Netease game Cui Zhimin: "New Ghost Story" and "Slight Smile" are naturally integrated with the video games

On August 22, the idol drama "Smiling is Beautiful" was officially broadcast. With the development of film and television dramas, the deeply implanted Netease "New Ghost Story" game left a deep impression on the audience. The reporter interviewed Cui Yimin, marketing director of Netease's Lei Huo Games Department, and talked in depth about the joint marketing of mobile games and film and television, as well as the future direction of game marketing.

Original title: Interview with Cui Yimin, marketing director of Netease's Lei Huo Game Department: The success of the marketing of "New Ghost Story" lies in the "natural integration" of movie games

. On August 22, the idol drama "Smiling is a Beautiful Smile" was officially broadcast. With the development of film and television dramas, the deeply implanted Netease's "New Ghost Story" game left a deep impression on the audience. This kind of marketing that jumped out of the game industry not only attracted many small people to enter the game, but also pioneered marketing in the game industry. The reporter interviewed Cui Yimin, marketing director of Netease's Lei Huo Games Department, and talked in depth about the joint marketing of mobile games and film and television, as well as the future direction of game marketing.

1. After the linkage of movies and games, the total number of registered players in "New Ghost Story" reached a record high.

Stars Yang Yang and Zheng Shuang made "Smiling is Beautiful" popular. At the same time, this TV series also made two games popular. One is the end game of "New Ghost Story" and the other is the mobile game of "Ghost Story".

Although many people joked that this TV series can be described as an extended version of "The Ghost Story", this did not prevent it from gaining greater popularity and reputation, and it also verified that this linkage was effective. Cui Yimin introduced: "Since the TV series was broadcast, the total number of registered players in the online game of" New Ghost Story "has reached a record high. The mobile game "Ghost Story" rose 114 places on the iOS free list on the day of its launch, ranking top 3 in the overall free list of the App Store."

Audiences 'attention and enthusiasm for discussion have remained high. Many related topics have appeared on social platforms such as Weibo, Douban, Tieba, and Zhihu. After the TV series was broadcast, the Baidu index of "Ghost Story" has also increased by more than 10 times. Of course, in addition to the popularity of games, the amount that TV dramas bring to games is also very accurate."Judging from the results, the largest number of newly added players are 16-22 years old, among which the proportion of women exceeds 50%. They have a high degree of acceptance of games and are also very active in games. They like to explore elements related to the TV series" Smiling is Beautiful "." Cui Zhimin said.

2. Behind the linkage, what efforts has Netease made?

If you want to achieve deep integration, you must focus on every detail, convey the brand of the game through the film and television dramas, and then experience the special scenes in the film and television dramas after entering the game. In an exclusive interview, Cui Yimin said that in order to provide new expansion packs and other innovative ways of playing games, Netease provided a lot of content support in this joint marketing, and cooperated closely with TV dramas.

Participate in discussions on TV drama scripts. When the script was written,"The New Ghost Story" reached an in-depth strategic cooperation with the drama company. Whether it was the scenes in the play or the selection of character careers, they were discussed by both parties. For example, the career choices of several major protagonists in TV series in the game, the cooperation between members and couples, and the matching of game teams are all handled by Netease.

At the same time, as a game consultant for TV series, Netease's "New Ghost Story" team has rich experience in the design and development of a game product to online operation. In the TV series, Qiannu provided rich original materials for several major game companies 'scenes about the game development and operation process. For example, Netease participated in the creation of the statement about the production and rendering of the game engine and the program code written by the protagonist.

As a TV series that switches between modern and ancient costumes at any time, and integrates reality and games, the architecture of the game world is crucial, so Netease also participated in the post-production of TV series. Including the design of game terms, the provision of some architectural models, the shooting of hundreds of game recording videos, the production of CG high-end models, the integration of music, etc. In addition, in order to fully mobilize the enthusiasm of players, Netease selected three female players from "New Ghost Story" to participate in the filming of the TV series.

3. The most natural linkage between movies and games has created an online carnival

. Judging from the current popularity of the "New Ghost Story" end-game and the "Ghost Story" mobile game, the linkage marketing effect this time is very prominent. On the one hand, the loyalty of players driven by TV dramas is relatively high. On the other hand, TV dramas have a relatively long running time, and the popularity of the game remains undiminished. According to Cui Yimin: "This cooperation is more of a strategic cooperation in content. What both sides value is the quality of games and TV series, as well as the compatibility between the two."

"Smile" and "New Ghost Story" are products of big brands in their respective fields, and have a certain popularity and fan base. The audience overlap is also relatively high, and the matching will not appear abrupt. "New Ghost Story"'s newly launched "Smile and Overwhelming" expansion pack, methods such as bride grabbing, and giving new players a tiger as a pet make players who have watched TV dramas feel familiar and friendly. "In fact, we have been paying attention to the shooting of this TV series for a long time. The reason why we did this marketing for" The New Ghost Story "is because the two sides cooperate with each other and need each other. Of course, the smooth cooperation process and the results produced have verified the feasibility of this approach, exploring another path worth considering for the marketing of the game." Cui Zhimin said.

Due to the in-depth and close cooperation between the two parties, many players have spontaneously discussed "Smiling is Beautiful","New Ghost Story" and "Ghost Story" mobile games on forums, post bars and other social platforms, and there are not a few who have become fans.

4. After the influx of new users, the next step is that the

in-depth linkage and cooperation of the game's social system has indeed brought a large number of new players. The addition of small white users has made the entire game active. However, it is undeniable that the new game is also faced with the problem of retention, especially those who are not particularly "interested" in games. Cui Yimin also said that the social system of "New Ghost Story" itself has advantages. The next step will be to add more easy-to-use settings, lower the social threshold, allow small white players to integrate into the entire social system more quickly, and improve the game. Retention and activity.

"Qiannu has been in operation for more than five years since 2011. The most important reason for its long-term prosperity is its three-dimensional social system, which covers a variety of online gameplay such as mentoring, sworn vows, marriage, gangs, and parenting., and the Mengdao Real Dating Platform, which makes users extremely sticky." In the future,"New Ghost Story" will also gradually enhance the social functions that new players often discuss and are also related to TV series, especially apprenticeship and heroic couples (the marriage system in the game).

5. Talk about experience: If you want to do it, do the most in-depth video-game linkage.

Good content itself is a good communication. The implantation of "New Ghost Story" in "Slight Smile" is just right. Cui Yimin also shared the experience of this marketing cooperation: "Our team agreed that the compatibility between the stories of film and television dramas and the games is very important and cannot be applied mechanically. Nowadays, many linkage models just stay on the surface and do not explore the deeper linkage between movies and games, so the results are often unsatisfactory. What we are considering is that if we want to do it, we should do the deepest linkage between movies and games."

From the product quality point of view,"New Beauty Ghost" and "Smile is very beautiful" are equal, at the same time both sides in the content is very consistent. From the marketing cycle, TV series broadcast to the launch of new game expansion, the overall marketing cycle can be maintained in a quarter or so. From this point alone, it is far better than most of the "wave stream" game advertisements on the market.

Editor: vian