Rhino Entertainment Original
Wen | Fat Department Editor| Xia Tian
The industry desperately needs new good content and creators.
This demand is a combination of internal and external environments. In terms of the external environment, the resistance to pan-entertainment and traffic-only theory under the regulatory trend has been continuously strengthened, which has put forward requirements for content value and aesthetics; internally, the general growth problems and losses of industry platforms continue to deepen the value of the normalized output of high-quality content.
It seems that the sub-account drama is becoming an answer, the relatively light volume, short cycle characteristics, creating more content can enter the platform at a low threshold, face the audience opportunities, but also become a petri dish for many potential film and television newcomers.
At the Youku Media Salon on October 28, Youku and the media exchanged the new sub-accounting model of "post-broadcast grading" just launched, opening up the content pricing power to the audience, becoming the first attempt in the industry in the field of dramas; Youku Open Platform also announced that it would join forces with a number of IP copyright owners to launch the "Fu Shao" content cooperation plan to expand the scale of high-quality content of sub-account dramas.
Qian Jing, general manager of Youku content open platform
This has undoubtedly become the key benefit of the development of the model of sub-account drama. At the moment when the demand for good content is increasing, Youku's power action has more industry-level considerations and values, and the content, companies and creators developed around the sub-account drama are becoming a "new force in the industry".
The new force of the industry that came out of the account drama
In 2018, the first part of the account drama "Erlonghu Love Story" appeared on the Youku platform. Looking back on the filming process of this drama, Li Jianfeng, chairman of the producer Siping Youth Culture Media Co., Ltd., is still full of emotion. At that time, they were inexperienced, and the script they came up with could only be regarded as a detailed list, which could not be used for shooting at all, and even had conflicts with their partners.
Siping Youth Chairman Li Jianfeng
Hu Meng, the producer of the "My Neighbor" series and the founder of Lionfish United Media, also mentioned that when the company launched the project "My Neighbor Can't Sleep" in 2018, because it was not AN, from investment to release, it ate a lot of closed doors, and even the actors could only choose pure newcomers, and the shooting progress of 24 episodes had to be compressed at 38 days, and they had to teach the actors how to perform hand in hand.
Hu Meng, founder of Lionfish United Media
The problem of selecting actors has also plagued Zhu Junpeng, chairman of the producer of "Dear Mr. Lemon Essence", because of the size of the production, it is difficult to invite well-known or particularly good actors. These are actually no strangers to producers who have just entered the industry, and there are problems with funds, experience, team, equipment, channels, etc., and their only confidence is to speak with the quality of content.
Zhu Junpeng, chairman of The Annual Ring Picture
The emergence of the sub-account drama model has given them the opportunity to directly face the audience and truly activate the value of content.
The three producers shared in the media salon have all had outstanding sub-account drama works on Youku this year. "Erlonghu Love Story 2021" is already the third part of the series, youku station heat up to 9701, many times topped the episode heat list TOP1, and in the whole network to drive the spread of popularity; "My Neighbors are not big" as the second part of the series, 14 days after the launch of the cat's eye on the internet topped the real-time heat of the first, and "Dear Mr. Lemon Essence" have achieved 50 million + sub-accounts, the latter has also landed on the Youku TV series popularity list for many times.
Hu Meng described the "My Neighbors" series as "small and beautiful", "small" refers not to the volume of investment, but to pay attention to details, and "beauty" is to give the audience a beautiful viewing experience, which may be regarded as the common pursuit of content quality by the producers of sub-account dramas. In order to find the heroine of "My Neighbor Is Not Big", Hu Meng and director Sun Chengzhi have met more than 100 candidates before and after, and it took half a year for this. This degree of care may be very different from many people's concept of sub-account drama production.
As Qian Jing, general manager of Youku Content Open Platform, proposed, at the moment when the theme dividend disappears, the producer needs to see what users like and polish the content with heart, "Is it to think about what users like, to meet the user's viewing, or I come in and take advantage of the wind direction of the platform to fish for a lump, we hope to find a company that really does good content to cooperate with." ”
For producers who really do content with their hearts, the sub-account drama is a platform for their content to go to the public, and it is also a springboard to enter the industry. The industry is emerging a number of forces coming out of the sub-account drama, such as Zhuang Dafei, who starred in "My Hedgehog Girl", who has taken over a number of copyright and customized dramas; Tian Xiwei, the female number two of "My Neighbors Don't Grow Up", has also taken over the female lead role; Fat Mitsui, the screenwriter of the high-profile drama "Detective Jane Doesn't Know", has also won the opportunity to direct.
As a content promotion model oriented to audience experience, ledger dramas open up more content opportunities in addition to B-endpoint peer-to-peer, and have also become a more direct and valuable growth mechanism for industry companies and practitioners. Perhaps the volume of this part of the entire drama market is relatively small, and it is necessary to further create circle content, but a new force in the industry is gaining more room for growth.
Propose "Post-Broadcast Grading"
Youku gives pricing power to the audience
"Hand over to the user the right to truly determine the commercial value of the content", this is Qian Jing's summary of the characteristics of the sub-account drama. A more obvious feature is that the calculation rules of Youku sub-account dramas are the total viewing time of members from the beginning, rather than the number of valid viewers common in the industry, which requires that the production quality of the show from the first episode to the last episode must be online, and the producer must also be clear about all the content rhythms.
The new sub-accounting model of "post-broadcast grading" just launched by Youku is the deepening of the characteristics of users exercising their rights. In the past, the platform rating mode may be relatively subjective, and if the rating does not match the playback situation in the later stage, it will form a certain loss for the producer. And the post-broadcast grading is much simpler, everything depends on the content to speak, look at the results to speak. At present, Youku retains the two modes of pre-broadcast grading and post-broadcast grading in parallel, providing producers with more diversified and more suitable choices.
In this regard, this aspect further excludes the influence of the traditional rating possible production volume, company background, main creative lineup, etc., so that more people with content dreams can get better benefits on the platform, and only the content is a hero, which is a more flexible and scientific accounting model.
On the other hand, this may further reduce the entry threshold of sub-account dramas, the previous pre-broadcast rating of S-class and A-level content requirements are relatively high, and then all producers who are confident in the content and willing to try new tracks can try it. Compared with the previous sub-account dramas, the risk is mainly borne by the producer, and now the platform bears more risks.
Youku related staff mentioned in the media salon another reason for the opening of the "post-broadcast rating", is the cost of sub-account dramas has increased in the past four years, the cost of such content in 2018 has hardly exceeded 10 million, but at present, in the lineup of Youku sub-account dramas, you can see the director of "Fragrant Honey Sinks Like Frost", the service guidance of "Langya List", the photography team of "Rock Sugar Stew Sydney" and other industry leaders. A key intention of "post-broadcast grading" is to open up the profit logic of good content, and it is up to users to determine the ceiling of a drama.
This can also see the improvement of Youku platform service thinking and capabilities in the past four years. Previously, at the 2021 Youku Content Open Platform Episode Private Sharing Conference, the service idea of "three pre-positions" and "system and publicity operation" was just proposed.
The so-called "three fronts", that is, content planning front, marketing front and commercial front, that is, the platform does "one-stop service" for content in all aspects. In terms of content planning, based on the platform's mining of user insights, the early content points are laid; in terms of marketing, many marketing points are buried in the early stage; in terms of commercialization, the cross-border marketing team also intervenes earlier. On the basis of full respect for content creation, we will maximize the diversified value of content.
This service model covering the early stage constitutes the integration of "system and publicity operation". Youku related staff especially mentioned that the difficulty of marketing of sub-account dramas compared with other content, in addition to the cost to be more careful, the main problem is that users are relatively lack of awareness of these contents, so the platform needs to achieve higher efficiency in a short period of time, in the data verification of good results of the channel to penetrate deeply, rather than blindly pursuing hot search or topics. In this regard, Youku's deep cultivation and experience in the sub-account drama track has relatively more vertical advantages.
Youku's strengthening of service capabilities is essentially strengthening a win-win relationship between the content side and the platform side, forming a benign platform ecology, and maximizing the opportunity for high-quality content through models such as "post-broadcast grading", so that creators and Youku sub-account dramas can grow up together. This is also the advanced nature of the sub-account drama model.
"Customer success is the essence of an open platform. For example, the annual ring picture, lionfish, we hope that their company from small to large, from short-term revenue to long-term development, Youku content development platform is essentially to do such a thing. Qian Jing said.
The ledger drama has not yet touched the ceiling
Since 2020, it should be considered that the sub-account drama is entering a harvest period and a period of rapid development, one is that the industry cooperation model is more mature and flexible, and the other is that a number of content with high market heat is emerging, whether it is the costume drama "Fireworks and Sparks in the World" that created the record of sub-accounting, or the recent works of 50 million + are verifying this judgment.
At the same time, more genres and themes are pouring into the sub-account drama track. "According to our three films with good box office and word of mouth in the first half of the year, it can be seen that the sub-account dramas of modern theme types can also be recognized by users. We hope that the sub-account drama market can blossom, more comedy and blood counterattack projects will emerge, and the platform is also creating IP series content, so that the filmmakers can become each other's guides and become the baton of each other's traffic. ”
An obvious signal is that head platforms such as Youku are frequently adjusting the rules of sub-account dramas, in addition to assuming the responsibility of the industry to promote the starting point of win-win results, objectively affirming that sub-accounts are a long-term track, there is a future, and will continue to increase support.
Xie Ying, general manager of Youku Drama Center, said at the 2021 Youku Content Open Platform Episode Private Conference: "Sub-account dramas are an indispensable and very important part of Youku dramas, shouldering the responsibility of providing new content for the industry, transporting innovative talents, and providing more opportunities for partners. ”
At the moment when the platform is generally exerting force, the sub-account drama is still in the early stage of positive development. From a longer-term perspective, the opportunity for further growth of sub-account dramas exists in two aspects.
First, the head production company may make efforts in the content of the sub-account drama, compared with the one-time transaction model of traditional copyright procurement, the sub-account drama has more advantages in the long-term and overall volume of the revenue, which may be an important consideration factor in attracting more head companies, attracting large and medium-sized works and well-known creators and actors to enter the game, and thus further enhance the public's awareness and consumption of sub-account dramas.
Second, some quasi-explosive content that has confidence in the content, including the absolute head, may choose a more flexible broadcast method and obtain more long-term benefits through the sub-account model, especially some classic content that is played high all year round, if the cumulative income of the sub-account will be quite considerable.
Xie Ying once said: "Based on innovation, collaboration and common progress, we hope that more production companies and production personnel of head dramas will enter the PGC industry; we also encourage more new forces in the industry to create more surprises for the content industry together with the older generation of head producers." ”
Speaking sincerely with content is the only path that can open up the audience at the moment. It is under this law that the sub-account drama has gained more room for development, and Youku's current action is actually very simple, as Qian Jing said: "Do not put satellites too much to guide partners, and strive to do the best content before going out of the street, and the rest of the commercial value is completely left to the user to decide." ”