Facing all kinds of new media, enterprises are faced with trying new ways of brand promotion every day. Seeing that the domestic box office has maintained a continuous growth of 30% in the past five years, and then looking at the topic discussion and communication effects caused by patch advertisements and product placement advertisements, it is hard to believe that this is the result of the film advertising market with a scale of less than 500 million yuan at present.
As an advertising market accompanied by the film industry, the current market volume is only 5% ~ 8% of the annual box office results. However, with the popularity of box office in China, the movie advertising market is likely to flourish in the future. Faced with the huge market potential and influence of film advertisements, enterprises must find the right way to skillfully use film media in the future. This "Guide to the Use of Movie Advertising" is an enlightenment, hoping to attract more attention and provide some clues and paths for brand owners to understand the cultural industry. I also hope to create more forms of film advertisements to meet the emerging new needs of enterprises and filmmakers.
Patch: 5 minutes of competition
In July this year, a couple in Futian, Shenzhen, sued Shenzhen Broadway Cinema Co., Ltd. because they couldn't stand the 20-minute advertisement of the film Tangshan Earthquake, which caused a heated discussion for a time. This is not the first time that the audience has sued the cinema because the advertising time is too long. Because the patch advertising time slot involves the economic interests of film copyright owners, distributors, cinemas and other parties, the advertising segmentation in order to cut market share has increased. The competition object is only 5- 10 minutes before the start of the feature film.
An advertisement played before the show time indicated on the ticket face is called a pre-show advertisement. This advertising time belongs to the cinema or cinema, and the advertisement is calculated according to the time period and the number of cinemas. However, due to the different screening times in the cinemas, the advertising time is tight. In extreme cases, some cinemas don't start playing pre-screening advertisements until the film is over and the staff have cleaned the venue, regardless of whether there are crowds watching.
When most of the audience is finished, the lights go out and the copy of the feature film begins to play. Most of them are movie trailers, which are added by distributors to promote other films they represent, and the number varies according to the strength of the films. In the lawsuit of Shenzhen Futian movie fans suing the cinema, the plaintiff described that there were more than a dozen movie trailers, and * * * took up more than ten minutes, which shows how great the publicity potential attached to strong movies is.
After the trailer, the advertisement played before the movie screening license appears is the real patch advertisement. According to the regulations of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, the advertising time is limited to 5 minutes, and the arrival rate is the highest. The five-minute advertising investment right belongs to the film copyright party. "Because the distribution ratio of domestic movie box office is 60-70% of the cinema box office income, and the producer is only 30-40%, so attracting investment from patch advertisements is a useful supplement to the copyright owner's income." Zhang Genming, general manager of Beijing Zhongying montage advertising company, explained this.
But in the face of nearly 100 films released every year, which one should the company's 30-second advertising film "stick"? In order to achieve the greatest spread, enterprises should choose the key films with key schedules, but the price is sometimes unacceptable: Zhang Weiping, who is best at marketing and promotion, shouted the price of Hero to 2 million yuan in 30 seconds in 2002, which made many enterprises flinch at that time. In addition, the corresponding quotation will fluctuate according to the different advertising order-the price of the "inverted one" advertisement closest to the feature film will be 20% ~ 30% higher than that of the first broadcast. As a tight commodity, patch advertising adopts the principle of "first come, first served". Sometimes, enterprises can't squeeze in some film patch time without making a decision.
Although the competition for advertising space is fierce, the film media is still a relatively expensive platform. At present, advertisers have to buy at least 40,000 screenings at a time, and the target amount is about 2 million yuan, which becomes the starting price. This not low threshold directly blocked some brands. Most of them are domestic first-line brands and international customers, and some brands even have the budget to shoot special edition patch advertisements for movies. When Transformers king kong 2 was released in China, KFC and Midea specially filmed the advertisement of Transformers to match the film.
FMCG brands, as the main advertisers of patch advertisements, often consider whether the content of the patch is consistent with the brand temperament. One way is to show your face in front of the film with your own brand spokesperson. There are many scenes in the film, which is definitely impressive; Another way is to find films that echo the brand spirit. At present, urban fashion love movies are very popular, and it is also because brands are easier to find * * * songs.
Although cinemas have more mandatory viewing time than TV stations, where to put 30-second commercials, pre-screening and patch advertisements just provide enterprises with two choices, the former is to cast a net widely, and the latter is to invest in a single film. Enterprises should think twice about how to deal with the change of attendance rate in off-season with combination delivery in order to obtain better results. However, in the face of high-quality movie audiences, spending money to buy time can no longer meet the needs of some enterprises to cooperate closely with movies. After all, the closer the cooperation between brands and movies, the more they can impress potential consumers.
Implantation: sometimes attracting, sometimes repelling
Facing the outbreak of China film market before the new century 10, all walks of life are looking for opportunities for cooperation. At the same time, manufacturers are also looking for more ways to recover costs. The enthusiasm and generosity of brand owners to the film industry is exactly what producers are eager for.
To this end, new advertising models began to appear, and the bold attempts made before began to be accepted by more people. For example, the cooperation between the film side and the brand's film image not only goes beyond the plot limit, but also makes the enterprise deeply connected with the film content.
This is why there are movie-themed advertisements such as Patriot and Assembly, South Beauty and the Banquet, and dopod and Heroes, which once covered print media, street signs, internet, television and other platforms. With the combination of film theme spirit and products to find a meeting point, enterprises began to use film images as the carrier of brand image, which is actually only the first step of "close contact" between brand owners and producers.
The further combination of brand and film belongs to product placement, and enterprises begin to take film content as the carrier of brand image. From the white dragon mineral water bottle in the TV series "The Story of the Editorial Department", the placement of advertisements has become attached to film and television works. The early product placement advertisements are all classic works, which are fresh in people's memory.
However, due to too close relationship, difficult to quantify the advertising effect and rising advertising costs, the game between the brand and the film continued from the negotiation table to the shooting scene, and even turned against each other. The film "Big Man" deducts the madness and absurdity of product placement to the extreme in the plot, and shows the various uses of product placement for different types of enterprises.
The most entry-level product placement advertisement is screen placement, which directly captures the product name or object with a camera, without mentioning the product name specifically, but intentional or unintentional camera stop and close-up are enough to make the audience understand the meaning of the advertisement, such as bank credit cards, computers, mobile phones and various indoor furnishings. However, whether the advertising effect of "showing a small face" can meet the brand expectations is a matter of opinion.
Further, it is dialogue implantation. Actors' lines include product names, such as "My home is easy to find in European classics" in Xiaogang Feng's early work A Sigh, which is a typical dialogue implantation. But what can move people is often a well-planned dialogue. For example, "Thirteen, Louis's, I don't throw up if I want to" makes the product properly integrate the characters and the plot, but such creative lines are often very inspiring.
The more difficult plot implantation is not only to show performances for product design, but also to become an integral part of the film. In the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, Tony Leung Chiu Wai recommended a set of stereo to Andy Lau, and the audition was the old song "Forgotten Time". Tony Leung Chiu Wai praised its sound quality as "sweet treble, accurate midrange, deep bass and, in a word, transparent", which is the most memorable passage in the film. But in fact, this is also an embedded advertisement. The 3-minute bridge played the complete advertisement of the audio brand, but the audience was immersed in the dialogue between Cai Qin's singing voice and the actors, which was a classic in product placement.
Everyone knows how effective product placement can be if it is successful, but if the enterprise does not have a good attitude and cooperative spirit, then the effect of further efforts will be counterproductive. This is why the product placement, which currently accounts for only 10% ~ 15% of the main income of China film advertising market, has attracted large-scale discussions and doubts totally out of proportion.
At present, there is no uniform price level for product placement, and the advertising quotation is only based on the cast, release schedule, copy number and other factors of specific films. The price lacks reference, and enterprises spend real money on advertising implantation, but lack quantifiable evaluation standards.
In pre-screening and patch advertising, enterprises have 30 seconds to express themselves; But in the film, it is the director who has the final say for a few seconds that belong to the enterprise to transmit information. So there will be "how many seconds did the lens stay on the product?" "How many times did the brand name appear in the actor's lines?" These may sound ridiculous, but they are very important to the enterprise. Because for enterprises, these are the sources of a sense of security, and they are visible returns in exchange for millions of advertising fees.
At the same time, in order to retain advertisers, the film side frequently compromised. The director is caught between the producer and the enterprise, and both sides are aggrieved. Mutual appreciation is a brand manufacturer and a film producer, but they dare not trust each other because of the lack of the same criteria. There are more and more brands with film implants. How to be noticed by the audience among many implanted brands? More and more people in the industry call for the investment promotion of product placement to be ahead of schedule, and even consider the factors of brand placement when writing scripts, and design dialogues and bridges that are more in line with the plot.
Facing the director's view that product placement is a burden, how can brands make producers "get" this feeling? At the same time, after accepting the heavy responsibility entrusted by the brand, how to live up to expectations is a problem that both sides need to reflect on.
Customization: the new trend of film and television communication in the future
"A company found us and wanted to make a customized movie." Zhang Genming revealed this in an interview with this reporter. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Film Group, Montage is the only export of film business cooperation produced by China Film Group. Faced with such a bold proposal by enterprises, Zhang Genming believes that this is actually a signal that the advertising market of film media is getting better and better.
On a global scale, brand-customized movies have a long history. The American classic cartoon Popeye is actually an advertisement customized by spinach manufacturers, but it is so successful that people ignore its advertising attributes. Think about every episode of Popeye eating spinach, that is, the implanted advertisements that are played over and over again.
When asked if it is feasible to customize corporate films in the domestic market, Zhang Genming expressed confidence and said that there are already projects in operation. With the training ground of video website, the cooperation and experiment between brands and movies will be bolder and more innovative.
Recently, several popular online movies, from the series of Four Nights in Qitan, which is supervised by Hong Kong directors, to the series of 1 1 Youth, which is led by China Film Group, all seek corporate sponsorship with excellent creative teams, and then publish and spread through video websites. This time, netizens and viewers did not blame too much for the large number of advertisements implanted in the film. Peng Haoxiang also said in the Weibo, "This is a story funded by a product manufacturer, which is only played online. It is a promotional film with no way to recover the cost. It is natural for products to appear. Otherwise, who will pay? "
As a sponsor of the series "Four Nights of Wonder Tan", Samsung also began to play pranks with the director and accept self-mockery. The second part of this series, Fake Play and Real Play, specially designed the drama of a brand sponsor arguing with the director on the set to implant products. When the actress turned the old telephone receiver again, the Samsung logo appeared on it, which was extremely inconsistent with the times in the play and the comedy effect was extremely rich.
Sina, which has always been brave in innovation and early adopters, is not willing to make a wedding dress for others just by doing a small experiment (blog). It is said that Sina will strongly invite the director to shoot a feature film with the theme of Weibo. Backed by a strong network platform and keen media awareness, plus a bunch of think tanks snared by Weibo, if Sina really starts shooting theme films, it will definitely push the film advertising market in China to a new level.
At the same time, the film series "1 1 Youth" jointly created by Youku, China Film Group and Chevrolet Cruze has also been well received. But its main purpose is to tap the platform value of online cinema and cultivate new works. Although it is still too early to use the online platform as the content sales channel of movies, it is still too early to know that the online platform is a good amplifier for training and establishing the director's influence by looking at how many people's voices have been aroused by old boys and how the number of hits has been rising again and again.
As brands in more industries begin to pay attention to the film industry, there will be more innovative cooperation models. For commercial interests, brands and movies attract and repel each other. Some brands simply choose a safe distance and only do what they can. Some companies are eager to get closer, but they will inevitably hurt each other and even tear their faces. Only the combination of advertising and boxing, soft figure and iron will of mutual trust can make the two sides truly become one.
In fact, from patch advertising to customized movies, the way is more and more complicated and the investment is increasing, but the effect is not absolutely proportional. In fact, with the rapid development of China's film industry, although film advertising has a very attractive communication effect, it is also the way to test enterprises' understanding of cultural and creative industries, and it is a high-tech job.
China enterprises need to learn from it, from recognition to long-term investment. In the future, those enterprises with first-class ideas, first-class brands and first-class ideas will be able to interpret movie advertisements to the extreme, because they can understand and accept the rules of the game more easily and understand what image they should stand with the movie.
To do this, sometimes it's not just a matter of money.