5 Tips for Using Tik Tok to Master Film and Television Marketing!

Since Tik Tok became popular, there is another new battlefield for film and television marketing, with "Douyin" added after "Weibo".

According to the latest data in July, Douyin has more than 320 million daily active users, making it the short video platform with the largest traffic. In January, Douyin’s daily active users exceeded 250 million, and its monthly active users exceeded 500 million. In half a year, Douyin has grown by 70 million daily active users. Compared with the slowdown in the film market, Tik Tok is still growing at a rapid pace.

Zhi Ying, general manager of Douyin's marketing, said that every user can be both a consumer of movie information and a promoter of movies, filling the gap between creators and consumers in traditional movie promotion and marketing. Current film and television marketing is aimed at tapping into potential users and incremental audiences of movies. Douyin, which has a huge traffic pool, is naturally easily valued by film and television marketing.

However, unlike the established routines of traditional film and television marketing, many marketers still have difficulties with this kind of new things and show a certain lag. Although Douyin is making a ton of money through selling goods, it is still a headache to sell movie tickets on Douyin as there is no fixed program that can be applied.

Take the sudden popularity of "Ex-Files 3" on TikTok for example. This was the first time that the feasibility of film and television marketing on short video platforms was proven. However, the case of "Ex-Files 3" is not universal. It can only be said that this type of urban emotional theme just hit the psychology of young TikTok users at the time. For other types of movies, if the marketing path of "Ex-Files 3" is applied, it may not work.

Advertising and KOL collaboration, which are common in film and television marketing, are not applicable to Douyin. In a recently popular article titled “Price List of 150 Top KOLs”, the individual prices of 50 top Douyin KOLs including Li Jiaqi, Black Face V, Papi Jiang, etc. ranged from 120,000 to 950,000. For films with limited budgets, not only are the bids high, but the cost-effectiveness is also not very impressive. After all, most of these Douyin influencers promote brand advertisements for beauty, fast-moving consumer goods, and lifestyle products, which are not closely related to movies, so there are limitations on conversion rates.

At present, Douyin’s film and television marketing is still in the exploratory stage, but there are also some relatively successful cases. After long-term observation, Rhino Entertainment has summarized the five major strategies for Douyin film and television marketing, hoping to provide some inspiration for the film and television industry.

Trick 1:

Promotional materials should be appealing and release the most emotional points

Trailers are a common practice in film and television marketing. They allow audiences to understand a movie’s basic information and visual style in advance, arouse audience expectations, and warm up for the film’s official release.

Traditional trailers are meant to showcase the selling points of a movie. For example, the most important thing about an action movie trailer is to let the audience see how many thrilling action scenes the movie has. Fantasy movies try to showcase the visual effects as much as possible, and comedies try to extract the funniest jokes.

But if you simply put the trailer on TikTok, it is obviously difficult to achieve good results. On the one hand, due to time constraints, it is impossible for Douyin to play the entire trailer in 15 seconds; on the other hand, due to the vertical screen feature of Douyin, the traditional horizontal screen trailer does not conform to the viewing habits of Douyin users.

According to Tik Tok’s “5-second rule”, it is very important to capture the user’s attention in the first 5 seconds, otherwise the user will simply slide to other videos. This requires that the promotional materials for film and television marketing on Douyin should get straight to the point, focus on the core selling points of the film, and pinpoint the audience's biggest emotional points. For example, "Ex-Files 3" magnified the promotional point of "crying over a breakup", which touched many young men and women who had exes and aroused emotional resonance among the audience.

"Galaxy Tutorial" focuses on the father-son relationship on Douyin. The videos released, from the behind-the-scenes footage, to the interviews, all revolve around this emotional point. The video with the highest number of likes is an interview with Wu Jing asking him "what he most wants his son to learn", which received 1.942 million likes.

Some amateur "scissor hands" can cut very exciting videos. For example, the video of "Galaxy Tutorial" edited by user "Xiong Xiaojian" is actually a video re-edited and integrated from the original trailer. The scenes in the trailer such as the deep love between father and son and the bet with the teacher are condensed into a dozen seconds, accompanied by a touching BGM, and displayed in a three-horizontal screen-to-vertical screen format.

The whole video is both exciting and moving, bringing out the emotional point of fatherly love to the extreme, and is very contagious and inspiring. The video received 2.079 million likes, more than 60,000 comments and reposts, and the effect of video dissemination was quite good.

"Nezha: The Devil Child Comes into the World" used this trick quite well. When the release date was scheduled for August 16, the official Douyin account of "Nezha" released several videos, putting the most exciting and explosive parts of the trailer on Douyin. One of the videos received 530,000 likes. When the release date was moved up to July 26, "Nezha" cut another "transformation" video, which received more likes than before, reaching 770,000.

Facts have proved that as long as the trailer is in line with the platform's tone, it can also have a good dissemination effect on Douyin. Moreover, this is a relatively basic and practical method. Compared with the huge cost of buying advertisements, the film producers only need to re-cut a trailer to get exposure on Douyin. Why not do it?

Trick 2:

Celebrities show their presence on stage, and being close to the public is the key

Movies with a strong star lineup usually use celebrities for publicity, roadshows, variety show appearances, and Weibo "promotions". Celebrities make their movies feel more visible on various occasions.

It is not surprising to see celebrities suffer on Douyin, but relying on being familiar to the audience cannot completely attract the audience's attention. After all, Douyin is a platform that is de-celebrity-centered. The most popular people on Douyin are always internet celebrities who continuously produce creative videos. Celebrities have the advantage of traffic but may not be able to make good use of it.

Only celebrities who are close to the masses and who can mingle with the crowd can have fun on Douyin. The most representative celebrity of this type is Luo Zhixiang. Luo Zhixiang has no celebrity baggage on Douyin. He is funny, down-to-earth, and lets himself go. He calls himself "The best sand sculpture on Douyin is Luo Zhixiang." As a result, Luo Zhixiang is loved by everyone. He has 29.39 million fans and his videos have received an astonishing 180 million likes.

By the same token, when celebrities promote movies on TikTok, they should also get close to the masses, adapt to the rules of the game in the TikTok world, understand the latest popular gameplay, and keep up with hot topics, so that there will be strong interactivity and timely dissemination.

The summer blockbuster "Drug War 2: The King of Drug Lords" performed very well in this regard. Although it is difficult to say how much the film's box office of 1.2 billion yuan is related to Douyin's marketing, the exposure of "Drug War 2" on Douyin should have met the expectations of the film's producers.

Let’s see how they play? In a shooting timing video, Louis Koo, Andy Lau and other leading actors, together with director Herman Yau, all made shooting gestures, which just fits in with the large number of gun fights in the film; in another mobile phone summoning video, Andy Lau summoned Louis Koo behind him and Michael Miu beside him, and the atmosphere was joyful; and in the "Come a Little Closer" video, from a distance there is only Andy Lau, but when you get closer, three people are in the same frame, and the BGM changes to "The Return of the Condor Heroes", with two Yang Guos and one Yang Kang, which is nostalgic.

Timed shooting, summoning, and "come a little closer" were all popular gameplays on Tik Tok some time ago. After being re-interpreted by celebrities, the effects were very good. These videos received a considerable amount of likes, and the summoning video received as many as 2.5 million likes.

It can also be seen from the shooting background of the video that it should have been shot at the same location, backstage of an event. The scene is simple and it will not take too long. The key is to be well versed in the gameplay of Douyin, which has brought the video closer to the audience. In addition to giving the video a "double-click" like, the audience also became interested in the video.

During the release of "The Bravest", Huo Siyan supported the movie and posted a Douyin video, using the instant shift "transformation" video that was very popular some time ago. In the video, the son Huheng was seen running forward, passing through the fire truck, and the person who walked out was the firefighter Du Jiang. This video titled "When I Grow Up I'll Become You" received 8.687 million likes and nearly 100,000 comments.

Trick three:

Hot search is a good thing, use it to set the pace

In the first half of this year, "More Than Blue" became a small hit. The trend of the film becoming popular on Douyin was similar to that of "Ex-Files 3", and it also impressed Douyin users with its sensational and tear-jerking voice. Compared to "Ex-Files 3", one of the factors for the popularity of "More Sad Than Blue" is the boost from the hot searches on Douyin, but when "Ex-Files 3" was released, Douyin had not yet launched the hot search function.

On March 15, the day after More Than Sadness was released, it topped the Douyin hot search list with the phrase "Bring tissues when watching a story sadder than sadness", reaching a popularity value of 10.98 million. The traffic from hot searches brought a wave of rhythm to "More Than Sadness".

Previously, Douyin’s content push was based on an algorithmic mechanism, and what users saw was entirely based on their preferences. Hot searches provided a traffic entrance and were a weather vane for hot spots. Taking Weibo hot searches as an example, they have become a promotional and marketing platform that various companies are vying for, and Douyin hot searches are also developing in this direction.

Buying trending searches has become an unspoken rule in the industry. It is reported that the standard publication price for the hot period on Weibo's trending search list is 650,000 yuan per time period, and the standard publication price for the prime time is 1 million yuan. Douyin's trending searches should be cheaper than Weibo's trending searches, but it is still a considerable expense. For blockbuster films with large budgets, they can buy an appropriate location, but for filmmakers with limited budgets, "Dou+" may be a cost-effective choice.

"Dou+" is a marketing tool launched by Douyin. After purchasing and using it, the video will appear in the recommendation stream on the Douyin homepage. The amount of traffic depends on the amount of money. The price offered by "Dou+" is quite affordable, divided into five levels from 100 to 2000. You can also customize the amount, with the maximum amount not exceeding 100,000. Rhino Entertainment received a form from a Douyin film and television marketing company, in which "Dou+" accounted for the largest proportion, reaching 400,000.

Trick 4:

One idea is worth a thousand gold, leading everyone to buy the same style

On Tik Tok, an original creative short video is very valuable. Appearance, singing and dancing can attract fans temporarily, but it is easy to get tired of the fans. Only by constantly outputting creativity can fans have high stickiness.

In fact, most of the big Vs who can accumulate fans in a short period of time do so because their videos are interesting and creative. For example, Guo Donglin's "Mr. Warm Man" and Xu Juncong have attracted countless fans because each video has a new joke.

If a video can lead everyone to shoot the same style, it will undoubtedly bring great benefits to the video creator and may even lead a trend for a period of time. This type of video generally needs to meet two conditions: one is originality, that is, you are the first to come up with an idea that no one else has; the other is imitableness, that is, the operation is not too complicated and everyone can imitate it.

A video from "The Eight Hundred" once went viral on Douyin. In the video, Wang Qianyuan asked, "How many of them are they?" and the answer was, "300,000." Wang Qianyuan asked again, "How many of us are we?" and the answer was, "800." The strength of the two sides was very different, but Wang Qianyuan calmly spit out two words, "Beat him." The entire video copy is simple, but domineering, and it reflects the momentum of "Eight Hundred".

This video of "300,000 vs. Eight Hundred" not only received 2.71 million likes, but also triggered a wave of imitations, with 90,000 people participating in the same shooting. These derived videos of the same type have a wide range of radiating circles, and the fission effect they produce can indirectly boost the exposure of the film "Eight Hundred".

Another idea is to use the original sound or lines from the movie as BGM. Through repeated use by TikTok users, it can easily produce a magical brainwashing effect. For example, the line from "Big Shot" that resounded throughout Douyin, "All consumption tonight will be paid for by Mr. Zhao", was used by 162,000 people to make videos.

However, this idea was not thought up by the official filmmaker, but was first released by a TikTok user named "Senior An Ran". Some netizens commented, "This will be a movie made famous by TikTok." This also shows that good content brings its own traffic and the audience is willing to act as tap water.

Trick five:

The props are fun to play with and are widely spread.

Every once in a while, there will be popular and hot ways of playing on Douyin, among which the props, special effects and stickers launched by Douyin are the most popular. The props are very interesting to play with and easy to operate. Once used, they can instantly go viral.

Movies combined with Douyin magic props often have unexpected effects, and their spread and popularity rates are very high. For example, during the release of "Alita: Battle Angel", Alita's makeup props were widely used, and combined with the BGM of "All Falls Down", it swept the entire site for a while, attracting countless big Vs, Internet celebrities, and ordinary users to shoot the same video, and the popularity lasted for a long time.

Alita's props have a great impact on promoting her image, and everyone on TikTok has remembered this girl with big eyes and bloodshot lines. According to statistics, 3.018 million people have used this prop, and the topic #AlitaBattleAngel has reached 2.9 billion views.

During the release of "Avengers 4", Iron Man's line "I love you three thousand times" made countless Marvel fans burst into tears. The "Love you three thousand times" prop made with this classic line also became a hit on Tik Tok, and even Show Luo followed suit to shoot. The number of users of this prop reached 4.049 million, among which the topic #MoreThanLoveYouThreeThousandTimes had a playback volume of 5.66 billion times.

Compared with other marketing methods, props-based marketing is obviously easier to go viral and reach more core audiences. The expansion of Tik Tok in third- and fourth-tier cities will also help to attract more incremental audiences for movies. Even if the audience knows nothing about the film, they will subconsciously think that the movie is very popular when they see the same video filling the screen.

Not all movie content is suitable for being made into props, but for those movies with vivid characters, unique shapes, and high recognition, this method of play can be considered. After all, on Tik Tok, cross-dressing videos are a popular genre that is popular and has always been popular.

The recently popular movie "Nezha: The Devil Child Comes into the World" has caused an imitation frenzy. The classic look of the demon boy Nezha in the movie has become the "new favorite" of TikTok users. Li Xian used this prop in his first TikTok video. The funny look and cute self-introduction made Li Xian gain millions of fans with just one video, and the video also received nearly 20 million likes.

Driven by celebrity artists such as Li Xian, Luo Zhixiang, G.E.M., Chen He, Lou Yixiao, and Pan Changjiang, the number of users of "Nezha the Devil Boy" props has reached 2.557 million. It is conceivable that the "Devil Boy Nezha" that has been sweeping the screen will have a certain boosting effect on the popularity of "Nezha" and the market box office.

Summary: How much does Douyin’s film and television marketing contribute to a movie’s box office? This is a difficult question to answer, and it is currently impossible to quantify the conversion effect of Douyin’s film and television marketing. But what is certain is that with the surge in daily and monthly active users and short video content becoming mainstream, there is still a lot of room for film and television marketing on Douyin. The question lies in whether marketers have carefully studied the characteristics of platform users and then come up with targeted plans based on users' tastes. This is a process that requires continued exploration, and there is still a long way to go.

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Author: Rhino Entertainment Editorial Department

source: Rhino Entertainment ( piaofangtoushijing )