Short videos + full links, a new way of marketing movies in 2020

2020 was a turbulent year for the film industry.

From the collective withdrawal of Spring Festival films and the half-year suspension of work to the gradual resumption of life in theaters today, the film industry has experienced a period of bottoming out and a difficult rebound; as a key link in the film industry, the film marketing link has also been pushed down like a domino. Even after resuming work, the schedule that may change at any time is also testing the adaptability of marketers.

But in fact, difficult times are also an opportunity for an industry to examine itself and find breakthroughs for progress. Looking back, 2020 was not all about emergencies and pessimism for the film industry.

1. Industry restart and marketing upgrade

As the content that is most capable of grabbing users' attention and is generally preferred by the public, short videos have become an important channel for the public to learn about movies, and therefore have become a good way to gain insight into changes in the film industry and users.

Recently, Douyin released the "2020 Douyin Entertainment White Paper", which interpreted the changes in the film industry in 2020 by combing through major movie marketing events and Douyin user data.

First of all, even in an environment affected by the epidemic and with not many blockbusters released in theaters, users' demand for and willingness to consume movie content are very obvious. White paper data shows that the film content received 9.46 billion likes, 364 million comments and 196 million reposts.

Secondly, data shows that after resuming work in July, with the gradual recovery of the film market, Douyin's film content consumption has rebounded significantly, and users' consumption of film content on the short video platform is strongly correlated with the popularity of several schedules; judging from the data of this platform with 600 million daily active users, this performance of Douyin users clearly reflects the public's high attention to blockbuster schedules and key films after the resumption of work on the film industry.

What is also special is that, judging from the Douyin movie popularity list, this year's film market is not only composed of big-budget movies that are generally favored by the public, but also many non-head small and medium-cost movies such as "I'll Wait for You at the End of Time" and "Xipo" stand out; and these are also the movies that Douyin has worked hard to market in 2020; at the same time, among Douyin's annual keywords, there are also many related to films that have been successfully marketed on Douyin.

Top 10 new movies on the site

It can be seen that short video marketing has made a lot of contributions to the success of these films.

In fact, at this stage, film producers have already regarded short videos as a must-have for marketing; white paper data shows that the top 20 Chinese-language films at the box office in 2020 all have official Douyin accounts, which shows that the domestic film and television industry's recognition of the marketing capabilities of short videos is already quite high.

During the year when movies have been flocking to TikTok for promotion and marketing, it can be found that the film companies' marketing strategies on the short video platform have undergone a process of gradual optimization and upgrading.

At the beginning of 2020, seven films in the "strongest Spring Festival schedule" were collectively withdrawn. The sudden disappearance of the films meant that all the marketing budgets invested by the film companies were wasted; but in the harsh environment, a game-breaker emerged - "Lost in Russia" turned to online platforms for broadcast, creating a precedent for "large-scale commercial films to be released on online platforms"; at the same time, the film took advantage of the opportunity to fully launch marketing on Douyin, which has large traffic and concentrated topics, and ultimately achieved both influence and revenue.

If "Lost in Russia" was a move that went with the flow under special circumstances, then when the film industry resumed work in the middle of the year and the industry window opened, several blockbusters such as "The Eight Hundred", "Jiang Ziya", "Win the Championship" and "My Hometown and Me" went to short video platforms for promotion and marketing, which can be said to be the key to winning the competition.

A typical case worthy of industry observation is "My Hometown and Me", which became the box office champion of the National Day holiday in 2020 with a box office of 2.829 billion yuan; the film not only set up highly empathetic topics on Douyin to encourage user participation, but also linked many celebrities and experts to shoot movie-related topic content, which aroused the attention and imitation craze of users on the site.

What’s special is that the film also launched a 13-episode director’s extra episode on Douyin. This is also the first time that many domestic first-line directors have jointly participated in the promotion of a film.

From raising topics and collecting content to the participation of celebrities and directors, the marketing content of "My Hometown and Me" runs through the entire process before and after the film's release. With the full-link marketing approach, the main topic of the film has been played more than 4.3 billion times, and the total number of people participating in activities on the site has exceeded 16.8 million. It finally won the first place in the National Day box office.

Behind "My Hometown and Me", Douyin is not just a platform that "cooperates" in the marketing process, but actively and deeply participates in the film industry chain, planning a full-link marketing path for the film, and obtaining more obvious feedback and results with the close cooperation of multiple resources on the site.

In addition, not only does Douyin have considerable room for big productions, it also provides a broader marketing space for small and medium-cost films.

Unlike big productions that come with high attention and can easily drive public sentiment and create a wave of enthusiasm, small and medium-cost films are "naturally" not advantageous in terms of size and production; but with creative gameplay and excellent short video marketing, many small and medium-cost films have achieved remarkable performances in 2020.

2. The driving force of the platform

Movies of all subjects and sizes have found a suitable marketing model on Douyin, which is closely related to the platform's own efforts in the field of film marketing.

In a marketing campaign, being able to accurately target the target group is the key to achieving the desired results. In this regard, Douyin, which has 600 million daily active users, has accumulated a wealth of user data, and has also mastered a clearer user portrait with the support of algorithmic capabilities. For example, the white paper points out that movie users naturally have a greater interest in visual and dramatic leisure content, and film producers can refer to this content preference in advance for marketing planning.

In the huge traffic pool of Douyin, the movie will have enough user data to refer to throughout the entire marketing process; on this basis, with the help of centralized content operations, the movie is bound to find a point that resonates with users and become popular; in addition, Douyin can also track users' interactions with content, such as likes, comments, and reposts, and adjust marketing strategies in a timely manner based on user feedback on the content.

It is precisely for this reason that both blockbusters and small and medium-sized movies have the opportunity to achieve a box office comeback and a big explosion more quickly, which is actually difficult to achieve fully through traditional distribution channels.

Marketing technology is the most basic and core capability in Douyin’s film marketing strategy. In addition, establishing a short video content ecosystem is also the key to Douyin’s ability to do a good job in film marketing.

It is not difficult to see that Douyin has formed a content ecosystem of "official + celebrity + expert + user". The number of accounts with more than 10,000 followers that have submitted movies is 63,000, the number of submitted views has increased by 363.84%, and the number of likes has increased by 225.36%; although the number of accounts with more than 10,000 followers on movies only accounts for 7.44% of the number of users who submit movie content, they contribute 76.59% of the views; film and television accounts and entertainment blue Vs have more professional creative capabilities, and 21.47% of the submissions contribute 62% of the VVs, and they receive higher attention in terms of view VVs, reposts, comments and likes.

Powerful UGC capabilities make tap water users a powerful tool for breaking the circle of film dissemination.

At the same time, Douyin's large number of celebrities and top creators are also indispensable factors; celebrities and top creators have become "resources" that can quickly trigger hot topics because of their own traffic characteristics; their role not only radiates to the fan base, but also can enhance the interactivity and stickiness of ordinary users who have entertainment content needs. Therefore, the film also has the opportunity to ferment and spread layer by layer within the site, and ultimately achieve a multiplier effect.

It is also worth noting that as the entire marketing industry is emphasizing intuitive effects, short video marketing also has certain advantages.

In the traditional marketing context, film projects face the pain point of low conversion rates due to the need for offline fulfillment. People can only measure the effectiveness of publicity through exposure, click-through rate and final box office.

The film producers cannot learn the true situation of different marketing touch points, and it is difficult to subsequently optimize the marketing strategy according to marketing objectives; but on the short video platform, relying on the immersive scenes of short videos and the platform's data analysis and management capabilities, they can more clearly see and evaluate the marketing conversion effects.

"One Second" full link closed loop

In summary, the short video marketing of movies has developed from simply throwing materials onto the platform to linking celebrities, influencers, and users to co-create content, setting up various topic marketing links on the site, and even realizing full-link marketing.

The upgrade to this step is the result of the joint participation and efforts of platforms, film producers, and marketers. After experiencing the baptism of the times, the upstream and downstream of the film industry will further accumulate anti-fragility capabilities and demonstrate strong commercial resilience in the future.

Author: Guo Ruiling

Source: Deep Sound