If you ask me what is the biggest trend this year, I would say short dramas.

From 2023 onwards, the success of short dramas is obvious to all. According to data from AI Media Consulting, the market size of China's online micro-dramas in 2023 was 37.39 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 267.65%. It is expected that the market size will reach 100 billion yuan in 2027. This year, there is a popular short drama, "I am a stepmother in the 1980s", which has been recharged more than 20 million yuan on the day of its launch.

But is the success of the short drama really just because of the fast-paced plot and the word "fun" that runs through the entire film?

Short dramas unlike TV dramas, and online dramas, there are usually no significant production costs or video platform support. If short dramas are not promoted after production, they are extremely likely to go nowhere. Therefore, the success of short dramas is actually driven by investment in streaming traffic. They rely on exposure on various platforms to earn returns.

The ROI (return on investment) in the domestic market can reach 1.1-1.2, which means that if you spend 1 million yuan on advertising, you can earn 100,000 yuan. If the production cost is 400,000 yuan, the traffic after launching must reach at least 4 million yuan to avoid losing money.

According to the data of DATA-EYE, the investment scale of male short dramas will reach 19.7 billion yuan in 2024, and that of female short dramas will reach 22.3 billion yuan. It can be seen that the investment market of short dramas is huge.

In the traditional marketing industry, there is actually a type of product that has similar attributes to short dramas - TVC advertisements. Due to market restrictions, a single broadcast platform, and limited dissemination channels, without corresponding traffic support, TVC advertisements are almost impossible to generate any positive feedback for the brand, let alone bring profits.

Thus expanding to basic marketing methods, whether it is sending out hyped-posts, short video promotion, or ranking recommendation. It is extremely difficult to stand out on the Internet with complex content and high degree of homogeneity. In fact, today's marketing market can not be separated from the investment of streaming traffic.