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In the conference room on the seventh floor of the Shaxi Broadcasting Building, Director Wen of Xinan TV was presiding over a meeting of the station’s middle and senior management staff.

"Now, please allow Director Chen from the Investment Department to report on the investment situation of the station's drama programs in the second half of the year."

Director Chen, who was four seats away from Director Wen, glanced at his colleagues in the room and then said, "In the second half of the year, our station's drama advertising investment is still at the highest level in the country. Not to mention CCTV, compared with other provincial TV stations in the country, it is far ahead..."

"Stop, the old problem has come back again. This is not to be announced to the public. Only our own people know the truth. Old Chen, please be more specific." Director Wen waved his hand with a serious face to interrupt Director Chen's speech.

"Yes Yes."

After Director Wen interrupted the first report, Director Chen took a sip of the tea on the table with some embarrassment, moistened his throat, and after calming down a little, he continued: "The investment in drama advertising in the first and second half of this year can be said to be like ice and fire."

All the middle and senior leaders of Xinan TV present were shocked and looked at Director Chen's report on the investment promotion carefully. After all, for a TV station, advertising investment promotion is the most important and critical link from beginning to end.

"Take the popular TV series currently broadcasted by provincial TV stations across the country as an example: When "Spring Flower Flame" was first broadcast, it had two interludes, Taotao Oxygen Cotton and Man Yan Shuning, but it stopped broadcasting after the fifth episode; the same was true for "Seven Nights of Snow", which started with the opening cold medicine and the interlude of Little Sunflower. After Yingshi took over the former Liangguang in the 11th episode, the drama also entered the rhythm of stopping broadcasting after the 16th episode; in addition, "Black and White Secret", which was broadcasted by Harbin Beer at the beginning, started to stop broadcasting from the 3rd episode, "Black Moonlight" started to stop broadcasting from the 11th episode, and "Dark Night and Dawn" stopped broadcasting for a short time after the 2-5 episodes, but it was completely stopped after the 13th episode. Even "Splendid Tranquility", which was broadcasted by our station and Emperor Penguin Pictures, slid into the embarrassing situation of stopping broadcasting on both platforms after the 25th episode..."

"It can be said that the number of radish dramas (referring to dramas that are broadcast without advertising sponsorship) on the market recently is simply overwhelming."

Just now, Director Wen asked Director Chen to be specific in his work report. Now Director Chen did not use general numbers and percentages to report, but went into detail about which episode of a certain TV series would start without advertising. This also shows that Director Chen is meticulous and serious in his work.

"There are radish dramas every year, but the previous year's "Flowers", last year's "Queen of Tears", and the first half of this year's "South to North" and "Mo Yu Yun Jian" have successively broken the records of various video platforms in terms of the number of advertisements and the total rights and interests. Compared with the first half of the year, the results of drama investment in the second half of the year can be said to be a slide. What went wrong in the meantime?"

"The sponsor of the drama is the barometer of the industry!"

“The changes in drama advertising in the second half of the year have strongly proved that brand owners are the real barometer of the industry.”

"First of all, the biggest feature of TV series marketing is that its launch cycle is very flexible. Brands do not have to be tied to the entire season like variety shows, but can enter or leave at any time according to market data. The attitude of advertisers is often the yardstick for testing whether a TV series is really popular or not."

"For example, when the recent hit drama "Spring Flower Flame" starring Xue Yi and Jin Yan was first released, it had a decent start with two mid-episode ads from Tao Tao Oxygen Cotton and Man Yan Shuning, but the two sponsors ran away early in the fifth episode."

"Where did they go?"

"If you pay attention to both dramas and variety shows, you will find that Man Yan Shuning, who gave up the drama midway, actually sponsored one of our variety shows "The Next Singer" at the same time and served as the "professional throat guard" of the show; and Taotao Oxygen Cotton, another new generation female personal care brand that ran away, has been an active participant in the investment of dramas in recent years. Last year, it successively invested in six dramas such as "Starfall Condensed into Sugar" and "The Way Back". This year, it turned to a conservative investment strategy, which is a kind of evidence of the weakness of the drama market."

"Furthermore, in the first half of the year, many brands that were originally engaged in variety shows joined the TV series table, while in the second half of the year, many of these brands chose to return to the variety show battlefield. This is also a major reason why the TV series side is so deserted."

"Take dairy brands as an example. In the first half of the year, Mengniu used its strawberry milk to title "In the Blizzard Time", and used its Chunzhen brand to title "Flower", "South and North", and "Joy of Life 2". Yili used its Jindian brand to title "The Story of Roses". However, in the second half of the year, these brands collectively withdrew from popular dramas and returned to variety shows. For example, Mengniu recently picked up its "classic product" yogurt brand to title "Time Concert" about the reunion of Super Girls, and sponsored the Tencent variety show "Start Now" with Chunzhen. Yili Jindian returned to its comfort zone and launched popular variety shows such as "Fifty Kilometers Peach Blossom Village", "Singer", and "Ride the Wind 2029". "

"The same is true for pharmaceutical brands. In the first half of the year, Sanjiu Pharmaceutical brands (such as 999 Ganmao Ling, 999 Piyanping, Sanjiu Weitai, etc.) were put into more than 20 dramas such as "South to North" and "Fox Spirit Matchmaker: Moon Red Chapter". In the second half of the year, Sanjiu Pharmaceutical's brands almost disappeared from the hot dramas. Instead, we saw "Growing" sponsored by Sanjiu Weitai, "Escape the Room" exclusively sponsored by 999 Piyanping, and "Dad is in Charge" sponsored by 999 Children's Cold Medicine in the variety show field."

“Finally, it is regrettable that the “title sponsorship” model that excited the industry in the first half of the year also disappeared in the second half. Perhaps due to the lack of major drama projects with real potential to break through the circle, most brands hesitate to even sponsor dramas, let alone spend a high price to title a drama.”

"You should know that in the first half of the year, Chunzhen spent a lot of money to title "Joy of Life" and Tmall bet on the dark horse drama "Mo Yu Yun Jian" in advance. These cases emerged one after another, which were once regarded as a positive signal that the investment in dramas has entered the next level. Brands use the momentum of big dramas to carry out joint marketing (for example, Tmall customized derivative short dramas based on the popularity of "Mo Yu Yun Jian" to promote the 618 promotion), which is also seen as an iterative strategy for the marketing cooperation between brands and dramas to enter the deep water zone."

"But in the second half of the year, TV series sponsorships were clearly cold. Even in the relatively popular summer season, we didn't see any TV series get sponsorship support from brands. This was a big blow to the TV series sponsorship industry, which had just started to pick up."

Although Director Chen did not mention the specific amount of advertising investment for Xinan TV in the second half of the year, his words made everyone present feel the pressure, because the overall environment is relatively difficult, and Xinan TV naturally cannot be immune.