the two films have become dark horses by virtue of their good reputation. What are the stories behind the introduction of niche films? How to formulate marketing strategy? What is the enlightenment behind the counterattack? The reporter interviewed the two film introducers and industry experts to report.
original title: behind the niche movie "surprise"
recently, small-and medium-budget, niche genres such as "La La City" and "the Mission of a Dog" have unexpectedly gained good reputation and box office in the blockbuster Chinese film market. "La La City" first dominated the Golden Globes in early 2017 with a record of "Seven Middle School", and then led the way with 14 nominations in the highly competitive Oscars, even equalling the record of Titanic in 1997. The cumulative box office in China is about 240 million yuan, with a Douban score of 8.4 points. "Mission of a Dog" grossed more than 500 million at the box office in March. The two films have become dark horses by virtue of their good reputation. What are the stories behind the introduction of niche films? How to formulate marketing strategy? What is the enlightenment behind the counterattack? The reporter interviewed the two film introducers and industry experts to report. strong > seize the selling point, emotional resonance goes beyond the genre / strong > because of the song and dance film theme, "La La City" was beset with difficulties from the stage of production, and was not favored by the industry for a time, and was recognized by many production companies as a script that is not suitable for shooting. Zhuoran Pictures also introduced the film when it was not favored. When talking about why the film was introduced, Zhang Jin, CEO of Zhuoran Pictures, recalled that when he communicated with the chairman of the board of directors of Lion Gate, the distributor of the film, he was moved by his expression and description-this is not a pure song and dance film, but a very commercial romantic film with a simple story that is more in line with traditional values. At that time, the film won the award for best actress in Venice. before signing the contract, Zhang Jin didn't have a chance to watch the film, but he watched almost all the film reviews at home and abroad. The movie is a simple story with dream, love, song and dance selling points. It is easy to understand in different countries' cultures. The audience can basically grasp the emotional "spot" in the film, which is actually a "Los Angeles version of the love story". In addition, a domestic reporter went to the scene to see the film. "I called a reporter in the middle of the night to ask how she felt about watching the movie. She said that she cried a lot. Although the pace was a little slow, the emotion in the movie could move her." Zhang Jin said. Zhang Jin believes that films that do well at the box office have two characteristics: one is a commercial giant, which relies on IP and visual special effects as the selling point; the other is particularly emotional, and this film belongs to the latter. There hasn't been a very moving Valentine's Day film in China for a long time. Zhuoran Pictures participated in the promotion of "Mr. High Heels" on Valentine's Day in 2016, while "running for Love" and "murder like Life" were released at the same time. In fact, it is not a very emotional standard romance film. Based on the publicity experience of Valentine's Day in 2016, "La La City" was introduced for Valentine's Day, and it was envisaged that if it was not in time for Valentine's Day, it would be released during the Academy Awards period (at the end of February). In October 2016, people who know about Lions Gate are coming to China. We met with them through the middleman and introduced the background and case of our company. Because at that time, we had just announced "A Chinese Odyssey 3", which was also the first project for the combination of publicity and development, and the market performance was also good. I made an offer, and he made a reply. That night, I made another offer in the email, and they agreed. " coincidentally, "the Mission of a Dog" as a pet type of film is rare in the current film market environment. Ali Pictures staff told reporters that when we saw the film for the first time, the film's delicate emotion and unique shooting perspective made us feel a kind of "fresh". Ms. Zhang Wei, co-president of Ali Pictures, said that "the Mission of a Dog" is a story about happiness and warmth, growth and companionship, in which emotion and empathy are irrelevant. "when we introduced this film, we firmly believed that this story will certainly move the Chinese audience, win everyone's love, and make everyone cherish each other's company more." "Philharmonic City" and "the Mission of a Dog" all belong to approved films, that is, imported buy-out films, which is a special type of imported films in the domestic film market, which means that domestic filmmakers buy out the projection rights of films from foreign studios at a fixed price, while foreign filmmakers do not participate in films divided into Chinese box office. The profit model of approved films is mainly at the box office, and some films will also have a certain amount of new media network copyright revenue. According to statistics, in 2013, the approved films grossed 1.933 billion yuan at the box office, and the average output per film exceeded 50 million yuan for the first time. From 2013 to 2015, five approved films grossed more than 100 million yuan. However, the wholesale market is not always satisfactory. Although there are many established movie stars in 2015's Imitation Game and 2016's criminal action films such as the Marauder and the Black Sea, the domestic box office is not ideal, and the domestic box office of "National interest" is as low as 718000 yuan. therefore, when a film buyer buys a film, it is not easy to meet the expectations of the domestic audience and to be "profitable and winnable". Zhuoran Pictures is very cautious in introducing films. More than a dozen middle-level members of the company have formed a "jury". All projects entering the company have to be systematically evaluated by the jury and refer to previous data. from the type lineup to the market possibility, box office expectations are given a corresponding evaluation, and finally through the approval of the vast majority of members of the project company will formally participate. strong > Precision Marketing "Custom propaganda" looking for "seed audience" / strong > there are few precedents for minority type or theme film publicity. As for how to position the film and promote it, Zhang Jin believes that the positioning of "La La City" has always been a song and dance love film, and the choice of Valentine's Day also emphasizes the love attribute of the film. Song and dance is only an addition, and it is not so "song and dance", a large category of song and dance only a few paragraphs, more like a normal love story in the narrative. In the domestic formulation of publicity strategy, at the beginning, deliberately avoid to let this film be defined as a literary film, it is a romantic film, love is its biggest element, can move everyone. In specific publicity, such as magnifying the theme song, in the first round of publicity, the originally particularly elegant piano version of the theme song "City of Stars" was replayed into multiple versions, and even a square dance version was spread on the Internet. after these videos were uploaded to Weibo seconds, they received a total of more than 100 million yuan of hits. in addition, for minority films, it is very important to choose the "differentiation" promotion strategy. According to the staff of Ali Pictures, the films in the same edition of "the Mission of a Dog" mainly focus on Hollywood commercial blockbusters such as Wolverine 3 and biochemical Evil. These films actually have some differences in the audience. Finding the first batch of "seed audience" is the foundation of word-of-mouth. Ali Pictures used the strategy of "customized Xuanfa" for the first time, analyzed the audience groups of marketing promotion before its release, combined with the data in Alibaba's cultural and entertainment ecosystem, accurately located and divided the moviegoers into three categories: one is pet lovers, the second is young women, and the third is parents and children. Publicity work according to different types of audience groups, in accordance with the progressive way to promote, not large and comprehensive, but small and refined. The true feelings fermented by the core "seed audience" serve as a solid foundation for word-of-mouth. on the day of its premiere on January 24th, apart from arranging an early viewing in Beijing, it also skipped second-tier cities, selected 19 third-and fourth-tier cities for advance screenings, solicited audiences through the local media, and invited local cinema managers to seek to expand the film's consumer base through the reputation of local audiences and cinema managers. The whole propaganda is rhythmic, and the overall line is first-line plus third-line, encircling from both ends to the middle, that is, starting from first-tier and third-and fourth-tier cities, encircling second-tier cities. offline, Alibaba Pictures plans dog adoption activities with the theme of "companionship" in cinemas and shopping malls in several cities according to the type and content of the film "Mission of a Dog". At the same time, it also launched a "pet accompany party" to organize audiences to bring pets to watch the movie, which made the word of mouth of "the Mission of a Dog" spread quickly through social media. according to the way of Internet publicity, every film needs accurate marketing based on big data and the Internet, and only in this way can the most suitable movies be pushed to potential audiences according to the preferences of the audience. Niche films and genre films are more based on traditional production and distribution experience. The audience base of the Chinese film market is very large, and the potential audience of each film is very considerable, but based on the publicity and marketing of films in the past, it is difficult to know the specific preferences of each audience. at the same time, it is also difficult to find out exactly where these audiences are. Through the user portraits of Alibaba and big data, as well as the user data deposited on the platform, we can understand the preferences of the audience, and then accurately target its potential audience for a film through social networks, video sites, ticketing platforms and other channels. strong > "High concept" is less attractive and the differentiated film market system needs to be improved. / strong > "at the beginning, everyone feels that this film is a song and dance film. Judging from experience, previous song and dance films do not have particularly good box office success stories." When Zhang Jin first got the film, the initial judgment of almost everyone around him on the film's box office was that the upper limit was about 50 to 60 million. "We are used to attributing some types of films that have not performed well at the box office in the Chinese market to niche films." In his view, there have been different miracles in the Chinese film market every year in recent years. In fact, it is just the development of the market and the progress of the audience. New people, new themes, new directors and new types are all slowly being accepted, depending on whether you dare to take this step and dare to guide rather than follow the trend of the market. song and dance itself is just a formality. The stories it tells, the emotions it conveys and the characters it portrays are all standard cinematic things. It only uses song and dance to make emotions and characters more rich and moving. The inspiration of "La La City" is to see the emotional points that can move the audience behind the surface types of the film, especially non-action science fiction films. Zhang Jin said: in addition, we can see that the audience is becoming more and more mature and relying more and more on word-of-mouth to judge a film, so as long as the film has a strong reputation and empathy with the ordinary audience, coupled with the correct publicity strategy and implementation, there must be a market opportunity. now we see that the United States also has "the Mission of a Dog" and the previous "Zootopia" is suitable for teenagers, especially the whole family to watch movies collectively. The significance of the emergence of "La La City" is that in the United States, in addition to the so-called Hollywood films, there are a large number of so-called independent films, forming a differentiated film market system and a structure of differentiated film works that are complementary and interactive. And on this basis also has a strong resilience. These structures, dynamics and capabilities are not yet available in Chinese films, and require a long period of unremitting efforts to gradually form and improve them. After years of development, Chinese films have basically formed a multi-type, multi-variety and diversified creation and production pattern. In the face of Hollywood films, they have also found some ways to win and formed some local advantages. In the future, the establishment of a differentiated film market system should be the next development goal of Chinese films.
Edit: yvette