Recently, the advanced on-demand broadcast of "Nothing But Thirty" has reached its finale. Different from the public outrage aroused by the last hit of "Joy of Life" and the advance on-demand broadcast on iQiyi, there was not much resistance from users to the advance on-demand broadcast of "Nothing But Thirty" this time.

On the contrary, everyone was talking about the plot and ending with great relish, and many people even showed off on social platforms the sense of superiority of knowing the ending in advance.

Since August 7 last year, Tencent Video has been testing the waters for advanced on-demand viewing, announcing that members can watch the finale of "The Untamed" in advance for 30 yuan. Today, advanced on-demand viewing has been around for exactly one year. Users have gone from resistance to gradual accustomed to it, and it is obvious that advanced on-demand viewing is slowly becoming a standard feature of video websites.

This was also confirmed by Endata's daily ranking of online dramas on June 16. Among the 10 online dramas on the list, except for "Missing People", the other online dramas have taken the path of advanced on-demand viewing.

1. Tips for advanced on-demand viewing

While studying the advance on-demand viewing of "Nothing But Thirty", I discovered some of its little tricks in marketing.

1. Unable to skip episodes to unlock

The advance on-demand viewing of "Nothing But Thirty" starts this Monday (August 3rd). Members can pay to watch the last 8 episodes at 3 yuan per episode. But you can't skip episodes to unlock.

The purpose of doing this is to achieve maximum benefit. It is conceivable that if the platform allows skipping episodes to unlock, many people will jump directly to the last episode to watch the finale. Now that they have seen the ending, many people will likely abandon the episodes in between, or simply watch the trailer to get the outline of the plot they skipped. The 2-minute trailer for each episode condenses the essence of the plot of that episode, and you can get a general idea just by watching the trailer.

So the final result is likely to be that users will only spend 3 yuan instead of 24 yuan to pre-order. In other words, if the number of paying users for advance on-demand viewing is 1 million, the platform will lose 21 million yuan in revenue, which is definitely not what Tencent Video wants to see.

2. Time Selection

Choosing when to start advanced on-demand viewing is a technical job. If the content is too advanced, it will affect the user experience and attract user complaints. For example, the TV series "Joy of Life", which was severely criticized by the People's Daily, started advanced on-demand viewing in the 21st episode.

You know, it's a 46-episode TV series. When the playback progress is less than 50%, they can't wait to start playing on demand. What's the difference between this and having VVIP in addition to VIP? It's really too ugly. This has also made many users dissatisfied, and they feel that their VIP membership rights have been downgraded.

But if it is too late, there will also be problems. First, the platform will earn too little. For example, if only the finale is available on paid on-demand, even if the unlocking fee is as high as 10 yuan (not to mention whether this price is reasonable or not), there are still 1 million users paying, and the revenue is not that high.

Second, users get completely different feelings when they know the ending 7 days in advance and 1 day in advance. Just imagine, if you only have one day to know the ending, then you will most likely endure it, after all, it only takes one day! But if you are enjoying the show, but you still have to wait 7 days to know the ending, and during this period, spoilers may have already appeared everywhere, you may not be able to bear it.

Generally speaking, it is more appropriate to start advanced on-demand viewing of a series one week before the finale. For example, the series "Nothing But Thirty" started advanced on-demand viewing when there were still 8 episodes left, which was 6 days in advance. This choice ensures that the platform has a certain amount of profit without causing user disgust.

But I think the choice of time is still a bit imperfect. August 3rd is a Monday, and watching 8 episodes in one go is a big challenge for office workers. If the time for advanced on-demand viewing is moved forward by one day, that is, Sunday, and the episode update time is changed to 10 a.m., then perhaps the number of people who view advanced on-demand viewing will increase.

Firstly, people only have enough time to watch TV series on Sundays. In the eyes of many young people, weekends are equal to watching TV series. If users want to unlock 10 episodes at a time, they must first have the time to finish watching them. There is no doubt that weekends are sufficient.

The second is that many people are accustomed to spending on weekends, and are more likely to succumb to temptation and make impulsive purchases. It costs money anyway, and compared to going out for a big meal and drink, spending the money for a movie ticket (30 yuan) to watch a TV series is actually nothing.

This involves the concept of mental accounting. Consumers’ mental accounts are different during the week and on weekends, and it is obvious that the mental accounts on weekends are richer. Allowing consumers to use their weekend mental accounts to pay for advanced on-demand viewing will result in fewer obstacles and a higher success rate.

3. Pricing

Pricing has always been an important issue in marketing. It is determined by the brand's top-level strategy - what kind of brand tone, what kind of consumer group it is targeting, what kind of market strategy to formulate, and it determines how much resources can be invested in product promotion in the later stage. The pricing of a product is never determined solely by the cost of the product.

However, the pricing of advance on-demand services is simpler and does not involve a logically complex brand strategy. It has only one pricing principle, which is determined by its value in the eyes of consumers. The essence of advanced on-demand viewing is buying time, which is a form of content payment.

The price must not be too high. Because it is a paid service launched for members. Charging a VVIP fee after collecting membership fees would be offensive, so it must be a small amount of money that is not harmful.

As a test, "The Untamed" charges 30 yuan to unlock the last 6 episodes, "Joy of Life" charges 50 yuan to unlock 6 episodes (not the ending yet), and "Nothing But Thirty" charges 24 yuan to unlock the last 8 episodes. Among them, only "Joy of Life" was severely criticized because the price of 50 yuan is equivalent to more than three months of membership fee, which is really too high.

The current mainstream pricing in the industry is 3 yuan per episode, with a total price of about 30 yuan (the price of a movie). Judging from market feedback, this pricing is quite acceptable.

Is it possible that this pricing will change in the future? I think it is possible.

2. Advanced on-demand video can still be optimized

Advanced on-demand viewing has only been around for a short period of one year. Although it has evolved from a novelty into a norm, user acceptance and awareness are still limited. If video platforms want to benefit further from it, they may need to optimize on many levels.

1. Increase user habit cultivation

First, we will increase our efforts to cultivate users’ payment habits. Paying for content is a trend that has only emerged in recent years. Before that, the popular trend in the Internet industry was "whoever offers free content wins the world."

In the early days, video platforms also acquired users through "free". It took a long time from providing all content for free to purchasing VIP memberships - to date, iQiyi, Youku and Tencent Video all have hundreds of millions of members. Similarly, advanced on-demand viewing also requires a period of time to cultivate user awareness.

While cultivating users' payment habits, the platform must not act too hastily, such as enabling advanced on-demand viewing too early, charging too high a fee, or allowing advanced on-demand viewing of all episodes indiscriminately. You must have the mentality of playing the long game to catch the big fish.

2. Do a good job of labeling

The reason why advanced on-demand viewing has previously caused dissatisfaction is that it is suspected of false advertising. Tencent Video’s VIP rule at the time was “watch popular dramas first”, and the agreement for “The Untamed” further clarified that members “can always watch four more episodes”. The use of the word "always" gives netizens the impression that no matter what the circumstances, they can watch four more episodes as long as they purchase a VIP membership.

However, Tencent Video tried out advanced on-demand viewing near the end of the video, allowing users who paid extra to go directly to the finale, which triggered a huge emotional backlash among ordinary member users.

Therefore, the platform has made a lot of adjustments now. For example, the terms of advanced on-demand or VIP additional payment are clearly marked in the VIP membership service agreement.

In addition, when video websites launch advanced on-demand dramas, they also write the date and activation rules of the "advanced on-demand" in advance in the drama calendar.

If the platform wants to allow advanced on-demand viewing without causing objection, it must make advance notice of the episodes that can be viewed in advance and mark them in a prominent position to ensure that the rules are clear. You must never have the mentality of taking advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune, such as taking advantage of the popularity of the series to temporarily put it online for advance on-demand viewing, or temporarily raising the price, etc., which makes users feel deceived and slaughtered.

I believe most users will understand if the rules are explained in advance and there is no temporary change.

3. Increase differentiation of member benefits

In addition, increasing the differentiation of rights and interests among member users is also a feasible solution. For example, before members make recharges, they are divided into different levels, and the rights and interests between members at different levels are different. It could be a faster network and clearer picture quality; it could also be ad-free, downloadable and on-demand, etc.

As we all know, although VIPs of several major video platforms are exempt from advertisements on the surface, they are not actually free. Exclusive VIP member advertisements and theater advertisements will still cause headaches for the majority of member users, and the world has suffered from this for a long time.

If members are divided into ordinary members and super members before recharge, and the latter enjoy rights such as truly ad-free and advanced on-demand viewing, I believe many users will pay for it.

In this regard, foreign streaming giant Netflix has taken the lead in finding a successful path. Its model is to release content all at once, and membership grading is mainly based on equipment and picture quality experience. Although the domestic and international environments are different, its practices are also worth learning from for domestic platforms.

4. Intensify the fight against piracy

Another major enemy that affects the membership experience is rampant piracy. For example, during the advance on-demand period of "The Untamed", the recorded finale resources quickly circulated on some e-commerce platforms, WeChat, Weibo, etc., and some people even publicly sold high-definition versions, and the entire series could be watched for 1.98 yuan.

This is hard not to be exciting (and, a resource search expert like me can easily find high-definition resources on the Internet), but in contrast, users who "ruthlessly" turn on advanced on-demand viewing feel like they are being taken advantage of.

If this situation is not improved, it is likely that advanced on-demand service will still be difficult to develop significantly. Moreover, only by working hard to build a healthy content ecosystem can the entire industry develop in a good direction.

Conclusion

I understand that advanced on-demand viewing is and will become the industry standard. After all, the platform also needs to make money, and the fact that video platforms are financial holes has been around for a long time.

However, it would be counterproductive if it comes at the cost of hurting the feelings of members. Playing tricks on users will only backfire in the end.

More importantly, the prerequisite for advanced on-demand viewing is that the content must be good, and not all dramas are suitable for advanced on-demand viewing. "Only when your content is good enough will users pay to watch it." Content is king and this is still the only long-term solution for video platforms.

Author: Liu Shimu

Source: Liu Shimu