Brand marketing has now turned its attention to short dramas, particularly the highly sought-after "custom-made dramas." Some in the industry even joke, "It's no longer about placing ads in a show; its about weaving a plot into the ads."

In the short drama The Unstoppable Foodie Queen Reborn, produced by KFC, the ancient queen Zhou Mo tries to steal a chicken leg but accidentally travels to a modern film set. While on set, she discovers a KFC chicken leg and declares its deliciousness to be on par with imperial cuisine.

Source: ibaotu.com

This is merely a snapshot of short-drama marketing in 2024. Brands involved in customizing these short dramas are not limited to the beauty and skincare industries, which have been in game for a while. They also include companies from the 3C, digital, and food and beverage sectors, such as McDonald's, Starbucks, Mixue, Meituan, and Huawei.

According to the 2023-2024 China Micro-Short Drama Market Research Report released by iiMedia Research, the domestic micro-short drama market reached a scale of 37.39 billion yuan in 2023, with a year-on-year growth of 267.65%, and it is expected that the market size will exceed 50 billion yuan in 2024.

Over the past year, the massive traffic generated by short dramas has prompted brands to dive into this space. For example, Opening a Starbucks in Ancient Times and The Unstoppable Foodie Queen Reborn both attracted significant attention shortly after their release, with the latter even exceeding 100 million views on Douyin. Some brands have indeed benefited from this, achieving not only high exposure but also a relatively high conversion rate in a short amount of time.

As the market becomes increasingly competitive, more and more brands are growing concerned about the future conversion outcomes. However, traffic and marketing have faced similar challenges in fields such as TV series, variety shows, and live streaming. Therefore, most industry insiders still believe that short drama marketing may carve out a new path for itself in the future.

In the past six months, restaurant brands have been very active in short drama marketing, with giants such as Starbucks, McDonald's, and Mixue all entering the fray. Additionally, this space has seen some surprising newcomers. For example, SAIC Volkswagen launched a brand-customized short drama titled Unexpected Life, Weilong released Heartbeat Across Three Thousand Trees, Yanghe partnered with Taobao to launch Tie in the God of Wealth for a Fortune-Filled Year, and Niulanshan supported the production of Hello, Welcome. These works not only cleverly integrate their products into the storyline but also attract a large audience through the combination of short dramas and live broadcasts, resulting in significant sales growth.

Some market insiders believe that brands favor short drama is mainly because of its certain regularity and operability. Unlike movies and TV series, short dramas have a shorter production cycle, a tighter format, and relatively lower costs. This means there's less risk of not being aired due to uncontrollable factors such as insufficient funds or natural disasters, making it more brand-friendly. Against the backdrop of a slowdown in the growth of live-streaming e-commerce, brands urgently need to explore new marketing channels to break through and seek new growth points.

As more brands enter the market, short dramas market have quickly become highly competitive. Successful custom-made dramas not only need to cleverly showcase the brand but also ensure they do not disrupt the viewer's experience. For example, the short drama Rebirth: My Life as an AI World Agent, a collaboration between JD and Kuaishou, ingeniously weaves JD's AI product features into the storyline, helping the protagonist solve various mission challenges. Since its release, it has directed a large number of viewers to the JD app. Additionally, some brands choose to collaborate with short video influencers, movie and TV stars, and variety show hosts to strengthen the connection between the short dramas and their target audience.

As the short drama market continues to expand, brands are gradually noticing a decline in the effectiveness of individual short drama placements. Today, audiences have increasingly higher requirements for content quality and lower tolerance for advertisement insertions. In response to these challenges, some platforms and brands have started experimenting with new approaches. For example, Kuaishou has optimized the measurement dimensions for brand promotion in short dramas by analyzing viewer retention rates during episodes with product placements. This helps gauge audience memory and favorability toward the inserted content. Additionally, they evaluate user growth and loyalty on the platform by tracking increases in brand followers and store memberships, while also measuring indicators like external app reach rates to assess how effectively short dramas drive traffic from outside the platform. On the other hand, Taobao adopts a more direct strategy. Its brand-customized projects are funded equally between the platform and the brand, reducing investment risk for the brand. This model contrasts sharply with that of Douyin and Kuaishou, which rely solely on investment from brands and producers, aiming to expand the traffic pool and improve brand ROI.

Additionally, some brands have begun to explore more niche marketing strategies for animated short dramas to avoid homogenized competition, such as the account "Heartbeat Courier Nana" under the animation MCN organization Xiaoyu Interactive, and "Romantic Choco" from another MCN organization, Life Infinite Company. The popular short dramas on these accounts often receive hundreds of thousands or even millions of likes, demonstrating tremendous potential.

Despite the challenges in short drama marketing, brands and platforms still hold promise and are expected to achieve breakthroughs through innovation. As time goes on and experience accumulates, short drama may evolve into a more sophisticated marketing tool. In this process, brands need to prioritize content quality and user experience, striving to balance seamless product integration with creating a lasting impression. Only by achieving this balance can short drama marketing fully realize its potential and become a vital tool for brand communication.

Source: WeChat Official Account "Short Drama Mr. Right"