Advertising in variety shows: deep cooperation instead of simple advertising

in the past two years, the variety show market has become more and more popular, as well as variety marketing. In 2015, the naming fees for "I am a singer", "running Brother" and "Happy Camp" often cost hundreds of millions of yuan, and the price is constantly rising. The emergence of new media not only divides the TV audience, but also accelerates the reshaping of TV media pattern, but the marketing system with TV advertising as the core is still indestructible.

in the past two years, the variety show market has become more and more popular, as well as variety marketing. In 2015, the naming fees for "I am a singer", "running Brother" and "Happy Camp" often cost hundreds of millions of yuan, and the price is constantly rising. The emergence of new media not only divides the TV audience, but also accelerates the reshaping of TV media pattern, but the marketing system with TV advertising as the core is still indestructible.

the high naming fee and sponsorship fee illustrate the publicity value of variety marketing to the brand from the market level, but from the advertiser's own point of view, how to really make this money valuable to achieve marketing effect and business growth? it is far from being able to simply name and show your face in the program.

if brands want to do a good job in variety marketing, their marketing thinking also needs to be upgraded between generations-- not only to take advantage of the high-quality content resources of variety shows, but also to expand their coverage through the Internet. Through the integration of mobile media into life to create interactive marketing that touches users in order to maximize the voice of the brand.

< strong > characteristics of this year's satellite TV investment season: TV media has entered a highly differentiated stage < / strong >

one of the most obvious phenomena of satellite TV investment this year-fat people shed oil, thin people shed tears. The cooperation of advertising resources of a variety show on Hunan Satellite TV can reach 300 million, with exclusive titles ranging from 40 to 1 billion. Take a look at the second-tier satellite TV, they are not willing to disclose too much about the investment data in the coming year.

if you just stare at the top satellite TV platforms, such as Hunan Satellite TV, which has revenue of 8 to 9 billion, it seems that many people still can't feel the cold winter of the TV industry. In fact, a large number of second-line weak satellite TV has entered a month-on-month decline, and its revenue hovers between 500 million and 800 million.

even for second-tier satellite TV, the price of Jiangsu TV's key program "Fast forward" next year is only 150 million, while that of Oriental Satellite TV's "Happy Comedian", "pattern Sister" and "The Smiling、Proud Wanderer" is only about 80 million. Zhejiang Satellite TV, which is most likely to counterattack mango, judging from the information already released, except for the exclusive naming fee of "running Brothers 4" The key quarterly shows "Challenger Alliance" and "24" are only 160 million and 150 million.

there is no doubt that mango attracts the most money this year, which also proves the status of mango as the leader. Before Zhejiang "running man" is very hot, some people think that Zhejiang should counterattack mango, but only the total amount of investment attracted by satellite TV can prove its status in the hearts of advertisers.

< strong > the helpless reality of the TV advertising market: Variety Blue Sea < / strong >

more than 20 years ago, if you wanted to deliver an advertisement to 80% of the target users, you might only need to show an ad in three TV stations, but today the TV operating rate is very low, and 107channels may be needed to achieve the same goal. Today, the efficiency of advertising investment is facing more and more challenges. On the other hand, successful large-scale variety shows can attract a lot of attention in a short time, so they have become the first choice for advertisers.

from 2014 to 2015, it was the most promising period for the variety market in the mainland. Many investors came to join the "Blue Ocean of Variety" one after another, and advertisers also threw money generously. The facade of the whole variety market was marked with four big characters-"people have a lot of stupid money". Even colleagues in the film industry of Gao Zhuge put down their posture to play variety.

however, people often can attract hundreds of millions of dollars only by watching a mango show, but they do not see the market competition between big fish eating small fish and small fish eating shrimp, as well as the trend of ice and fire. Recently, a person in charge of a large variety company said that the prime time stalls for Saturday night of two strong second-tier satellite TV stations will be contracted next year. From here, it can also be seen that second-line satellite TV has entered the resource consumption mode of "selling out advertisements".

< strong > traditional marketing appears an inflection point: deep cooperation takes the place of simple advertising < / strong >

in recent years, the gross profit margin and profit margin of traditional advertising marketing are constantly declining, "by at least 20%." traditional marketing has appeared a growth bottleneck, and the market seems to have reached an inflection point: implantation begins to replace hard and wide, and deep cooperation instead of simple advertising.

Consumer goods companies now prefer to use product brand naming programs, in order to improve product awareness and directly boost sales in the current era of flooding of information. Wang Yafei, assistant president of nostalgia Food, who used to be known as "The Smiling、Proud Wanderer," said that the original reason for sponsoring the program, in addition to the tone of the program and the product fit, is also trying to boost the sales of frozen products in the traditional off-season. In addition, the stars involved in the program and the producers of the program are all factors for enterprises to consider when choosing names.

generally speaking, for more mature phenomenal programs, the bidding fees for the second and third seasons are more than 200 million to 300 million yuan; if it is the first season, considering that there is still some uncertainty about whether the future program will be popular or not, sponsors and producers need to share the risk, and the price may drop to between 100 million and 200 million yuan.

< strong > the naming of advertisements in variety shows < / strong >

< strong > is only the first step. < / strong >

now, variety shows are everywhere, and naming is no longer a matter of simply spending money. Winning the naming right is only the first step, how to effectively implant the product into the program, and how to seamlessly dock the audience and purchase through online and offline marketing activities is very important. In fact, the evaluation of the success of naming will test the ability of integrated marketing of enterprises.

how to make good use of the scene marketing in the program to achieve effective exposure usually requires the deep cooperation between the enterprise and the producer. Looking at several popular variety shows at present, we can find that the programs are filmed on venues provided by naming companies. For example, "where is Dad going?" was filmed at Yili Ranch in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, and "extreme Challenge" was filmed in Tmall's office. After the title "full acceleration" program, Mengniu sent a professional team and the program production team to discuss the product exposure form of each episode, the result is that "the brand has its own role in the program, independent storyline."

< strong > exposure ≠ Advertising value < / strong >

in the traditional view of many advertisers, exposure is equal to advertising value. The exposure of the brand in the product placement is not equal to the communication value, it is more about finding a suitable entry point, just like acupuncture, finding the right acupoints is often effective with one shot. This is the true meaning of minimalist marketing.

on the other hand, Hunan Satellite TV boldly puts forward and tries the new concept of "minimalist marketing". It does not add or subtract, but presents the product in the cleanest and most natural way. Take the classic Jingtian Centennial Mountain advertisement implantation in the third season of "I am a Singer" as an example, there is no host gushing, no dazzling subtitles, no extra LOGO, just grasping the idea of "a bottle of water around Hong Tao", so that Centennial Mountain appears in the singer ranking announcement moment that attracts a lot of attention, coupled with a few words of casual ridicule by singers and famous mouth agents, it has achieved a spread effect of four or two dials.

< strong > TV content interaction < / strong >

with the popularity of mobile devices, we have entered the multi-screen era of information explosion. TV screen is no longer the only choice for viewers, and the phenomenon of fragmentation of attention is very obvious. Statistics show that more than 69% of viewers do not leave their phones while watching TV.

instead of hoping to pull the audience's eyeballs back from the mobile phone, it is better to let the audience interact with the TV screen by using the mobile phone, so that the audience can change from passive watching to active participation. At present, the most popular and interactive way is to shake your phone: shake red envelopes, shake friends, shake food, and so on.

in the fragmented era, it is far from enough for variety marketing to gather TV viewers. Take the runner in the second season as an example, the data show that its network broadcast traffic is as high as 5.06 billion, and the proportion of mobile is as high as 73%. As users' viewing habits continue to migrate to the Internet, especially the mobile Internet, the brand must strengthen the interaction between the network and the station in variety marketing in order to cover the audience in an all-round way.

< strong > it's better to buy while watching < / strong >

in the language of the Internet, TV is just an entrance to attention. However, at present, television is still the widest coverage, especially the most influential entrance to the market below the second tier, which is also the purpose of many Internet companies turning to large-scale TV advertising-to expand non-Internet users, who account for about half of the country's population. In this context, the O2O model of TV has become a feasible way to open up TV and Internet channels and turn advertising into sales.

this year, Hunan Satellite TV experimented with a new form of interactive advertising in "Dad going there 3": by inserting advertising segments in high-quality and scarce content, integrating TV interactive elements, and opening up enterprise TV and mobile marketing resources, produce interactive diversion value, and really realize "what you see is what you buy". The launch of this advertising form also indicates that Chinese TV media advertising has entered a new stage of development, which will have a far-reaching impact on all parties in the advertising market chain.

< strong > conclusion: < / strong > it can be predicted that the product placement which is more suitable to the content and more hidden will continue to be popular by advertisers. In the face of the new situation, many media are also carrying out self-innovation, advertising with the thinking of the program, in order to be further recognized by advertisers and the market.

Edit: vian