Behind the Selling of "Nezha 2" Derivatives (II)|The Rise of Emotional Consumption How to Long-term Operation of Domestic IP Derivatives

With the continued popularity of "Nezha's Demon Boy in the Sea" (Nezha 2), its IP derivatives market is also expanding rapidly, and its revenue is expected to exceed 10 billion.

According to public information, the series of IP derivatives manufacturers of "Nezha 2" were involved in copyright communication and product design as early as two years ago.

At present, the domestic film and television derivatives market is hot, what is the reason behind this? Compared with mature IP development giants such as Disney, what kind of gap still exists in the domestic IP derivatives industry, what is the relationship between derivatives and IP, and how to achieve benign long-term development?

Source: Visual China

From five years of polishing the movie to laying out derivatives in advance

To create "Nezha 2", the dumpling director spent 5 years polishing. In the creation of derivatives of the IP of "Nezha 2", many manufacturers have also intervened one to two years in advance. For example, card games are connected with movie copyright owners about a year and a half in advance; The co-branded product of Bubble Mart and "Nezha 2" took only a year and a half to develop.

Source: Visual China

"In recent years, the domestic film and television derivatives industry is in a stage of rapid development, and more and more film and television works will be deployed in advance for IP development." Hou Dingzhong, a senior practitioner of IP derivatives and head of China Literature's derivatives business, said that according to their experience, they will generally intervene in the development of film and television dramas at least one and a half years before they are broadcast or released. The time of listing will also take into account the time when the film and television drama will be broadcast and released. For example, the costume idol drama "Walking with the Phoenix" started in mid-March, and the card launch time was in early April, which coincided with the climax of the content of the "knock CP" link, and the famous scenes in the play appeared on the cards, forming a superposition.

Source: Visual China

What is the hardest part of derivatives development? Hou Dingzhong introduced that China Literature has done a lot of derivative development of its own IP, such as "Da Feng Da Changren", "Nine Purples", "Celebrating More Than Years", etc., this kind of live-action film and television works, the development of film and television drama derivatives will involve the portrait authorization of actors, and it is necessary to spend more time to communicate with the actors and the team in the early stage, what kind of pictures to choose, specific uses, etc., which requires both parties to reach a good consensus.

Another point is "lower volume". Whether a film and television drama can be popular and how popular it can be is a question mark. Some dramas may even start to become popular halfway through, "This is very difficult to predict and predict, or in other words, the original proposed crowd is not very interested in this derivative, so the 'lower volume' requires a lot of experience, and it is more difficult to control." ”

When it comes to the creation of a category, the production cycle is not the same. For example, the more complex blind box figures take seven to nine months to make, including the early mold opening, color plate proofing, mid-term adjustment, and then the final shipment; It takes about three months for the card to be created in the early stage to be released, and it will take a long time to consider the innovation of the process and the design of the gameplay in the early stage.

Behind the boom in the derivatives economy, emotional consumption is on the rise

According to iiMedia Consulting data, in 2024, the market size of derivatives dominated by film and television and animation peripherals will reach 168.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of more than 40%.

In Hou Dingzhong's view, behind this new economic phenomenon, is actually the heating up of consumers' demand for emotional value, its performance is not only that derivatives are sold better, but also further reflects the needs of contemporary young consumers for emotional value, they want to materialize the characters that exist in comics, film and television, can meet the needs of playing and collecting, and can exchange with people who have the same hobbies. As a result, derivatives are endowed with a social function.

"Don't break and don't stand" - the behind-the-scenes creation exhibition of the movie "Nezha's Demon Boy in the Sea" was launched in Chengdu Picture: Visual China

"Derivatives are more about satisfying the emotional value of consumers, rather than just practical value." Hou Dingzhong said that although there are voices in the outside world that the current derivative varieties are relatively simple and do not seem to have too much high added value, the deep-seated reason is that merchants are more interested in satisfying consumers from the aspect of emotional value, such as in the type of product, they will focus on how to make more categories, so that IP derivatives can better meet the needs of users.

For example, cards and bars (badges) that meet social needs, and some life co-branding, such as tea and 3C digital co-branding. "It's not that we want to make high value-added things, but in the end, we still have to serve users, starting from the needs of users themselves." Hou Dingzhong said.

A company in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, is producing "Nezha 2" peripheral products Source: Visual China

The derivative is IP insulation

There is no doubt that the current "Nezha 2" is definitely the top existence in the market. However, with the extension of the broadcast cycle of the movie, this popularity will inevitably decline, and will it affect the sales of IP derivatives?

"The popularity of IP must explode with the explosion of content, but some of the values and touching cores it conveys will always spread and continue in people's hearts." In Hou Dingzhong's view, behind a good IP derivative, it must be inseparable from the blessing of the content level, and the hot sales of "Nezha 2" derivatives are inseparable from the success of the movie itself. Although its popularity will decline, he believes that Nezha's IP will still have a relatively strong long-tail effect in the future, such as Nezha, a mythical character who has a national degree in itself, with the popularity of "Nezha 2", the Nezha story in "Romance of the Gods" and "Journey to the West" has been taken out by people to chew again, and there are also a lot of second-creation content on the Internet.

In his opinion, if the content level is not updated, then derivatives can help keep IP warm, for example, more fresh things can be produced through different categories to continuously stimulate the original users to pay attention to it.

The behind-the-scenes creation exhibition of the movie "Nezha's Demon Boy in the Sea" opened in Chengdu Picture: Visual China

Designer Su Dayou also agrees with this point of view, he took the past "Transformers" as an example, when Hasbro launched this cartoon, the essence was to sell toys, with the popularity of cartoons, toys also sold out around the world, "The box office revenue of the movie may be only a few months, but the income of follow-up IP derivatives is endless, everyone recognizes this IP, and it is necessary to keep producing different types of derivatives, so as to be sustainable." ”

Su Dayou said, for example, a pillow may be produced this month, and a doll will be released next month, and derivatives need to change patterns, if the product remains the same, consumers will definitely not pay, "IP popularity needs to be maintained through continuous products." ”

Nezha graffiti wall attracts a large number of tourists to take photos Source: Visual China

If domestic IP wants to catch up with Disney, it needs to operate for a long time

According to the "2024 Global Top Licensor List Report" released last year by License Global magazine, a world-renowned publication in the licensing industry, Disney ranks first with retail sales of 62 billion US dollars, and through long-term accumulation and years of capital operation, Disney now has many content brands including Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, ESPN, Twentieth Century and National Geographic, as well as thousands of different types of content IP, becoming the world's largest licensor.

Shanghai Disneyland Zootopia Peripherals Source: Visual China

In contrast, the commercial value of Chinese IP lags far behind. According to the report, China's current highest licensing revenue is Aofei Entertainment, which holds IPs such as Pleasant Goat, ranking 47th in the world with $609 million. The current development momentum of "Nezha 2" has also given many outsiders more confidence in it, and perhaps in the near future, Zha Er will also be on the list, and it is not a dream to surpass Aofei.

In Hou Dingzhong's view, Disney's success actually comes from the precipitation of its experience and the accumulation of time, China's film and television, animation IP is slowly accumulating through time, such as the IP "Full-time Master", which is now well-known in the world, has only gone through a decade of history, "Our online text was only born more than ten years ago, and domestic IP will continue to go, develop in the long run, and walk out of a road that belongs to our own development direction." ”

Red Star News reporter Qiu Junfeng editor Zeng Qi

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