"Taiwan-Internet linkage" changes the situation and creates a TV program ecosystem

In recent years, video websites have been claiming "TV and Internet linkage", but both sides have always limited each other to cooperation in joint promotion between TV and the Internet, and no further actions have been seen.

After the "One TV Series, Two Stars" policy was introduced this year, TV stations have been caught in a more intense competition. Industry insiders believe that the introduction of this policy may accelerate the cooperation process between TV stations and video websites, and bring more opportunities for cooperation between satellite TV stations and video websites. Previously, "Internet and TV linkage" was more limited to bundled promotion between the two parties, but in the future, there may be in-depth cooperation such as price cooperation, advertising cooperation, and even time cooperation. So in the future, there may be another pattern.

While TV stations were seeking deeper development, video websites were also in a state of undercurrent—not only did they launch a “war for exclusive broadcasting”, but they also began to further cooperate with major TV stations. Despite this, the real cooperation between first-tier video websites and first-tier satellite TV stations was still blank until March.

Breakthrough

One afternoon in March, in the conference room of LeTV, the heads of Dragon TV and LeTV sat together for the first time to "plot" an outdoor reality show, which was comparable in size and funding to "Where Are We Going, Dad?" However, the difference was that this was China's first youth inspirational reality show, avoiding the TV stations' cute kids "Assembly Call."

It is understood that the program "Let's Come Together" jointly produced by Dragon TV and LeTV is the first time that the post-00s teenagers have appeared collectively. It will also be the first time for parents born in the 1970s to pay serious attention to these young children, and it will evoke warm memories for grandparents born in the 1950s...

The program will use 20 people and 21 feet of leg-binding running as the competitive carrier, with the growth and transformation of teenagers as the focus, showing the sunny vitality of children. In addition to running training, the program also aims to reflect the real learning and living conditions of current junior high school students, and focuses on expressing the thoughts and demands of these "post-00s" truthfully. In addition, the program also invited more than 10 sports and entertainment stars, including Yao Ming and his wife, as mentors to live and train with the children, so as to integrate into the children's team and better understand and encourage them. The program will be broadcast every Saturday night on Dragon TV's prime time starting from June 28, and LeTV will broadcast it exclusively on the entire network simultaneously.

On April 19, the show "Let's Go Together", jointly produced by Dragon TV and LeTV, held its first press conference in Shanghai. As the only online competition area for this project, LeTV also launched the competition channel for the online competition area - launching an online leg-binding running competition among junior high school students across the country, and filming the students' leg-binding running into videos and uploading them to the LeTV online competition area. The program group will select two online teams to advance directly to the semi-finals based on the results of netizens' voting support.

At the same time, the program also started filming for more than a month in six locations, including Ningde, Fujian, Shenyang, Liaoning, Jiuquan, Gansu, Dali, Yunnan, Beijing, and Shanghai, and selected six winning teams to enter the semi-finals.

Looking at the development of "TV-Internet linkage", this should be the first time that TV stations and video websites have truly joined forces to carry out in-depth cooperation, that is, jointly invest and co-produce a variety show. This new model extends from a single broadcast promotion to the entire process of program development, marketing and promotion, and presents an inseparable state of "you are in me, I am in you".

Blueprint for the “TV Program Ecosystem”

Guo Weihua, chief director of "Let's Go Together", said that the reason why an outdoor reality show variety show cooperated with a video website was also for deeper considerations. "We have confirmed a joint production with LeTV, and the program has also integrated the online competition area. More than 7,000 middle school students from more than 70,000 schools across the country can shoot videos of running with leg bindings and upload them to LeTV, the only online competition area of ​​the program. Netizens can vote for their favorite team, which has attracted a certain amount of attention among netizens before the broadcast and started to warm up for the program." Guo Weihua admitted that compared with previous programs, the planning, shooting, post-editing and other stages of the program will be more carefully considered - because not only the broadcast of satellite TV stations but also LeTV must be considered.

In addition, during the filming process, LeTV's production team also joined the filming group. Gao Fei, president of LeTV's website business group, said that from the initial research on the market and audience to the filming of the program, LeTV and Dragon TV were working simultaneously. "We also shot a lot of basic materials, which were edited into promotional videos, feature films, documentaries, etc., as well as celebrity interviews and training videos for leg-binding running. We also planned two derivative programs, "Run, Youngsters" and "Let's Run Together", and launched a 100-star boosting plan."

Regarding LeTV's operational strategy, Guo Weihua said: "While LeTV has gained traffic, it has also accumulated a certain amount of popularity for our program, which may generate more commercial value in the future. So, I call this process an 'ecosystem'. This is also the TV program ecosystem we want to create."

At the beginning of the cooperation, Guo Weihua had a deep understanding of the "LeEco ecosystem", and based on this, Guo Weihua came up with the idea of ​​this TV program ecosystem, which will become a relatively innovative cooperation. Both parties are full of confidence in this project, and they also want to use this cooperation to create a milestone in the variety show of "TV-Internet linkage".

The commercial value of online and TV linkage

How much commercial value and brand promotion can a variety show bring?

LeTV found the answer in the second season of "I Am a Singer", the new year variety show exclusively broadcast on the entire network in 2014: it not only created a legend in traffic, but also brought a very high brand effect to LeTV.

There is a story that was passed on by word of mouth within LeTV: When I Am a Singer 2 was being broadcast, Jia Yueting, chairman and CEO of LeTV, was on a business trip abroad. On the plane, he conducted a random survey, "How many people know that LeTV is the exclusive broadcaster of I Am a Singer?" The result surprised him, as nearly 90% of people knew this information.

However, LeTV further fueled the show with its multi-screen operation capabilities in this "TV-Internet linkage". Seven days a week, LeTV uses social media and public relations to explore topics about the show and celebrity artists for planning. It also pays close attention to the performance of "I Am a Singer 2" on various platforms such as Baidu Index and Sina Weibo Rankings, and conducts timely comparative analysis with variety shows of the same period such as "Sing My Song" and "The Brain", so as to respond quickly and keep "I Am a Singer 2" in the lead in ratings and online playback volume.

Overall, LeTV's "bet" is indeed worth it. "I Am a Singer 2" has attracted many brand advertisers such as Liby, JD.com, Estee Lauder, and Clarins to participate in cooperation for LeTV. The well-known e-commerce company Vipshop even spent 50 million yuan to obtain the network's chief sponsorship seat. So far, the second season of "I Am a Singer" has brought LeTV nearly 200 million in advertising revenue, and has brought LeTV multiple returns in terms of traffic, marketing, and brand.

Based on this, LeTV and Dragon TV have carried out a deeper "TV-Internet linkage" this time. The two parties not only jointly invested and co-produced, but also cleverly implanted the most popular LeTV Super TV in the program.

In this regard, Gao Fei also said: "We plan our products and services based on the LeEco ecosystem. Although we can independently complete each link such as content production, operation, marketing, and broadcasting, the LeEco ecosystem is not closed, and we can cooperate with external parties at every node. For example, in the content production part, we will cooperate with many high-quality content production companies. As long as our demands are consistent, we can work together, and then we can both do advertising and investment promotion. "It seems that while LeEco continues to develop the LeEco ecosystem, it also needs to rely on variety shows to become popular again.

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.