An article analyzing the promotion and marketing methods of the movie "The Wandering Earth"

The popularity of "The Wandering Earth" has set off a wave of Chinese science fiction. Last weekend, I went to the cinema again to watch "The Wandering Earth" for the second time and satisfied my movie craving. After all, this movie is called a milestone in Chinese science fiction movies and is worth commemorating.

Of course, as a promoter, I don't really care about the box office performance. Lei Ge is more concerned about what methods were used in the publicity and promotion of this highly successful science fiction movie. After analyzing all night and collecting information from various sources, I have summarized some personal analysis.

It can be said that the popularity of "The Wandering Earth" is no less than the popularity and applause that movie fans received for the movie "Wolf Warrior 2". Of course, the film is also inseparable from the active film marketing on the Internet platform.

Since the hit of "The Wandering Earth", I have discovered at least the following points:

1. The box office exceeded 2.5 billion in 8 days and 4 billion in 17 days, which aroused the Chinese people's new understanding of the slump of the science fiction film industry...

2. The earth is facing a catastrophe, and people are wandering and fleeing with the earth. China's unique rural culture is once again sublimated and spread... In times of crisis, the traditional Hollywood movie model of individual heroism to save the world is subverted, and everyone can become a hero to conquer the earth.

3. This film is adapted from the novel of the same name by writer Liu Cixin, "The Wandering Earth". Influenced by the film, the book is hot-selling and even sold out on Taobao and major offline cinemas. Some store owners smell business opportunities...

4. The number of topics on Weibo, Toutiao and other platforms exceeded 100 million, and self-media platforms produced many popular articles with more than 100,000 views...

Based on Lei Ge’s many years of experience in watching and analyzing movies, a good movie cannot be separated from a good story, a suitable director and actors, and even more so from the promotion and publicity of the film and television in the later stage. You may also know these, but from the moment a movie is finalized and decided to be broadcast, the promotion and marketing of the entire movie has begun...

To this end, I specially made a whole framework flow chart from the promotion of the movie "The Wandering Earth" to its later release, which is similar to a fishbone diagram. For Brother Lei, the success of this movie is not just based on luck, but also the result of the continuous accumulation of marketing nodes until the final explosion of word of mouth.

Next, the editor deeply analyzes the promotion and marketing of the movie "The Wandering Earth" from two aspects;

1. “Hard promotion” efforts

Building momentum - publicity - hard advertising on large traffic platforms - celebrity traffic IP publicity - inviting major media personnel to preview - offline roadshows in universities across the country

1) Build momentum - publicity

There are many purposes of creating hype, but the purpose of creating hype for a film is to spread it. In the early stage, it is to spread the word of mouth for good reputation, in the middle stage, it is to ignite word of mouth, and in the later stage, it may turn to word of mouth and box office. However, the entire movie, from finalization to release, is inseparable from one link - publicity and promotion. This is also a most important link in promotion and marketing.

In addition, there is a point involved here: positioning. The strategic positioning of a film determines how high its future ceiling will be. The Wandering Earth is positioned as "China's first hard science fiction" film. Later, many new words were derived one after another, such as "starting a new journey of Chinese science fiction film creation", "milestone of Chinese science fiction films", "2019 is the first year of Chinese science fiction", and other public opinion topics. The topic has undoubtedly occupied the commanding heights of the beginning of the science fiction industry.

In fact, the movie Wolf Warrior, in which actor Wu Jing participated, was also positioned as "China's first main-theme war film with personal heroism" at the time. Similarly, the extremely high positioning of the movie The Wandering Earth objectively has a 90% chance of success, and this promotion has already left a good impression on the audience.

2) Hard advertising on platforms with large traffic

All carriers with attached traffic will hardly be missed in movie promotion, and traffic is almost equivalent to value. The main battlefield for the promotion of the movie The Wandering Earth: Douban Weibo, media platforms and its popular short video app Douyin.

In addition, in the early stage of the film's promotion, the popular anchor used the Huya gaming platform to promote the film "The Wandering Earth", as shown in the following figure;

3) Celebrity traffic and personal IP promotion

The film's actor "Wu Jing" promoted the film on Weibo, writer Liu Cixin brought his own traffic and made his first Weibo post to help the movie "The Wandering Earth" become a hit, director Guo Fan spent four years preparing for his "science fiction masterpiece", and so on.

As we all know, in recent years, domestic films have mostly been promoted through celebrity promotion, which has a greater influence and is more effective in dissemination. The Wandering Earth is no exception, but in my opinion, the publicity team has segmented these user groups.

For example, inviting celebrities to promote movies: targeting young users, Rocket 101 girl Meng Meiqi, Super Girl singer Zhou Bichang and other celebrities were used to promote the movie through the music videos of songs in the Wandering Earth series. A part of the movie's consumers also happen to be young users.

4) Invite major media and celebrities to watch the video

Liu Huan was invited to sing the promotional song for the MV of The Wandering Earth, and major media/KOLs were invited to watch the movie, including celebrities such as Pan Shiyi, CEO of Guokr.com and Chairman of SOHO. One of the most impressive people was the interview with SOHO reporters after the movie was watched, in which he strongly recommended the movie.

5) Offline “National University Roadshow” promotion and publicity

On December 24, 2018, the film launched an offline promotional campaign, and the film's actors and creators launched a national college roadshow with the theme of "Start the Adventure, Be Stubborn to the End".

The first stop of the roadshow on the 24th was "Hainan University and Hainan Normal University" in Haikou, followed by a university in Guangzhou and Xi'an on the 25th, universities in Zhengzhou, Henan on the 26th, Wuhan University College on the 27th, universities in Harbin, Suzhou, and Shanghai on the 28th, and Changchun and a university in Xiamen on the 30th, where thousands of students interacted and promoted.

Below is a comparison of the distribution ratio of publicity and promotion expenses for domestic films and Hollywood films. Domestic films generally account for 20% of hard advertising.

After checking the information, we learned that the production cost of the movie "The Wandering Earth" was 300 million yuan, most of which was spent on film production, special effects, etc., and the promotion and publicity cost 20 million yuan.

2. “Soft promotion” boosts

1) Planned by public relations companies, forwarded by big Vs, and continued to ferment through media and self-media platforms.

According to some topics collected online, the promotion of The Wandering Earth is inseparable from the strong recommendation and forwarding of big Vs; at the same time, Weibo, Douban, Zhihu and other platforms continue to burst out related public opinion topics and discussions;

Screenshots from Douban/Weibo/Zhihu

Screenshot of Yang Liwei's "professional" review of "The Wandering Earth"

2) The original author’s hardcore fan effect (personal IP)

The film "The Wandering Earth" is adapted from the original novel by writer Liu Cixin. Liu Cixin has written many science fiction novels, the more famous of which is "The Three-Body Problem", which won the Hugo Award. For the novel "The Wandering Earth", many fans of the writer Liu Cixin flocked to support the film "The Wandering Earth". At the same time, the novel "The Wandering Earth" sold well during the Spring Festival. The movie and the novel complement each other.

3) The lines in the film are seamlessly connected with traffic rules

Even if you don’t remember what the film was about, I think you should remember this sentence: “There are thousands of roads, but safety is the first. If you don’t drive properly, your loved ones will shed tears.”

The film was released during the Spring Festival, when people were returning home and road safety was at its peak. Traffic police from all over the country took the opportunity to take advantage of its popularity. The slogans added the lines of the Wandering Earth broadcast, which once again vividly promoted the traffic rules and regulations, and promoted the film's public opinion topic marketing.

In addition, the film's great influence and reputation are also the result of the "behind-the-scenes masterpiece" of the third-party public relations company and professional marketing company that cooperated with the film. Of course, Lei Ge speculates that it is also inseparable from the one-sided positive promotion by the more obscure online water army.

3. Other hidden factors:

The success of this film from the inside out was a spark for subsequent promotion and word-of-mouth explosion. Its films set the correct value benchmark and occupy the moral high ground. With the support of the state and the support of official media, it is also a communication force that cannot be ignored.

In addition, judging from the film's screening rate, the film's first day of release had a screening rate of only 11.4%. As word of mouth spread, the screening rate increased by 60%, "crushing" the trend of other films broadcast during the same period, which is also a big plus factor.

Experience:

The promotion of domestic films is inseparable from various hype by celebrities, including the celebrity effect. This is a very common phenomenon in the entire industry, spreading topics on the Internet, talking about feelings, and playing the emotional card.

From an analytical perspective, many valuable elements can indeed be excavated from it. From the perspective of film promotion, marketing and communication, it is indeed the result of the director, actor team and even the entire planning team doing their best and sparing no effort. The film was not optimistic at the beginning, but it did become a dark horse that counterattacked in the later period.

Source: Lu Songsong's blog