Entertainment TV shows adapted into movies and games: the superficial prosperity of the IP industry

IP really entered the public eye mainly in 2014.

But if we trace the origin, the evolution of the IP industry in the Chinese market can be traced back to the beginning of "The Voice of China" in 2012. Since then, a wave of content prosperity originated from television has gradually emerged in the domestic market, and spread to the entire content market in the next two or three years.

However, since the starting point of this wave of content prosperity was essentially initiated by television, and the entire media industry to which television belongs is facing a revenue dilemma in the new media environment, from the perspective of the media, the television industry is eager to make up for the loss of profits on the media side by maximizing the value of content.

Therefore, a strange situation that has been almost overlooked by the entire market is: based on such an industry background, the IP industry has been used by the media industry as a tool to expand the value of content because of its naturally diversified revenue attributes and good profit model, and has been officially introduced into the media industry.

So in a sense, the IP industry has also begun to become a methodology for reconstructing the media industry.

At the beginning of 2014, relying on the "Where Are We Going, Dad?" effect, the movie was a huge success. This almost zero-cost editing movie unprecedentedly earned more than 700 million yuan at the box office, bringing great confidence to the media industry. The positioning of IP as a revenue tool has also gradually landed in China in such a market carnival.

Of course, "Where Are We Going, Dad?" alone is not enough to convince the entire market. The key factor is that Hunan Satellite TV and Zhejiang Satellite TV achieved impressive results in content in 2013 and 2014. In particular, Hunan Satellite TV made a relatively successful attempt to develop content-related industries through these scarce high-quality contents in 2014.

At the same time, first-line mainstream TV stations such as Zhejiang Satellite TV, Dragon TV, and Jiangsu Satellite TV have also followed up and connected with this IP operation method - systematic commercial development based on content - forming a certain market diffusion effect, making this industrial strategy gradually recognized by the entire market.

From this perspective, China's so-called IP industry has media genes at its root, and its roots are mainly based on high-quality audio-visual content from the media. This understanding also provides greater motivation for the media industry's enthusiasm for content production, and further contributes to the prosperity of the content market.

But ironically, the implementation of this wave of IP industry theory is basically led by the media industry, which is in a revenue crisis (the video industry, due to its industry attributes, also determines its urgent desire for revenue). It seems to be impatient about the commercialization of content. In the industry atmosphere of quick success and instant benefits, the market definition of IP is limited to the level of media audio-visual content that has become popular in a short period of time, that is, the market perception that content is IP.

For example, a series of popular programs such as "The Voice of China" and "Where Are We Going, Dad?", whether making movies, hardware, or peripheral toys, are all considered IP industrialization. But strictly speaking, this method only uses specific commercialization techniques in the IP industry, but it is not the core of the IP industry. There are still huge questions about the market's understanding of IP.

At the same time, the high level of activity in the entire market due to the prosperity of media content has also made China's cultural industry surge in this market carnival.

The reason is that the value of high-quality content led by the media industry continues to extend to the cultural industry, and the media industry has successfully broken through the barriers between the media industry and the cultural industry through the IP commercialization system. This is also why more and more media are willing to regard themselves as entertainment and cultural industry institutions. It is almost a unique phenomenon of the times that such a huge cultural industry market is actually leveraged by the media industry.

Of course, in the past decade, China's cultural industry has talked a lot and done a lot, but it has not improved. If we talk about all the achievements, it may be in the past two or three years, from the big BAT giants to small individual studios. From traditional publishing, film and television production and distribution, to the intervention of the technology industry and the influx of capital, the entire industry seems to have quickly formed a consensus.

It is worth mentioning that the background of the formation of this consensus is similar to the formation of the media industry's understanding of IP. And behind the apparent prosperity, what is hidden may not be the so-called opportunity.

In recent years, the quality of audio-visual content has led to the continuous expansion of content value to the periphery. However, for this part of the extended value, China once suffered from the lack of matching business design. In order to intercept the spillover of value, the periphery of the industry urgently needs a suitable "bucket" to hold them. In this case, IP, as the role of that "bucket", has been gradually accepted by the domestic market.

Therefore, the restart of China's cultural industry can nominally be traced back to the introduction of the IP business model into China in the past two years, but the cruel reality is that the current IP business has not really become the cornerstone of supporting the cultural industry.

At this stage, whether in China's media industry or in the cultural industry (of course there is overlap between the two fields), it is at best a tool. The fundamental reason for the restart of the entire cultural industry, from the root, is mainly due to the continuous outward extension of the value of media content and its ultimate connection with the cultural industry.

Therefore, in essence, the underlying foundation of China's current wave of cultural industries is not IP, but content. Moreover, the biggest problem is that the promotion of the entire cultural industry, "IP as the engine" and "content as the engine", are two completely different industrial directions.

One fact is: although IP has a strong instrumental aspect, its function is not to be a tool. Because IP itself is a complete business system and business ecosystem, instrumentality is only the most superficial part. Moreover, the real IP is not limited to the content level. At this stage, what we think of as content is not the real IP.

Walter McDaniel, former Marvel chief artist and current founder of Black Dragon, pointed out: "Real IP can survive forever. China's current IP cannot be called IP, but can only be called brand. Brands have a life cycle and will die at a certain time, but IP will not."

"Real IP is intangible and very deep. The story (content) is only superficial." Walter said: "The biggest difference between a brand and an IP is that the brand is designed from the beginning to target a certain form of presentation, and mainly to solve the problem of how to make money with this form. Therefore, it cannot be converted well between all media forms."

The Voice of China has achieved great success, but its movie has failed miserably because the movie format was not considered in the early stages of the program production. Its initial design was mainly aimed at TV viewers, and all the emphasis was on the ratings and watchability of the program itself. Therefore, the strength of The Voice of China is more reflected in the TV side. In other areas, it is difficult to say that it has achieved success.

Of course, even though the "Where Are We Going, Dad?" movie has achieved impressive box office results, this example is not universal, and it is difficult to believe that "Where Are We Going, Dad?" movies can be made one after another. Walter emphasized that the natural death of a brand's life is an inevitable cyclical phenomenon.

This inherent disadvantage leads to very limited value expansion of surrounding industries, and the difficulty of expansion is relatively high. Therefore, if the launch of this wave of cultural industries in China is only driven by content (or brand), it may be like a pile of rootless fire, which will burn vigorously for a while but will not be able to continue due to lack of long-term vitality. This is a dangerous market expectation that the domestic market must pay attention to.

Walter admitted that the reason he came to China to found BlackDragon was because he saw that no one in the huge Chinese market was making real IPs: "When people talk about stories and IPs, not all stories and IPs can survive. Most of what people think of as IPs are just trademarks (brands). Real IPs have their own values ​​and philosophy."

So let’s use Walter’s words as the ending of the first part of this IP series and the introduction of the second part. In the second part, we will focus on what is a real IP and what are the core elements of 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.