From "Content Arena" to "Business Arena": How does Orca Entertainment transform viral hits into a growth engine for brands?

The release of the autumn drama lineup is almost the indicator for every long - form video platform in the second half of the year. Audiences are used to focusing on the drama titles, cast, and release dates, and commenting on which dramas are "predicted to be blockbusters" and which are the "guardians of ancient idol dramas".

However, for Orca Entertainment after its brand renewal, the real value of its first autumn drama lineup release lies not only in the quantity of over 200 works but also in another set of logic behind them: commercialization ability.

Beyond the lively discussions about drama - chasing, there is a calmer industrial narrative hidden. Good content remains the foundation of long - form videos, but having blockbusters alone cannot automatically translate into brand value. The story Orca wants to tell is the "second curve" beyond good dramas: in the flood of content, how to help advertisers find their positions, methods, and business opportunities.

01 Good Content Behind the Drama Lineup

In this autumn, Orca Entertainment presented a diverse drama lineup: over 200 works span multiple sectors such as TV dramas, variety shows, animations, cultural documentaries, and offline performances. From the top - tier dramas Spy Report with No Ceiling and Twenty - Four Strategies in Chang'an, to the suspense and ancient - costumed dramas Confession in the Dark and A Tune of Farewell, and then to the realistic dramas Grain Rain and Pursuit of Justice, the types almost cover all high - frequency tracks in the long - form video industry.

At first glance, this list seems like a strategic arrangement of content by the platform. But in the broader context, it is more like a proof: in the current situation of the popularity of short dramas and the sluggishness of variety shows, Youku has the ability to maintain a large - scale and full - track content supply.

In the eyes of audiences, this is a drama - watching menu; from an industry perspective, it is the foundation of the platform's competitiveness. In the past two years, the long - form video market has faced a strong impact from short dramas, and users' attention has been continuously diluted. Whether a platform can continuously produce stable top - tier content has become the fundamental test for its survival.

Youku's performance during the summer season in 2025 provides an illustration.

According to the Cloud - Union report, since its release, the effective views of The Legend of Hidden Seas have exceeded 1.3 billion, leading the summer season with a market share of over 40%. In the Name of the Law also had views exceeding 1.3 billion and remained at the top of the charts continuously. The Legend of Mortal Cultivation to Immortality and Seven Heart - Notes stayed at the forefront of the charts. Youku dominated the top 2 positions on the cumulative national - wide views list during the summer season, achieving the long - awaited "double blockbusters". According to QuestMobile statistics, from January to July 2025, Youku's exclusive broadcast rate was as high as 87.5%, the highest among the four major platforms.

Behind these achievements, Youku is on the path of content refinement from customization to self - production, with the core being the "producer - centered system". In the post - mortem analysis of the summer season, the producer was almost the keyword repeatedly mentioned.

Zhang Long, the producer of The Legend of Mortal Cultivation to Immortality, said bluntly: "The pioneering nature of the topic selection is the core weapon to resist content lag. Only by predicting the audience's emotions and market gaps in advance can the works be in sync with the social pulse when they are released." Dun Qi, the chief producer of In the Name of the Law, believes that producers must understand drama writing so that they can overturn and restart the script in a timely manner, convey user profiles and platform data to creators, and thus produce works that truly meet the audience's tastes.

The producer - centered system, combined with the industrialized production process and theater brand operation, makes Youku's content supply more stable. From ancient - costumed, realistic, and immortal - cultivating dramas to youth and manga - adapted works, Orca's reserves are flourishing in multiple tracks simultaneously. In other words, Orca has secured the "memory entrance" with content, which is the prerequisite for subsequent commercialization.

It must be admitted that the value of Youku's autumn drama lineup does not lie in the quantity of works but in the stability it shows to the industry - this stability is the foundation for subsequent commercialization.

02 The Business Strategy Behind Good Content: Products Integrate into the Drama, Brands Imprint in the Heart

In the content industry, the drama lineup represents a platform's "supply" ability, but the commercialization ability determines whether it can truly monetize the attention. At this year's autumn drama lineup event, Orca Entertainment tried to present such an answer to the industry: it's not just about having good dramas but also about making good dramas generate sustainable business.

The story of Gree is a typical example. Why did Gree, which hadn't invested in the long - form video field for many years, choose The Legend of Mortal Cultivation to Immortality in 2025? Zhu Lei, the marketing director of Gree Electric Appliances, told 36Kr straightforwardly: "In today's home appliance market, there are countless advertisements, but there isn't much content that can truly reach consumers' hearts."

"Short - form videos create popularity, while long - form videos create memories." He believes that high - quality dramas have the scarcity of centralized dissemination and the long - term accumulation of brand awareness, which is what Gree values.

Therefore, Gree's product placement in The Legend of Mortal Cultivation to Immortality was not a random trial but a systematic expression of "healthy home appliances". The air - conditioner stabilizes the environment, the refrigerator nourishes vitality, the washing machine maintains a good state, and the water purifier strengthens the foundation, which are combined into the "four - piece set for cultivation". The promotional slogan "Choose Gree for health, and cultivation will be more powerful" transforms product attributes into the drama's logic, allowing the audience to subconsciously remember the brand while watching the drama. "Cultivation relies on secret manuals, and health relies on Gree." This line, created by the brand team, is like an advertisement embedded in the drama, smooth and natural.

In the implementation process, Gree and Youku jointly predicted that the character played by Li Naiwen would be popular and created him as the "spokesperson for cultivation". With the cooperation of creative mini - dramas and social media promotion, Gree's home appliances were transformed into cultivation artifacts. The multi - point linkage of Weibo topics, Douyin re - creations, and outdoor billboards achieved rapid cross - circle popularity. Zhu Lei summarized: "It's not just about products integrating into the drama but also about brands imprinting in the heart."

The final result exceeded expectations. The drama served as the entrance, short - form promotions as the accelerator, and external promotions as the amplifier. The combination of the three achieved a "1 + 1+1>3" effect. The in - drama exposure exceeded 600 million, and the related topics had hundreds of millions of views. Gree won the top brand awareness share in the "healthy cultivation" field, which is particularly rare in the context of the home appliance industry. Zhu Lei added: "Good advertisements will be skipped, while good stories will be spread."

If Gree demonstrated "how a brand can find its own narrative through content", then The Legend of Hidden Seas demonstrated "how good content can serve dozens of brands simultaneously". As the drama with the most sponsorships this year, The Legend of Hidden Seas attracted more than 60 brands to participate, with over 10 forms of cooperation. The challenges behind this are obvious - how to balance the viewing experience and commercialization. Youku's commercialization team also provided an answer: from character marketing to derivative mini - dramas, from puns to "super fast - forward", there are endless new gameplay methods, and content and marketing are organically integrated.

The marketing of Alien Energy Drink was a highlight moment. The brand used the appearance of the character Zhuang Zhixing in the drama to perform the brand song of Alien in a catchy way: "Aliens, energy drinks. When you're tired, recharge with an Alien." Combined with the binding of the character, it not only integrated into the drama but also naturally became part of the audience's daily expressions. Audiences spontaneously imitated and repeated it in the bullet - screen comments and short - form videos, spreading the brand awareness to a wider social space. This was a triple resonance among the drama, the audience, and the brand, and it also made "recharging" a bridge between the drama and reality.

"Good content and good methods are the keys to achieving emotional resonance between products and audiences." The relevant person in charge of Alien Energy Drink told 36Kr. With the help of The Legend of Hidden Seas, Alien completed the transformation from "character favorability" to "brand favorability". The audience remembered not only the lines and characters but also the scenario association of "When you're tired, recharge with an Alien". Through the linkage with Tmall Supermarket's 618 promotion, category days, Tmall Black Box, and offline pop - up stores, this cooperation also brought more than 3 million exposures on the e - commerce platform and over 1,000 pieces of user - generated content.

Behind this is a combination of strategies: from derivative mini - dramas based on characters, to inviting Zhou Qi, the actor of Zhuang Zhixing, as the brand recommender, and then to star headlines and full - screen bullet - screen comments during the drama's broadcast. Step by step, the brand value is deeply bound to the character's growth line. It emphasizes: "Truly effective communication is not just about making users see but making them remember."

In contrast, the challenge for China Resources Sanjiu is greater. Due to compliance restrictions, pharmaceutical advertisements cannot use celebrity endorsements, leaving little room for traditional advertising methods. The solution chosen by Youku and the Sanjiu team was to innovate the advertising form. For example, at the critical plot point when Zhuang Er blocked the knife for the Rubber Monkey, a group - excitement bullet - screen advertising innovation "Rubber Monkey 2.0: Blood - locking!" appeared, allowing the brand to interact with young audiences in a more relaxed way. Official data shows that through this advertising method, the brand recall rate of Piyanping reached over 65%, and the favorability rate exceeded 60%, ranking among the top ten out of 49 advertising brands. Behind this achievement, the Sanjiu team summarized straightforwardly: restrictions are challenges, but they also force out more creativity.

"Practice the basic skills and don't rely on one - hit - wonder techniques. What users need is not advertising but content. The form that doesn't make them dislike and even makes them like it is the truly effective advertising." Liang Hua, the assistant general manager of the consumer brand department of China Resources Sanjiu, told 36Kr. When cooperating with Youku, the key lies in collaborative innovation. "We try to find better advertising forms to communicate with users in each drama, and Youku has always been exploring innovation with us."

The common point of these cases is that advertising is no longer a disjointed insert but the "second narrative" of the drama. Only when the audience is willing to watch and even eager to participate can the brand really have a chance to be remembered. Behind this, in addition to the support of creative ability, execution efficiency is even more crucial. In the past, similar customized mini - drama advertisements often required a one - month preparation period, but Youku has compressed the production cycle to 3 - 4 days through pre - preparation. This means that advertising can resonate with the drama in real - time instead of lagging behind. For brands, this timeliness is crucial because it determines whether the advertising effect can reach its peak during the popularity period.

In today's era when short - form video advertisements are becoming increasingly homogeneous and information fatigue is intensifying, the methodology explored by Orca Entertainment tells brands that good content can carry complex narratives, and a good platform can transform these narratives into business. The value of advertising is not to be seen but to be remembered; not a one - time reach but the ability to accumulate long - term brand awareness.

03 Ecosystem Linkage: From the "Content Arena" to the "Business Arena"

In Orca Entertainment's business narrative, content is never an isolated "program list" but a navigable roadmap. After the autumn drama lineup event, the platform officially presented this roadmap: the E&M dual - marketing model - one end is ENJOY, which focuses on communicating with users, and the other end is MAX, which aims to enhance brand power.

The former breaks down the user journey into five consecutive actions: first, make the brand visible (Engage), then direct the user's interest (Navigate), then trigger participation (Join), precipitate emotions and materials into the brand's "own" content and awareness (Own), and finally achieve conversion naturally (Yield); the latter solves the three aspects of brand management systematically: how to arrange products and content (Matrix), how to penetrate different customer segments (Audience), and how to amplify the "unique factors" at each node into the explosion points of communication and business (X - factor).

If content is the point and business is the line, then the function of this dual - model is to integrate points and lines into a surface. It requires that each advertising placement is not a one - time exposure but is designed as recyclable and reusable assets along the ENJOY sequence. At the same time, using MAX as the overarching framework to coordinate the product matrix, customer strategies, and creative abilities, the whole process runs smoothly, avoiding the disjointed feeling of "planting the grass one moment and being flooded by traffic the next". The direct result of this is that advertisers no longer just buy a time slot or a voice - over but a trackable growth path.