Can the high input of IP in tourism test the high output of film and television?

in 2016, online tour operators are no longer satisfied with naming or sponsorship, making their own travel Reality Show, online dramas and so on, and expanding their broadcasting channels from the Internet to television. Behind the emergence of the new game of "screen War" is not only the competition in the field of brand marketing, but also the "battle for customers" of offline tour operators at the front of the tourism industry chain.

online tour operators have waged a "screen war" this summer, sponsoring popular programs ranging from "where is Dad going?" to "The Voice of China". In 2016, online tour operators are no longer satisfied with naming or sponsorship, making their own travel Reality Show and online dramas, and expanding their broadcasting channels from the Internet to television. Behind the emergence of the new game of "screen War" is not only the competition in the field of brand marketing, but also the "battle for customers" of offline tour operators at the front of the tourism industry chain.

< strong > testing the waters of Reality Show and online drama < / strong >

T2O refers to TV to Online, which emphasizes that products move from TV end marketing to online sales. As a new business model, it has been highly concerned by traditional TV and emerging e-commerce companies. In fact, there are many successful cases of T2O model in Europe, America, Japan and South Korea. For example, in the United States, the TV series "son of chaos", as a model of the T2O model, is widely respected in the industry and becomes an excellent representative of the "multi-screen in one" terminal.

compared with the success of T2O model abroad, in China, this model only began to appear in 2013. "China on the tongue 2", as the first TV program to test the T2O model, has greatly promoted food tourism, and its success has enabled online travel companies to reach cross-border cooperation with variety shows, opening the prelude to "tourism + TV" marketing.

A Chinese crew is filming somewhere in Meiji Shrine and Shibuya in Tokyo, Japan, on January 20. The work of the crew is very intense in order to meet netizens on time for the first episode on Valentine's Day 25 days later. The online drama, called "how Hot the World is," is jointly funded by the same trip, Simei Media and Tencent Video, starring the popular actor "Nine Kings" in the promotion of the Crown Princess.

Tuniu Travel tried the water earlier to shoot videos: as early as November 2014, Tuniu launched the online "good at recommendation" to seize the new market for experiential travel. After more than a year of operation, the video creation team, which was originally "playing with tickets", eventually grew into Tuniu Film and Television Company. At present, Tuniu's post-90s global travel Reality Show program "Let's go" has logged on to Yunnan Satellite TV and broadcast two episodes.

six-person travel network is not out of date. In October this year, three couples were selected to go to Dubai to shoot the first season of "accompanying Travel", and the famous Chinese director Gao Xixi was hired to supervise the production of the first episode. There is no doubt that testing the waters of film and television IP (the abbreviation of "Intellectual Property") has become a new way of playing "screen wars". Homemade IP gives online tour operators absolute initiative and more room to play than naming or sponsoring TV shows.

< strong > there are broad prospects for market cooperation < / strong >

"Let's go" has been broadcast two episodes on Yunnan Satellite TV. Data show that as of January 22, the first episode has been broadcast more than 10 million times on eight online platforms, including Tencent, Letv, iqiyi, and so on. Five handsome and intelligent post-90s "fresh meat" in the program have already gained a group of "fans". At the beginning of the new year, lvmama, which "contracted" many programs on Oriental Satellite TV, appointed Huang Chunxiang, former group vice president and general manager of Jingyu marketing, as group vice president and donkey mother CMO, indicating that donkey mother will continue to make efforts in brand promotion. Donkey mother also said that she hopes to reach more in-depth cooperation with more content producers and platforms in the future, and make more useful attempts in brand marketing to build the donkey mother brand into a strong independent IP with distinct character.

from the point of view of the broadcast, "Let's go" is very similar to "where is Dad going?" the travel destination of the protagonists in the first two episodes is Maldives, and they need to accept a variety of tasks set by the program group during the trip. Through the journey of the five protagonists, the beauty of the Maldives is also fully demonstrated. It is meaningful to choose Maldives as the first stop of the program. Tuniu monitoring data show that one out of every four Chinese tourists to the Maldives is booked through Tuniu. At the same time, as a travel destination with absolute advantage, most of the tourism products of Maldives are directly collected, which is an effective way to reduce costs and improve gross profits. There is the same logic behind the choice of Japan for the first stop of "how hot the world is" with the same investment.

in addition to the choice of destination, many interesting details can be seen in the program. For example, in the first episode, the protagonist takes the logo of the airline to which he belongs and the exposure of the hotel brand; in the interview, the program group specially designed questions about the impression of the Maldives and the continuous exposure of "Tuniu" logo in the program.

from the above, it is not difficult to know that after mastering the initiative of program production, online travel merchants can fully mobilize various resources in the tourism industry chain. Hotels, airlines, scenic spots. Even the destination Tourism Bureau will be able to become a potential partner, making "Tourism + Film and Television" promising.

when it comes to cost, Tuniu CEO Yu Dunde once said that compared with the huge annual marketing expenses, the cost of the film and television company is very small. The great success of "where is Dad going" in "Travel + Film and Television" proves that if you make an influential program or online drama, not to mention investment, it can even generate high profits. However, the main purpose of online travel operators to try film and television IP is not here.

< strong > expect ratings to be converted into orders < / strong >

T2O emphasizes the close cooperation between TV media and e-commerce. After consumers are attracted by the tourist destinations in the program, they can immediately place orders online to book the same tourism products, so as to achieve the "see and buy" experience effect. In this process, online tourism enterprises can more accurately locate users, absorb traffic and increase users' impromptu purchasing power at the first time; at the same time, online tourism enterprises further enhance the awareness of their own brands through cooperation with variety shows, so that consumers feel that the products sold are more authentic and credible, thus improving user trust and perception, and realizing a win-win situation between brand and marketing.

"before travel occurs, you should be willing to travel and choose a travel destination." Yu Dunde said that the generation of tourism consumption behavior is divided into before, during and after a trip. Before the trip, users need to do a lot of homework to determine the tourism destination and book air tickets, hotels, or choose to join the group. In the front end of tourism, finding strategies composed of words and pictures is still the main way for users to obtain information. In this era when the video is becoming more and more popular, the video has achieved better communication results, especially with the experiential "travel" of the protagonists of the program, it is easier to stimulate tourists' desire to travel.

this advantage is fully utilized. Combined with the line characteristics of the program, Tuniu also launched a variety of youth travel routes, viewers can shake through the mobile phone, special pages and other channels, simultaneously buy all kinds of tourism products experienced by the protagonists in the program. In addition, film and television programs can not only establish their own brand image of online tour operators, but also promote destinations and achieve brand marketing.

Bo Min, general manager of the same trip Travel Brand Media Center, said that doing copyright IP is the trend of the future market, and it is also the trend of brand owners to spread brand culture. now there is too much content in the whole market, and there are many means of marketing through content, but the attention that can be generated is indeed expensive, often tens of millions of yuan. But the vast majority of content is not tailor-made for enterprises, enterprises can only transfer relatively shallow brand interests through content, so enterprises need to do their own copyright IP.

the ultimate goal of marketing is still to make a profit. The use of self-made film and television programs to create hot topics, harvest more clicks, influence users' travel decisions, and then turn ratings into more orders, has become a beautiful vision of online travel operators. Previously, online tour operators have achieved considerable conversion rates by naming or sponsoring variety shows produced by TV stations to prove that this approach is indeed effective. However, without the "halo" of the high ratings of popular variety shows, it is difficult to answer the conversion rate of homemade IP at this stage. "We don't expect a product or product line to see results right away, but we want to generate revenue in the future over a period of two to three years through continuous investment." Yu Dunde said.

although homemade IP is a major trend in the future, Bo Min said that the same trip will continue to consider naming or sponsoring popular programs. On the one hand, it can take advantage of the opportunity to quickly raise the awareness of the brand; on the other hand, it can "create momentum" and create content and topics to solve the problem that the brand does not tell a complete or complete story in the process of taking advantage of the opportunity.

Edit: kong