Recently, as soon as iQiyi's "Additional Gift" direct access to the finale of "One Thought Guanshan" was released, it once again set off hot searches just like when it first aired. No matter what complex and diverse public opinions this TV series has faced before, there is no doubt that it has exploded.

"One Thought Guanshan" has been updated and completed, and it immediately became the number one hot search on Weibo.

The drama was broadcast on iQiyi on November 28. Since its broadcast, the attention and discussion have remained high. On the day of its premiere, it broke the record for the highest popularity on the first day of iQiyi's broadcast in 2023. The popularity on the site exceeded 10,000 within 6 days of its launch. , after the interruption, iQiyi’s popularity value once again exceeded 10,000, rising to 10,106. It topped the iQiyi overall hot list for 16 consecutive days, and continued to dominate the TOP1 of all major data lists.

"One Thought Guanshan" has the highest popularity on iQiyi site, reaching 10106

The “Big Six” drama companies are facing new markets and new challenges

There have been many discussions about the actors, plot, director, and editing surrounding "One Thought of Guanshan", but reporters are more curious about the company behind it, Ningmeng Film and Television. In 2023, Ningmeng will broadcast three dramas: "It's Just Love", "Ask the Heart" and "One Thought of Passing the Mountain". In terms of reputation, except for the shocking ending of "One Thought of Guanshan", the first two dramas have scored high on Douban; more importantly, in terms of broadcast data, all three dramas can do well. In the TV drama industry, there are very few companies that can handle works of multiple genres and tracks. However, Ningmeng’s three dramas this year, an urban emotional drama, a medical drama, and a costume legend, are completely different types.

The final animation poster released by "One Thought Guanshan", the first one below is the production company Ningmeng Film and Television

Ning Meng's three works allow the industry to find a sure starting point among the numerous variables: the premise of a hit product is high-quality products, user preference is uncertain due to the changes in the society of the times, and the rising tide of aesthetics is the only direction.

Looking at the film and television dramas in recent years, diversification and youthfulness in content are the general trend. Chen Fei, co-founder and CEO of Ningmeng Film and Television, has stated in public many times that Ningmeng “In terms of the main business of drama series, we hope that Realize the layout of all tracks and all categories.” But it won't be easy.

Usually, the industry refers to Huace Film and Television, Noon Sunshine, Xinli Media, Ningmeng Film and Television, Yaoke Media, and Ciwen Media as the "big six" drama companies. They are all companies that are still standing in the industry after experiencing the "capital craze" in the film and television industry and the rise of online dramas after 2014. They all have rich production resources and creative experience. However, the performance of the "Big Six" in the past two years has not always been satisfactory. Sometimes the works themselves maintain the team's consistent level and tone, but still fail to achieve good broadcast results and reputation. Among them, on the one hand, it is the rapid iteration of audience aesthetics and preferences, and on the other hand, it is the rise of new companies and new creative teams.

In recent years, many popular dramas on the market have been produced by new directors and new teams. The production company of this summer's blockbuster drama "Sauvignon Blanc" was established in 2019. One of the major shareholders is Tong Hua, the original author of "Sauvignon Blanc". Xin Shuang's "The Hidden Corner" and "The Long Season", and Wang Zheng's "Under the Busty City" have brought new trends and new challenges to the industry from style to content. On the other side, there are also cutting-edge teams and brands producing short videos and short dramas that have emerged one after another, and they have moves and ambitions to enter long-form dramas. For example, the new director Zhizhu, who was very prominent in the Kuaishou short drama track, this year is in B Invited by the website, he produced the word-of-mouth drama "Ancient Acacia". The drama's score on Douban is still stable at 8.6 points. And judging from market feedback, the audience is looking forward to her entering the director drama market.

It can be seen that in addition to the "cost reduction and efficiency increase" of the platform, leading companies in several major industries also face challenges from new market changes and new opponents. From the market observation in the past two years, Ningmeng can be regarded as one of the "Big Six" who responded quickly and achieved results: the youth suspense "Coward", the original costume legend "One Thought Guanshan", and the medical reality "Ask the Heart" ", urban emotions include "Only Love" and "Half-Mature Man and Woman" which are already on the way; not to mention realistic themes, the "Little" series and "Twenty Thirty" series in the past few years are on hand; even many leading companies The Douyin short drama track, which is still in a wait-and-see state, has also produced works like "Twenty-Nine" that have both data and reputation.

Ning Meng’s methodology

So in the past few years, as an "old" leading company, Ningmeng has any effective methodologies in production that are worthy of industry analysis and reference?

Since 2016, "Little Farewell", "Little Joy" and "Little Sacrifice" have focused on social pain points and brought up the educational topic of Chinese people's collective empathy, setting off an upsurge of discussion in the whole society, and also made "Ling Meng good at doing realistic themes" This impression is deeply rooted in the industry. Most of Ningmeng’s founders have many years of professional background. It can be said that at the beginning of its establishment, Ningmeng’s strength was the “problem-solving” thinking of intellectual elites. They are good at combining keen observation and thorough understanding of social reality and hot topics. Thinking and quickly reflect it into the content creation of long series. But for companies with long-term plans, having only one “trump card” is not enough. In the ever-changing market and industry, accurate prediction based on user insights is a top priority.

"Little Farewell" poster

It is reported that there is a widely circulated "Jianghu Meeting" within Ningmeng. Every Tuesday morning, several partners lead the team to observe the market data of the week and the Internet hot spots. The observation of Internet hot spots is not limited to news in the film and television industry, but also includes content such as the ebb and change of new consumption, the employment situation of the times, the sinking market, etc. Ningmeng believes that these observations of the times are closely related to content creation. "Dismantle the changes in social trends or the direction of public opinion behind these events, and accumulate them into the knowledge base that is the source of realist creation." Chen Fei once introduced in public. In addition, Ningmeng even has a mini program about the fan community. The number of registered people currently exceeds 13,000. There are regular activities in the mini program, which has also become an important tool for gaining insight into users.

On December 5, Chen Fei pointed out in her speech at the Weibo Vision Conference that the main audience for long-form dramas is still young viewers, and nearly 60% of them are female users, showing strong stickiness and high consumption power. In the current slowdown of global economic growth, in reality, especially young audiences, are increasingly able to "accept the ordinary" and accept "laying flat", but when it comes to the selection of image content, they are more pursuing the "sense of refreshment". Healing” and other ultimate experiences. And as young people become more and more inclined to establish a value evaluation system that they recognize in addition to worldly success, their choices of film and television content become more and more diverse. Ning Meng’s three works this year all try to establish emotional links with the audience. The changes in the user’s mind that are “relevant to me and useful to me” have become the entrance for creators to connect with the audience. The specific dismantling is detailed to the insight and competition of the content ontology and the entire link of the series.

Chen Fei once talked about the methodology of hit dramas: on the basis of no shortcomings, there should be extreme strengths, and on the basis of insight into users, it should exceed expectations. According to a reporter’s interview, Ningmeng internally dismantles its “ultimate longboard” when positioning its works, including reviewing them. The so-called pursuit of the "ultimate long board" may be an innovative way to break through in the increasingly vertically segmented long-form drama market by finding the right genre, highlighting the genre, and superimposing new elements on top of the genre. Chen Fei's insight has also been confirmed in Ningmeng's creative practice in the past few years, and the incubation and birth of "super content" has also been recognized and welcomed by the market and users.

"It's Just Love" poster

Easier said than done. For industry creators, obtaining first-hand information is not that difficult in the context of the Internet based on big data. The key lies in how to do it. Producer competition also lies in the process from "knowing" to "practicing". Take the three dramas aired by Ningmeng this year as an example. "Just Love" added a "sibling relationship" character that young audiences love to see in the urban love genre, and added innovation with sports elements; "Ask the Heart" It is not only a serious and in-depth exploration of the medical professional drama genre, but also closer to the daily life of young people from character setting to plot segments, arousing resonance among young audiences; "Yi Nian Guan Shan" has created the "Eastern Highway Adventure" that is rare in costume dramas. The new elements combine the martial arts group portraits with the emotional types of ancient puppets.

"Ask the Heart" Poster

The reporter also noticed that Ningmeng will do pre-operational actions in content creation. For example, the two popular dramas "Thirty Only" and "Twenty Not Confused" were launched almost at the same time. Ningmeng directly related the two projects into the "Female Age" series, using the phrase "express but not define". As a distillation of the overall spiritual core of the series, this sentence has become an interactive starting point for the marketing of the two subsequent series. This point, in the current era where "publicity and distribution are as important as creation", is indeed worthy of consideration and reference by other creative production companies.

A few years ago, reporters had heard that Ningmeng's internal creation is centered on a "ten-person team". For each project, a ten-person team including core positions such as editor, producer, marketing, special effects, and finance is established. Share the responsibilities of a “project manager”. Two or three years ago, the "Team of Ten" joined the "Leading Group of Three": producers, editors and operators work together to lead a ten-person team to control the quality of the series, including casting, art, modeling, planning, audiovisual , title sequence, episode subtitles and other content were all completed by these groups.

This year, Ningmeng has launched the "Creator Mechanism". As the person in charge of the project, a Creator can raise his or her own hands, form a team freely, and complete a project from project establishment to final implementation. In the reporter's observation, the biggest feature of this mechanism is the degree of freedom. Independent studios affiliated with the three major platforms of iYouteng and major media groups usually adopt a fixed creative team mechanism, but Ningmeng forms a team based on the project, and all team members raise their hands to decide whether to participate in the project. The starting point basically comes from personal judgment and preference for the project. "This mechanism is to fully help everyone break the restrictions of position and year and truly be driven by love."

However, it is worth noting that this flexible mechanism has yet to be verified. Forming a team for a project means that the team’s early running-in costs will significantly increase. When team members’ personal preferences and expertise conflict with the project, it is necessary to Team leaders mediate and reallocate work. Therefore, the basis for the practical possibilities of this mechanism comes from the high professionalization of employees and extensive training in content creation.

In addition, Ningmeng has also obviously made great efforts to link external industry talents in recent years. Starting from 2020, Ningmeng has launched a "Seed Project" for outstanding external creative talents such as screenwriters and directors. In the 2024 drama list released by Ningmeng Film and Television on December 7, Ningmeng and the post-90s director Mao Two works of collaboration with Deishu: "No One Like You" and "Today is Sun Rain". Ning Meng has also established a long-term relationship with young creators such as Zhang Yingji ("Only Thirty" and "Only Love"), Zhou Yifei ("Little Willing" and "Asking the Heart"), Li Zhi ("Twenty Not Confused" and "Asking the Heart"). Cooperation mechanism.

In addition, it should be noted that as a film and television company with pure "Shanghai origin", almost every drama produced by Ningmeng is set up in Shanghai. It has also received financial support from the Shanghai Cultural Development Foundation for many times, as well as the relevant departments of Shanghai City in the creation of Great help with production. In June 2023, at the Research and Evaluation Conference on Excellent Shanghai-produced TV Dramas in the New Era held in Shanghai, Ningmeng Film and Television was selected for 12 of the 50 Shanghai-produced TV dramas in the past ten years. Su Xiao, chairman of Ningmeng Film and Television, said at the meeting, “One of our efforts at Ningmeng is to bring TV series produced in Shanghai to the world stage. The openness of Shanghai-style culture should be reflected in the value proposition and value proposition of better integrating into globalization. In the aesthetic trend, TV dramas produced in Shanghai have the potential to compete with European and American dramas, Korean dramas, and Mexican dramas for traffic and users on mainstream international platforms." Previously, "Thirty Only" has successfully "went overseas" and has successively landed in many countries and regions around the world. Broadcasting platform, after being broadcast on the Korean Netflix platform, it became popular in South Korea. In Malaysia, it became the most popular new media on-demand work that year, and the remake rights were purchased by South Korea, Vietnam and other countries.

Ning Meng Film and Television 2024 film list poster collection

In early December, Ningmeng Film and Television released its 2024 film list and publicly stated that in the next three years, it hopes that the company will steadily increase its production to 200 episodes per year to broadcast 200 episodes per year. The three drama series aired by Ningmeng this year have a total of 116 episodes, from more than 100 episodes to 200 episodes. Doubling the production is not an easy KPI to achieve.

Among the "Big Six", established powerhouses such as Noon Sunshine, Yaoke Media, and Huace Film and Television have also begun to explore new genres in recent years. From the single track they have always been good at, they have taken the initiative to explore genres such as science fiction, youth, and suspense. Douyin and Kuaishou have made new layouts and plans in the direction of short dramas, and will launch new works one after another in 2024. Can Ningmeng continue to maintain its creative advantage in long-form dramas, and can established leading companies change in the new market? It is worth looking forward to continuing to stand out in the competition.