Behind the super drama "The Advisors Alliance", we get a new era of endogenous advertising

Video marketing has moved from the hard advertising 1.0 represented by patch ads and the native advertising 2.0 represented by implantation to the endogenous advertising 3.0 represented by creative inserts and screen bars. Endogenous advertising transcends the limitations of traditional models and is an intermediate state between the patch model and the implantation model. It allows brands to steal the show in a reasonable way, effectively mobilizes the subjective initiative of brands in content, allows video marketing to be fully productized, and formats content marketing in the IP era.

This summer, Youku's super drama " The Advisors Alliance " (hereinafter referred to as "The Advisors Alliance") can be said to be the ratings guarantee of the summer season.

This work, based on the story of the Three Kingdoms and starring Wu Xiubo, Liu Tao, Li Chen, Yu Hewei, and Zhang Junning, achieved over 1 billion views in one week when it was first broadcast on Youku. By the end of mid-July, the number of views exceeded 6 billion, winning the top spot in prime-time ratings. On Douban , which has a very strict rating system, more than 36,000 people rated the film, giving it a score of 8.2, and nearly 80% of the audience gave it 4-5 stars. "The Advisors Alliance" has become a phenomenal drama with both high ratings and good reputation.

This also made a good start for Youku's "Super Series". At Youku's Spring Series press conference in April this year, Youku first proposed the concept of "super series", stating that with the emergence of "super content", once the influence of top content exceeds the power of the media, the division method defined by the broadcasting media will become a thing of the past. It is based on this speculation that Youku proposed a new concept without the word "net" - super series.

As the pioneering work of the "super series", "The Advisors Alliance" is a watershed for the entire industry. The combination of super IP and movie -level production instantly killed many works that were plagued by negative issues such as cutouts, plagiarism, and facial expressions. In addition, relying on the four-in-one approach consisting of copyright content, product technology, large-scale operations , and large-scale publicity and promotion, "The Advisors Alliance" became a phenomenal work. At the same time, through cooperation with more than 50 well-known advertisers, the innovation of super content + endogenous advertising model has opened a new chapter in the rise of endogenous advertising.

What is a Super Episode? Watch "The Advisors Alliance" and you will understand

"TV series and web series, as phased terms, are about to complete their historical mission. Today is the era of transition from super web series and TV series to super series. In the new stage, the linkage between the Internet and TV stations will have further development. From content production, promotion, to monetization, TV stations and the Internet will have unprecedented coordination and cooperation to maximize the value and influence of content." Yang Weidong, president of Youku Business Group of Alibaba Culture and Entertainment Group, defined super series in this way at the 2017 Youku Spring Festival.

From his definition, we can see that the key words of "super series" are "high standard", "full link", "large-scale publicity and promotion", "large-scale operation" , etc., and "The Advisors Alliance", as Youku's first blockbuster "super series", uses a real brand to demonstrate a template of a "super series".

The “super” in “super series” lies first in its content. A good IP + movie-level production and a strong star lineup ensure that the content has the ability to penetrate channels .

The story of Romance of the Three Kingdoms is well-known to everyone. Many people grew up listening to the story of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The story of the Three Kingdoms can be regarded as a super IP. At the same time, the production of this drama, in the words of Yang Weidong, "its overall production level has begun to be on par with some movies."

In this era where "speed is everything", "The Advisors Alliance" broke the norm and spent five years polishing the script alone. It created a "big picture" in terms of ideas, highlighted "family matters" in terms of content, and followed the "American drama style" in terms of rhythm. It can be said to be a "conscientious" screenwriter.

There is craftsmanship in the production. The filming took 333 days, three times longer than an ordinary TV series. In order to restore the style of the Later Three Kingdoms, the crew researched a lot of historical documents and built a total of 6 studios with a total area of ​​nearly 40,000 square meters and more than 1,000 scenes. The excellent production is also reflected in some details. For example, all the food and vegetables that appear in the play have been rigorously verified, and even a lot of in-depth historical knowledge has been popularized.

Together with a group of veteran actors with excellent acting skills such as Wu Xiubo, Liu Tao, Yu Hewei and Wang Jinsong, the super conscientious drama "The Advisors Alliance" was born.

In addition to content, the large-scale publicity and marketing strategy of the "super series" is also a factor in its success. Relying on the four-in-one approach consisting of copyright content, product technology, large-scale operations, and large-scale publicity and promotion, "The Advisors Alliance" has expanded its audience from Three Kingdoms fans to those born in the 1990s and 1995s, and even to women.

Online, Youku fully leveraged the advantages of its four-in-one strategy, combining Alibaba 's UC Browser , Taobao Mobile, Alipay , Weibo, Taopiaopiao and other resources to expose and display the main visuals and broadcast information of the series in important resource positions such as the boot image, banner, and PC focus header image, to help promote the launch of the series. The activity of "Collecting Military Advisor Cards to Grab 100 Million Red Packets" has greatly aroused the interest of netizens in watching the drama.

Offline, the first step is to book the entire Xidan subway station and create a 3D version of the Three Kingdoms scene, allowing fans to travel to the Three Kingdoms in one second. Fans can also win red envelopes by participating in the "Arrow Pulling QR Code Activity", which maximizes the dissemination layer from offline to online.

At the same time, various film viewing seminars were organized, and campus film viewing sessions were held at Nankai University and China University of Political Science and Law to precisely cover the highly educated student population.

The four-in-one publicity and promotion, coupled with excellent content, quickly formed word-of-mouth communication within different circles. As the spread expanded, it broke down circle barriers and detonated a wider range, making "The Advisors Alliance" a phenomenal topic.

Beyond native advertising : the new rise of organic advertising

As a phenomenal drama, "The Advisors Alliance" not only ushered in an era of super content, its new commercialization model was also a great success - it cooperated with more than 50 brands including FAW-Volkswagen Audi , Coca-Cola , Dongpeng Special Drink, RIO Cocktail, Apple, Samsung , etc., setting a new record for brand cooperation in major dramas. In addition, the innovation of the advertising model was praised by experts for achieving "the perfect unity of artistry and commerciality", and it is a weather vane for commercial innovation to attract money.

In terms of subject matter, broadcast platform, and target audience, "The Advisors Alliance" is second to none in the market competition during the same period. In terms of advertising, "The Advisors Alliance" has implemented seven major advertising formats, including creative interludes, previous story summaries, barrage reminders, and screen bars. This is also the first drama in the industry to cover seven innovative advertising formats, satisfying the different needs of advertisers.

Taking creative mid-roll ads as an example, in the "bullet screen" ad designed for Coca-Cola by "The Advisors Alliance", Sima Zhao and Sima Shi used Coca-Cola secret bottles as weapons and fought a "bullet screen war" for 300 rounds. In the end, Sima Fu used the secret bottle to "summon the dragon"; in the "bullet screen ad" designed for Wen Biquan, the "Sima couple" in the play were complained from the audience's perspective: "The Sima couple's dog food is too dry, use Wen Biquan No. 1 water to hydrate their skin", which not only fits the setting of the characters in the plot, but also conforms to the current trend of young people, giving people a refreshing feeling.

When talking about these innovative advertising formats, the head of Youku TV series marketing told the reporter of Successful Marketing: "Modern film and television dramas are art forms in a closed environment with four walls. Past advertisements, whether hard ads outside the drama or implanted ads in the drama, did not change this environment. Some of the new advertising formats that have emerged recently, such as creative mid-roll ads, bullet screen ads, and screen-strip dialogue ads, are all trying to break the fourth wall and allow content and brands to communicate directly with the audience. These formats therefore have stronger dramatic conflicts and are more effective in spreading advertising messages."

The person in charge pointed out that video marketing has entered the era of endogenous advertising 3.0 represented by creative inserts and screen bars, from the era of hard advertising 1.0 represented by patch ads and native advertising 2.0 represented by implantation. There are several advantages to organic advertising:

1. Endogenous advertising transcends the limitations of traditional models and is an intermediate state between the patch model and the implant model. Patch advertising is "brand-led" and has poor user experience . The implantation model is "content-led". Although it solves the user experience problem, the boundary between brand and content is blurred and user perception is not high. Endogenous advertising is a new advertising model derived from content. It is not native to content, but derived from content and is a recombination of content. Its essence is an advertising model co-created by content providers and brand providers, and a recombination of two types of content: brand content and film and television content.

2. Endogenous advertising allows brands to steal the spotlight in a reasonable way, effectively mobilizing the brand’s subjective initiative in content. Endogenous advertisements such as previous episodes, creative interludes, and next episode highlights are rooted in the content to maintain the original flavor of the IP, making the brand the protagonist and coexisting with the drama. Creativity is integrated into the product to fully convey the brand concept and characteristics, so that advertising and content are integrated, thereby further entering into the audience's viewing habits and increasing the audience's acceptance of brand information. This is both interesting and effective, and has become a powerful tool for content marketing.

3. Endogenous advertising allows video marketing to be fully productized and formats content marketing in the IP era. In the past, video marketing consisted of nothing more than in-film ads, corner labels and other products, all of which were copied from TV ads. Interactive endogenous advertising forms such as screen bars, flower-changing advertisements, and barrage advertisements are not only highly relevant to the plot, but also more internet-savvy, and can fully impress the brand's target audience.

At present, Youku's endogenous advertising system is represented by creative mid-rolls, and also includes title and sponsorship, pre-roll ads, screen bars, barrage ads, previous plot summaries, exciting trailers, and other major drama marketing advertising forms.

These novel advertising forms have also attracted many advertisers. According to the person in charge of Youku's drama marketing, the creative mid-roll ads for the second season of "The Advisors Alliance ", which was launched in the golden autumn, sold out within 10 minutes. This should be the best affirmation of the advertising innovation of Youku and "The Advisors Alliance".

At the same time, the creative advertising format of "The Advisors Alliance" also brings some inspiration to advertising in the "super series" era.

One is to switch from self-talking advertising to conversational advertising. Whether it is the hard advertising in the past or the popular product placement now, it is a closed form of marketing with low audience participation. Not only can it fail to touch the audience, but it will make the audience resist. On the other hand, many of the creative forms in "The Advisors Alliance" are designed to convey information from the audience's perspective. For example, the "Next Highlights" of Dongpeng Special Drink and the "Previous Story Summary" created for RIO are both designed based on the audience's viewing habits and psychology; while the "Bullet Screen Reminder" advertisement of Wenbiquan is completely "complaining" in the audience's tone, leaving a deep impression on the audience.

Secondly, the advertisements should also have youthful attributes and be interesting and fun. "Let advertising become content, and create creative mid-roll ads with attitude." This is the original intention of the creative mid-roll ads in "The Advisors Alliance" and is also the core strategy of Youku's new content marketing advertising product.

The creative mid-roll ads in "The Advisors Alliance" use the original cast of the TV series and are related to the plot and characters. At the same time, the plots are both "brain-opening", such as using the Coca-Cola secret bottle to "summon a dragon"; and "surprising twists", such as the mid-roll ads customized for Renrendai, which use the form of a creative skit, play with "time travel" and "suspense", and reveal "Renrendai" through a plot reversal, making the audience smile knowingly. Through this creativity, Youku redefined creative mid-roll ads with "content", which has epoch-making significance for the entire advertising industry.

"This world is cool", our innovation is even cooler

The commercial success of "The Advisors Alliance" is largely due to Youku's reliance on Alibaba's ecological strategy. It has broken away from the definition and promotion of content by a single platform relying solely on its own broadcasting platform, but instead uses the overall synergy of resources within the ecosystem to link content, brands, artists, fans, media and other parties to provide all-round support for content and promotion. As a result, Youku has greater competitive leverage in the industry.

With the entry of Internet groups, the cultural and entertainment industry has evolved to the ecological stage. In the future, fragmented content production will become increasingly difficult, and the companies that can take the lead in this industry are those with ecological thinking and execution capabilities. Yang Weidong once said in his live speech at Youku Spring Festival that in an ecological era of big content, video platforms should have three core capabilities: one is the vision to select content, two is the ability to produce content; and three is the ability to digest content, that is, the overall operation of content. And this is where Youku’s innovation lies.

In addition to its all-round support for content, Youku has proposed a "big publicity and promotion" strategy. By connecting the ecological resources of the Alibaba system and organizing multi-party collaboration, it uses "open resources", "open positions" and "open gameplay" to ensure that "half of the good show is outside the show", thus assisting in the development of beautiful content.

For example, on the eve of the premiere of Eternal Love, Youku launched a customized "Peach Blossom Train", chartered a subway bound for spring, and created a "romantic peach blossom forest" at the Xidan subway station; during the promotion of the second season of Mars Intelligence Agency, Youku placed hard advertisements in subways, high-speed railways, buses, airports, and campuses in 145 major cities, breaking down the dimensional wall and increasing the attention of the program among the general public beyond star fans and channel fans, helping Mars become a benchmark for super online variety shows.

At the same time, the "open resources", "open positions" and "open gameplay" under the "Open Plan" not only package the resources of high-quality dramas and promote them externally, cooperate with other social platforms, use open positions to directly penetrate the circle, make large-scale publicity and promotion more targeted, but also achieve creative linkage with brands through open gameplay.

As a result, we saw new advertising forms in "The Advisors Alliance", such as Coca-Cola's "Secret Bottle" creative insert, RIO's "Previous Situation Summary" and Dongpeng Special Drink's "Next Episode Excitement".

Youku also has big ideas for "big promotion and marketing". For example, the entire entertainment industry will be connected in the future. Once connected, it will generate tremendous energy. Now, if you search for a certain drama on Taobao, the results may be the costumes and props of the drama. In the future, after the entire entertainment industry is connected, users will also be able to search for Youku's promotions, member peripherals, etc.; and through linkage with brands, media, and content providers, in this process, the data accumulated from many users' feedback can guide changes in content.

All of this sounds cool.