Water army or tap water? A glimpse into the development of popular IP

IP is a hot word this year. If a corporate boss doesn't talk about IP-related topics during a speech, he will be laughed at. Under the seemingly sure-win model of "super IP + popular stars + hype topics", from IP mining to the capital wave set off by listed companies, the IP industry and IP consumption have entered an era of full-scale explosion. Blindly chasing IP for cashing out is a waste of IP resources and popularity, and IP is also prone to lack of successors. It seems that turning a small transparent IP into a popular IP is the way to maximize profits.

But how can an unknown IP carve out a niche among so many popular IPs? Wu Xin: The Monster Killer and The Return of the Great Sage are undoubtedly dark horses. Before the online drama of Wu Xin: The Monster Killer was launched, its original novel had not even been published, and The Return of the Great Sage had almost no publicity in the early stage. It succeeded entirely by word of mouth.

Small transparent IP also has potential

Someone has summarized that an IP needs three highs to be popular: high appearance, high marketing, and high popularity. So the question is, which one is more important, popularity or wide content?

The original novel of "Grave Robbers' Chronicles" is very popular, and there is no need for much promotion. The fans of the original novel are enough to support the world; "Nirvana in Fire", which has swept the ratings, also has its own fans; "The Legend of Zhen Huan" also had a group of loyal readers before it was adapted into a movie. A simple analysis of the above-mentioned popular IPs shows that before the popular IP adaptations become popular, the number of fans of the original novel directly reflects the value of an IP. However, if we only say that IPs with high visibility and a large number of fans are valuable, it deviates from the topic we are going to discuss today.

It is true that only IPs with a certain number of fans are worth adapting, but this is not the key to whether the IP can become a hit. The more plasticity the IP material has, that is, the more room it can be adapted by screenwriters and producers, the higher the possibility of success.

Although "The Legend of Zhen Huan" has a place in the development of online novels and harem novels, it is essentially a Mary Sue romance novel; "Grave Robbers' Chronicles" set off a trend of tomb-robbing novels in China, but it cannot be separated from the thriller and suspense novels. However, the tension of their material will not be limited to a simple type. Like several other IPs, "Wu Xin: The Monster Killer" has suspense, thriller, romance, and more than one side plot; the male protagonist is a boyfriend with max power, the female protagonist's IQ is not offline but she is too cheating, and the supporting characters have diverse personalities...

If you were to choose an IP adaptation, one with rich materials, an interesting story, and broad room for adaptation would be more likely to become popular than one that is very popular but has a single and repetitive plot line.

Whether it can become popular depends on conscience

With the prerequisites for becoming a hit IP, whether the adapted drama can push the popularity of the IP to a higher level depends on "conscience". Audiences who have been shocked by the bad domestic dramas in recent years seem to have lowered their requirements for conscience. They don't ask for high looks, but for makeup that is not too bizarre; they don't ask for Hollywood special effects, but for not being cheap; they don't ask for unprecedented, but for everything to be normal.

The heroine is not Mary Sue or silly, the hero is not a domineering CEO or a gold finger, the story is tear-jerking and does not rely on IQ, and the special effects are "49 cents and no more", which is considered normal. The audience who have been tortured to death will "tears of gratitude" for a normal adaptation. If the details are more perfect and the actors are more beautiful, the kind audience will give a thumbs up and praise the "conscience".

This is true for popular IPs such as "Wu Xin: The Monster Killer", "Empresses in the Palace", and "Nirvana in Fire". Although bad dramas can attract attention for a while, a group of normal and logical people doing what they should do in the time and place they should be in will be repeatedly brought out by the audience for aftertaste, and the cultivation of fans also starts from this. After eight years of patient polishing, "The Return of the Great Sage" is no longer the work of "my classmate who studied 3D for three years", nor is it a plagiarism of "Transformers". Although the picture is still flawed, it really makes the audience feel the hope of domestic animation. A large number of "tap water" came just for the word "conscience".

"Tap water" comes uninvited, there are tricks to attract fans

The era of "good wine needs no bush" has long passed, and high-intensity hard advertising marketing is also easy to disgust the audience. Now the "tap water" fighting on the front line of marketing has become the most easily accepted publicity window by the audience with its down-to-earth attributes. Even if the "tap water" voluntarily and spontaneously for the sake of good dramas, if there is no push behind them, it is impossible for "the water of the Yellow River to come from the sky".

The last step for marketers to promote IP into a hit is to attract these fans. Currently, most IP-adapted dramas are popular online, and online audiences are chasing after "high cuteness, high passion, high abuse" and "sincerity, funny, down-to-earth" and good interaction, so it is very important to cater to their tastes.

The comments on the bullet-screening website are the most direct response from the audience, and the number of clicks and word-of-mouth counterattacks, as well as the birthplace of "tap water", are mostly here; Weibo comments are also very intuitive for the audience, and the audience's feedback is also mostly presented on Weibo. In an era of IP fever, relying on these two major platforms to please the audience can gain much more than investing a lot of advertising on other platforms.

The "tap water" are willing to recommend the "rise of domestic dramas", the down-to-earth response of the crew, the constant high-energy interactions among the leading actors... one link after another, the seemingly unorganized "tap water" is controlled by the marketing giant, and a small transparent IP is finally pushed into a hit.

However, the popularity of adapted dramas does not count as an IP being nurtured into a super IP. Comics, games, movies, and peripheral products of the same name must follow closely to firmly attract the audience. Multi-level development allows resources to gather quickly and form a closed industrial loop, which is the ultimate path to nurturing a popular IP.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.