Gourmet variety shows have become a red sea. How can we keep and capture the audience's stomachs?

in the era of "big platform, big star, big production", how to break through the predicament of homogenization? Unfortunately, so far, there has not been a phenomenal food variety that can be called a popular style.

since the launch of "Chinese Restaurant", Douban scored 5.9 points, which is still one step away from the passing line (as of August 19), and the audience rating is also lower than "yearning Life", which also comes from "Mango fishing" and lower production cost. if "yearning Life" is taken as the benchmark, this film is known as "breaking the restriction of traditional food programs in the shed." It is a failure to promote the "partner" style food variety show of "Chinese food culture".

looking ahead, gourmet variety has grown from few 10 years ago to a hundred flowers blossom today-- Comprehensive N-generation overbearing screen, which has obviously completed its accumulation. But unfortunately, so far, there has not been a phenomenon-level food variety that can be called a popular style. So, how on earth should food variety be done to better meet the needs of the audience and let the audience get full visual enjoyment?

strong > the evolution of gourmet variety is becoming more and more attractive. / strong >

the development of food variety

the early domestic food variety belongs to the information service program, represented by CCTV's" eating every Day ". Subsequently, a local satellite TV launched "Chef God for hegemony", which integrates food, competition and entertainment elements, and completes the sublimation from "cooking" to "cooking". Programs such as "Gourmet Beauty-Dining Table for three", "Fashion" and "refreshing Food wins the World" extend from recording in the shed to location shooting, but the type is relatively simple.

2012's" China on the tongue "became a hit, and this food documentary aroused the audience's strong interest in food subjects. The major satellite TV stations and video websites quickly caught and opened the red sea of food variety. During this period, the value of individuals in the program has been further developed, such as iqiyi's "Star Love Kitchen" and "Beautiful Men's Private Cuisine", which combines food with bloggers and beautiful men.

from 2014 to 2015, the potential of gourmet variety has been fully unleashed. The new generation of food programs represented by "Star Chef coming", "Twelve Flavor", "what to eat Today" and "the Taste of Happiness" have added star elements to the cooking competition, thus greatly enhancing the focus of food variety. Since then, food variety has entered the era of "big platform, big star, big production".

according to statistics, there are only five variety shows featuring food on several major platforms in 2012, but there have been more than 17 in 2016. Since last year, Zhejiang Satellite TV "familiar Taste" combines stars with ordinary people, and combines indoor and outdoor recordings; Hunan Satellite TV puts "slow Life" on the agenda relying on "yearning Life" and "Chinese Restaurant"; Tencent Video's "Please refrigerator" continues to work, "the temptation of dinner" is chic and novel, and "Huang Xiaochu's Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter" has its own IP blessing. Iqiyi's "Sister is so hungry" has a unique positioning, "eating up the whole world" and "going out" from the shed; the Youku video "through the Kitchen" gossips about delicious food …...

thus it can be seen that the gourmet variety shows produced by TV stations and video websites are evenly matched and evenly distributed in quantity, and each has its own emphasis on positioning, with the former taking into account both popularity and the latter's pursuit of "small and fine". It has a great influence in a particular subdivision of the population. It is worth mentioning that the development momentum of gourmet network ensemble is more rapid and can not be underestimated.

throughout the evolution of gourmet variety, combing the context, we can see: in quantity, gourmet variety has increased greatly, "indiscriminate spending is becoming more and more attractive"; in type, it has broken through the original single program type and made diversified progress; in form, from "cooking" to "cooking + competitive + entertainment", and then to the "food +" mode after the active entry of "big platform, big star, big production". Production and broadcasting has also developed from the original recording to live broadcast, and even the "double broadcast" mode of live broadcast + on-demand has appeared; in extension, it also covers various sectors such as games, e-commerce, stars, and so on, showing the compatibility of gourmet variety shows; and the role of "people" in the program has also changed from "foil" to "people-oriented". In short, multiple types of superimposed food programs continue to bring fresh blood to the audience, and producers are also constantly digging out elements related to food, bringing more possibilities.

strong > original or copyright introduction, someone imitates my face? / strong >

while food variety continues to extend its radius and expand its territory, "creativity" has become the key for producers to compete for. The early food variety was mainly "original", followed by the trend of "introduction", and the major platforms joined the dispute of "copyright". However, the competition emphasized by many foreign food programs is not satisfied in China. On the contrary, the culture and inclusiveness of food in Chinese soil is gradually highlighted, so there are a series of "original" food variety based on local culture. In the process of food variety returning to "original", there is no lack of plagiarism in the name of "original", which is worrying.

"original" stage, domestic programs such as "eating every day", "gourmet guests-table for three" and so on, mainly focus on "food teaching", but the content of the program is relatively simple and boring, lack of viewing motivation. With the domestic variety ushered in the "introduction of copyright" craze, gourmet variety is naturally not willing to lag behind. "Star Chef arrives" is born out of the popular cooking competition mode in Europe and the United States. The program revolves around the theme of "conveying love through food" and tells the story behind stars and food. It not only revolves around the cuisine itself, but also emphasizes the emotional "ups and downs". Transfer positive energy to everyone through food.

"Please refrigerator" is quoted from South Korea's JTBC TV program of the same name, deep picking artists' refrigerators and derived "private" stories, and invites chefs to use the materials in artists' refrigerators for cooking competitions. These imported programs are different from the traditional food teaching programs in terms of content creativity, and the new content and form make the audience refreshing.

with the continuous development of gourmet variety, the introduction of copyright has been unable to meet the viewing needs. Original programs followed, "Sister is so hungry" invited the most popular male gods on both sides of the strait to participate in the recording, with the high popularity of the funny diva. "familiar Taste" is to integrate the theme of food and gratitude, and the star client "goes back to the past" to be reunited with the taste, scene and people in memory. "you look delicious" takes the star's daily diet and lifestyle as the theme. The chef will "tailor dishes" according to each star's preferences and conduct cooking shows in plenty of time and relaxed chat atmosphere. "eat up the whole Universe" superimposed food and travel, so that the food culture and different urban cultures have the intersection, once again broadened the connotation and extension of food programs.

these original food variety shows have obvious "personalized" ideology, in which "people" dominate, "Sister is hungry" without "S", "the temptation of dinner" depends on Ma Dong's "exotic faction", "Huang Xiaochu's Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter" is not available instead of "Red Chef, Green Chef". Moreover, most of the gourmet variety shows developed and produced by video websites tend to be "original". On the one hand, it saves costs and avoids the costly war to buy copyrights; on the other hand, according to the characteristics of their respective platforms, they can produce gourmet variety shows in line with the tonality of the platform. For example, "Qian you have a meal", "go shopping for dinner" and so on all have distinct "Internet generation genes". The differentiated food variety based on the segmentation of the audience has become a major trend of food variety.

returning to "originality" is fundamentally a thing that shows the creativity of the country, but it is often accidentally involved in the "plagiarism storm". The "Chinese restaurant" was accused of plagiarizing the "Yin canteen" of Luo PD in South Korea, and the "yearning life" of the "slow life" family was accused of plagiarizing the "03:00 meals". As the variety show "brought" has successful experience in other countries, the possibility of failure is small, so it is more popular not only by domestic television stations, but also by investors. In fact, if gourmet variety is to continue to win the favor of the audience, it is necessary to focus on the innovation of the content itself and bring forth the new.

strong > the trend of the times, how does homogenization break out the tight encirclement? / strong >

the gastronomic variety that bid farewell to "savage growth" is becoming mature. In addition to behind-the-scenes production teams and content presentation, another significant sign of maturity is serialization to normality. "Twelve Flavor" has been broadcast for three seasons, and its ratings have repeatedly exceeded 1. The number of online broadcasts in the first three seasons were 860 million, 750 million and 1.18 billion respectively. Tencent Video's "Please refrigerator" received 620 million, 360 million and 580 million views in the first three seasons, respectively. The first two seasons of iqiyi's video "Sister is so hungry" were viewed 430 million and 340 million respectively. It can be seen that, compared with games, parents and children, gourmet variety has an advantage in quantity, but the amount of play is not as good as that of other categories.

"Comprehensive N generation" is the trend of the times, but it is also faced with problems such as innovation and change. For example, "Please refrigerator" to open the star refrigerator as a starting point, and then watch the third season of "who is your food", there are also links to open the refrigerator of Lin Zhiying and Zhong Litti. Food variety inevitably falls into homogenization. However, we know that in any industry, there are few people who come from behind to catch up with homogeneous content, and the competition of homogeneous content is disadvantageous to all parties, which greatly weakens the mode advantage of "integrated N generation".

the result of homogenization will lead to a single content of food variety, so that the cultural needs of the audience can not be fully met, while weakening the viewing value of variety shows and reducing the enthusiasm of the audience. Refusing homogenization and looking for differentiated content is the king of "breaking the situation".

how to break through the dilemma of homogenization? On the one hand, vertical content needs to be ploughed deeply. Whether it is cut into the subdivided areas such as cooking kitchens, folk cuisine, popular shops, food customs, and food characteristics, or combined with talk shows, Reality Show, competitive games and other forms of expression, it is a breakthrough in the vertical field; on the other hand, it also needs accurate insight into the needs of users. No matter in content or form, it is necessary to find the user's pain point. Through big data and other technical means to understand that the audience is most concerned about food or feelings, or only gossip, or at the same time. Balance the content and form of the program according to the needs of the audience, and create a personalized food variety brand.

all in all, food is the most common carrier of life and emotion. Mining these elements related to food can enrich the content of the program, and the superposition of multiple types also brings freshness to the audience. To some extent, this is also an innovative way to ensure that food programs are constantly updated and changed in the future.

Edit: xiongwei