Insiders in the entertainment industry deeply revealed: how much does it cost to do a hot search
Friend A Jun, on the "hot search".
He was distressed - negative. Click in to see, it's all marketing numbers complaining - someone "places an order".
Jun A knew that this was the "operation" of someone who had a festival with him.
He is not a public figure, but engaged in the entertainment industry, related to a certain film and television work.
In fact, the last "hot search" is not a big deal, the attention is limited, if it is not a reminder from friends, even he himself did not notice, but it cannot be used by people with intentions to spread everywhere. This move made Jun A feel like he had "eaten a fly".
Coincidentally, some other friends who do entertainment marketing are also distressed by having to "do hot searches". Because in their KPIs, the project responsible for promotion clearly determines how many hot searches need to be on. And where are there so many real hot searches? Eighty-nine percent rely on "operation".
In fact, the most unbearable thing is that, just like A Jun, "negative hot search" will also become a "dark weapon" operated by the opponent.
Therefore, we have a conclusion: "doing hot search" is the biggest cancer in the entertainment marketing industry.
Why?
How much does it cost to do a hot search
It is said that "buy hot search", objectively speaking, hot search is not bought, but "done". (You can also buy it directly, but there will be a "recommended" word after the entry)
In addition to real hot searches such as major events, popular works, and negatives, in general, eighty percent of the hot searches related to artists, film and television variety works, are deliberately "done".
How? The industry is also called "rushing hot search".
Set a hot search keyword, and then buy the content of the number shop in batches, including but not limited to: big V (well-known marketing number), unknown gold V blue V (verified account), amateur number (collectively referred to as the water army), etc., all types of accounts are in battle, as well as a large number of water army forwards, comments, so that the entry looks very hot, so as to achieve the purpose of landing on the hot search list. In the past, there was also the so-called "out of the circle index", which was achieved by the water army forwarding WeChat moments and Alipay.
A hot search is done, as few as tens of thousands, as many as 100,000. The cost of a single film and television variety show project invested in "rushing hot search" often exceeds half of the publicity budget, and more may account for six or seven percent.
For really popular works or artists, hot search is easy to do, because ordinary netizens pay more attention to it, and there is a lot of spontaneous content, but they also have to add bricks and bricks, because of the situation. In particular, some "specific entries" need to reflect the value of the work, that is, the so-called "propaganda content", which cannot be ignored.
For most works with average popularity, it is not so lucky. Because the real heat is very low, all rely on the water army, the hot search is difficult to get on, smashing 1 million into it, maybe 500,000 will be lost. Of course, mainly because the hot search pit is limited, up to 100, work A occupies, B is gone.
In the recent summer season, the competition has been unprecedentedly fierce, and the big screen and long-form video platforms have been fighting. Not long ago, there was a drama creator who poured bitter water - "The popularity is very high, and I can't go to the hot search." ”
Here is not only Weibo hot search, but also Douyin. The logic of Douyin's hot search is not much different from Weibo, both to buy "troll" accounts to post content around specific terms.
Therefore, the "water army" company is a special existence. These trolls are real individuals (just at the bottom of the hot search industry chain), not zombies or robots in the conventional sense. After many attacks on trolls accounts on platforms such as Weibo, trolls have also evolved.
The hot search involving star artists, in addition to buying accounts, will also use the rice circle - "data female worker" to go into battle. The worst thing is that celebrities or industry insiders will operate in reverse, trying to make the negative terms of "home" on the hot search.
Once a star (or his work) has a negative, his rice circle must be dispatched to maintain, praise is spread all over the "square", and negative reviews are suppressed. And the "square" has become an Asura field where various rice circles compete.
In fact, many people in the rice circle are also part of the "amateurs" or "golden V" in the "water army".
What's more, hot search can be artificially controlled - and employees within the platform will also make a profit from it. This is not a random allegation, but a case to back it up.
In November 2021, "Judgment Document Network" disclosed that two employees of ByteDance were transferred to the public security organ for receiving 570,000 yuan, for "helping designated content appear on Douyin's hot search".
Of course, this is not an isolated case.
It seems that doing hot searches has no practical benefit to the social platform itself, right?
In fact, many of the new media companies that hold trolls' accounts are invested in by social media platforms. On the other hand, "rushing hot search" to post content, which in turn enhances the "activity" of the platform.
This is a closed loop of interests.
Therefore, for the water army and marketing number, the reason why the platform is repeatedly banned is also because of this. It's not that there is no way to completely rectify it, but deliberately leave a hole.
In contrast, why is the Douban score authoritative? Because the Douban platform eliminates the possibility of brushing points to the greatest extent, it reflects the relatively real evaluation of ordinary audiences.
Technical restrictions are not difficult, but the problem of unwillingness to rectify the current interests.
| Does doing hot search have any effect
The hot search done on it is likely to be just a string of numbers on the "project war report", and there is no other use.
Will the general audience follow?
In addition to the really popular works or artists, the hot search of general works, it is certain that eighty percent of no one watches it.
Because the crowd dedicated to watching the hot search list is very limited, in addition to various fans, that is, entertainment marketing practitioners, there may be some melon-eating masses, but for a hot search entry that has been on for a few hours (or even shorter), the chance of seeing it is lower.
The group that likes to watch the hot search also includes people in various fields, and only half of the people who only look at the entertainment hot search terms are about half, and then this group of people will scatter.
In the end, even if a hot search term has worked hard to make the overall list, the chance of being directly clicked on is extremely low.
After the Weibo hot search revision in 2022, it is difficult for the entries in the "entertainment list" to squeeze into the overall list, and the people who specifically come to see the entertainment list are less than one-tenth of the total list. Then, the hot search terms may actually be seen even lower.
There is a joke in the industry: there are more hot searches than ordinary netizens.
Although those so-called golden V blue V amateurs, although they are not robots or zombie numbers, the amount of real reading is extremely limited, and the soft text content sent directly and forwarded is even more unread. Their role is only to "pave the square" and increase the popularity of the entry.
On the whole, it can be concluded that even if a hot search term is successful, its real and effective exposure is likely to be close to "zero" (limited clicks may come from practitioners). Even if it is exposed and clicked, can it be converted into a work? This chain is even more ethereal.
It looks very lively, but it is actually all an illusion.
In addition to adding bricks to the string of numbers of "hot search on the whole network" that can be shown off in the "war report"...
To say that it is completely useless is not right, of course there is - show it to the boss.
The "boss" here may be the father of Party A, the boss of his own company, or the father of the brand who launched a certain work. If the work doesn't explode, dads need a "consolation prize" somewhat.
In fact, more and more bosses are not "superstitious" hot searches.
A friend works on a certain platform, and the big leader directly questioned the hot search "what is the use"? They must not prove the direct relationship between the traffic source of a project on the platform and the hot search.
However, in fact, there is no possibility of argument at all. Because, the hot search that is done up, there is not even an effective click, let alone any actual conversion.
The real explosive works, the hot search is easy to on, and there are also some diversion effects, which will indeed bring bonuses (generally the first fire and then the hot search). But the core is also that the work itself is good, and it is the most important thing to drive word-of-mouth communication and spontaneous discussion.
Just like this summer's "Fengshen Part 1", when it was generally not optimistic before its release, the "tap water" was spread by word of mouth and eventually counterattacked.
Is it relying on piling up hot searches? Of course not.
On the other hand, "Warm", due to Wang Yibo's traffic effect, from start-up to finalization to finalization before release, any action (such as changing a masterpiece) was sent to the hot search by fans, but after the movie was released, it was completely not as expected.
Therefore, a simple fact is: relying on "doing hot search" can not make the work become the so-called "explosive", only if the work is really popular, there will be a hot search, and such a hot search is valuable.
| Why is it a cancer
False illusions, which also have to pay huge costs, are in themselves irrational and deformed.
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, more than fifty percent of the publicity expenses of an entertainment project are invested in hot searches, and even some occupy seven or eight percent, then the remaining promotion costs are quite small.
What can be done?
It is also necessary to do regular matters such as short video dissemination, cooperation with KOLs, press releases, road shows, online and offline activities, and word-of-mouth maintenance. Miscellaneous pieces put together, not enough to spend.
Naturally, there is little money for other, more creative marketing matters. Even if you can do creative marketing, it comes down to one sentence: can it be on the hot search?
If everything is oriented to hot searches, then simply do hot searches!
See? This is a proper vicious circle.
How impressive is the marketing of China's entertainment industry over the years? And how much is remarkable?
There are also, very few.
When the "number of hot searches" becomes the focus of PK and is also used as a quantifiable data indicator for entertainment marketing, throwing money at "operating hot searches" has become the only choice.
"What is creative, what is effective, I just need to complete the task" - this is a marketing method conditional on castrating ideas, like a malignant tumor in the brain.
No division, no work.
On the other hand, foreign entertainment products, how they play marketing.
Before the broadcast of "Squid Game", Netflix set up an "offline interactive exhibition" that realistically restored the scene of the series in Itaewon, moving the first level "wooden man" and the second level "Ponkan" to reality, so that potential viewers can experience it in real life, thereby increasing the attention of the series.
In addition, Netflix also authorized French partners to set up a pop-up coffee shop "Squid Game", set up large puppeteers on the streets of the Philippines, and played the game of "red light stop green light line".
Further on, when the fourth season of "House of Cards" was broadcast in 2016, coinciding with the US election, Netflix released a commercial for Francis Underwood (the protagonist in the film) announcing his candidacy for president of the United States, and also made websites, peripherals, and held offline support rallies, etc., completely breaking the dimensional wall.
HBO has done a lot of classic creative marketing for Game of Thrones. Every season launched, there are matching marketing initiatives.
In the fourth and fifth seasons, a large number of scenes are in the Great Wall of Despair, where Snow leads the attack and defense of wild people, and pastes a huge 3D "Great Wall of Despair" on the streets where crowds gather, attracting people's attention.
Before the start of the sixth season, a lot of "dragon crystal daggers" (placed in glass boxes) to deal with alien ghosts were placed in the wild to remind people to pay attention to "alien ghosts".
In the eighth season, a "Westeros theme park" was simply built, equipped with AR equipment to make people immersive.
These marketing campaigns, full of creativity, combined with works, can be refreshing even the smallest movements.
This is marketing, this is called a case.
"But... Can it be on the hot search? ”
Netflix and HBO's marketing team look at you suspiciously and say:
Look at my lip shape, Gwen...
Marketing should be creative first
Domestically, it is not that there are no good marketing cases, but more in other areas. Digital, automobile, game, FMCG, Internet and other types of products, "hot search" will also have, but most of them are leveraged by natural transmission, hot search is an additional product.
But all "marketing" must talk about communication thinking, of course, entertainment marketing is also. Multi-dimensional planning, ingenious conception of the communication fulcrum, solid and well-done, marketing itself is an independent "work", but also the source of driving the take-off of the project.
However, in the field of entertainment marketing, it is very sad to spend the budget on meaningless hot searches and some basic operations.
Many times, "doing hot search" is also a kind of metaphysics, whether to do it or not, but also depends on the timing, fate. Among the practitioners, many people do hot searches and do doubtful life.
Many friends in entertainment marketing have quite ideas, but ideas often cannot be supported and landed, either have no money, or are blocked by the soul question of "can it be on the hot search". Therefore, the marketing methods are becoming more and more lackluster, and over time, a situation of "a lot of hot searches, no effect, and others will not do" has formed.
And what about the promotion costs? Most of them go to third-party companies that have botnet accounts.
According to a senior source, the relevant departments once studied the whole network to cut the hot search section, but because of the intricate interests involved, they failed to promote it.
Pressure, back to the practitioner. It is also imperative to change the entertainment marketing model.
When we thoroughly recognize the "uselessness of hot search" and abandon the "hot search" model, our entertainment marketing may usher in the spring of creativity.
Of course, this does not mean that "hot search is completely useless", if it is all real popularity, it is as authoritative as the Douban score, and it is the true embodiment of the popularity of the work. Otherwise, under the "false prosperity", it will only fly around and harm the industry.
Social media platforms, whether Weibo or Douyin, should completely block all possibilities of "operating hot searches" and fully present the real popularity, which is a responsible approach.