Internet dramas have been “theatrized” and need to be aware of the pitfalls of “big data” dramas
2021-08-19 20:06:50Source: Wen Wei Po
Yin Yiyi
With the success of iQiyi’s “Mist Theater”, the “theatreized” layout of major video platforms began to enter the audience’s field of vision.
The so-called “theatreization” refers to the integration of scattered, independent long-form or short-form series into a “theater” column through a certain classification method. For example, iQiyi’s “Mist Theater” is a collection of short dramas with suspense themes, and the hit dramas “The Hidden Corner” and “The Silent Truth” are the first batches of the theater; while Youku’s “Love Theater” aggregates In addition to romance dramas, the repertoires that have been aired include “Shanhe Ling” and “Sito” which are also popular.
Why are major platforms accelerating their “theatreization” layout? When “theatrization” becomes a hot trend in the new stage of the development of the online drama market, will it enhance the audience’s viewing experience?
Driven by the Attention Economy: “Stand Out” from Massive Works
“Theatreization” is first of all a business strategy. Each platform branded similar products for market segments, and its expected benefits are very clear.
On the one hand, the brand integration of similar works can save the cost of marketing and promotion of head works, and unite the original “alone” independent drama series into an interactive chain. In the later stage, the consumer behavior of the audience can also be included in the chain to form “Packaged” consumption chains such as theater subscriptions, theater broadcasts, and theater on-demand broadcasts. On the other hand, in an industry environment where video platforms have successively begun to invest in the development and operation of self-made content, theatricalization has also become a strategic layout for the platform’s collective head products to occupy the sinking market. In the past, the hot broadcast of a single drama can effectively attract platform subscriptions in a short period of time, but after the end of the drama, it is difficult to attract viewers to continue to subscribe. Today, the successful branding and serialization of platform variety shows can effectively retain audiences, but in the drama market, consumers are still very mobile, and the connection between products, audiences and platforms is relatively loose. Theatricalization can first connect the consumer market, the theater brand and its own platform. In addition to attracting new users, it can also strengthen the user adhesion of the platform, transform brand value into long-term revenue, and provide merchants with an aggregation of advertising. The platform helps to achieve a win-win situation.
At the same time, the “theatreization” also reflects the further application of the attention economy in the Internet age. In recent years, web dramas have been produced at a rapid rate and a large number, and the trend of focusing on the audience is obvious. If you want to further break through in such a competitive environment, “theatrization” can be said to be an effective means to capture the audience’s attention and lock the audience’s attention.
According to the report of Yunhe Data, a total of 292 new domestic web dramas will be released on the whole network in 2020, the effect of the first episodes will be weakened, and the “explosive styles” of the circle will flourish. In an environment where audiovisual products are “proliferating”, if you want to “stand out” from the massive supply, you must attract consumers’ attention through marketing methods. Aggregating works of the same type under the “theatreization” brand is equivalent to amplifying the volume of products, packaging products for the consumer market, and providing a basis for audience consumption and information screening. Manual screening combined with big data algorithm screening of personal viewing preferences can provide more accurate products for the audience. For example, audiences who love suspense dramas no longer need to “Taoju” in the district to easily enter the “Mist Theater” and watch high-quality suspense short dramas. In the era of the attention economy, the “theater” of online dramas is like setting up a counter in the open-shelf area of a shopping mall, as much as possible to attract consumers of the same category or brand to gather at the counter for consumption.
Keep up with the focus of the focus market: sweet pets, suspense, and short dramas become the main features
It is not difficult to find that the current main types of online drama theater focus on sweet pets, suspense, and romance.
Among them, Sweet Pet and Romance are the types of dramas that have received much attention in recent years. In 2019, the market for romantic dramas accounted for as high as 23%, nearly 10 more than the total number of romantic dramas in 2018. “Dear, Beloved” and “Happiness in the Next Stop” series have become popular ones one after another, which has cultivated a large number of audiences for the market, and the trend of consumption decline is obvious. Establishing a theater brand and integrating top dramas in such a market with a clear audience and stable consumption trends is obviously a business decision that comprehensively considers the purchase of dramas and the audience’s consumption preferences.
The main suspense type of iQiyi is more forward-looking. From the perspective of cultural markets such as online novels and overseas dramas, the audience’s preference and demand for suspenseful works have always been high. The works of writers such as Keigo Higashino and Zijin Chen have always sold well, while young audiences are more interested in suspenseful texts. The enthusiasm for consumption and secondary creation continues to rise. In 2019, suspense genre web dramas accounted for 15% of the entire network drama series, and the market trend has already begun. “Forensic Qin Ming” and “Undocumented Crimes” and other high-quality suspense dramas “test the waters” first to further clarify the audience’s needs. However, suspense dramas have relatively high requirements for scripts, production levels, and actor performance. The boutique suspense dramas on the market are still relatively scarce, almost a supply gap. Under such a premise, the “theatrization” of the suspense skit by the Misty Theater not only solves the production problems through resource integration, but also fills the market gap by grasping the audience’s needs. Judging from the results, the Fog Theater has indeed set off a “suspense fever”. In 2020, the number of new suspense-type web dramas will reach 70, and the proportion has risen from 15% in 2019 to 24%. In the segmented market of suspense dramas, Fog Theater has undoubtedly successfully occupied the top position.
In addition to keeping up with the audience’s consumption preferences for hot types, platform theatricalization also pays close attention to the audience’s acceptance of the changes in the form of drama series. For example, the main episodes of Mango TV Monsoon Theater and Iqiyi Misty Theater are short series, the length of the series is less than 20 episodes, and the length of each episode is about 60 minutes. The development of skits is in line with the trend of high-quality and high-quality web dramas, which is related to the relatively young audience of web dramas. Overseas, due to the difference in the production system of drama series and the structure of the TV industry, the length of a season’s drama is usually at the rightmost of 10 episodes, and generally does not exceed 15 episodes. In China, in order to attract enough TV commercials and ratings, traditional TV series with TV as the carrier usually design the series to be more than 40 episodes. However, currently the main consumers of online dramas are young viewers, including a large number of “digital natives” born in 1995 and 2000. They are often not audiences of traditional TV dramas, but consumers of overseas dramas, who have long been accustomed to high-quality, fast-paced drama texts. Web dramas no longer need to draw TV advertising investment by lengthening their episodes. Instead, they need to grab the audience’s attention and attract click-through rates to monetize traffic. In recent years, the importance of various platforms on skits has meant that the consumption level of young viewers has become higher and higher, and their consumption needs have become more and more important. At the same time, the form of short dramas is also conducive to the establishment of the theater brand. It will not cause the fatigue or loss of the audience due to lengthy, and it is even easier to attract the audience to watch the unsatisfactory “window period” after watching just ten episodes of the series. Watch. For example, many viewers began to look forward to “The Silent Truth” after watching “The Hidden Corner”, which is the advantage of short dramas in terms of demand compared with long dramas.
Accurate positioning will also lose focus: Has the audience’s viewing experience improved?
At present, the theater development of major platforms is still in the layout stage, and the quality of the works is relatively uneven. Except for a few, other theaters lack the support of high-quality self-made content. Looking forward to the future of online drama theaters on various platforms, it is not difficult to find several existing hidden dangers.
First of all, the simple classification and concentrated distribution of purchased drama series can attract the audience’s attention to a certain extent, but it is difficult to form a brand effect in the short term and complete a long-term layout. For example, if the purchased drama series that also contain sweet pet elements lack uniformity in terms of length, creation, and production level, then theatricalization of these dramas is likely to be more “single drama” than “theatre.” The state of “explosive” and “non-explosive” in theaters does not help the platform truly occupy the market segment. Therefore, the development of high-quality self-made content with similar specifications seems to be the only way and the future direction of platform theater.
Secondly, although “theatrization” is a product that precisely targets the consumer preferences of the audience and targets the sinking of the market, but if blindly emphasizes the types or elements that the audience or the market loves, a large number of follow-up and content homogeneity problems will inevitably arise. In overseas markets, the American drama “Emily in Paris” is based on big data analysis of audiences, and has mixed elements such as handsome actor, exotic (Paris, France) style, fashion, social network, “net celebrity”, cheating, etc. in the drama. Although the series did meet the sensory needs of the audience in the short term, and attracted considerable clicks on the Internet, the second season was renewed. However, the story of the drama is dry and empty in value, which has also triggered a lot of criticism and reflection on the “big data” drama. In the long run, whether it is the platform’s theater planning or the development of the headline series, it is still necessary to comprehensively consider the audience’s needs and content quality to avoid falling into the vicious circle of low quality and homogeneity.
(The author is a PhD in communication and a teacher at Beijing Normal University)
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