Among the enterprises that received the investigation this time, 95% believed that entertainment marketing at present was too blind and not suitable for their brand promotion. However, in our investigation of the entertainment industry, especially the film and television industry which steers popular entertainment products, we found that in recent years, the production of entertainment products has shown a surge trend. The number of TV dramas and films has increased dramatically (see Table One and Two). In 2006, the output of TV series reached 13,872 episodes, while the number of films increased to 399. It can be said that the Chinese people have never been so "entertained" for many years.
With such a large variety of entertainment options, even if they are not as splendid as flowers in full bloom, why do enterprises still hesitate? What is the reason behind it?
Entertainment Marketing Supply Side: Mutual Willingness
Setting aside the many rigid problems existing in the production and distribution system of entertainment products (such as the segmentation of the film market, regional copyright monopolies, burdensome distribution processes, high marketing costs, improper mutual bidding competition, high input and low output of domestic films), there are still numerous issues regarding the value-added development of entertainment products themselves.
First: Unreasonable Revenue System
In this investigation, the "expectation" sentiment expressed by the film and television industry towards entertainment marketing shows that most film and television producers are gradually beginning to break away from outdated ways of discovering profits. However, the actual result is inappropriate methods, and even the profit value chain remains unsmoothed, with the entire industry not showing signs of market prosperity. Especially in the case of highly productive TV dramas, due to the obstruction of profit distribution caused by the monopoly of television station resources, it further discourages the "original" enthusiasm of the producers. Although the annual output is not low, good dramas are few and far between.
According to the investigation, currently in countries where the entertainment industry is prosperous, the profit distribution relationship of TV programs is basically as shown in Figure Three. The intellectual property rights holders occupy nearly 50% of the profits and also bear corresponding risks. Of course, these 50% of profits mainly come from the aforementioned "media value" gains, meaning that the well-operated value-added part brings them more substantial returns.
On the contrary, in China's TV drama profit distribution situation, the producers only account for less than 6% of the total profits and are continuously squeezed by media (TV stations). Nationwide, TV dramas generate economic benefits of over 20 billion yuan annually, bringing about 40 billion yuan in advertising revenue for TV stations, while the funds used by TV stations at all levels for TV drama production and purchase are only 2.2 billion yuan. More than 80% of the profits are pocketed by the TV stations, leaving TV drama producers without fair profit sharing. Originally already in a loss-making state, TV drama producers will be more on edge, with survival becoming a concern.
Besides these objective reasons, the insufficient exploration of the added-value potential of TV dramas is also one of the main reasons for the unsmooth profit chain of TV drama producers. Only by fully expanding the dual commercial value of entertainment products as both products and media, and embracing the olive branch of entertainment marketing, can the envisioned profit blue ocean be captured. How to approach that sea? First, one must recognize one's own value and the goodwill of others. Unfortunately, compared to the awareness of achieving 100% profit expansion, this realization seems faintly insignificant.
Second: Severe Disconnection Phenomenon
In this investigation, more than 90% of entertainment product producers believed that the "pre-roll ads and reputation rights" they provided were what enterprises needed most; however, among the surveyed enterprises, some that had previously placed pre-roll ads thought they would no longer consider them, believing that such promotions were ineffective.
Entertainment marketing is undoubtedly a burgeoning and promising new marketing method. However, some companies' entertainment marketing efforts indeed fall short of being as delightful and enjoyable as the entertainment itself, resulting in significant marketing investments failing to yield corresponding value returns. As a result, some companies have developed doubts about the high investment in entertainment marketing and its unpredictable marketing outcomes.
The fault does not lie with entertainment marketing itself. In fact, the reason lies in the fact that many companies and entertainment product suppliers lack a deep understanding of the essence of entertainment marketing. They simply equate entertainment marketing with hype, failing to explore the inherent dramatic relationship between entertainment products and corporate brands or products, leading to the phenomenon of disconnection. Just by looking at the sponsorship prospectuses of many film and TV production companies, you can see that they don't know exactly what brand enterprises need. Simple "pre-roll ads" and "end credits acknowledgment" cannot genuinely assist in the achievement of enterprise marketing strategies and thus fail to help sponsors realize true marketing value - making sponsors' consumers happy to buy and enabling sponsor brands to achieve deep emotional communication with consumers.
Third: Coarse Marketing Model
Marketing consciousness awakening, marketing methods must adapt to the growth of the market. In this regard, the entertainment product producers undoubtedly lag behind again.
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Does Li Ning's slogan "Everything Is Possible" conform to the nature of advertising? - _1758