Why is this work relevant for Entertainment?

RED is a social media and e-commerce platform. Ideal Life with RED is an online short video series produced and launched by our team and RED. Based on the habit of the younger generation, this very first immersive vertical screen short play tells the daily stories and troubles of Chinese rural young people who strive in the big cities and target them as the main audience. This 3-minute short video series achieved great effects online and offline, and it paved the way for a brand new way of entertainment in the area of online video in the Chinese market.

Background

In recent years, RED has been focused on the UGC community, and brought out the ideology “First Builds Community, Then the Market”. RED managed to emphasize itself as a social media through the title sponsorship of the TV shows, for example, ‘Idol Producer’. Most of the RED users was the white-collar female and university students in the first and second-tier cities, it led to the excessive loop barrier and the content homogenization due to the ‘Spiral of Silence’. Those all combined to impede the new users coming to RED. The brand-new ideology helps RED absorb town youth age 18-30, living in third to sixth tier cities and regions, to RED and bring vitality to the community and e-commerce.

Describe the creative idea

In 2018, RED brought out the ideology of “First Builds Community, Then the Market” to develop a “positive, realistic, and diverse” virtual online city, and then vibrate the RED community and e-commerce. Here is the summary of our insights: 1. An ironic online lifestyle drama: Our team worked with Huayi Brothers Media Corporation and Mahua FunAge to produce this show which tells the stories of young people with a sense of resonance. The audience is eager to talk about this show after watching it. 2. An immersive experience watching a vertical screen drama: It provides an immersive experience for the audience with condensed yet diverse information on the vertical screen. 3. Specially designed side stories: Besides the original 50 episodes, there are two more side episodes in which we present the real experience of using RED, which is an effective tool of branding and erasing the stereotypes.

Describe the strategy

Our team shaped RED as a friend of the RED users who is a lifestyle expert and brought out the immersive vertical screen video. These ironic short video series attract its target audience, which is the Chinese young people, with the designed scene to show the value of RED as a life expert. Also, the joining of KOL and advertisements on different social media platforms work as another way to absorb more users and growing them into the habit of hitting RED on mobile devices.

Describe the execution

StepOne: Resonance based on the content. Town youths are eager to discuss. It tells the stories of the youths, including topics such as blind date, selfie, workout, job, and so on. We emphasize the connections between people and a sense of belonging, StepTwo: One-click forwarding makes it more accessible, and leads to more discussions StepThree: Popular Punchlines Target the Users The broadcasts: “Life is sad, make it bright with RED” eliminate the stereotypes of the RED users to build the new recognition of RED. StepFour: Unique Side Episodes, RED advertisements in the scene There are two more side episodes in which we present the real experience of using RED. The content is consistent with the other original episodes. StepFive: KOLs join in RED to push the UGC from the town youth The production team and KOLs are invited to RED to produce UGC constantly. Celebrity effect brings a market.

Describe the outcome

Ideal Life with RED as the first vertical screen online video series has achieved great effects in every aspect. The score on Douban and other video websites reached other 8.4, and the ranking of this show stayed at TOP3 on different platforms. It also had an influence on social media. Our one-click forwarding brought this show to the Weibo Hot Search four times. There were over 2 million interactions, 130 million readings, 170 thousand discussions on Weibo about this topic. Over 80 media websites reported or sent push notification about the show. We’ve seen over 2 million news about Ideal Life with RED on the internet. Over 50 influential Wechat account commented, and over 100 articles were written after the launch of the show. Our vertical screen video received wide attention over the industry.