Story of Yanxi Palace is a big hit. Five creative ways for brands to catch up with the trend and three ways to do so

"Story of Yanxi Palace" dominated the screen this summer. As a marketing person, I keenly smelled a good opportunity to improve performance. The opportunity to chase the hot spots has come again! So how can we follow the hot topics in film and television?

"Story of Yanxi Palace" has replaced "My Fair Princess" and "Journey to the West" and dominated the screen again this summer. The family members are obsessed with watching the drama, which has squeezed out the already limited communication time of working couples. I am a marketer and have keenly smelled a good opportunity to improve my performance. The opportunity to chase the hot spots has come again!

1. Redefine the trend: Speak for the brand and have a dialogue with users

In brand marketing activities , there is always some embarrassment when encountering hot topics. You chase them, but you don’t know how to associate them with the brand. What’s the point of chasing hot topics if you don’t associate them with the brand? Don’t chase it. Just watch other companies making a fuss and making money. The search index is rising, but this month’s performance will be bad again.

What is the most important thing to follow in 2018? Stance is the most important. If you just follow hot topics or use hot elements to make a poster and post it on Weibo, it won't make any waves. Marketing needs to change its thinking on hot topics. As content marketing becomes more and more popular, hot topics provide brands with a common topic with users. Marketing needs to speak on behalf of the brand and communicate with users.

There are more and more Internet channels and more and more ways for brands to express their opinions. What users have left for us is only fragmented time. When "Story of Yanxi Palace" is just halfway through, you can find more than 100 articles with more than 100,000 articles on Xinbang . Sogou WeChat search can find more than 7,500 articles related to the keyword "Story of Yanxi Palace".

After reading dozens of articles with over 100,000 words, the topics they selected have different angles, but the common point is "be an opinion leader and say the right words to the right people."

For example, an article published by a public account targeting the female group was titled "Why did Qin Lan become popular again for playing Empress Fucha? "Mature women seek change in stability", using the characteristics of characters to talk about femininity;

For example, a public account on the topic of children's health published an article titled "From "The Legend of Zhen Huan" to "Story of Yanxi Palace", the imperial doctors in palace fighting dramas are still so unreliable!" ”, using the plot to talk about neonatal jaundice;

For example, targeting young people, a public account known for its sharp writing style published an article titled "Story of Yanxi Palace: If you are not a tough character, you won’t even survive the opening song."

The articles listed here make people feel that they said what they should have said in the right occasion and to the right person. If the brand is personified, it would be like talking to a pediatrician about jaundice, talking to a close sister about family, and talking to a young girl about the world view, and the hot elements become the introduction to a topic and the source of arguments.

We tend to prefer chatting with two types of people. The first type is topic spreaders. Chatting with them can help us learn information we don’t know, including the latest news and information organization and classification. The second type is opinion leaders. Chatting with them is to get information we couldn’t imagine and to broaden our horizons. The progress of everyone obtaining information on film and television hot topics is basically the same, so we pay more attention to information organization and opinion leaders.

So how do you say the right things to the right people in the right situations? Discovering hot elements related to users becomes the key.

2. Take advantage of the five elements of film and television dramas, refuse to preach and move towards comedy

1. How to find the “accurate” hotspot elements

When it comes to exploring hot topics, the most painful thing is that one is not clear about, does not understand, and is not interested in the matter, which directly leads to no insights, no opinions, and no connotation. Here are a few channels that will help you quickly gain an understanding of new things and think about some core ideas.

• Go to Zhihu to find in-depth insights and analysis. There are always experts who express their in-depth views under the highlights.
• Go to Douban to see the public's preferences and opinions. Public film reviews represent the public's opinions and can inspire you with new ideas.
• Go to Xinbang and search for more than 100,000 article cases. In addition to searching for public accounts, Xinbang can also search for articles.
• Brushing barrage, opening up a new way of unique perspectives, for marketing creative people, barrage is simply a magic weapon + lifesaver;
• Once you have a topic, go to Sogou WeChat to search and find relevant material for the article. You don’t need to watch the drama to get screenshots or anything like that, as they have already been edited.

2. Five common creative ideas in film and television hot spots

When it comes to hot topics in film and television dramas, the five common creative methods include golden quotes/screenshots/actor jokes/plot jokes/life philosophy jokes. In the TV series "Story of Yanxi Palace", the most talked about in analysis articles is the practical significance represented by the characters in the plot, and there are also many golden quotes.

(1) Golden quotes: Resonate with the golden quotes in the drama and speak for the users

The line in Story of Yanxi Palace that impressed me the most was:

"I have a bad temper and I'm not easy to mess with. If anyone keeps complaining, I have plenty of ways to deal with her."

The reason why this sentence has become a golden sentence is that everyone has feelings of grievance in their hearts, but it is difficult to vent in real life. What should we do? It’s not too much to post a screenshot on your Moments .

There are also examples:

"The Emperor wants us to be virtuous, beautiful, frugal, and courageous. Is he looking for a woman or a god?"

This sentence can resonate with a lot of people when placed in the right scenario and among the right crowd, such as women. Even if the reality is not like this, people are always willing to show off their little emotions when someone speaks for them.

How to use the elements of golden sentence memes? Golden sentences actually represent the inner feelings of a part of people. The simplest way is to increase the variety of ways for users to forward them, such as making golden sentences into pictures. The pictures can be elements of mood calendars or emoticons to facilitate users to forward them.

(2) Screenshot meme: Using movie and TV screenshots as article material

Screenshot memes are a common method in film and television topics, such as screenshots of bloopers. Bloopers are actually a kind of new information, discovering the differences from others. Another mainstream method is to take screenshots, using representative scenes such as scenery and buildings from the drama to match your own content.
The most widely used is funny screenshots, which save the funny scenes in the drama as static images or GIF images, which can be used as emoticons.

(3) Actor memes: Gossip and fashion are timeless topics

Among the articles related to "Story of Yanxi Palace", there are many articles analyzing the actors' makeup and costumes. In addition, the topic of plastic surgery is also enduring.

(4) Plot: Where In-depth Content Comes in Hand

Plot gags are an idea that can better reflect a brand's positive values. In the relevant articles of "Story of Yanxi Palace", we can see historical background topics, character relationship inventory, character role analysis, plot complaint predictions and other related content. The first three are actually mainly for entertainment, and starting from the plot gags, the depth of the opinion leader can be reflected.

(5) Life philosophy: When you speak truth, you must speak directly to people’s hearts.

Life philosophy is a double-edged sword. If used well, it can generate emotional resonance and be forwarded crazily. But if used poorly, it just sounds like preaching, which no one wants to hear. There are three directions of life philosophy: workplace, life and personal perception. Emotional choices are also divided into positive and negative. For young people, it is not excessive to stir up "sad emotions", but for middle-aged and elderly people, it is still necessary to be positive.

3. Three types of activities for brands to follow hot spots

After completing the event planning and element analysis, the form in which the content or activity is conveyed is also a key factor. For brands, there are three low-cost promotional channels: new media channels (own platforms)/online interactive activities and offline marketing activities.

1. New media channels: speak for the brand and communicate with users

Most companies already have their own new media platforms, including WeChat, Weibo, Toutiao, and Douyin . Some companies have even opened dozens of accounts, but the pain is that there is no reading, lack of exposure, and the advertisements cannot be sent out.

The problem itself lies in the positioning of the account. If you stand on the brand's own standpoint, it will be difficult to resonate with users. Just like industry benchmarks Durex and Jiang Xiaobai , if they emphasize the rubber and wine yeast they use every day, no one will like to watch them.

Corporate new media needs to speak on behalf of the brand and make the brand an opinion leader among users. For example, Jiang Xiaobai’s target audience is young people, and the copywriting highlights topics such as friendship, brotherhood, campus, and workplace rookies .

There are two ways for new media channels to take advantage of the popularity of film and television dramas. The first is to use the content of the article, combining the above hot spot planning ideas to write articles and express your views. In fact, it doesn’t matter what your opinion is, and it doesn’t matter whether it is profound or not. What matters is that users want to see opinions that share the same views as themselves.

The second is to output materials to help users express their emotions in various ways. For example, as mentioned above, turning famous quotes into emoticons and promotional posters.

2. Online interactive activities: helping users integrate into hot spots

The drama "Story of Yanxi Palace" has many characters that are deeply rooted in people's hearts, and there are also many props and historical details in the plot that are worthy of praise. Online interactive activities can develop common ones, such as test games , to test your character in "Story of Yanxi Palace".

It is simple to develop testing games, but the key to success lies in the content. The key is to make users satisfied with the results and willing to spread the word. Accurate calculations are not necessarily important; interesting results are what are important.

3. Offline marketing activities: create a scene related to the hot spot

As online costs become increasingly higher, and traditional businesses become more and more enthusiastic about embracing the Internet, offline activities have become another new way to grow customer acquisition. Compared with online activities, offline activities have a stronger sense of experience and a better atmosphere. Hot elements of film and television dramas can be used as promotional materials for activities , such as small fans and cards related to "Story of Yanxi Palace" as gifts, and golden sentences can be made into materials that can be held in the hands and photographed.

The above is all. After writing this article, my wife has also finished watching 8 episodes of TV. The fun of watching at 2x speed makes the costume drama full of gunfire and bullets. Whether it is "Dying to Survive" or "Story of Yanxi Palace", film and television hot spots are "harmless" hot spots for all brands. There is no question of whether or not to pursue them, only the question of how to pursue them.

Following hot topics is not advertising. Hot topics are interactive discussions between users on the same topic. When a group of people get together to chat, you can either be opinion leaders or information dealers. If neither works, serving tea or pouring water can also attract everyone's attention. The most taboo thing is that everyone is discussing that the dog of the second uncle is lost, and you run over and ask, "Do you want to buy dog ​​food?" If you shout "Good thing it's lost", it will attract attention, but the relationship will not continue.