, Xu Huaiyu went to work Reuters, Xie Na was photographed at work netizens shouting "weight loss success", Qiu Ceraxuan and Li Caihua achieved "like Ellie in the same frame" after many years when they took a group photo at the airport...
(Table: Selected Reuters topics)
For variety shows, there are hot searches that can be put on before they are broadcast, which has undoubtedly become a kind of warm-up.
Practitioners told Entertainment Capital that variety shows are "welcome" to Reuters, which is fundamentally different from dramas. Under normal circumstances, Reuters focuses on recording locations, artist lineups, styling or simple interactions, and some information may cause the marketing points of the series to be revealed in advance, such as costume styling, but audiences pay more attention to character relationships and competitive processes when watching variety shows, and Reuters is not enough to pose a threat, but is regarded as an effective means of drainage.
In some programs, Reuters even forced the production side, affecting the post-production of the program, which is a "dangerous move" to lead the producer to revitalize the project. Variety show screenwriter Chao Twilight revealed to Xiaoyu that when recording the talent show before, his boss increased the proportion of a certain pair of CP's story line because he saw Reuters posts on the Internet.
For variety shows, Reuters is not new, but the recent Reuters fever is indeed long-gone. This also begs a question worth pondering: does this mean that the variety show industry is renewed? In this regard, the answer given by practitioners is not optimistic.
Variety shows are not afraid of Reuters
The reason why variety shows are not afraid of Reuters is because Reuters does not contain the key information or content of the program itself.
The recording time of a single-issue studio variety show is about four to five hours, and the outdoor reality show can reach about ten hours, whether it is pictures or videos, it is difficult for the audience to watch a variety show in Reuters. Compared with dramas that use serving Taoism and famous scenes as marketing points, the viewing pleasure of variety shows lies more in character shaping and CP interaction, and this information cannot be directly presented in Reuters.
So why is there still a variety show Reuters? What do audiences watch in variety Reuters?
In fact, Reuters has always been a common "routine" for variety shows, especially reality shows, and is an effective means of promotion.
During the recording of the last episode of the fifth season of "Detective Academy", contestants Guo Wentao and Pu Yixing posted photos with key clues on the official account at the request of the mission, and commented on "coquettish and praise", actively revisiting the show's styling and competition results, and the interaction volume of the two Weibo also reached 9W+ and 7W+ respectively.
For example, the popular talent show in the previous two years, variety show publicity Zizi revealed that in fact, the selection diary "leaked" by the draft and the short video from the perspective of follow PD are also alternative Reuters, "Compared with the convenience store, stage modeling and other pictures taken by the station sisters Reuters, the pipe selection diary in text form has a mystery of survival under closed recording." And the text is only describing the behavior, leaving more space for the audience's reverie. ”
During the broadcast period of "Tomorrow's Children Orchestra Season", @明日高校bot recorded the selection diary from May to October, and the relevant content data far exceeded other blog posts, and the number of interactions reached 3000+ many times, such as Zhang Jiayuan's alarm clock ringtone is "March of the Volunteers", Fu Sichao often stays up late because of music, Ren Yinpeng "sleeps and socializes" and many other "hidden corners" that are not captured by the camera.
At the same time, Reuters' role is not limited to publicity, and there have been cases that affect the creative side.
When variety show screenwriter Chao Twilight participated in a certain talent project, some fans disclosed the CP Reuters he filmed during the recording on social platforms. "In our own presets, the two people he photographed had no sense of CP. But when we led the surf, he saw it, he thought the audience liked it, so he focused on the story line of the two of them. ”
From this point of view, for the audience, Reuters is not only information, but also a window into the "secret". Here, too, there are more "real" stars off camera. Whether it is judging their appearance and etiquette, or exploring the meaning of their various behaviors, or even secretly snorting CP, there is enough topicality.
On this basis, planning Reuters and promoting it on the hot search is one of the daily tasks of variety show publicists.
It is understood that airport photos and work styling are almost the "fixed KPIs" of studio reality shows, and outdoor reality shows will also shoot simple interactions between guests with obvious movements, common such as "look at each other and smile", "raise eyebrows" and "look back and wait". Some talent shows require the audience to turn in their mobile phones at the recording site, so most of the text "repo" that describes the look and feel of the stage and the shape of the contestants appears afterwards.
When Empty participated in a project, he planned a warm-up topic of Reuters and photographed nearly 100 sets of materials with his colleagues. "It is mainly the state of the artist when he is in a life-like scene, such as wearing an old man's shirt and flip-flops facing the sky, going to eat at a roadside stall with a sense of life, and so on. It is hoped that through this relatively natural form and artist influence, the public will have a certain basic understanding of the program and raise expectations for the program. ”
For publicity, the hot search lists of various platforms are the most intuitive data to measure the effectiveness of Reuters. "Both the platform and the production company think the list will be more authoritative."
It should be pointed out that as one of the many means of variety show marketing, although commonly used by Reuters, it is not a panacea.
On the one hand, although it is hoped to create momentum for the show, the degree of discussion by Reuters depends on the popularity of the artist and the program, and the type of variety show recording. "Wuha" and "Running Man" such variety shows with location recording, Reuters is relatively richer and more guaranteed in popularity, and the Reuters form of studio variety shows is single, and the popularity is limited. "Ning'an Like a Dream" spin-off group, Reuters, is based on the drama and CP popularity.
On the other hand, Reuters itself may be able to consume a publicity KPI, but how much conversion it can bring to variety shows is also worth putting a question mark. After all, as the way of watching short videos becomes more and more popular, many viewers have become accustomed to watching variety shows through cuts on Douyin.
At the same time, Reuters marketing has also seen some changes in the past few years, such as the Reuters channel.
Based on the form of its short videos and pictures and the star effect, Reuters can adapt to Weibo, Douyin, B station, Xiaohongshu and other platforms, and after analyzing the user characteristics of each platform, Reuters began to try to increase the proportion of Reuters marketing on Xiaohongshu.
"Xiaohongshu users take sharing as the driving force, the activity of users is very high, and the authenticity of Xiaohongshu Reuters will be much higher than Weibo." This also means that hidden in the real sharing of users, the performance of our marketing purpose is blurred and less easy to discover. Zizi said.
At present, outdoor reality shows such as "Youth Travels" and "Run" that are being recorded have appeared in the sub-categories of "taking photos", "Reuters" and "recording" on the search results page of Xiaohongshu. "In a way, Xiaohongshu has become a new front for Reuters marketing."
Reuters heat does not withstand the market cold
The recent sudden Reuters fever has brought the public's attention back to variety shows for a long time, but whether it means that the market picks up and how long it can last, practitioners have reservations.
Variety show screenwriter Chao Twilight explained, "I think one reason is that there are not too many new projects coming out this year, and various platforms or TV stations need programs that can attract audiences, and they may tend to put old programs supported by data on the schedule." ”
"Hahahahahaha", which was broadcast in Q4 in the first one and two seasons, has become Q1 2023. "Youth Travels", which was broadcast in June 2020, has been brought forward to April 8 this year. Including "Run", "Sister Riding the Wind and Waves" and "Extreme Challenge" recorded according to the original schedule, the current 5 comprehensive N generations are all in the recording period, which gives the variety show the appearance of warming up and getting together.
In this way, this Reuters heating may just be a coincidence. The data also shows the problem, Reuters is "flying" on social platforms, but the variety show market in Q1 2023 is still flat.
It is reported that at present, 3.4 billion variety shows are effectively broadcast in more seasons, down 3% year-on-year, and the cumulative effective broadcast of variety shows on the whole network has only increased by 3% compared with last year, and the gap with Q1 2021 is nearly 3 billion. A total of 41 variety shows were broadcast in the new season, a year-on-year decrease of 10.
Specifically, one of the reasons is that the popularity of the N generation is not as expected. For example, the Douban score of "Half-Cooked Lovers 2" is less than 6 points, and the number of scores is just over 4,000, which is far from the 7.4 score scored by nearly 30,000 people in the first season. The number of ratings for "Let's Go Again 2", "Endless Sound Treasure Island Season" and "Detective 8" also plummeted.
Xiaoyu also learned from practitioners that there are many comprehensive N generations that are relatively weak, especially pendant variety shows.
In Chao Twilight's view, the workplace variety show that emerged in 2019 is typical. Such programs need to be "extensive + novel" when choosing the occupational category to shoot, taking into account both male and female audiences, but also have a certain sense of mystery. For variety show writers and directors, it often requires a very "hard" knowledge reserve to maintain the high level of shooting in one season of the show.
The Douban score of the first season of the "Exciting Offer" series was as high as 8.2 points, but the rating of the fourth season has dropped to 6.5 points. A big reason for this is that the architect industry chosen to show in the fourth season has declined to the audience, and even received a "no details, difficult to bring in" evaluation on Douban.
In response to this phenomenon, Asaka explained, "This may be because the profession chosen for the new season is relatively science and engineering, even if there is no gender bias of the audience, it is not known to the public, but it is difficult to visualize." The reality part shows the guest drawing, and it's hard to really break down what he's doing, so it's a bit boring at times. ”
In addition, workplace variety shows are closely related to the mood of the current era. Whether it is the newly broadcast "Hi, City Hunter" and "Leap into the High-end Workplace", or the comprehensive N generation "Heartbeat Offer", almost all workplace variety shows cannot escape the output of characters and plots such as "roll king", overtime, and workplace competition. However, such content is contrary to the current social sentiment of young people "longing to lie flat", like an "extraterrestrial product" that ignores the social reality of employment difficulties.
The unsatisfactory nature of the N generation will make people pay attention to the production of new IP, and from the perspective of genre, the Q1 variety show market in 2023 does allow the audience to see the novelty.
Previously, "Farm the Boy", which received attention due to investment promotion, opened a new model of "low-cost + labor documentary", the content is unpretentious in the universal sense, and the horror of the variety show industry - select ten young people to plant 142 acres of land (half a bird's nest) in half a year, and was ridiculed by the audience as "farming literature into reality". This variety show that can be called "groundbreaking", the final results exceeded many people's expectations, no traffic, pure breeding, but got a high score of 8.9 points on Douban.
But it failed to achieve the balance of word of mouth and popularity, the total effective playback of the nearly 20 issues of "Farm" in Q1 did not reach 100 million, and the latest issue of Yunhe Variety Show Weekly only ranked eighth, which is also a common difficulty for new IPs.
The top two of the quarterly TV variety show effective broadcast were occupied by "Our Inn" and "Infinite Beyond Class". The former opens a "hodgepodge" variety show, and the latter introduces TVB as a highlight under the theme of actor competition, and both follow the three-board axe model of "traffic + topic + feelings" that Wu Tong is good at, but their respective Douban scores are only 3.5 and 3.7 points, falling into the controversy of "obvious script" and "deliberate hype".
All this also shows that the temporary Reuters heat is not enough to withstand the cold of the market. Speaking of this, practitioners are also quite emotional, domestic variety shows have experienced more than ten years of crazy long, the industry has had a wave of innovation, there has been a grand occasion of a hundred flowers blooming, and there has been a miracle that the N generation of variety has stood tall, but now, in addition to the usual requirement to "see what Korean variety shows are doing", more importantly, I have to consider how to survive the N generation.
Variety shows kidnapped by hot searches and KPIs are still looking forward to reshaping and even finding a vibrant industry atmosphere.
(Twilight, Empty Sky, and Purple are pseudonyms)